The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 4/25 - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Too bad you didn't enter the ship through deck 3 as it makes getting on board better! Nice start to your cruise experience with a great lunch at Triton's. Everything looks so good.
__________________
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!
I've just caught up as been a very busy week.
I can tell how blue the water was flying in, amazing! I didn't think about how big a city Puerto Rico actually is, wow. The cows in the Christmas decoration were very cute. Finding the hotel at the airport sound like a nightmare and then to have such an ugly view and be so noisy? At least you got good sleep. The rainbow was lovely.
I pack something and then cannot find it all the time but glad you found the wine bottle. The line to board was crazy and the boarding process sounded a little frustrating but being in the ship nearly by yourself and having such a wonderful lunch was wonderful. Your sundae sounds yummy! But then I like carrot cake too, what hard decisions to make.
Congrats on platinum!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Too bad you didn't enter the ship through deck 3 as it makes getting on board better!
The funny thing is I didn't mind, as I find the boarding through the atrium with the announcements a bit over the top and put on, if that makes sense? The one time I enjoyed it was when we were part of a bigger group, then it was fun! Otherwise, I really could just leave it, so I was glad to have the option to skip it.
Quote:
Nice start to your cruise experience with a great lunch at Triton's. Everything looks so good.
I've just caught up as been a very busy week.
I can tell how blue the water was flying in, amazing! I didn't think about how big a city Puerto Rico actually is, wow.
That's just San Juan - the capital of Puerto Rico. It's a huge island.
Quote:
The cows in the Christmas decoration were very cute. Finding the hotel at the airport sound like a nightmare and then to have such an ugly view and be so noisy? At least you got good sleep. The rainbow was lovely.
It wasn't the greatest and I really wish we could've gone for the nice beachfront hotel I had my heart set on, but with the hurricane, that sadly was no longer an option.
Quote:
I pack something and then cannot find it all the time but glad you found the wine bottle. The line to board was crazy and the boarding process sounded a little frustrating but being in the ship nearly by yourself and having such a wonderful lunch was wonderful.
You know what? That made all the difference. Suddenly by then, all the problems with boarding were a million miles away!
Quote:
Your sundae sounds yummy! But then I like carrot cake too, what hard decisions to make.
Congrats on platinum!
I agree that it’s always best when formal night lines up with Tritons/Lumiere’s.
The cruise terminal does seem JUST like Barcelona! More people were sitting on the floor than I chairs there, I think.
I agree that it’s always best when formal night lines up with Tritons/Lumiere’s.
The cruise terminal does seem JUST like Barcelona! More people were sitting on the floor than I chairs there, I think.
Isn't it a shame that the other terminals aren't as welcoming as Port Canaveral? I appreciate that is Disney's own terminal, but you'd just expect the basics everywhere - like enough chairs!
Sunday 14 January – part four: that’s a bit cheeky…
Now, during lunch, I was trying to get the Disney Cruise Line app to work… with little success. Even one of our servers commented that this was a cheeky message, given we were on board!
Once we were done eating, we headed up to deck four to find out where our lifeboat drill would be. Thankfully it was out of the sun, which was a huge relief, as that’s been an issue in the past. It didn’t look as if there was anywhere to sit, so we’ll be down early as usual to sort that out.
We got some lovely shots of San Juan laid out in front of us…
Looking here, it’s impossible to believe that this was ever affected by a force of nature as strong as a hurricane. It all looks immaculate, but of course it’s only a very small part of the island we’re seeing. We made our way back inside…
… and we saw the DVC reps for this cruise on the way back in. We’d already met them at check-in and they are literally just here for the week, like us. They’re a lovely pair and they told us there’s a member meet at 7:30pm with two magic words: “free” and “cocktails”. I’m there!
We headed up to deck five to just chill for a bit until the rooms opened, then just before 1:30pm, we made our way up to deck six. It was all still roped off and frustratingly, ours was the last to be opened up. We could see people walking down the corridor, but we couldn’t get to it.
Once we were in, we found two nice gifts, one for being platinum Castaway Club members…
… and the one from our now not-so-evil travel agent Sara..
I got some photos of the room, although in all honesty, it doesn’t change that much from cruise to cruise.
The bathroom The separate toilet Our veranda
I also got some shots of the view outside. It was lovely, but a bit humid and my camera was deciding it had issues again. We played the in-out game a few times (let’s put the zoom all the way out and back again with me touching nothing ) and then thankfully it played ball. Long may that continue… or it’s going back for repairs… again!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Watching your arrival makes me glad I picked a 2pm PAT for our Dream Cruise.
If you're on the Dream, you should be fine whatever time you pick - you'll be at Port Canaveral and, let's face it, the one thing Disney do well is manage lines.
Quote:
Love your room and lunch looked good.
Tell me how do you manage to not overeat on a cruise with all that food.
Oh my goodness, I have no idea! I think if someone could come up with a way to do that, they could probably make a fortune selling those secrets!
San Juan looks beautiful in all that sunshine! And the room looks just as nice as always. Happy to hear Sara isn’t as evil anymore.
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
San Juan looks beautiful in all that sunshine! And the room looks just as nice as always. Happy to hear Sara isn’t as evil anymore.
She's only evil when she sells us another cruise, when we weren't expecting to purchase one! And even then, it all works out for the best, as we never regret taking them.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Nice start to your cruise experience with a great lunch at Triton's. Everything looks so good. 
but glad you found the wine bottle. The line to board was crazy
and the boarding process sounded a little frustrating but being in the ship nearly by yourself and having such a wonderful lunch was wonderful. Your sundae sounds yummy! But then I like carrot cake too, what hard decisions to make.
Alaskan Mom aka Bonnie
PassPorter Guide Author
) and then thankfully it played ball. Long may that continue… or it’s going back for repairs… again! 
I think if someone could come up with a way to do that, they could probably make a fortune selling those secrets! 
Happy to hear Sara isn’t as evil anymore. 
Linear Mode
