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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Family and I are getting ready in Cocoa Beach for our first Disney cruise that leaves today!!!! 3 Day Disney Dream, followed by a week at WDW!
Flew from CA to FL yesterday, nothing exciting other than being delayed out of ONT to DFW by 45 minutes but no biggie, had planned a 2 hour layover as we have a 2.5 year old daughter.
Will post more as I am able, but not much of a blogger/writer....
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OK this is a quick, I am paying how much for Internet because I am too lazy to go ashore in Nassau and find a cheaper cafe...
We got to the Disney terminal around 10:40 and I dropped off our bags and DS,DD2. Went to park in structure and when I caught up with them they were finishing up at the check-in counter. It was 11:15. We had a 11:00-11:30 check-in window when we did online check-in, nobody asked about it. We got boarding group 6.
It was about 11:50 when they began boarding and it was 12:45 or so when they called group 6.
Headed for Cabanas for a quick bite before getting to our room a little after 1:30. We are on Deck 9, a Cat. 4A stateroom, we had done the Cat 4D GTY and got lucky.
Most of the time, we could barely feel the boat moving but at certain times there was a distinct rolling motion. Our dining rotation is AER. So we were at Animators last night, was totally cool, held the interest of our DD2. We got stuck with the second seating as we booked a couple months prior. We tried moving as soon as we got on board but no luck. That's OK we are adjusting and having a blast.
Aqua duck line seems to always be at the base of the stairs or a little up from there, The sign at the bottom says it is a 35 minutes wait from that point. Working a ride into the schedule as soon as we can!
Went to the DVC event yesterday, was nice, won a DVC clock. Did not with the stateroom credit.... We have enough points so nothing too tempting, though they were saying this cruise was the last of "No Closing Costs".
Hopped off in Nassau to stretch the legs, were only off the ship for about 90 minutes before returning to let DD2 play in Nemo's Reef, she loved it!
Alright off to do some more exploring.
Oh, for those shoppers: wife got her Inaugural D&B Purse as well as some other Inaugural merchandise. So nice they deliver to your room, in fact, they delivered it within an hour. Wow!
Love the D&B bags but couldn't justify the cost! . . . . Until the 40th anniversary print ones! LOVE them!! And as it turns out, my sister is getting me one for my 50th birthday next month! Can't wait!
PS. my husband asked me last night what I wanted for my 50th birthday, I told him a Disney cruise, he just said Uhhhh. . . . . . . so we'll see, fingers crossed!
Sorry for the long delay, but things got crazy, crazy fun!! The cruise was followed up with a week at Kidani!
So after a bit of shopping, had to get ready for Pirate Night. We did not take much but were happy with the bandanas they provided in the room. DD2 especially loved the Mickey Pirate tattoos that DVC gave out.
We had breakfast at Enchanted Garden and that happened to be our place for dinner. We were seated with a lovely couple with 3 kids from Toronto, hope to see them on the Fantasy MV. Enchanted Garden did not hold DD2's attention as well as Animator's so that was a bit of a challenge with the late seating. I do have to say that the quick serve food (Flo's, Luigi's, etc.) on 11 was just what we needed for DD2. We had to take care of her dinner before our actual dinner and she loved the chicken strips and fries, though what 2, almost 3 year old wouldn't. Do not even get me started on the all you can eat ice cream!
We had a 1-hour reservation at It's A Small World (IASW) nursery for DD2 to try out. She ran happily and that was that. We spend the time visiting the Aqua Duck, loved the water slide. Next time, I have to find some time to try it out when at sea rather than in port. We also stopped in to Pink, the champagne bar to try out the special Tattinger made for the Dream. We were the only ones in there and spent a lot of time talking to the staff.
The Pirate show was very cool but it got a bit late for us to catch the fireworks and we ended up back in the room for them. We were on deck 9 starboard. They had made announcements about keeping your veranda door closed and to have all items inside to prevent any chance of a fire. We evaluated the conditions and the wind was blowing away from the ship so we popped open the slider and enjoyed the show.
Our final full day, a visit to Castaway Cay, what would be a super busy day. I had the Single Rider Watercraft Adventure and DS had a Cabana Massage.
