Poutine, Lobster and Grits-Semireport updated twice 02/26/2015 TR Complete. - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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After returning from a Disneyworld trip in June to celebrate the then upcoming nuptials of Pamela K and her beau, I got home and realized that March 2015 was a LONG time away. I needed an ‘In between” trip.
So I went out peaking on my favorite cruise line, and lo and behold a sale appeared Booking price was $1,400 cheaper (with double occupancy charge)
Immediately I called my favorite TA, and booked a balcony.Itinerary is repositioning one. Normally , Princess does NY to Quebec and back. On this itinerary we start in Quebec and end in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with NY being just a port visit.
I added a couple extras so the trip is:
Oct 21 Fly to Quebec. Transfer to hotel. Stay overnight at the historic Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac (opened in 1890's)
Oct 22 Board ship in Quebec, but ship does not sail. Transfers to ship were part of the package. It is your hotel for another day in Quebec. The ship is the Ruby Princess (3,000 passengers)
Oct 23-Sail at 5PM
Oct 24-Port Saguenay-on the Saquenay fjord.’
Oct 25 Sailing on the St Lawrence river
Oct 26 Hallifax, Nova Scotia
Oct 27 Bar Harbor, Maine (tender port)
Oct 28 Boston, Mass.
Oct 29 Newport, Rhode Island (tender port)
Oct 30 New York city
Oct 31 At sea, 2nd formal night on Halloween-might be interesting.
Nov 1 Charleston, South Carolina
Nov 2 at Sea
Nov 3-Disembark Fort Lauderdale.
Total price for package, including pre-stay at Le Frontenac, transfers, Balcony (remember I have to pay ‘double’ since I travel single), and cruise Insurance $4,864
I then went out and booked my airfare. Again, celebrating having a little more cash, I booked first class from Sacramento to Chicago, then economy from Chicago to Quebec City.Only economy is available on the second leg as it is a smaller plane to a very small airport (Quebec has only 6 gates at it’s airport).It seemed better than flying to Montreal and taking a couple hour shuttle bus between cities.
For the return flight, I booked SW from FLL to Sacramento
In the next installment of the pre-TR I will talk about excursions I pre-booked.
Very exciting trips coming up! The Amsterdam-Budapest one is an itinerary I've long wanted to do. The Princess cruise down the East Coast is a great itinerary as well, and a great time of year for it. Quebec City is wonderful and I love Bar Harbor and Halifax, too. Of course, I'm partial to Boston as well! I'll be interested to see the excursions you've chosen.
I can't wait to read all about this, as Quebec is on my (long!) list of places to visit and I'm hoping to finally make it there in spring 2016.... can I say jealous of where you'll be staying in Quebec City? I want to stay there too!
CHOICES, CHOICES, CHOICES-What excursions tickled my fancy:
Quebec City:
Available were 1) Walking tour of historic city(tours with or without tea stop and with or without add on carriage ride. 2)various motor tours of historic and modern parts of Quebec city, Mortmorency Falalls and Ile de Quebec.
I chose a walking tour of the old city. I plan on exploring lots of little shops and restaurants on my own. One necessity will be trying Poutine -cheese curds on French fries with gravy poured on top .It is such a cultural item that restaurants fight to have the best/most unique ‘gravy’
Ville Sanguenay
My choice: Best of Saguenayt. Visit the Fjord, Fjord Museum, View the frescoes of a local artist, go to a glass blowing workshop and see how goats produce mohair and how it is turned into clothes.
Other options were a bus ride viewing the area, tour the city of Chicomouti ( a pulp mill town), A tour the fjord by boat/hiking/kayak or zodiac, a local cultural show, or visit a living history museum of “New” France.
Halifax Nova Scotia
In the area are Peggy’s cove-a historic fishing village and lighthouse, Maritime and Immigration Museums, Halifax Cidatel Historic sight, Canada’s oldest seat of government , and a cemetery that is the largest burial ground of Titanic passengers. I chose a double decker hop on hop off bus that does three different loops of the city.Includes admission passes for the Maritime Museum, Halifax Cidatel National Historic Park and army museum.
Bar Harbor, Maine
Home of Acacia National Park, Cadillac Mountain, a blow hole with 40 high water spouts, Downtown Bar harbor (Victorian Architecture) a Lobster Bake, and several lighthouses. I chose a tour of Acacia National Park and Cadillac Mountain . Dropped back of in Bar Harbor, I am having lunch with a friend from here that moved to 20 miles away from Bar Harbor several years ago.I expect to have a lobster roll somewhere along the place as we stroll through the town.
Boston, Mass.
Offered are trips to Faneuil Hall/Quincy marketplace, Public Gardens, the Historic Back bay part of the city, the Freedom trail, Little Italy (the North end) Lexington and Concord, Harvard Square, or the witchcraft town of Salem.
I am taking a hop-on hop off trolley and will sample many of the areas. Might even try a bowl of Boston style clam chowder.
Newport Rhode Island
The majority of the tours include visiting the elegant mansions, the cliff walk and the rocky coastline. I attended Officer Candidate School in Newport,so I am going ashore and walking the historic old town, and maybe stop in a local tavern (or two) that we enjoyed on our weekends in town back then. The ‘harbor tour’ does not interest me as we ‘toured’ most of the harbor as we learned to handle the yard patrol craft (in some fun seas and cold weather, too)
NY City
Sights you can visit are the Statue of Liberty, Ellis island, Times square, South Street Seaport, Empire State Building, the Brooklyn bridge, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park. I visited NY City for a week on my into the Navy and saw every one of those sights (even climbed up into lady liberty’s arm – as you could back then. I am taking a NYC by land sea tour.
Charleston. South Carolina.
Points of interest are Battery park (a civil war artillery site), Naval and Maritime Museum, Old exchange & Provost dungeon (where the British detained their prisoners), Fort Sumpter-the start of the civil war, Nathaniel Russell 1808 home of a wealthy merchant, Magnolia Plantation & Garden , Boone Hall a working plantation, and Joseph Manigault House built 1803.
I will take a morning tour of historic Charleston and tour the Manigault House. Then I intend on finding a nice southernrestarant featuring coastal Carolina cuisine.Goal: Shrimp and Grits.
(You can see where the title came from…food stops)
In Ft Lauderdale (where I have started 3 cruise) I will only tour the two miles between the cruise port and the airport.
Hope to take lots of food pictures, as well as others LOL. Will have computer access (get free internet minutes) but will only do text while on cruise. Will add photos on return.
About This Page: 
I needed an ‘In between” trip.
, then economy from Chicago to Quebec City.Only economy is available on the second leg as it is a smaller plane to a very small airport (Quebec has only 6 gates at it’s airport).It seemed better than flying to Montreal and taking a couple hour shuttle bus between cities.
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