25 Days on the Disney Magic to Europe - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Okay, my kids are begging me to ask; When we got off the ship on Saturday, we heard that Miley Cyrus was cruising on the Transatlantic crossing and might be performing. My 12 yo dd immediately begged us to stay on as she ADORES Hannah Montana. Any sightings?
The Caribbean Spiced Pot Stickers with Creole Dip sound yummy! And since I am Cajun and living in the heart of Cajun Country, the Cajun Baked Bahamian Snapper makes me really curious. I woke up hungry this morning, can you tell???
Kungaloosh, Makira! I haven't heard any reports that the Internet Cafe on deck 3 was going away. The Wonder did lose its Internet terminals at the Cove Cafe, though. I think they're still present on the Magic, though.
Bruce, Chef Christine was keeping true to form with that strudel, if you stick to the French (apple = pomme, potato = pomme de terre). I am definitely jealous of that Transatlantic Menu. Pray tell, what were your selections, and what wine(s) did you enjoy with them?
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Co-Author, PassPorter's Walt Disney World, PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line, and PassPorter's Disneyland and Southern California Attractions
Oh Bruce I am soooooooo loving this TR. Thank for keeping the reports coming...or maybe it gives you something to do !!!!
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Isabel
Happy Scaring
Trips to DL Many as a kid
12/00 1st family trip POFQ
04/04 2nd family trip The Dolphin
03/05 3rd family trip The Dolphin & Magic
12/06 4th family trip Xmas Magic & the Dolphin
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Another late morning beginning with a Teutonic sampler: Christine's Wild Mushroom Risotto. Not my first choice for a pre-breakfast snack, but if you think of it as weird oatmeal with even stranger raisins....
*Then* breakfast, and more importantly, coffee! Then back to bed for a nap until lunch.
This was a day defined mostly by what we didn't do. I didn't wake up in time to attend the lecture on the Canary Islands, we didn't see the first screening of "Meet the Robinsons" (saw it already in 3-D); we didn't let Ducky Williams teach us how to make really bad character drawings (embarrassed by that several times already); we didn't attend the Pirates in the Caribbean deck party (BT-DT); and we *sure* didn't attend the open mic "Superstar Karaoke"!
But we *could* have!
Oh, and once again I didn't like the "Pirates" dinner menus all rolled up so it took two hands just to read it. (And why are there never deck hands handy?) But how angry can one be at a menu that offers dessert items like "Walk the Triple Layered Chocolate Gangplank Cake and fall into a rich Dark Chocolate Sauce"?
Day 8 - At Sea (It's just you and me now, Wilson.)
One more day at sea, our last! One more breakfast with Christine, this time it's Halibut with Chorizo. Yeah, I thought so too, but it was really good with a nice Australian Chardonnay.
With a start like that, we just had to continue with a wine tasting, our fourth. This one was Cabernet Sauvignons, all Californians as it turned out. I discovered I knew a lot more California geography than our wine team, who hail from Chile, France, and Italy. Makes me miss Michael Jordan's talks on the eastbound Panama Canal cruise last year.
What do the Beatles, Neil Young, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, Simon & Garfunkle, Bread, Chubby Checkers, and Led Zepplin have in common? A musical comedian named John Charles covered all of them and a batch of hecklers in a single set tonight at Rockin' Bar D. Sorry I missed his earlier performances, he's as entertaining as anything I've seen on board.
It'll be odd getting off the ship tomorrow. This week aboard has passed quickly and most pleasantly. I'm even keeping up with my email for a change! It also means I can stop rehashing what we've eaten, as I'll finally have some shore excursions to talk about, so cheer up -- it's going to start getting fun soon!