A Hop, NO Skip, and Many Mishaps to a Disney Dream - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We now entered the District area. This is the area with all the bars. We walked through here many times as well, but never actually came and had a drink or enjoyed any entertainment. It was very neat looking though.
Must follow the Star path!
“Come on Mom! You are going to slow!”
We reached the back of the ship and made our way up a few decks to Cabanas.
There was a slight line up, but it moved fast. As you walk in the CM’s hand you a sanitizer wipe for you hands. Another CM will ask how many in your group and then seat you at a table.
This was our view. On a sunny day it would be an excellent view. Today it was a drizzly view. I’m not complaining, but it would’ve been extra nice to have the sun out.
Looks like the rain is back!
I went up and got Claire’s food first. The buffet seemed endless. It went on forever.
I went up and got my food then.
And then Mom took her turn.
After we filled up on the main courses we also got a few desserts.
This was an awning/shade type thing on the top of the windows.
It was now about 1:40ish. We decided to finish up and head to see if our room was ready.
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First let me say - the pictures of Claire with Mickey are sooo cute!! I love how she posed with her little leg tilted to the side - she knew exactly what to do - it looks like what Minnie would do if she were standing with Mickey!!
Also, I wanted to ask, do you know how long you were waiting in the terminal. I got the impression you got there around 10:30 and didn't board til 12:30 - is that right?
Lastly, I read your food blog and loved it! I love all the pictures of the food and your reviews. I found it funny that you remembered exactly what you ate on the ship - did you keep notes at meals?
I must really take a cruise soon after reading your trip report.
Go for it!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Claire is so cute following the stars!
Everytime we walked down that hallway she would follow them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smcnaught
First let me say - the pictures of Claire with Mickey are sooo cute!! I love how she posed with her little leg tilted to the side - she knew exactly what to do - it looks like what Minnie would do if she were standing with Mickey!!
Also, I wanted to ask, do you know how long you were waiting in the terminal. I got the impression you got there around 10:30 and didn't board til 12:30 - is that right?
Lastly, I read your food blog and loved it! I love all the pictures of the food and your reviews. I found it funny that you remembered exactly what you ate on the ship - did you keep notes at meals?
Thanks. Sometimes she will really get into her poses. I beleive we were in the terminal about 2-21/2 hours. The time really did go fast. By the time we waited for Mickey and I got her kids club bracelet and then went out to the observations deck, there wasn't much time left till we boarded.
I did try to take notes each evening somewhat. And the pictures help me remember too. As for the food descriptions, I got those off of All Ears.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a shame about the rain. The District is such a beautifully themed area of the ship, isn't it?
It is pretty. I wish I had a chance to actually enjoy it some. I had said I wanted to have a drink in Pink, and the closest I got was walking through one evening.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikkilovesmickey
That food looks so yummy. Sorry that it started to rain again.
I wasn't happy about the rain, but we had been so busy so far that it didn't put a complete damper on the trip. Just not the ideal thing.
Before we left Cabanas, I asked a server what was going to happen with the Sail Away party if the rain continued. He said he had no clue. He had been working with Disney since Sept and had never had a rainy departure day. I knew that something would be done, and I was sure at some point and time we would be told.
We went out of the back of Cabanas and down a few flights of stairs to Deck 7 where our room 7666 was. Just right around the corner too. We were surprised to find one of my bags was already waiting for us outside the door.
Mom got a little worried that her bag wasn’t there yet. I assured her that this was early and it could still take a few hours for it to arrive.
The room was gorgeous for a cruise ship room. Everything was new and looked fresh. I was amazed at how roomy it was as well. Not a big room in hotel standards, but in cruise hip standards this room was a very nice size. And the verandah looked awesome!
I quickly pulled out the camera and shot a few pictures.
This is looking at the door.
The door on the left is for an adjoining room. Obviously we didn’t use that door at all.
The couch.
View of the port from our veranda.
The lamp
Guess who decided to pop in front of me when I try to shoot the bathroom!
This is one of the split bathrooms. This side has a sink and a shower/tub combo. I was impressed with how big the tub actually was.
I went to take pictures of the other bathroom, the one with the toilet, but the light didn’t work. I called about it and they said they would send someone to fix it. It was working when we came back later. I don’t think I ever did end up taking pictures of that side then…but maybe I’ll find them later if I did.
Obviously by the time on the clock, I didn’t take this picture when we were in the room at that time. I must’ve taken it the next day. It was on the waterproof camera. I have no clue why I used it for this, except maybe testing it out.
We unpacked a bit from what we had in the room with us so far. Claire and I decorated our door with magnets. I put out our Fish Extender.
Sadly I don’t think I ever took a picture of our door with the magnets or fish extender.
I took a look at the Navigator and saw that the Port shopping talk was going to start soon. I told Mom that we were going to go see it and she wanted to come as well. We looked on our ship map to see where The Buena Vista Theatre was, and made our way there.
I took a few shots as we passed the Atrium again.
And another shot. I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of it.
On our way again!
I have no clue where this was….or what it was, but it looks pretty…even though I took it crooked.
We entered The Buena Vista Theatre from the top level on deck 5. But they had all the handouts at the deck 4 entrance, so I went back and picked those flyers up.
Evidently I have bad balance or I am lopsided…here’s another crooked picture.
Soon Whitney started. She talked a lot about where to find jewelry. We oohed and ahhed. She would through out freebies, but honestly she mostly handed them to the same people in the front row. I was getting a little sleepy. Evidently Whitney has a soothing voice. I was actually starting to nod off and would catch myself. I didn’t think I could last much longer. I moved around in my seat and tried to stay awake, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I looked at Claire and she looked bored to tears…my escape! LOL! I asked her if she had to go potty and she said yes, very badly. I told Mom we were leaving and I was taking Claire potty and we would meet up with her later.
Once I got moving I felt back to normal. In search of a bathroom we came across Chip and Dale roaming around. This was not an actual meet and greet and it was hard to get a picture with them, as they just kept moving along. I actually didn’t like this. So many people would crowd the characters and try for a picture (who wouldn’t?) and it made it a little less magical to me.
Some kids were able to snag an autograph so Claire got her book out, but they never did sign hers.
I was able to take a very quick shot of Claire with Dale though. It was hard though as people were crowding and I just lifted the camera and snapped.
We then asked a nearby CM where the nearest bathroom was. He directed us and off we went. Now this may sound funny…but WOW. The bathrooms are so cool on the ship!
We headed out and decided to work our way back to the room.
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your TR ! I just wish I was there instead of here @ my work computer.
The District is such a beautifully themed area of the ship, isn't it?
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