We've done WONDERful, now let's go for MAGICal! **Updated 8/24** - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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.
Today's the day! We can make our ressies in 10 hours 15 minutes!
But I'm telling you all, I've got a massive adrenaline rush going on! Every time I think about it, I can feel a little surge of excitement/anxiety course through my body. Sheesh!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
First, I have to put something in here that I've been thinking about. I have to give a quick shout out to lukeandbrookesmom (Judi). We don't use a TA (it's a control issue), but she is my go to person for a lot of my questions. I'll ask her things and then decide that we aren't going to do it that way. I keep hoping we'll be able to use her one day (maybe an inaugural cruise on the Disney Dreams or something) and I appreciate her patience.
OK, so back to my ressies! Saturday, July 4th. The family is there as well as some neighbors. We're having a great time. Only I keep running in to check on the computer. See, I want to make sure it's easy to resubmit my reservation number and just to check if they've maybe, just possibly, opened it sooner than midnight....
At about 8:20 PDT (11:20 EDT), I resubmit and it takes awile. Uh oh! Disney's system is slowing down...must be a lot of people starting to log on! So, I don't want to take a chance and I sit down at the computer to keep the pages active enough to stay logged in my reservation. I looked at a few things - the new Castaway Club newsletter, the Gifts and Amenities, the price of the Cabana Massage my MIL decided she didn't want, etc. And I played Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook for a bit (that was good because they're 1 minute games, so I could check after a game or two). At about 8:55, I started checking regularly. Based on what I've read about Disney's system, I didn't "refresh" the page, I would click over to "My Reservation" and then back into "My Cruise Plans". Since clocks are all slightly different, I decided not to worry until 9:01 (and I wasn't even panicking, just worried). I didn't want to wait any longer and had read about having to close the browser down sometimes, so I closed IE, brought it back up and hightailed it into my reservation! And lo and behold insert fanfare here there was "My Cruise Plans" all ready for me to select what I wanted to do first. Here we go!
First, I went to Palo for brunch (duh!). But you know what I discovered, that no one has ever mentioned (that I've seen) here on PP? They offer brunch for 3 days, even though there are only 2 days at sea! They offer brunch the morning we're at Key West, since we don't disembark until 12:30! Not that I planned on doing that, but it's still nice to know there's more availability, isn't it? I clicked on our intended day and it was easy peasy lemon squeezy! And I thought this was cool: they keep your info in an itinerary, on hold, while you book more things, then you can submit it all at the end (a time saving feature that I appreciate).
Next was Palo dinner, then excursions and then massages. I mentioned about my MIL changing her mind, right? When we got to their house and unpacked our contributions to the 4th of July party, I also got things set up for ressies (it was noon and I had 9 hours to go, but who cares?!). She decided that since she was getting a massage on the ship, she'd rather do stingrays with the kids than get the cabana massage. Grandkids always trump personal pampering! I let her know, though, that since they weren't doing any excursions in Cozumel, she could take advantage of the Port Deals the Spa offers. I pulled out my copies of the Navigators (thanks to CastawayClub.com) and showed her examples of what they offer and prices. Sound good to her!
So, here's what we have planned:
Day 1 - Port Canaveral - no "plans" but we will tour the Spa, in case they offer good deals (and to see if they are offering the port deals at that point).
Day 2 - Key West - no Disney planned excursions. Thanks to Kenny's TR, I am trusting a tour operator directly and doing the trolley tour on our own. We still have to get our tickets online for that one. Since we get in after lunch, we will be skipping dinner on the ship (early seating) and hopefully trying Sloppy Joe's and perhaps The Blonde Giraffe.
Day 3 - day at sea - Palo brunch @ 11:00. Hot Stone Massage for MIL and me @ 2:00.
Day 4 - Grand Cayman - Seaworld Semi-submarine @ 8:15 . Yes, that's early. But the only other offer was 2:00 and that would have us back on the ship without much time to get ready for our early seating. We're early risers anyway and it's the only one scheduled that early. This way, we can wander a bit on our way back and maybe still enjoy the ship a little in the afternoon.
Day 5 - Cozumel - Dolphin Kids at Dolphinaris for DD and DS, with DH and I doing Dolphin Observer @ 10:00. As I mentioned, the MIL/FIL don't have anything planned, but will be looking at maybe doing another massage. That eveing, we will dine at Palo at 6:30 (DH was very pleased with this time).
