Gumbo, Reggae, and Ruins: Solo in Nola and at Sea - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Greetings everyone! I'm getting ready to leave on my next adventure, and I thought I'd start a thread for my soon-to-be trip report. Before I depart, here are the details...
This was, once again, a semi-last-minute trip; I booked it last Monday and I'm leaving next Wednesday. My main desire was to visit New Orleans, as it is a place I've never been--because I can usually only travel in July and August, and who wants to go to New Orleans in July or August? As this school year is my 'year off to travel', I wanted to take advantage of the cooler winter months. And so, I started looking into Nola in January.
And then I discovered that Nola is a cruise port. I honestly never even considered that before, but once I did...well...there was no reason to not take advantage of that little geographical bonus.
Thus, I will be flying from Philly to New Orleans next Wednesday, staying and touring the city until Saturday, and then boarding the Voyager of the Seas to sail to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. I'll then return to Nola for one more day and night, only to fly back home at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. As with my last cruise trip, I will be doing these things solo. Though you're never really solo on a cruise--and after only a bit of poking around various forums--including this one--I've discovered that you're never really alone in Nola, either. But more on that later.
So--anyone interested in reading this trip report? If so, up next will be The Plans.
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.
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.
Those of you that 'know' me know that I like to plan. A lot. I sometimes go overboard in planning. Knowing this, you may be surprised at how non-obsessively planned this trip is. Sure, I have some plans. But there's no hour by hour schedule. Which is very unlike me! In fact, I'm only about a quarter of the way through my New Orleans guide book, and don't see myself finishing it before the flight down. This is VERY unlike me!
Anyway...the plan...
Wednesday--arrival day. I'll be in Nola by noon. I have a pub crawl/french quarter tour booked for 4:00 that afternoon. I figure the best way to start off my sightseeing is with drinks in my hand! I have no plans for the evening other than perhaps 'return to bars I liked earlier in the tour' and 'find food'.
Thursday--full day in Nola. Considering a photography tour for part of the day. EDIT: Photography tour is a go! Super excited!!!
Friday--full day in Nola. No real plans. Would like to take streetcar to Garden District, walk around. More food. More bars. More food.
Saturday--check out of hotel, board ship!
Sunday and Monday--days at sea. Relax. Hydrate after three days in Nola. Run on treadmill after three days in Nola!
Tuesday--Jamaica! I have no idea what I'm doing in port this day. I'd like to go horseback riding on the beach, which is an excursion option. But I'm very hesitant about doing a ship's excursion, and that seems like the only option at this port. Falmouth is Royal Caribbean's dedicated port, so you're kind of stuck doing ship tours. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!
Wednesday--Grand Cayman. Have a tour booked with an independent company. Going snorkeling, swimming with stingrays, and then to some pretty beach I've heard good things about. It's a very un-me-like excursion, but really, when am I ever going to be able to swim with stingrays again?
Thursday--Cozumel. This is the port I'm most excited about. Even though I know it will be a LONG day with lots of time on transportation, I've booked a ship excursion (because that's the only safe way to do it without missing the ship back) to Tulum. I'm so so so excited about this! I've always wanted to see ruins--and now I get to! Yay!!! There's also a stop at a beach for lunch post-ruins. It's an 8.5 hour excursion!
Friday--At sea. Recovery day from looooong Tulum excursion the day before!
Saturday--I'm also kind of excited about this day. I'll be back in Nola fairly early--around 8 in the morning--and i'm not flying out until 6 in the morning the next day. I have plans to meet up with a woman I met on a travel forum, and then with several others from that same forum. There's the first parade of Carnival season that night, so we're all going to that. I had no idea I'd be able to see a parade during my time in Nola, and I'm super super excited about it. There will be photos. Oh so many photos!
Sunday--After likely not sleeping all night, I'll be catching a cab to the airport at 4 in the morning. After a flight to DC, a two hour layover, and a puddle jumper flight to Philly on a 16 passenger prop plane, I'll be home by early afternoon and asleep by slightly later that same afternoon!
So...that's the plan. What do you all think? I'm very, very, very excited about this trip. Like even more excited than I was when I booked it all of ten days ago.
Ooooh, this sounds like fun! It appears to be a good, loose set of plans.
__________________
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
Sounds like a great trip! Can't wait to read your TR, as I've enjoyed your others. My fam. & I did the RC stingray ex. on Grand Cayman a few years ago and loved it. It's amazing to be in the water with the stingrays just swimming all around you! My DS, 6 at the time, got in & got right back out. This was shortly after Steve Irwin died & he wasn't having any part of the rays! DD 13 loved it, but stayed on her dad's back most of the time. We do have pictures of her kissing a ray, though. DH loved it. Enjoy!
I can't wait to read your report. I am going on an excursion to Tulum on my Fantasy cruise in April, so I am super excited to read about your experiences.
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.
Sounds like a stellar trip! Lookin forward to reading all about it! We really enjoyed the streetcar ride to the Garden Dist.
i'm definitely planning on a streetcar/garden district tour. with my camera, of course.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tconst
Sounds like a great trip! Can't wait to read your TR, as I've enjoyed your others. My fam. & I did the RC stingray ex. on Grand Cayman a few years ago and loved it. It's amazing to be in the water with the stingrays just swimming all around you! My DS, 6 at the time, got in & got right back out. This was shortly after Steve Irwin died & he wasn't having any part of the rays! DD 13 loved it, but stayed on her dad's back most of the time. We do have pictures of her kissing a ray, though. DH loved it. Enjoy!
i'm not sure that i'll be kissing any stingrays, but i'll definitely be hanging out with them a bit. i wonder if i'll freak out. i was a bit scared of fish...yes, fish...when snorkeling in bermuda. strange but true!
Quote:
Originally Posted by WishIwasinDisney
I can't wait to read your report. I am going on an excursion to Tulum on my Fantasy cruise in April, so I am super excited to read about your experiences.
awesome! i'll be reporting back with lots of photos. hopefully i'll have good things to tell you--and more than a few tips.
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Mary - not enough trips!
your trip reports.Can't wait to see all the 
.
Linear Mode
