Air, land and sea – a unique day out in London COMPLETED 9/9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Air, land and sea – a unique day out in London COMPLETED 9/9
Air, land and sea – a unique day out in London
Saturday 30 August – part one: taking to the air…
This day was one of those things, where we finally got around to doing some of the things I’ve wanted to do for some time – I’m sure you probably have things like that on the list for fairly near where you leave, but somehow you never get around to it? Well, today was that day.
So, to explain the title of this trip report, the air part saw us taking to the skies above London on the Emirates Air Line cable car, which was installed over the River Thames just before the London 2012 Olympics. The land took us to the west side of London to visit the London Transport Museum’s depot on a special guided tour, before we headed back to the east side of London to visit the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to enjoy Paralympic swimming at the London Aquatics Centre there as part of National Paralympics Day.
We left home around 8:00am, and headed up to the O2, known in a previous life as the Millennium Dome. As we approached, we got a glimpse of the cable cars that we’d be going on shortly.
We parked up, and walked over to the station, which was about a five minute walk. I loved how you got some great views of the cars as you got closer.
It was weird, but when we got there, there was no-one in the ticket booths at all. I already had tickets that I’d bought online, but I had no idea if you needed to exchange them, or could just use them at the gates. Well, it turned out the latter was true. Thank goodness there was a guy on the gates to tell us that.
We headed up, and watched one group head off on a car, then we grabbed another one.
Thankfully, as it was so quiet, we were able to have the car to ourselves. We saw a lot of empty ones during our journey, and it looked as if they were essentially just putting each group into a different car, which was very nice. Then we were off…
… and very quickly we were getting some wonderful views of the River Thames beneath us…
In the distance was the Thames Barrier, which helps to protect London from flooding…
Also in the distance was the Olympic Park with the Orbit and the Olympic Stadium…
Next: wow, you don’t normally see that in a residential development!
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Glad you got to see the swimming. It gave you a good excuse for a day in London, too. Too bad the air-quality control was so poor in the building, though.
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Those cable cars look fun! Definitely a new addition since our time in London in 2010. Not sure we'd get DS on them - he wasn't thrilled with the London Eye! I'd give it a go, though, and I know DD would love it!
Reminds me a bit of the old Skyway at Disneyland!
Those cable cars look fun! Definitely a new addition since our time in London in 2010. Not sure we'd get DS on them - he wasn't thrilled with the London Eye! I'd give it a go, though, and I know DD would love it!
It opened just before the London 2012 Olympics, so it is a new addition.
Saturday 30 August – part two: wow, you don’t normally see that in a residential development!
Soon we were flying over the Royal Docks beneath us. Here you could see evidence of previous industry…
... although today it’s home to residential developments, but not all housing comes with this as an added extra!
Soon we were coming into land…
The Docklands Light Railway far beneath us
…. but we decided to stay in our car, and just head straight back to the other side. This time, we got some lovely views of the city skyline, dominated by Canary Wharf…
… and the O2…
Before long, we were heading back to our original starting point…
We got out, and headed out, stopping on the way at Tesco Express to get ourselves some lunch. Ok, so it wasn’t even 10:00am, but we were heading across the city, which would take us about an hour, and our tour at the London Transport Museum was due to start at 11:00am, and would last a couple of hours, so I wanted to eat something before we started the tour. We headed down into the North Greenwich tube station, home to the newest part of the network, so don’t be fooled by the shields on the platform, as only a few stations have these:
For the next hour, we rode on the Tube, taking in three different lines, and I don’t know how many stations on the way, eating some of our lunch on the way. Bear in mind that we were literally travelling from one side of the city to the other, hence why it took so long. Finally, we were at our destination, Acton Town, and although the photo doesn’t show this brilliantly, it was a surreal experience getting off here, as the train was actually lower than the platform…
This was a lovely station, and a lot of the Tube stations look similar, as they were built in the 1920s and 1930s, and they have a distinctive architectural feel to them as a result.
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Then we were off… 
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