A magical Mediterranean vacation COMPLETED - Page 66 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Awww, that bathroom is adorable!!! That's just the type of thing I love Disney for
So am I right assuming that you are gonna miss the evening dinner rotation because you'll be ashore?
and I would guess probably 90% of guests missed the last dining rotation, as I can't imagine many people not going ashore in Venice. We certainly saw lots of Disney tour groups later on...
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Doesn't it feel weird to be in port over night? Especially as it's your final destination? I don't know, it seems as it would feel like the vacation ends a day early, you know what I mean?
It was odd and I felt sad that we didn't get our final dinner with our servers. I thought that was a shame, but there was no way I was going to miss a night out in Venice. I actually found it really relaxing having an overnight stay, as we had no all aboard time, so it didn't matter what time we got back to the boat and it certainly didn't feel like the vacation was ending either - mind you, it did help that at this point (Sunday evening), we had almost another week before we'd fly home the following Sunday afternoon...
People love to see the "Mickey ships"! It was the same way when sailing through the Panama Canal. Mobs of people on shore just to see us go through, waving and taking photos.
Oh wow, I didn't even think of that. For some reason, I thought the Panama Canal would be deserted when you went through it.
Beautiful views coming in to Venice! Can't wait for the gondola report!
We were in port overnight in St. Petersburg, and it was odd, to be able to come and go as much and as late as you wanted. But the big difference was, we sailed on from there - it wasn't our final destination. I think that would be a bit strange. But nice that it gives you extra time in Venice without worrying about a hotel!
Beautiful views coming in to Venice! Can't wait for the gondola report!
More coming right up!
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We were in port overnight in St. Petersburg, and it was odd, to be able to come and go as much and as late as you wanted. But the big difference was, we sailed on from there - it wasn't our final destination. I think that would be a bit strange. But nice that it gives you extra time in Venice without worrying about a hotel!
I bet the overnight in St. Petersburg was amazing. I'm sure I remember seeing an overnight in Copenhagen somewhere as well..... just checked and next summer's 12 night Baltic cruise has an overnight in both Copenhagen and St. Petersburg, which I think is a really cool itinerary. One day we'll get to do one of the Baltic cruises...
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Sunday 13 July – part five: everyone’s snapping photos of our ship!
We then headed off the ship, and out through an area that I guess will look very different in the morning…
I’ll have to get some photos in the morning to compare… We headed outside, and thankfully we didn’t have that far to go, as we were coming off near midship, rather than at the back of the terminal, further along that aft. Sadly that was the route we’d return later…
It was a pleasant walk, although still quite warm…
We got our tickets and headed on to the People Mover…
… and got off at Piazzale Roma, and walked over to get our tickets for the vaparetto. Fortunately there was one due just a couple of minutes later.
This one took us by Tronchetto, the parking garage for Venice, and just opposite the Magic, so you know what that means – that’s right, a great close-up shot of the ship!
It was so cool to see everyone on the vaparetto snapping away. Oddly enough, when we went past the Princess Cruises ship, not a single person took a photo…
Soon we were back into the same waters we’d travelled along just a couple of hours earlier, but this time we were able to get views of the other side, and obviously we were a lot closer to the water now.
We got some superb views of St. Mark’s Square…
We got off and walked through the square, and it was so much quieter today…
We weren’t quite sure why the flags were flying tonight.
We passed the Church of San Moise, and wow, what an amazing façade on it!
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I was about 2 weeks behind but finally caught up. I am loving everything and all your pictures. The water is so amazing and clear and blue! It looks like you had such a wonderful time.
Awesome photos of the Magic from the vaporetto! Too funny that the Magic was the only ship anyone wanted to photograph. But then Disney ships are beautiful.
The Church of San Moise is incredible with all its intricate details>
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