I was to be at Boat Beach at 10:00 for my adventure, I got checked in and it was about 10:15 by the time we were off. I was surprised that the wave runners looked older and in pretty bad shape. In fact some of the staff was working on 2 or 3 of them while we were getting briefed. I enjoyed the adventure as we have 2 wave runners but usually only get them out on a lake. Of course they had the speed limiters on them, but it was very cool to take off in the water passed the Dream and out to sea. It was a little disappointing that their idea of a tour and sightseeing was heading off one way, loop back, head the other way, and loop back. The worst part was my wave runner died, turns out the spark plug came loose or went dead and was too hot to deal with, had to hop a ride with the guide. Guess it was better it happened at the end of the tour. Loved how they just left the wave runner out floating to retrieve later. Guess that is the benefit of having your own island.
Got back in time to meet up with the family and have lunch. The food was great but I think after being in the sun and walking around I could have eaten most anything. We spent some time on the beach and playing in the water. Of course, there was a little more shopping, again love that you can have it sent back to the ship, this time you had to pick up your packages from one of the shops. DD2 was getting tired and we knew it would be a rough night so we headed back so I could put her down for a nap while DS got her massage. Enjoyed some quiet time on the verandah reading and watching shows on the iPad. DS came back to the room with a glazed look of relaxation.
This is where things started to get crazy. We had dinner at Remy tonight, this is the one most important tip I came away with. Unless you cannot get another reservation, do not book a long dinner on the final night when you need to pack and have your bags out by 10:30.
We missed dinner at Royal Palace due to the Remy reservation. One of the best things about Remy, was the invitation to meet with Alex, the sommelier prior to dinner. We sat down and he explained the menu choices and wine pairings that went with the tasting menus. Also showed me the regular wine list and the reserve wine list. Even got to go into the restaurant to see the wines and how they were stored. Picked a 1996 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Unico that we opened right there and tasted. Had it decanted and Alex set it back in with the wines to chill until closer to our dinner.
Meanwhile, my DS was dressing and getting DD2 ready for IASW. I ran up to 11 to grab some chicken for DS2 so she could eat. Also, had to run down to the shops that were now open as we were out to sea to grab the bags from Castaway Cay shopping. DD2 did not want to go this time but they took her and as we walked out it looked like another child was throwing up, turns out it was just spit up but boy were we worried. Also, found out that DD2 calmed down shortly after we left. We took the change to get some nice portraits done while we were dressed before heading up to dinner. I will post more about dinner later as I will also try and get the menus scanned in so you can see. Let's just say, it was well worth the money and their complimentary champagne cocktail was awesome. I did find it funny that miniature golf might be above Remy as we would hear balls rolling around and in fact could see an orange golf ball on the ledge outside the window. 6:00p was a great time to relax and catch the sun setting over the ocean.
We left Remy around 9:45, headed straight to the room to change, finish up packing and throw our luggage in the hall. Ran down to IASW to get DD2 who had been missing us a lot according to the staff. It was perfect timing for the See Ya Real Soon good bye with the characters. Made it around to all of them grabbing priceless pictures and then a prime location at the base of the stairs to watch the short show as they head off. Also took care of our pictures from Shutters (so much better to do early, saw the line in the morning at disembarkation and was so thankful).
That was about it for our short 3-day cruise, we did not have breakfast in the morning as we had a whole week at WDW coming and were anxious to see the parks as they were kicking us off the ship. We got up and got ready and were out of the room by 8:15. Luggage retrieval was super easy, thought they did misplace one bag and we had to search the hall for it. I did find it, only to have a supervisor come over and tell me what bad handwriting it was and no wonder it was misplaced. What a shock back to reality of not being on the cruise. Any way, made it right out through customs and to the car and were off to WDW. Might try and get a quick trip report of WDW up in the appropriate forum.
Oh and a few other fabulous tips I learned from here or the PassPorter books that were a life saver:
Bring an octopus or other power strip if you have lots of electronics.
The hair dryer needs to get plugged into the outlet at the desk.
Any card will work in the slot for keeping the lights and air running.
Forward and Aft elevators are less crowded, but stairs are always a good choice if you can use them.
Being on 9 and drink on 11, was not too bad, but bringing a large cup with you, much easier than buying one or dealing with the small ones at the drink station.
Love the D&B bags but couldn't justify the cost! . . . . Until the 40th anniversary print ones! LOVE them!! And as it turns out, my sister is getting me one for my 50th birthday next month! Can't wait!
PS. my husband asked me last night what I wanted for my 50th birthday, I told him a Disney cruise, he just said Uhhhh. . . . . . . so we'll see, fingers crossed!
Good luck on getting that Disney Cruise, it would make for a truly magical birthday!!!!
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We also stopped in to Pink, the champagne bar to try out the special Tattinger made for the Dream. We were the only ones in there and spent a lot of time talking to the staff.
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