PTR - Cruising with the Perry's on the Fantasy updated 12/04/2013 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sorry you've all been sick, but better now than closer to the trip. Sounds like you've done all you can do trying to anticipate squirminess on the flight! Hope she does better than you expect. At least it's a short flight and you've got one daughter who's a traveling pro!
Glad you guys are starting to feel better!! I've also started packing however, packing for 2 is probably easier than 4 (which is what I typically pack for on vacation). I'm getting so excited for the cruise almost in the single digits!!!!!
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PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
Glad you guys are starting to feel better!! I've also started packing however, packing for 2 is probably easier than 4 (which is what I typically pack for on vacation). I'm getting so excited for the cruise almost in the single digits!!!!!
Packing for 4 people is crazy! Hubs takes care of himself other than dress clothes I'll help him with. Are you getting off the boat at St. Thomas or St. Maartan?
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Sorry you've all been sick, but better now than closer to the trip. Sounds like you've done all you can do trying to anticipate squirminess on the flight! Hope she does better than you expect. At least it's a short flight and you've got one daughter who's a traveling pro!
Definitely! The flight is over her nap time, but so was our flight in May. In May she was still on bottles so I could use that to put her to sleep and help with her ears popping. I won't have that this time. I'm thinking of making goody bags for the flight attendants!
Packing for 4 people is crazy! Hubs takes care of himself other than dress clothes I'll help him with. Are you getting off the boat at St. Thomas or St. Maartan?
We are getting off the boat in both places. Taking advantage of adult style excursions since we don't have the kids. Oh and I almost forgot that I do have to pack for 4..;my 2 kiddos are going to stay with grandma and grandpa while we are gone (same town at least) so I have to pack them as well. Since my son has dietary restrictions that also means packing a weeks worth of food...YIKES!! I better get started
Good luck with the rest of your packing....single digits left!
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PREVIOUS TRIPS: 1997- Off-site, 2002-Contemporary, 2009- POFQ, 2011- Beach Club, 2012- Disney Magic, 2013 Disney Fantasy
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My mom arrived at our house around 9:30. She was ready to go and like all of us very anxious to leave! We got packed up in her car and left my house by 10am. We arrived at the airport around 10:45. DH dropped us off and he went to park the car. We got the bags checked and went through security which didn't take long. Next we knew we had 2 hours till our flight left. We didn't expect security to go so fast but glad it did. We found a nice big open area to hang out while waiting on DH. I grabbed a chicken salad bagel for lunch and the girls shared a cheese pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. There's a new candy store at the air port (oh joy!) so I took Haleigh to buy a Disney Pez for her and Lydia. Haleigh ended up choosing Hello Kitty and Lydia got Mickey Mouse. It was finally time to board. Because we booked through SW but the plane was Air Tran we had assigned seating. They were able to get my family together and my mom sat way behind us.
During the flight Lydia was very squirmy. Haleigh was great, did most of her homework, took a short nap, and colored. I walked up and down the aisle with Lydia a few times as she was just so rest less. We had 2 drink tickets from SW that I was hoping the flight attendant would take. She said no, but she'd comp our drinks. Maybe she felt bad for us since Lydia wouldn't sit still. I ordered a Chardonnay and Matt had a jack & coke. I kept looking at my watch and wondered why we had descended as it was almost 2 hours since we took off. The Pilot announced there was a bad storm in Orlando and we will be circling around Atlanta until the storm moves or we'll land in Atlanta. At this point I could have used another glass of wine. After over 30 min of circling Atlanta, I lost track of time, the Pilot said we can go into Orlando now and of course that's when Lydia finally fell asleep. We had a smooth landing, grabbed our bags and were on our way to the Hyatt.