Day 6 - day at sea - I got nothin'! BUT! We do plan on doing all the tastings, which, according to my Navigators, are offered both sea days, so between Day 2 and Day 6, we should be able to get to all of them. And we'll try to fit in a few of the Art of Disney things, like dessert presentation.
Day 7 - Castaway Cay - this is MIL's birthday! Originally, she was going to have a cabana massage and I was going to take the kids to Castaway Ray's, while the menfolk did whatever. When she decided to do the stingrays instead, that included FIL, so DH figured he might as well go along rather than being the odd man out. So, we are all signed up for the 10:00 session of stingrays!
Seriously, this event was painless. Had I not read about the nail-biting online, I would have never known that things aren't available. I don't know if I lucked out on a cruise with a lot of first-timers or if I lucked out with the holiday and a lot of people not wanting to stay up until midnight on the 4th of July. Or if I just plain lucked out! But, the system itself is wonderful (what? a Disney website system that works like it's supposed to and make it easy for the guest?) and it was easy to find everything. Because I had saved everything to my wish list, I could just tell the system to only show my wish list stuff. And since you go into either Palo, Excursions or Spa, it's even easier to find the stuff! I don't remember if it was like this for our Dec 2007 cruise, but it was a 3 night and we only did Palo and a massage, so I just might not remember.
Well, that's it. That's my story. It makes the trip seem so close to have all these ressies done. On my To Do List still:
- Buy Space Center tickets
- Arrange MCO/Radisson and Port/MCO transfers
- Purchase Trolley tickets
- Get Rewards Card and fill (we also have $75 onboard credit for booking online and paying with the Disney card)
- Make door magnets
Whew!! You got it all!! I'm glad you got the brunch taken care of, Heather, you are gonna LOVE it!! I hope you like the Trolley on Key West as much as we did, we had planned on getting on and off more this time.
Heather-How awesome that you have everything scheduled that you wanted!
Now I will have to add stuff to my wish list to make my booking easier. This is our first cruise with Disney, so I am really hoping for Palo for dinner. We'll see!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
We don't use a TA (it's a control issue), but she is my go to person for a lot of my questions. I'll ask her things and then decide that we aren't going to do it that way. I keep hoping we'll be able to use her one day (maybe an inaugural cruise on the Disney Dreams or something) and I appreciate her patience.
Uh oh! Disney's system is slowing down...must be a lot of people starting to log on! So, I don't want to take a chance and I sit down at the computer to keep the pages active enough to stay logged in my reservation. I looked at a few things - the new Castaway Club newsletter, the Gifts and Amenities, the price of the Cabana Massage my MIL decided she didn't want, etc. And I played Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook for a bit (that was good because they're 1 minute games, so I could check after a game or two). At about 8:55, I started checking regularly. 
Based on what I've read about Disney's system, I didn't "refresh" the page, I would click over to "My Reservation" and then back into "My Cruise Plans". Since clocks are all slightly different, I decided not to worry until 9:01 
(and I wasn't even panicking, just worried). I didn't want to wait any longer and had read about having to close the browser down sometimes, so I closed IE, brought it back up and hightailed it into my reservation! And lo and behold insert fanfare here there was "My Cruise Plans" all ready for me to select what I wanted to do first. Here we go! 
duh!). But you know what I discovered, that no one has ever mentioned (that I've seen) here on PP? They offer brunch for 3 days, even though there are only 2 days at sea! 
They offer brunch the morning we're at Key West, since we don't disembark until 12:30! Not that I planned on doing that, but it's still nice to know there's more availability, isn't it? I clicked on our intended day and it was easy peasy lemon squeezy! 
And I thought this was cool: they keep your info in an itinerary, on hold, while you book more things, then you can submit it all at the end (a time saving feature that I appreciate).
in case they offer good deals (and to see if they are offering the port deals at that point).
Hot Stone Massage for MIL and me @ 2:00.
. Yes, that's early. But the only other offer was 2:00 and that would have us back on the ship without much time to get ready for our early seating. We're early risers anyway and it's the only one scheduled that early. This way, we can wander a bit on our way back and maybe still enjoy the ship a little in the afternoon.
with DH and I doing Dolphin Observer @ 10:00. As I mentioned, the MIL/FIL don't have anything planned, but will be looking at maybe doing another massage. 
That eveing, we will dine at Palo at 6:30 (DH was very pleased with this time).
, which, according to my Navigators, are offered both sea days, so between Day 2 and Day 6, we should be able to get to all of them. And we'll try to fit in a few of the Art of Disney
things, like dessert presentation.
PassPorter Guide Author
*Ginger*
Linear Mode
