National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 82 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
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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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Not a great experience getting to the airport or once there. Mark's in-flight meal looks a lot more appetizing than yours! I'm afraid to ever use my miles to upgrade to first class as I know I'd want it all the time! Sleep suits?
and there are no photos of us in them! They're essentially all black - I only used the bottoms, but they're like comfortable leggings.... I assume you guys call them leggings as well? - jogging pants? As I didn't use the tops, I can't comment on those, but they were black and long sleeved, that's all I remember!
Sorry to hear of the odd experiences at Ohare! I don't like that airport either. But we still use it from time to time for certain flights. And the odd meal experience on Virgin too... not their usual!
We were also in that traffic out towards Ohare! We opted for convenience shopping and eating at Woodfield Mall instead of walking all over Chicago. My mom was exhausted already (COPD ) from walking the museum. It worked out great though - Rainforest Cafe, Lego Store, and Disney Store all in one place. With benches to rest!
Glad it worked out for you guys - sounds like you had a great day.
and there are no photos of us in them! They're essentially all black - I only used the bottoms, but they're like comfortable leggings.... I assume you guys call them leggings as well? - jogging pants? As I didn't use the tops, I can't comment on those, but they were black and long sleeved, that's all I remember!
It's been a while since I was on a flight long enough to settle in for a real sleep, but they sound nice and comfy!
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I'm with the others...I can't believe we're near the end of the trip! It sort of felt like it was going to go on for quite a while...and I'm sure you wouldn't have minded if it had!
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I'm with the others...I can't believe we're near the end of the trip! It sort of felt like it was going to go on for quite a while...and I'm sure you wouldn't have minded if it had!
I wouldn't have minded at all. There was a point where we saw a sign to another National Park - I want to say Rocky Mountains - near Denver and I could've quite happily just carried on touring those.... not sure what our respective workplaces would've said about that though.
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Sunday 18 September – part one: the most amazing views of London!
I woke up after three hours’ sleep, which wasn’t bad going and as far as the quality of the sleep went, which is a bit more important to me with my chronic fatigue, it was good quality and I was certainly out for the count for the majority of that time. I had got some sleeping salts just after I lay down, as I was having trouble breathing again and I think they had really helped.
Not long after we woke up, I changed out of my sleep suit and then we were asked about breakfast. I went for cornflakes and some fresh fruit with yoghurt, while Mark had the cooked breakfast, with consisted of scrambled eggs with cream cheese, grilled Irish bacon, banger sausage, hash browns, button mushroom and cherry tomatoes.
We have no photos, as the cabin was still in darkness, as some people had elected to sleep through breakfast and we obviously couldn’t use a flash for the photos. Without that, they just wouldn’t come out.
Soon, the lights did come up and there must’ve been quite a few people who had a shock, as I walked through the cabin a few minutes beforehand and there were a lot who were still out for the count. There were also apparently 15 empty seats in Upper Class this flight, which is unheard of for any flight we’ve been on. Then again, we were the first two people to be booked on this flight in Upper Class when we booked a couple of months ago.
It wasn’t long after that before the captain came on to say that we were starting our descent and were programmed to land about an hour early. We were warned that we could be circling, but we ended up doing that for just 10 minutes, which wasn’t too bad. As we came in for our final approach, we got some amazing views of London from above....
The Thames in shot, with Tower Bridge to the left and HMS Belfast moored up just a little further down river A slightly closer shot of this area – there’s even a red London bus crossing one of the bridges! The Thames still in shot, but Tower Bridge much further up – beneath us is London Docklands In this shot, you can see the Olympics complex, complete with the main stadium to the bottom of the shot... ... and this gives you more of a close-up of that area Building work on the Shard, which when completed, will be the tallest building in all of the European Union and apparently the 45th tallest in the world! London Waterloo station to the south of the shot The London Eye under a bit of cloud cover The Houses of Parliament Buckingham Palace The big green expanse is Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens The Royal Albert Hall In this shot, the round expanse of water in the park is the Round Pond and, to the left of it, the building in the park is Kensington Palace Coming into land over West London
And with that, we were down and heading for the gate. We were very quickly allowed out of our seats after we landed and the disembarkation started from the doors right behind us, so Mark was the second one off the plane, while I was the third.