We checked in, got unsettled and decided to eat at McCoy's for dinner. Very nice restaurant and quiet. The girls each had sandwiches, mom and I ordered a Cosmopolitan and us adults also ordered the Trio. Mine was shrimp, calamari, and chicken fajitas. Mom closed out the tab and went up to the room ready for bed. Lydia did not want to fall asleep. This trip was very hard for her. It's difficult for little ones to sleep in an environment they aren't used too. Matt walked around the hotel with her in the stroller for 15 min then she was out. She cried in her sleep a few times that night which woke me up. Also, side note, I had pink eye during the first half of our trip. Lydia had it then gave it to me. Mine was a lot worse than hers and lasted 1 week. Her's lasted a few days. So me getting up to check on her a night was also hard on me because my eyes were crusted shut. Those of you who have had pink eye unfortunately know what I'm talking about.
I don't have any pictures from today. I kept forgetting about the camera!
We woke up that morning and DH brought us McDonalds and him and I Starbucks. We enjoyed breakfast then went next door to meet my parents. My dad's flight arrived at 11:30 Friday night so he was exhausted. Haleigh was SO excited to ride the Disney bus and get onto the ship. DH and I showered and got ready. I realized the day before that I left my black dress shoes for formal night at home. We went to a few shops in the airport looking for shoes. I found a pair of Crocs but not in my size. Then we went into a shoe store and found a pair for over $150. Why do they put a shop like that in an airport? Anyways I walked away with no shoes and just said the ones I brought will have to do. By 10 am Haleigh was getting very antsy. We could check in at port any time after 11 but my parents had chosen 1pm. We all left the Hyatt and headed down to the Disney bus around 10:30. We got right on a bus and took the 50 min drive to Port Canaveral! While on the bus there was a girl and her mother sitting in front of us. Haleigh and the girl, who's name is also Haley, really got to know each other while on the bus and throughout the week. More to come on Haley and her mom Amy. We all developed a close relationship over the next week, our rooms were on deck 7, & we had the same dining rotation.
We got to Port and the line for check in was very long, but it went by quickly. We were in group 3 but they were already on group 40 so after check in we walked right on with my parents. I choose to wait and get Haleigh registered for the kids club because that line was also very long and she was so anxious to get on the boat!
We headed up to Deck 11 and had lunch at Cabanas. After that it was 1pm so we walked around the boat, got Haleigh registered for the Oceaners Club/Lab. By 1:30 our stateroom 7544 and 7546 were ready!
Lydia enjoying the large space underneath the bed. This was before the luggage arrived
Haleigh checking out the Oceaner's Club
Haleigh had two things on her mind after lunch. Swimming and the Aqua Duck!
Lydia and I enjoying the balcony
Mom and I thought we'd go to the Spa and enter to win in the raffle. I also booked an appointment for me to get an updo on formal night! Mom and I returned for the spa raffle at 4:30 as you had to be present to win. They asked who here was from deck 7. Mom and I raised our hands as we were the only ones! Which meant one of us was going to win a $50 gift certificate. That turned out to be me More later on how I spent that. They later offered mom a $30 gift certificate for entering the raffle. Not sure if they do that for everyone, but she put it towards a Keratin hair treatment.
Our dining rotation was Royal Court, Animator's Palate,Enchanted Garden.
We got ready for dinner, sorry I forgot to take a picture of my food. I was going to try hard and do that for every meal, but I will tell you when there's food in front of me and I'm hungry, you'll then get a picture of my clean plate! Our servers were O'Neil and Marlan. They were FANTASTIC! Way better than our servers last year on the dream and they were great with the kids. I was so impressed. We enjoyed seeing them every night. After dinner we changed our clothes and grabbed drinks.
Matt and Lydia enjoying deck 4
Turn down service that night and the towel animal.
Yay! You're on the ship! Sorry Lydia had such a hard time on the plane and settling into the new surroundings. Also sorry about the pinkeye! It's so great that Haleigh met a friend on the bus and you turned out to get along with her family as well. It's amazing how quickly you can form life-long friendships when traveling. I'm sure having a buddy made Haleigh's time in the kids clubs even more enjoyable.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.