A 40th celebration to end the world! COMPLETED 4/23 - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Saturday 15 December – part two: isn’t she beautiful?
Finally we started to near the coast, and got some beautiful views of the scenery…
… as well as our first view of the Fantasy – from eight miles away according to the GPS!
She really is a beautiful ship, and the closer we got to her, we could see the scale of her.
We drove up to drop the luggage off, and we were thinking of leaving me with the luggage, but no worries, there were people on hand to take the luggage, and then it would be delivered to our stateroom. Well, that works.
As we drove out of there, we got some more shots of the Fantasy, including some of Dumbo on the aft of the boat. He looks so cute!
So we both headed off in the car to find the Dollar rental car office, after getting out of cruise terminal, which was a bit complicated. We nearly ended up on a different cruise – what a nightmare that would’ve been!
Kennedy Space Center in the distance
We found Dollar easily enough and dropped off the car, and hopped on board the shuttle service they run to and from the port. We had about a 10 minute wait, during which another group of people got on board, then thankfully we were on our way. We stopped first at Carnival, and my goodness, what a nightmare that was. It took about 10 minutes just to drop people off, it was so disorganised.
Everyone else apart from us got off, then we were off to the best ship in the cruise terminal.
We showed our passport at the gate, then went straight through security. Their signs were really screwy, the first saying only one piece of hand luggage, then another saying no alcohol, and I knew from calling Sara last night that both of those weren’t right. Sure enough, they didn’t care how much hand luggage we had or that there was a bottle of wine in one of them.
I was relieved when we got to the top of the escalator and saw that the lines were a lot shorter than the last time we had sailed on the Dream, which was a huge relief. In particular we only had about half a dozen families in front of us in the Castaway Club line, so we were quickly seen, and received our room keys, and lanyards. Not long after we were seen, the line dwindled to almost nothing, and they started to move some of the first timers across, as their line was obscene.
We loved the Christmas decorations they had around the terminal – very cool!
Love the logo on the windows!
The good thing about arriving that late is that there’s then open boarding, and there was literally no-one waiting to board.
The bad thing is that Mickey finished his last round of photos at around 1:10pm, which was a real shame. Even the Cast Member I spoke to was surprised, saying that usually he’s out a bit longer than that, but not today.
Next: Disney cruising at Christmas is seriously cool!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Glad you finally made it to the boat. That is a strange looking bridge in the first pic you posted. Looking forward to sailing with you over Christmas. Sorry you missed the big cheese but am sure you made up for it over the next few days.
Hooray, you're on board!!
So excited to see the holiday decorations, as I assume they'll still be up when we board December 28th.
I'm thinking about arriving later so we can just walk on - we'll be leaving our own car at the port.
Let's get the party started now!!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Very excited to hear about this part of the trip! Your teaser photos are awesome, especially the castillos. We visited one in St. Augustine on our last tripe to Disney and I loved it (it helps that I'm a history teacher I think, LOL). I've been thinking about a Disney cruise for a while, so this may push me over the edge!
__________________
-- Beth
"There are moments of life worth purchasing with worlds."
Looks like good weather for your drive to PC. Getting there after the rush does make for a more relaxing start. Looking forward to your photos of the Fantasy.
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We nearly ended up on a different cruise – what a nightmare that would’ve been! 
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