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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Lots of people say how they would love to just spend a whole vacation there. Really Disney should open up an island resort near there. I bet it would be a hit.
They would have no problem at all selling that out!
This area was MUCH smaller than I thought it would be.
Not many people here yet.
I wandered around and took some more pictures of the area.
The tram I had rode in on was actually still there and I thought about just jumping right back on, but I decided to take a few more pictures before going back.
Trying to get a bit artsy with the bikes.
The tram had left so I took some more pictures while I waited for it to come back.
I went back and sat on the bench and waited for the tram for a few minutes.
It was in no hurry to leave at all, so I sat on it for a bit before we headed back. I think I was the only person going back.
Now don’t hate me….but I was just not impressed with the adult area. It wasn’t bad; it was just so much smaller than I thought it would be. Now I am sure if I was there with friends and didn’t have to worry about kids I may enjoy it more. I think on my own, or even with just Skip, we would find it boring.
I got off the tram and walked around the shops.
I was playing with focus points and taking several shots.
Too early for a beverage but I like the way they look all lined up.
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Luke and I would agree with you about Serenity Bay. We also found it small, and a tad boring. We actually liked watching the families enjoy their day at the beach.
I haven't been to Serenity Bay, but I like the way it is "open water" as opposed to being an enclosed bay like the family beach. I guess it's because my favorite part of the beaches here in New England is the changing tides and crashing surf, and you don't really get that at CC's family beach.
Eekkkk! I thought I posted an update the other day and realized a didn't. I will probably post one now and try to get another up later this afternoon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I just love how quiet and peaceful it looks everywhere on Castaway Cay. It makes for some beautiful photos!
It is such a nice island. I love taking pictures there too. I still have a lot more to explore there as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Luke and I would agree with you about Serenity Bay. We also found it small, and a tad boring. We actually liked watching the families enjoy their day at the beach.
I do love watching people. You can see some funny or interesting stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
I haven't been to Serenity Bay, but I like the way it is "open water" as opposed to being an enclosed bay like the family beach. I guess it's because my favorite part of the beaches here in New England is the changing tides and crashing surf, and you don't really get that at CC's family beach.
Others have told me that same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Sigh..............that looks AMAZING right now............as we are getting MORE snow
I LOVED this dress but I wasn’t sure it would fit Claire and it was pricey. I was going to show it to her later and I totally forgot.
They had adult versions too, but I wouldn’t look good in that style.
I believe I did buy myself a t-shirt and magnet and started to head back towards the ship.
Again I played with focus points.
I noticed all the lifeboats were slightly lowered.
I passed by my boyfriend….er….um…I mean Captain Jack Sparrow.
I then headed back on the ship to our room where Skip and Claire were up and ready to head out to the island. Skip had ran to Cabanas to get Claire some food (mainly bacon) so she was ready to go. I switched out cameras and packed our bag and we headed off the ship.
Since I had already done some exploring we took the tram.
I had reserved floats for us so we went to get those. Actually I thought I only reserved 1, but we had 3 tickets, so somewhere along the line either I did it wrong or Disney read it wrong. It was no big deal really.
We found a spot to put our things and Claire and Skip headed right out to the water.
I followed…..the water was a bit chilly but not too bad.
We just floated around and relaxed.
A tube selfie
There goes a life guard.
After spending a lot of time in the water, we got hungry so we went for some lunch.
Look how wild Claire gets with her choices. hahaha
After we ate Skip went for a nap in a hammock and Claire and I walked around a bit. Earlier when we had passed the shops, Skip had asked why anyone would pay $20 for a sand pail set. I ignored him. As we shopped around we decide…WE were going to pay for a sand pail set….though the price for the one we got was $10. And it was worth every penny.
I took Claire back out the beach where she played with her new set and had a great time.
After a while Skip woke up and came to play with Claire. He did make a comment about why we bought the sand pail and I told him how she had been busy playing with it for such a long time and totally worth every penny! I took his spot on the hammock and I totally fell asleep. I was shocked that I had gone into such a deep sleep on the beach….but it was wonderful and I probably needed it.
After our naps and Claire had successfully made some sand creations we decided we would head back to the ship.
Claire stopped to say hi to Olaf.