The walk wasn’t too bad to get to the customs hall, but oh my goodness, what a nightmare sight greeted us when we got there. There were just people lined up everywhere, out of the hall. Fortunately, there was a staff member yelling “UK and EU passport holders”. I screamed back “where?” and a guy pointed in her direction and we managed to push our way through about seven or eight rows of people, waiting in line for the non-EU passport line.
Thankfully, the line was exceptionally short and there was lots of empty space in our queuing area. Imagine a really busy ride at Disney with a five minute walk and we just walked through most of the area set aside for people to queue when it gets really busy. I really I could’ve taken a photo of it, but obviously, it’s at the border, so it’s not a good idea.
It took us literally 10 minutes to walk up and we were through in probably 30 seconds, once our passports were both scanned. While we moved along all the time, I kept an eye on the other bulging line and I didn’t see much movement in it. I cannot begin to imagine how long those people would have to wait and my heart went out to them, after our experience at LAX at the start of this vacation. I would think their wait would be at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half? It was just crazy.
I’m beginning to think that perhaps we all need to look at a different way of doing things. It’s fine for UK and EU passport holders coming into the UK, but maybe there should be a separate line for countries like the States, which we have very close links with and which have had significant security checks already carried out before people arrive. Then, we could do the same in reverse with the US. It would make sense, especially where there’s a lot of travel between two friendly countries.
We walked through to baggage claim and found our carrousel. All of them were surrounded by bags that had been hauled off and put to one side, just as ours had been at LAX. I guess that’s what happens when most of your customers are still outside in the customs hall.
We retrieved our cases and headed into the arrivals hall, almost killing a couple of kids who were wandering in front of us, with their parents nowhere to be seen as we were trying to negotiate luggage carts, loaded with our things.
We’d called from baggage reclaim for the car and headed outside. We had about a 10 minute wait, which was fine, as they did tell us to call as soon as we landed, we just preferred to clear immigration first.
With that, we set off and within the hour we were back home. So began what felt like the endless task of washing and catching up on real life, which we had managed to escape for the last three weeks.
I really enjoyed the fantastic shots of London from the plane! Just a few wispy clouds, but otherwise the mostly great weather from this trip greeted you at home, too. What an amazing trip this was! Thank you so much for letting us tag along. It's going to be weird not having National Park updates every day, but we have the Amsterdam and France/Belgium reports for a little while. What's next?
I got so excited about seeing the Tower Bridge again! I noticed that very tall building and thought "that wasn't there last time I was!" and sure enough you said it was being built!
Amazing pictures of London! Thank you for sharing those. I can just imagine that London doesn't really excite you seeing as you live so close. Is that the case?
I've never heard good things about O'Hare, and you've confirmed it with your experience. Can't believe you're home, even though this has been a long trip, it just seemed to fly on by. And you did get some great shots of London.
With the way you divided up the TR's of this epic holiday, it feels like this was just a short trip! I forget you also had time at Disneyland and the Alaska cruise too.... Glad you got some sleep, and made it home safely. Outstanding shots of London, wow!! I, too, didn't recognize that tall building, the Shard? It just looks kind of... out of place. I'm curious what the locals think of it, do you know?
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there are no photos of us in them! 
They're essentially all black - I only used the bottoms, but they're like comfortable leggings.... I assume you guys call them leggings as well? - jogging pants? As I didn't use the tops, I can't comment on those, but they were black and long sleeved, that's all I remember!
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) from walking the museum. It worked out great though - Rainforest Cafe, Lego Store, and Disney Store all in one place. With benches to rest!
- near Denver and I could've quite happily just carried on touring those.... not sure what our respective workplaces would've said about that though. 
as we were trying to negotiate luggage carts, loaded with our things. 
I noticed that very tall building and thought "that wasn't there last time I was!" and sure enough you said it was being built! 
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