A Quick Caribbean Cruise? Count me in! PTR and Live TR all in one!! updated 12/12/2013 - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
What a shame the cruise was a disappointment. I hope they'll switch back to the other cruise line next year. The meals and service sound SO bad! It's a good thing the pizza on board was good or you'd have gone hungry. The pizza on the island looked truly disgusting. It's also a good thing you had such a congenial group to hang out and look at the pretty water with!
Sorry the cruise was a disappointment. At least you got to fill up on pizza!
Your hair and pedi look great!!!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
What a shame the cruise was a disappointment. I hope they'll switch back to the other cruise line next year. The meals and service sound SO bad! It's a good thing the pizza on board was good or you'd have gone hungry. The pizza on the island looked truly disgusting. It's also a good thing you had such a congenial group to hang out and look at the pretty water with!
I assure you the owner was so incredibly unhappy... there was a huge issue with his room, apparently. They gave him the wrong category (usually he gets a HUGE suite, and somehow he was stuck with a regular balcony cabin, but we're not sure how that snafu happened - and it never got sorted). Then the debacle with the poor service / food at dinner, and it was just done for. There were a lot of issues to be had. I'd be shocked if they went with MSC ever again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great pictures from your adventures! Sorry about the food, at least you had the pizza! I guess I won't be sailing on that line!
I wouldn't recommend it just yet. They have many kinks to be worked out, I think.
A lot of us talked about our dissatisfaction with the cruise. It was so many factors all at once. One thing that a lot of us said was that the ship was really confusing. For example, our dining room was on deck 6, all the way aft. So we, from midship on deck 10, took the elevator down to 6, and started walking aft. Well. You can't DO that. Because you run into the Black Crab dining room, and you cannot pass through. So you have to go up one level to 7, walk around to the left (because the right side has a bar) and then go back down to 6. We were laughing that by the last night, we still had no idea where most things were. It took us 40 minutes to find the spa on the first day because it was accessible only by this practically hidden hallway behind the solarium... very very strange. On last year's RCC ship, yes it was huge, but I knew where everything was by the second day, because it made sense.
We also debated whether or not we were being too picky, but you know, last year we didn't hear much complaint at all - we even had a PLYWOOD PIECE to our dinner table that bounced around... but there was no talk of, "OMG this was AWFUL!" Plus the food was good, the service was good (if a little overwhelming, lol) and for crying out loud, the hot tubs stayed open past 10pm (seriously, on MSC the pools and hot tubs were closed off at 10pm).
The bar drinks weren't particularly impressive past the first day... oh and the iced tea had no ice in it (typical European style but remember, when going out of an American port, you kinda want to go by the whole "when in Rome..." attitude, you'd think). And when Matt asked for some ice, they brought him a HUGE bowl of it (and I do mean huge - I wish I'd taken a photo). Just very different from what we're accustomed to on RCC (or Disney - but I really try not to compare anything to them because they're in a class of their own).
Anyway, listen, I did have fun... and dang that pizza was good... but I just wasn't impressed on the whole, and I'd never use MSC again, for sure.
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.
Sorry this particular cruise was full of disappointment, but I'm glad you managed to find fun anyway. The buffet definitely seemed the best way to go for dinner.
So sorry that this cruise was so disappointing, but despite that, it sounds like you were still able to enjoy yourselves and have some fun on your quick getaway.
Sounds like a pretty awful cruise line. At least the price for you was right! I feel bad for the person who paid the bill! But you did get a day on a Caribbean island, and fun company, so there's at least that!
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.
Sorry the cruise line was a disappointment, but at least you got an escape from everything briefly and got to spend some good time with friends (and your cost was amazing! )
We really did have a fun time. We were up and out of our cabins at 715am. Toni had to meet her group at Gregg and Lize's room at 730, because they were all on the same flight home. I sat in the buffet for about an hour, and then I got in line to get off of the boat at 9am because my friend texted me and told me I could come over at any time! The lady at the disembarkation point asked me what color my tag was to disembark and I told her I had a ride to catch, and that I was told I could get off earlier. She shrugged and let me pass, and that was that.
I took a taxi to my friend's house, and once she put her boys down for a nap, we went out to an early lunch (she has a nanny who was home with the boys), and then we took the boys for a walk when they woke up, and we camped on a blanket in the shade by the pool for a while, chatting and playing with the boys (whom I absolutely adore). After that, she drove me to the airport, and after a 55 minute wait at security (seriously, it was ridiculous - absolutely unnecessary and poorly run there, but I smiled the entire time because I was determined to stay calm), I ran to my gate, stopping at the bathroom quickly. I got to the gate as it was finishing boarding, only to realize I had lost my passport and boarding pass! *heart attack* I ran back to the bathroom, and nothing. Then I ran BACK to the gate, just as they called my name to let me know that they had my passport. The guy looked right at me as he announced it. I guess my panicked look as I dashed through the airport was sort of a good indication that I was the one he was looking for. God bless the person that found it and thought to bring it straight to the gate listed on the pass.
With that fiasco done, I boarded the plane, suddenly eager to just get the heck outta there, lol!
The flight to Charlotte was boring. I watched a movie and snacked. Then I got to Charlotte to find that we were delayed indefinitely. Lovely. I found an empty outlet (shocking) and charged my laptop with the outlet, and then plugged my phone into the laptop to juice THAT at the same time. I sat for probably 30 minutes before I found out that the delay was only going to be 45 minutes, which wasn't as bad as I had feared. Finally we boarded, and I had just enough juice to watch my movie on the flight. Phew!!! I got home and was so happy to see Meri! But I tell you, it was so cold, I'd have gotten back on that boat in a hurry, lol, even despite the poor service / food.
Bottom line, I was glad I went on the cruise. Toni and I had some great conversations, and I really enjoyed having fun with her coworkers. They're all really nice people. I felt like I got really good, solid sleep each night, and while I didn't exactly love the food, I didn't starve, either. We got to see some lovely places, and the weather was perfect. So all in all, a very nice vacation. I have plenty of criticism of the way the cruise line does things, but the staff themselves were very nice. You could just tell the servers were completely overworked and it looked like they were not having even a little bit of fun. I felt sorry for them so I was quick to smile at them and thank them when they would bring me things. But it was really disappointing to me ultimately, because cruising, for me, is as much about the food as it is anything else.
As always, I know that the next year's cruise is not a guarantee for me. Toni may get married, may decide to bring someone else, or may just decide I stink, lol. But, I'm glad that she brought me this year, and it was fun to laugh with her for three days.
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.
It does sound like a great getaway from the daily grind! If it were a longer cruise I'm sure the service and dining on the ship would have really been a pain, but for a few days you can survive on pizza! Just to sit on the sand and see that beautiful water is refreshing.
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Melanie
PassPorter Guide Author
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Linear Mode