We went back to our room and got cleaned up. I think it was today….but it may have been yesterday….but I decided to head to the salon to see if they had any detangler or mousse. If you remember way back on our arrival day my hair sculpting lotion had leaked in the suitcase. I had a small can of mousse but there wasn’t a lot left. I was now about out and needed something to get me by. Also I had forgotten to refill my travel detangler spray bottle and both Claire and I needed it. We went to the salon and I told them what I wanted and they actually had a mousse that had a light detangler in it. That works. Now I am a licensed hair stylist. I no longer work in that profession but I keep my license up. I get hair products at a discount and I HATE paying full price for them…but I was going to bite the bullet….to the tune of $38!!!!!!! HOLY COW! They REALLY over charged for this product. When I got home I looked at my supplier to see what the cost was….and let’s just say it would retail for $22 at the highest. I could get if for about half of that amount. It just killed me to pay that much.
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We showered and got dressed and put in our new expensive hair product and we had something we wanted to do….Well Claire and I. I had mentioned to Claire that the ships often have drawing classes and after the one at Hollywood Studios was such a big hit….. this was all Claire could think about. One was being offered today, so we headed off to take part in it.
We arrived pretty early but we just sat around and waited.
Someone walked by and said they saw Stitch out the window so I quickly got up and took a peek myself.
It was finally time to start. Today we would be drawing Donald. Sadly our “teacher” was a bit hard to understand, but we plowed through and did the best we could.
Claire struggled a bit more with this one for some reason. It wasn’t too hard, but I think part of her problem was she couldn’t understand the lady very well.
The lady said she had instruction sheets if anyone would like one so we went up and asked for one so we could try it again at home someday. She didn’t understand us when we asked and said yes and ripped her Donald drawing off the pad and gave it to Claire. Claire was happy to get that, but then I again asked for the instructions sheet and we were given one…..where it is at now, I have no clue. My guess is that Claire put it with her drawing books.
We then went and found Skip and decided to get some snacks.
We started with Chicken tenders and fries and I forgot to take a picture till it was almost all gone.
Then some wraps and pizza and pineapple for Claire.
I got up to get some drinks and came back to all the pizza gone, so I went back and got some more pizza and a pretzel too.
I think we just lazed around a bit and I headed back to the room to start the packing. Sadly tomorrow they would throw us off the ship.
I was organizing as best I could and trying to include our fish extender gifts strategically placed in the extra spaces. I pulled out what was going to be worn for tomorrow and anything else we would need to keep out when my twosome arrived. They were ready for the show so we headed there.
Tonight’s show was Disney Dreams. It was the 2nd time I have seen it but the first time I was late to the show and missed the beginning and I enjoyed it more now that I saw the whole thing. Again Claire had a popcorn and was very protective of it and I only got one small taste. I think Claire could live on popcorn if I let her.
After the show we shopped some more and Claire ran into her new friend and they made plans to go to karaoke tonight.
We made a stop in the room before dinner and saw that the photo mat that I had taken to be signed was back in our room.
I had totally forgotten about it. Notice there are no luggage tags. Yeah….I then knew that I was going to have to find our stateroom host and get some and that was not going to be an easy feat. I didn’t see her at the moment so we headed down to dinner.
We were in Animator Palate tonight.
We had some rolls waiting for us tonight.
Animators had been updated since I last was here and it looked so nice and fresh.
Now I used 2 cameras in here and my phone too. I noticed my SLR kept making the pictures yellow. Not sure why, but it was really pulling yellow out as I tried to get pictures of the drawings.
I believe this was with the point and shoot…see the difference.
My two cuties….notice Claire’s shirt…..
I got it for a good deal at Walmart…….and it will make another appearance later.
Orders had been made and food was starting to come out.
I believe Skip got the Sliced Serrano Ham with Spanish olives and tomato bread.
It was not what he expected at all. I think he thought the bread was going to have the ham and olives on it along with tomatoes.
Claire went with fruit.
And I went with one of the best foods that Disney has…the Black Truffle Pasta Pursiettes. MMM! These are so delicious.
I also got soup…I am think it was the baked potato and cheddar cheese soup. I think Skip got this as well.
Claire’s entrée had arrived as well.
Our server cut her steak which was a first for us on DCL. In the past we have never had a server offer to cut up her food.
Then our entrees arrived.
I think I got the Angus Tenderloin…..but whatever it is, it’s obviously some sort of steak.
I also got the Pennete Bolognese.
Sad to say, but I did not like it at all. It had a very funny taste to it. I don’t have a picture of what Skip got, so he must’ve gotten a steak too, or he had already dived in too far already and I didn’t bother taking the picture.
I have to say, I think your Donald Duck drawing looks better than the instructor's. Obviously, she is not a "real" animator, but a CM trained to teach a specific drawing. I can't believe it's your last night already. I love the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes, but I think Claire's steak looked more appetizing than yours .
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Ouch - that really was overcharging for that mousse! 
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