The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 4/25 - Page 52 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I remember that walk around the deck. We did that many times, and surprisingly there weren't very many people doing the same. Looks like you kind of had it to yourself too!
Beautiful sunset indeed, wow. And that zoom right into the face of the sun!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
I remember that walk around the deck. We did that many times, and surprisingly there weren't very many people doing the same. Looks like you kind of had it to yourself too!
Pretty much. I would imagine that a lot of people were busy packing, given it was the last day.
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Beautiful sunset indeed, wow. And that zoom right into the face of the sun!
Have I mentioned recently that I love the zoom on my camera?
Very nice lunch! I can't believe it is already close to the end of your cruise. Time flies when you're having fun. Love your photos as you walked Deck 4.
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Great photos on board during your walk before dinner! Love those of the front of the ship as many don't realize it's there and I'm glad I saw this on my cruise! That sunset is a winner!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Very nice lunch! I can't believe it is already close to the end of your cruise. Time flies when you're having fun.
I know. Time certainly does seem to go quickly when you're on a cruise. We're now at the stage where we definitely prefer long cruises. To us, the shorter ones (three or four nights) are too short. You're no sooner on board than you're off again. At least in September, we've got 18 days on board, so that should feel a bit longer.
Great photos on board during your walk before dinner! Love those of the front of the ship as many don't realize it's there and I'm glad I saw this on my cruise!
It never ceases to amaze me how few people walk around on deck four and, as you say, a lot of people miss the front of the ship. We find it fascinating to go around there, as it's almost as if you get a glimpse into the workings of the ship there.
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Saturday 20 January – part five: some more Palo dishes for the “community”
We headed up to Palo just before 6:30pm and were greeted by Luca and Alex again, who were beginning to feel like old friends. We were even trying to persuade them both to join us on the Magic in September!
We first had the antipasti trolley out…
Then, unsurprisingly, for appetiser, both Mark and I went for tomato and mozzarella caprese. I told you this is our favourite dish!
I asked Alex if we could still order some dishes for the “community” and he told us it was no problem, so we ordered the fritto di calamari and gamberi, the deep fried shrimp and calamari with lemon-garlic mayonnaise and marinara dippings, as we’d enjoyed it so much two nights earlier…
It was entrée that I struggled with, as a number of dishes caught my eye, so I asked Alex for some help. He recommended that we get the butternut agnoletti with sage brown butter topped with amaretti and buffalo mozzarella for the “community” and that was a good recommendation, as it’s so unbelievably rich. I could only manage two pieces of it. I think it would be much better as an appetiser in a smaller portion than as an entrée.
My proper main course was the piquant Dover sole, fileted tableside with nut-brown butter capers, anchovies, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, carrots and thyme potatoes. I was a little disappointed with this, as it was a little cold when I started to eat it and I did find one set of bones in it, which was a shame and not what I expected.
Mark went for the grilled prime beef tenderloin with pancetta potato, sautéed spinach, a choice of Barolo Chinato wine sauce (which he went for) or Gorgonzola cheese sauce and he was very happy with his choice.
Before we even got as far as entrée, Alex asked the silly question – would you like soufflé? Well of course! Yet again, Mark went for the chocolate soufflé with vanilla bean gelato and vanilla and chocolate sauces…
… while I had the amaretto soufflé with espresso gelato and vanilla sauce…
Mine wasn’t as good as a couple of days ago, as it was slightly burnt. Sadly, for me, Palo’s food hadn’t been quite spot on tonight.
Despite that, we’d still had a wonderful evening with Alex providing his usual great service. We saw Pierre, the hotel director, arrive for a meal. We’d commented that we’d never seen so many officers here before, then we found out why, as he arrived. As Alex said, when someone with that many stripes arrive, you see others with less stripes beforehand.
I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but we also had the President of New Vacation Operations and Disney Cruise Line Anthony Connelly on board for the first couple of days. We’re told he got off at Antigua, but that could also explain the number of officers we kept seeing here. By the way, in case you’re wondering, the New Vacation Operations means the Disney Vacation Club, Golden Oak, Adventures by Disney and Aulani…
We sadly said our goodbyes to Luca and Alex, who had both been stars during this cruise, hoping we might see them again in September.
When we got back to the room, we found our final animal creation…
We did the last of our packing and headed to bed. It was odd not to be putting the cases outside, as we’d be doing express walk-off for the first time, but actually it was quite nice to still have them with us, just in case we needed anything. There wasn’t the usual scramble to get them outside by a certain time. I’m not sure we’ll be so keen on doing it this way in the morning when we have to carry them though.
The weather today was warm and humid with sunshine and the occasional shower and temperatures in the low 80s. The best thing today was dinner at Palo. The worst thing today was how much the boat was moving around. Today we tried the 3D Star Wars paper crafting And the result was I loved it – it was so much fun! The most magical moment today was beating the Crew Member with my Yoda and R2-D2!
Glad you were able to get the photos downloaded in the end! Sorry Palo had some issues on your last night! I’m sure it still ended up being the better option! So sad it’s all coming to an end.
Glad to see some things were still tasty as usual. But it's a bummer your entree wasn't the best. I guess it took too long to de-bone the fish and it got cold! Even though it was slightly burnt, that amaretto souffle looks soooo good!!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
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I’m not sure we’ll be so keen on doing it this way in the morning when we have to carry them though. 
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