Happy 10 Years - The Anniversary of Our DREAM- updated 04/06/2014 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Your cabin looks great! That porthole seat looks very comfy. It's nice to have the porthole-- reminds you, even more than a verandah, that you're on a ship in a stateroom, not just in a very small hotel room!
The porthole seat looks like a lot of fun. I can imagine that would be a hit with Sean too. Your magnets are super cute, did you make them or order them online?
The room looks bigger than I would have thought! Love the porthole and magnets! The pools on cruise ships are always overcrowded. I wonder why they don't make more room for a larger one, but I guess that is not a priority.
why is it people think they are the only ones who are hot or bthered by the Muster drill - actually it is worse for you because you have to deal with this idiot as well as the heat.
The room looks great, I love the porthole seat! Sorry about the mess at the pools, thankfully there's plenty of other stuff to do on those ships!
Thanks! That porthole seat was a big hit
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Your cabin looks great! That porthole seat looks very comfy. It's nice to have the porthole-- reminds you, even more than a verandah, that you're on a ship in a stateroom, not just in a very small hotel room!
You're right, the porthole is a big reminder of the big ship you are on
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Love the room! That port hole seat would be a hit with my boys. although there would be some fighting over it.
I was surprised that my girls didn't fight over it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
That porthole seat looks like so much fun to sit in!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
It was!
Quote:
Originally Posted by num1DVCfan
The porthole seat looks like a lot of fun. I can imagine that would be a hit with Sean too. Your magnets are super cute, did you make them or order them online?
Thanks, Jenny! I can't take credit for the magnets, all I did was print them up I found some that I really liked on Etsy, but the price seemed just a little high so I didn't buy them right away. Instead, I googled it and found a thread on those other boards and a nice woman who designed custom magnets for free All I had to do was buy the magnet paper and print them up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Yay - you're in your room! Sorry about how chaotic it was at the pool.
Lesson learned, don't visit the pools on embarkation day when everyone else is doing the same!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
I am another who just loves that porthole!!! I think I would sleep there!!!
I may have snoozed a bit in that window seat
Quote:
Originally Posted by OneLittleSpark
Love the porthole! You did a great job on your magnets for the door.
I am always worried about pools when I see the kids goofing off so. I don't blame you there.
Can't wait to hear about your send off!
I've heard that they have added lifeguards to the pools on the cruises now, so hopefully that will help with all of the craziness there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Your room with the port hole looks like lots of fun for the girls. I think the pools do tend to get crowded when it's so warm outside.
Oh, definitely, and it was pretty hot that day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russi01
Add another one that loves the porthole!! Can't wait to see and hear more.
Thanks, I hope to have an update this week
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlhill4444
The room looks bigger than I would have thought! Love the porthole and magnets! The pools on cruise ships are always overcrowded. I wonder why they don't make more room for a larger one, but I guess that is not a priority.
The room was pretty spacious. I was glad we went with the Family room, as it does have more room than a regular Oceanview room.
I was surprised at how small those pools really are. I know there isn't much room for a big pool, but I was expecting them to be a little bigger than they were.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mommapants
why is it people think they are the only ones who are hot or bthered by the Muster drill - actually it is worse for you because you have to deal with this idiot as well as the heat.
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We made our way up to deck 11, walking through Cabanas to get outside. Chris and I both grabbed some fun frozen drinks that they were selling for the Sail Away party , I can’t remember what they were now though. It was a bit crowded once we got outside, so we headed up to Deck 12 and found lots of open space there. We grabbed a spot by the rail and had a great view from up above to watch the party. We had a ton of fun, apparently so much fun that I don’t have a single picture of the party. I think they might actually be on the waterproof camera, I know Chris had that with him, but sadly you know that we lost that camera somewhere along the way.
After the party was over the girls and Chris decided to try the Aquaduck since there wasn’t really a line at all. The area pretty much cleared out, it was getting closer to the first dinner seating and I’m sure everyone had headed back to their cabins to get ready for dinner or the early show. While I waited for them, I plopped my butt in a lounger and just relaxed in the sunshine watching the sky go by as we headed out to sea. I did get to see the girls go whizzing by on the slide above, and they were loving it. They gave it 2 thumbs up each.
After a few more rides down the slide we headed back to our stateroom to get ready for dinner, we had the later seating and tonight we would be dining at the Royal Palace. We quickly showered and changed, then made our way down to the Royal Palace.
We were seated quickly, our table was in the center of the restaurant and was a table for 4, we had no table mates at all. We were greeted by our server, Artur, and his assistant, Milos, who were quite the odd couple. Artur was a petite, softspoken man, I believe from the Phillipines, while Milos was a very tall (like nearly 7 feet ) man with a loud booming voice. Beyond their physical differences they were both very nice, and they worked well together in the dining room.
We looked over the menu and finally made our choices. The girls both went with Spaghetti and Meatballs, Abby may have had some Mac & Cheese with that too. When Artur heard that she couldn’t decide between the two, he said he would just bring her some of both.
Bread basket:
Kaeli’s:
Abby’s:
The girls were in charge of taking their own food photos, so of course they wanted a pic of Mommy and Daddy too
Chris chose Belle’s French Onion Soup for his appetizer, and then a Filet of Beef with Shrimp for his main course.
I wasn’t feeling too hungry, so I chose some things off of the “lighter side” menu. I think I started with the Citrus Avocado salad, and then had the Mushroom Filled Pasta in Veg. Broth for my entrée.
Artur was quite worried that I wasn’t eating enough and kept trying to offer me more food. He thought that maybe I wasn’t happy with the offerings and even offered to have the chef make me up a special plate with anything that I wanted. I appreciated the thought, but I assured him that I was just not feeling too hungry, I had eaten too much earlier at Cabana’s buffet.
The girls had some Mickey Bars for dessert, I had Crème Brulee and Chris went with the Strawberry Shortcake Sundae.
Dinner was delicious! Even though we didn’t have table mates, the tables are set pretty close in there, so we did start chatting with another family of four that was seated next to us. They had two children, a girl who appeared to be just a little older than Kaeli and a boy who was about 5 or 6. The poor little guy was too pooped for the late seating, and he fell asleep at the table about halfway through the meal.
After dinner we stopped by Guest Services to drop off some wooden letters I had brought with me to get signed by the characters. I love that they do this on board, as it takes some of the stress away from rushing to meet characters throughout the cruise. They had a form for me to fill out, and the CM told me that my letters would be delivered to our stateroom by the afternoon of our last day on board.
Waiting for me to finish up at Guest Services
When we were done with that we spent some time in the gift shops and then called it a night, we were pooped!
We found this waiting for us back in our room
I forgot to mention earlier when talking about our stateroom, but we didn’t have the bed that pulled down from the ceiling. Instead, we had the pull out couch and then a murphy bed that pulled down from a closet in the wall that was right next to the porthole. I didn’t get a picture of them together, but when both beds were made they formed an L shape. In the first bed picture, you can sort of see the bottom of the murhphy bed above it.
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Sorry about how chaotic it was at the pool. 
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
Deb
Holly: 
I found some that I really liked on Etsy, but the price seemed just a little high so I didn't buy them right away. Instead, I googled it and found a thread on those other boards and a nice woman who designed custom magnets for free 
, I can’t remember what they were now though. It was a bit crowded once we got outside, so we headed up to Deck 12 and found lots of open space there. 
) man with a loud booming voice. Beyond their physical differences they were both very nice, and they worked well together in the dining room. 
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