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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 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 was going to say exactly the same thing too. I thought yours was excellent. I too can't believe it's the last night already.
Both your drawings of Donald look great! I love the Black Truffle Pasta Pursiettes, too. Delicious! The night I got steak our server cut up mine for me.
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 .
I think you are right. I know last time I did it on the Magic the girl came out and told us she was new to doing this as the CM who normally did it was off or something. She said they basically gave her book to learn from.
Those are one of the best foods on the whole cruise!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilsEagles08
I love the drawing classes & Claire's Donald came out much better than mine would!
I thought she did a good job too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I was going to say exactly the same thing too. I thought yours was excellent. I too can't believe it's the last night already.
thanks
We still had another full day and a half off the ship, but our Disney portion was coming to an end...sort of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Both your drawings of Donald look great! I love the Black Truffle Pasta Pursiettes, too. Delicious! The night I got steak our server cut up mine for me.
The pictures were starting to come into color now and I liked watching the room change.
Dessert was ordered!
Skip got the Crunchy Walnut cake I believe.
I got the Sweet Temptations Trio, which I believe consisted of White Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake, Chilled Mango Mousse and Lemon raspberry tart.
I am not a fan of tarts like this and though I ate it, I would never order it on its own.
The show then began. It’s been refreshed and I enjoyed it more than the old show.
And then Sorcerer Mickey showed up…and I took a lot of blurry pictures of him.
He even came right up by us and I took the worst picture ever and just deleted it as it wasn’t salvageable.
All the servers came out to say good bye to us as well.
A few more picture of Animator’s Palate.
This is one thing about DCL I like better than other lines. The rotation dining is fun and offers a little something different each night.
After dinner we went out on deck. We had met a couple who had brought their nieces on a cruise the day before and they were out there so we chatted with them a bit. They were such a nice couple.
A ship off in the distance.
We then headed back inside.
Claire wanted to go to karaoke tonight again as her friends were going to be there, so we headed that way and she went off to sit with her friends.
I must say I just can’t sit and listen to karaoke very long. Especially bad singers, so I headed off to find a bathroom at some point. I think I may have gone and bought a picture then too since we had the free voucher from my friend.
I also may have gone back to the room and put our bags out in the hallway…and probably changed my clothes, though we may have done that earlier. I asked out stateroom host for luggage tags…she said I gave them to you…I tell her I never saw them and I looked around just in case and with everything pretty much packed…I don’t see them anywhere. She said she would have to ask for more as they are only allowed to give so many per room and since she already gave us some they may not allow it.….I really think she was lying there, but she did take a long time to actually get them for us. This really irked me. Now twice she basically had called me a liar when she was at fault. I typically tip our stateroom host a little more because they do a lot, but she annoyed the heck out of me and I only left her some chocolate bars as an extra treat.
No swimming tonight.
I always find the night before we head back to port they often don’t have a lot going on up on deck. I guess they want us to go to sleep.
After some strolling I went back to join my family.
Claire ended up never going to sing. The one time she was almost going to do it with her friends, but they chose a song she didn’t know….and they didn’t know it well either. …LOL! And she is pretty shy about those kinds of things.
Finally the karaoke was over and we headed back to the room and got ready for bed. It was another long, but fun day. We still had another big day tomorrow and we needed to get some rest since they would be kicking us off the ship much earlier than we would like.
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It’s always a sad day when you have to get off a ship. It’s so depressing to me. I really try to never fly home that day if I can help it… It doesn’t always work out that way, but for most trips I have been able to squeeze in more time. Typically on my Disney cruises I try to do the parks after the cruise. It wasn’t going to work out for us to do that this trip, but we still had plans.
As usual, I woke up way too early and got myself ready. I saw we were already pulling into port from our balcony.
After getting dressed I headed up to the top decks.
I turned my phone back on and reconnected to the world…..ahhhh! LOL. I have to say one thing I learned on this trip…I was connected to the app via my phone the whole trip, though half the time I forgot to use it, but I noticed that my phone was still receiving the push notifications from facebook messenger. I chat in a couple of group messages daily with co-workers and they continued to chat while I was gone…..wasn’t that so rude of them…LOL…..and I could see all the messages come up on my phone. I could not access them or reply, but I kind of kept up to date with what was going on if I happened to catch the push coming through.
