The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 4/25 - Page 31 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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It is amazing to me what people sometimes say they can smell or taste in wine. If I read a description, I do try to get those tastes, and often can get some of the more mainstream ones - berries, grapefruit, chocolate. But at other times I think I must be tasting something completely different.
I love the chance to do those various seminars on a cruise where you learn so much!
It is amazing to me what people sometimes say they can smell or taste in wine. If I read a description, I do try to get those tastes, and often can get some of the more mainstream ones - berries, grapefruit, chocolate. But at other times I think I must be tasting something completely different.
I am so glad I'm not alone on that!
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I love the chance to do those various seminars on a cruise where you learn so much!
They are very educational and I am in complete awe of people who know that much about wine.
What a thoughtful gift from Shino. That was, indeed, a little bit of Disney magic tossed your way. My DD and SiL would absolutely love that wine tasting. Both have graduated from culinary school and have a good taste for wine. She has taken the entry level sommelier test and passed. One day she hopes to sit for the sommelier (far from Master) test. One of the things she will have to do to pass that test is develop her palette more, as they have to taste wines and tell where they are from and what they consist of.
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What a thoughtful gift from Shino. That was, indeed, a little bit of Disney magic tossed your way. My DD and SiL would absolutely love that wine tasting. Both have graduated from culinary school and have a good taste for wine. She has taken the entry level sommelier test and passed. One day she hopes to sit for the sommelier (far from Master) test. One of the things she will have to do to pass that test is develop her palette more, as they have to taste wines and tell where they are from and what they consist of.
Oh wow. to her with that. I hope she progresses as she hopes with this.
That was a fun time for the wine tasting and loved some of your observations to the sommelier! I can imagine they got funnier with some of the participants as the seminar progressed! I know a good deal about wine but not like these sommeliers do. I've actually had the Riesling and Conodrum you tried. The latter on my Magic cruise and it was a good one.
What a nice gift and gesture by Shino! You must have been quite surprised with this!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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That was a fun time for the wine tasting and loved some of your observations to the sommelier! I can imagine they got funnier with some of the participants as the seminar progressed!
Yes, I think they did!
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I know a good deal about wine but not like these sommeliers do. I've actually had the Riesling and Conodrum you tried. The latter on my Magic cruise and it was a good one.
Cool!
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What a nice gift and gesture by Shino! You must have been quite surprised with this!
We were and we tried on a number of occasions to thank her personally for it, but every time we visited guest services, she was never on shift. I am so sad we didn't get to say thank you to her, although of course she got a good mention from us in the end of cruise survey.
Wednesday 17 January – part four: does it come as a bracelet?
We headed over to the shops, as Mark wanted to look for sunglasses.
I was interested in a necklace in there, but I wanted it in a bracelet, so I asked someone. Oh my goodness, the first guy was useless and dragged me to various display cases and I kept explaining I wanted the Disney necklace in a rose gold bracelet and he wasn’t getting it. Thankfully, someone else stepped in and spent about the next 15 minutes looking for me, first with no luck and then eventually she found something perfect for me, which I got. It was $90 but was less with the 10% platinum/DVC discount.
All the time I’d been talking to Julia from our dining table and Mark had been chatting to Mark – yes, I realise how weird that sounds. They are such a lovely couple and she was so much help in selecting the bracelet and then insisting I wear it and that she’d put it on for me, as I knew getting it on to my right wrist with my left hand would be tough going.
Eventually, we headed out. Mark found some sunglasses, but they were all $150 plus. We gave up.
We headed down to guest services to see Shino to say thank you to her for the gift, but she was off duty, although about to come on duty. We said we’d come back and find her later and we headed back to the room for some down time before dinner.
I went outside to get some photos, but there really was nothing to see. Disappointingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, we were taking the most direct route to Curacao, which meant nothing but water all day long.
I would’ve spent longer on the veranda, as I didn’t feel we’d used it much this cruise, but it was crazy hot and humid out there, despite being quite cloudy.
We headed down to see Shino a bit before dinner, but our timing today was terrible and she was on a break. We were told she’d be back after the late show.
With time to kill, we went to the Cadillac Lounge and Mark got a Peroni, while I got a melon vine, made up of light rum, agave nectar, pineapple juice and melon with Sauvignon Blanc on top and it was very nice.
We saw the others on our table walk past us to Tiana’s, so we headed that way…
That's a really cute bracelet!
Glad you spent a little time on the veranda, even though it was hot out there. It's so peaceful sometimes to just have the water and nothing else!
Your choice in drink would have been mine as well, yummy!
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Tanya
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I would have fit right in with the wine tasting! That was so sweet of your Japanese friend from guest services to send that little gift to your room! I love the bracelet you bought. It's such a nice reminder of your love for cruising!
Oh I like your bracelet. I want that anchor with the Mickey head as a pendant and haven’t had any luck finding it.
Your pre-dinner drink sounds delicious!
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to her with that. I hope she progresses as she hopes with this. 
I can imagine they got funnier with some of the participants as the seminar progressed! 
I know a good deal about wine but not like these sommeliers do. 
I've actually had the Riesling and Conodrum you tried. The latter on my Magic cruise and it was a good one. 
You must have been quite surprised with this! 
I am so sad we didn't get to say thank you to her, although of course she got a good mention from us in the end of cruise survey. 
Thankfully, someone else stepped in and spent about the next 15 minutes looking for me, first with no luck and then eventually she found something perfect for me, which I got. It was $90 but was less with the 10% platinum/DVC discount. 
We gave up. 
That was so sweet of your Japanese friend from guest services to send that little gift to your room! I love the bracelet you bought. It's such a nice reminder of your love for cruising!
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