A magical Mediterranean vacation COMPLETED - Page 46 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Too bad you ran into the tour groups, but I think the odds are that you will, when you're on a cruise! You were lucky that you had a nice stretch exploring without them first. Nice to return to a quiet ship!
Yes, I think the suit fits Mark.
So glad the shopping area didn't become a nightmare. I was afraid it'd be the same as yesterday. Whew!
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Those mosaics and rooms were so beautiful! Sorry about the tour groups distracting from your enjoyment of the palace Sounds like you got to enjoy the shopping though.
Too bad you ran into the tour groups, but I think the odds are that you will, when you're on a cruise! You were lucky that you had a nice stretch exploring without them first. Nice to return to a quiet ship!
I was hoping we'd got a jump on them, but I guess that leisurely breakfast in Lumiere's put paid to that.
Looks like it was a wonderful tour and now you can head back to a deserted ship for some peace and quiet except your foreshadowing has me a bit worried.
Looks like it was a wonderful tour and now you can head back to a deserted ship for some peace and quiet except your foreshadowing has me a bit worried.
Thursday 10 July – part five: well, just destroy our peace and quiet!
We headed back to the room for some downtime and to cool down, as despite how breezy it had been on the coast, within the old town, it had felt just as hot as the previous couple of days.
At around midday, we headed off to the Tropical Rainforest. I was a bit worried that it might be busy now, as some excursions were returning to the ship, but not a bit of it! We had the place completely to ourselves for the next hour, which was just heavenly. We indulged in the aromatic steam room and the gentle steam room, although I tried out the gentle sauna, and it was so gentle, it didn’t feel warm at all in terms of the air temperature. However, the seats in there were baking!
As a result, we spent most of our time lounging around on the hot stone chairs – heaven! I headed off to the women’s changing rooms a bit before Mark left the Tropical Rainforest, as I wanted to enjoy the sauna in there – now that’s what I call a proper sauna.
I was even able to get some photos again of the changing room, as it was deserted in here…
The showers in the changing room
Not long after this, a Cast Member came in, and asked if I’d left any rings in the restroom area of the changing rooms. I immediately checked my hands, as I do take them off sometimes to wash my hands, and had done earlier, but they were all there. Apparently someone had just found two very nice and big diamond rings, and they were trying to reunite them with their owner.
Once we were done, we walked along deck nine….
….intending to go to Cabana’s for lunch, but we only made it as far as the Cove Café and there we found Nambian, who served us at Keys, and had been on our adults only tour to Ephesus yesterday. We told him he’d done very well escaping the carpet display, and he told us we should’ve said, and we could’ve gone back with him.
We then passed Pinocchio’s Pizzeria, and Mark suggested getting pizza. As soon as I saw they had mushroom pizza, I was completely sold, so that’s what I got, and he got pepperoni. We headed back to the room to eat it ( no photos – trust me, it tasted better than it looked anyway ) and then we went back up to deck nine.
I had hoped to get the loungers outside the Cove Café that had been free a few minutes earlier, but sadly our luck wasn’t in, and they were taken. Instead, we headed inside, and as we were the only ones in here, I got some photos.
Mark got a Bailey’s…
… but I had to wait for Nambian to return from a break, as I wanted the same wine I’d had in Keys. As soon as he got back, he sorted it out for me.
For a while, it was lovely sitting in there in the air conditioning, and enjoying the peace and quiet. We each ordered another drink, but then we had the lovely guy who decided to come in and conduct a business meeting over the phone with his company back in the States. We heard far more about his business than I ever wanted to, included how he’d cleverly managed to get rid of 30 people, and only had to bother paying redundancy to five of them. He then set about explaining to the person on the other end of the call how to do this. I’m sorry, but that was it for me. I couldn’t bear to listen to him any longer. He may well be a perfectly nice man, but judging from his conversation, I doubt it very much. I hope he enjoys his Disney cruise, knowing the way he’s treated people to make his money…
We headed back to the room, and I got some photos of the view from our room, including trying out my zoom on its maximum 50 times setting.
We spent the next couple of hours in the room, just relaxing. I got some photos of the view from our room…
The time in the Rain Forest sounded heavenly.
Can't believe the guy conducting the meeting, though. Too bad he wasn't told to keep it down - or move the meeting to his cabin. There are definitely people out there who don't care what it takes to get ahead or make a buck. I guess that's why I'll never be rich - I'm not cut throat enough.
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Sounds like you got to enjoy the shopping though.
PassPorter Guide Author
Nice to head back to a nearly empty ship.
We had the place completely to ourselves for the next hour, which was just heavenly. We indulged in the aromatic steam room and the gentle steam room, although I tried out the gentle sauna, and it was so gentle, it didn’t feel warm at all in terms of the air temperature. However, the seats in there were baking! 
no photos – trust me, it tasted better than it looked anyway 
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