Skip and Claire were moving slow and Skip said he had no desire to eat breakfast. So I headed to Cabanas to get myself something to eat. We all know I am a bit of a grouch if I don’t eat in the mornings.
Another look out at the port.
After I ate, I headed back down to the room and my 2 were moving around. Claire couldn’t find her shirt to wear….hmmm…where the heck did I put it. I know I had a shirt in mind for her to wear today…then it hit me. They had come back to the room while I was packing and at that moment I was pulling out Claire’s shorts to wear off the ship. Because I got disturbed I never did pull her shirt out. Oh Great! Luckily the anchor shirt she wore to dinner last night was still clean and stain free, so that was what she was going to be wearing!
Claire was hungry so Skip took her up to Cabanas to get something to eat while I made sure everything in the room was gathered and packed.
Once I gave it the once over I took the bags and headed up to find them.
Skip decided since he was there he would eat after all.
I wasted the time away by taking a few pictures.
Sadly the time had come and we had to get off the ship. I hate getting off the ship!
We headed out and down the stairs. I had told Skip we could get a porter to help us with our bags and go through customs and then out to the parking lot. I told him we would have to tip him though….Skip can be cheap at times and tipping someone to help us could be a make or break on whether he would go for this. He hates it at the airport when guys try to help you take your luggage in and then 5 minutes later you are in line and you have to tip them. LOL. (We have a really small airport, so I can see why he hates it there.)
He did choose to have a porter help us, which I was grateful for. I really didn’t want to lug bags through the lines and out to the car if I could help it.
We had a little wait, but it wasn’t too bad and once we got outside we headed over to the car. Skip pulls out a 5 on the way over to give to the porter and I hand him a 10 to add to it. He says so loudly….$15!!!!???? I said YES! And glared at him. LOL. The porter helped us load the bags in the car but since the POC (Piece of Crap) was so small I had to rearrange them as I now knew the best way to fit as many as we could in the trunk.
With that we pulled out and paid for our parking and set Siri to get us to our next destination…..Legoland.
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The drive to Legoland is not a short one. On top of that the scenery isn’t all that exciting either. Claire fell asleep in the backseat. I sure it was much needed sleep to get her through the day. She can be a bit cranky when she hasn’t had enough sleep.
As we got closer we stopped at a carryout and got some drinks and used the restroom. The area we stopped was kind of run down a bit.
Back on the road we headed towards our destination and finally saw signs for Legoland. For those that don’t know, Legoland used to be Cypress Gardens. I actually visited there when I was around 4. Of course I don’t remember much….but I do have some vague memories of it. I was excited to hear the Legoland has preserved an area of the gardens still and you can walk through them.
We made the right turns and finally got to the parking lot.
We had a little ways to walk to get to the entrance. They do have a shuttle from Orlando, but it’s not really convenient to get to if staying on Disney property. You are better off renting a car for the day to save you some hassle and transfers.
Here we go!
I had 2 free tickets to Legoland for Skip and I and we bought Claire’s ticket before our trip as well, so we headed right to the turnstyles.
Claire LOVES legos so we really enjoyed looking at all the creations.
Claire was already eyeing the stores and we told her not till we leave!
Skip thinks he is so funny.
This could be Claire and I…..LOL!
The Mansion is that way!
Now I have done a bit of reading in Cypress Gardens and it was Dick Pope and his wife who decided to open this park of Gardens and charge a 25 cent entrance fee back in 1936. In the 1970s, Cypress Gardens purchased Magnolia Mansion, the New Orleans style mansion, built on Lake Eloise by citrus magnate, John A. Snively. I seem to remember it from my youth….but I could be totally imagining it. There were also waterski shows later added to the park…I do remember this from our visit. Legoland still has a waterski show here now.
Time for a potty stop.
Claire getting a little cheeky…pun intended.
The plumber also talked…kind of sounded like a Mario Brother to me.
Back out to explore.
The factory was closed but I peeked through the windows.
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I too can't believe it's the last night already.
I love the Black Truffle Pasta Pursiettes, too. Delicious! 
The night I got steak our server cut up mine for me. 
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