A 40th celebration to end the world! COMPLETED 4/23 - Page 38 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Your dinner sounds delicious. I love the pictures of the food. Everything looks so bright and colorfu. I forgot all about the chocolate souffle' at Palo's. Hmmm...Maybe we better squeeze in another dinner? Decisions, decisions, decisions!!
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Disney Trips: BLT & Poly Bungalow 2016, VGF 2015, Fantasy 2015, Saratoga Springs Resort 2014, Grand Villa at VGF 2013, Fantasy 2013, BWV and Kidani Village 2011, BWV and Kidani Village 2010, BWV and Saratoga Springs Resort 2008,Beach Club Villas 2008,Villas at Wilderness Lodge 2006, BWV 2006, BCV 2005, HHI 2004,Polynesian 2003,Grand Floridian 2000/concierge, Honeymoon at Polynesian 1994,Polynesian 1980,Polynesian 1978
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Sue
What a great meal! So far the meals (and the snack food up on deck) seem much better than on the Alaska cruise, which I found varied in quality way too much. I'm very glad to see that the problem doesn't seem to be on all DCL ships. Love the stairway photos.
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Your dinner sounds delicious. I love the pictures of the food. Everything looks so bright and colorfu. I forgot all about the chocolate souffle' at Palo's. Hmmm...Maybe we better squeeze in another dinner? Decisions, decisions, decisions!!
Well let's face it - you can't miss the chocolate soufflé at Palo...
What a great meal! So far the meals (and the snack food up on deck) seem much better than on the Alaska cruise, which I found varied in quality way too much. I'm very glad to see that the problem doesn't seem to be on all DCL ships. Love the stairway photos.
I think that's probably a good way of putting it. We certainly didn't have the one appalling meal that we did on the Alaskan cruise, although as you'll see, there are more disappointing food moments to come.... unfortunately.
I loved coming along with you on the tour! All the shops and establishments are so neat looking. And the ocean views - amazing
I'm with everyone else - hoping to get AP on Pirate Night. Although if we get reservations at Palo, that decreases the chances on a 4 night cruise, right? The food looks delicious, and I loved the "other" pirates who you took photos with
I think that's probably a good way of putting it. We certainly didn't have the one appalling meal that we did on the Alaskan cruise, although as you'll see, there are more disappointing food moments to come.... unfortunately.
Oh no ! We are sailing on the Fantasy Western Caribbean next Saturday and hope to see the food issues before we go so we know what to look out for.
I'm with everyone else - hoping to get AP on Pirate Night. Although if we get reservations at Palo, that decreases the chances on a 4 night cruise, right? The food looks delicious, and I loved the "other" pirates who you took photos with
Don't forget if you're on the early seating, you can always try for a booking at Palo at say 7:30pm or 8:00pm, then you can still go to your main dining room first.
Wednesday 19 December – part one: I can’t believe this weather!
It seemed like such a good idea last night, going to bed before the fireworks, because heck, there was no way we’d manage to stay awake until 10:30pm anyway, and we had an early start today. So much for that! The darned things were so loud, they woke both of us – it was like having someone with a drum constantly banging on it for about 10 minutes outside. I guess it was probably quite a show, and it certainly seemed longer than the one we had in the Med, but still, we’d never have made it.
All in all, I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep, so when the wake-up call came at 6:30am, I was not pleased to hear from it – it came three times in total at five minute intervals, and by the third, I was ready to throw the phone across the room. I was very glad when it finally stopped.
We were coming into port, so I went outside to get some photos, and my goodness it was hot and humid already – at 7:00am! As well as hotels, we could also see the more industrial side of the port from our room…
We headed up to Cabanas to get breakfast, and I always find it odd how we’re the only ones on the ship as we go up there, until we get there… then it’s mayhem inside! I got some cheese, smoked salmon, and filled up on cereal.
Once we were done, I headed upstairs to deck 12 to get a couple of photos outside. As you can see, the sky was looking dark, and ominous… keep this in mind.
By the time we got back to the room, we could see that it was now raining outside. Oh goody, we have a walking tour this morning of Castillo San Cristobal – that’s going to be so much fun in the rain.
We headed down to the Buena Vista Theatre at the appointed time – can you believe until now, we hadn’t even found the Buena Vista Theatre on our travels?
I went out to use the restrooms and luckily had my camera with me – how cool is this?
We registered, and there we sat for, no word of a lie, the next 40 or so minutes. There were a couple of problems. The first was that Disney had yet to be given approval to allow anyone ashore, the second was that there was apparently a massive traffic jam of buses in the square by the port, and the third problem was the rain. It was pretty much torrential now.
Finally, we got the go ahead to get moving, and headed down to the gangway, where they were handing out ponchos for everyone. Ok, that’s not a good sign. As we looked outside, we could see why, it was still pouring down, and I mean pouring.
We got the ponchos on, and headed off the ship into the deluge. Oh boy, this is going to be fun… not! We walked over to meet our guides, and slowly walked through the port, and into the town beyond. We literally only walked a block or so before they got us undercover, yet we were absolutely drowned.
They took our tickets and waivers (yes you had to sign a waiver just for a walking tour…. ) and then divided us up into groups, and off we went, into the soaking wet conditions. It was probably only a five minute wait, but my goodness, it felt like more, especially as we were going uphill, and the streets had rain just pouring down them.
Next: I can’t think why no-one else wanted to help the British
Wow! What a rainstorm-I can see the water in the roads.:Eek: Your guide looks cool in his uniform. Hopefully the storm is going to pass quickly for you guys. It was nice of Disney to provide you with a poncho.
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Disney Trips: BLT & Poly Bungalow 2016, VGF 2015, Fantasy 2015, Saratoga Springs Resort 2014, Grand Villa at VGF 2013, Fantasy 2013, BWV and Kidani Village 2011, BWV and Kidani Village 2010, BWV and Saratoga Springs Resort 2008,Beach Club Villas 2008,Villas at Wilderness Lodge 2006, BWV 2006, BCV 2005, HHI 2004,Polynesian 2003,Grand Floridian 2000/concierge, Honeymoon at Polynesian 1994,Polynesian 1980,Polynesian 1978
_______________
Sue
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Great pictures of the ship!
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We certainly didn't have the one appalling meal that we did on the Alaskan cruise, although as you'll see, there are more disappointing food moments to come.... unfortunately. 
The darned things were so loud, they woke both of us – it was like having someone with a drum constantly banging on it for about 10 minutes outside. I guess it was probably quite a show, and it certainly seemed longer than the one we had in the Med, but still, we’d never have made it. 
Ok, that’s not a good sign. 
As we looked outside, we could see why, it was still pouring down, and I mean pouring. 
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