A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 58 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Just getting caught up! Glad you had a good meal at Rapunzel's! And were able to sign up for the galley tour! Looks like a great time to walk around the ship early in the morning when there is no one around! Sounds like an interesting time with the hide and seek officers and the trivia!
Well I guess they try to make it hard for someone to be bored on these days at sea.
Love the photo with your feet up in the porthole! And indeed, more blue skies turned up!
Looking forward to seeing how this hide and seek goes....
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Hmmmm, the hide and seek with the officers sounds interesting, but maybe not something I'd want to do if they're going to waste your time sitting there for 15 minutes.
It's just so peaceful walking around a ship that early in the morning! The Hide and Seek thing sounds like it needs to be reimagined.
In fairness, once we got going, it was brilliant - they could just have done with some better entertainment in the period between sending the officers us and letting us all go. Perhaps a different crew member would have made a better job of that?
Hmmmm, the hide and seek with the officers sounds interesting, but maybe not something I'd want to do if they're going to waste your time sitting there for 15 minutes.
Yhey need to do a better job with the organization of the officers session and the Q&A. But the hide and seeks sounds like a lot of fun. I love those port hole chairs (not sure what to call them) over in the After Hours area near Keys. They are so relaxing and can just watch the seas outside! It wouldn't take much to nap on one of these!
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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!
Yhey need to do a better job with the organization of the officers session and the Q&A.
That could definitely be improved.
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But the hide and seeks sounds like a lot of fun. I love those port hole chairs (not sure what to call them) over in the After Hours area near Keys. They are so relaxing and can just watch the seas outside! It wouldn't take much to nap on one of these!
No it wouldn't and we did see people asleep on them during the cruises!
Friday 14 September – part three: “hey, there’s the captain”
Finally 11:15am rolled around and we were released around the boat to go and find the officers. It became clear that there were some teams that were far too competitive, let’s just put it that way. I guess if we wanted to be, we could have quickly ruled out some areas. I knew Fathoms was a no-go, as it had bingo in it, but I didn’t realise that O’Gills did as well, so that would have saved some walking time.
We found our first officer in the atrium on deck three. I think he was there to ensure everyone got one. From there, we tried deck four, but couldn’t find anyone. I was convinced there would be an officer out on deck four lying on one of the loungers and it turned out I was right, but as I said to Erin later, they needed to allow us a bit more than 20 minutes to go searching, as a full circuit of deck four would take about six to seven minutes and, of course if you went out through the wrong door, you would be doing a circuit to see whether there was an officer there.
I was convinced we’d find one on deck five, but still no luck. I was starting to get a bit dis-spirited by this by now, so we headed for deck nine and there Mark lucked out, finding two more. However, I had my moment too, when I spotted a photographer out on deck. Hmmm…. I don’t think they’re often out. I saw someone take a photo of him, then what really gave it away was that the guy at the fast food outlet yelled at his colleague “hey, there’s the captain”. Gotcha! The best bit was he was wearing a name tag that said “Pluto, Castaway Cay”! He even took a “photo” of me, not many people who can say that…
We decided we were happy with just four and headed back. We were amazed when we sat down and discovered that the team next to us had got all eight! They were the joint winners with another team, although in a way it wasn’t fair, as both teams had done this before, so had an idea of where to find them all.
Some of the other ones were:
• A server in Pinocchio’s Pizza Hut
• A lifeguard by the Aquaduck
• A passenger in a lounger on deck four (knew it!)
• A shop assistant
• A maintenance worker on deck 10
The captain in his photographer’s outfit Our Cruise Director dressed as a lifeguard! The officers with the two winning teams
It was all very cleverly done and it was so neat to see them all in different uniforms. Some of them were difficult to spot and I felt proud we’d got half of them. I really enjoyed doing this and I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone else. I remember Colleen saying in her trip report to do anything that involves the officers, as they have a lot of fun, and she was right – they do!
When it was done, we headed over to the atrium and settled down on deck four to get some reading done.
We headed back to the room for a little while, then made our way out to Cabana’s for lunch. Their special today was salmon, so I was very happy with the choices.
Now at first I couldn’t make up my mind where to sit, then I noticed there were quite a lot of people sitting outside. Surely it couldn’t be warm enough for that? But then again, they were saying that it would be in the mid 60s today. I headed outside and asked Mark if he fancied sitting outside and he agreed, so we settled down in brilliant sun to enjoy our lunch. It was a very surreal experience to know that we were something like 830+ miles off the Canadian coastline and yet here we were in weather that you’d expect to find in the Mediterranean or perhaps the Caribbean in cooler months…
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And were able to sign up for the galley tour! Looks like a great time to walk around the ship early in the morning when there is no one around! Sounds like an interesting time with the hide and seek officers and the trivia!
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He even took a “photo” of me, not many people who can say that… 
They were the joint winners with another team, although in a way it wasn’t fair, as both teams had done this before, so had an idea of where to find them all. 
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