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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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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Nice tour of the resort with some nice photos! It is nice but seems like they are just trying to make the big sell for ownership in this!
Well Sandals' doesn't have time shares, so no way to buy into it...but this was a tour for travel agents and the purpose was to see the resorts so we can sell them better...so yes they were putting on their best for us to see.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Ugh, I'd have been one of those who dropped out of the tour in that heat! How cool to meet Elmo and Big Bird!
It really was hot that day and we all had beet red faces. Many of us are just not used to go go go in heat like this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Just got all caught up with your last few posts. Some of the rooms looked very nice and you were certainly treated to enough snacks along the way on this tour! I remember seeing Paige's wedding pictures on Facebook when she got married. Weddings have become so expensive that she probably made a smart decision to not do the big wedding with guests. I can't take that excessive heat so I probably would have been seeking air conditioning by this part of the tour!
They really try to show us a lot and experience as much as we can in just a few short days.
Yes, It was really nice in the end for Paige to just go off and get married. It saved so much money and she had a wonderful time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Beaches looks nice, but not as nice as Sandals. But maybe that's just the areas we've seen so far. I guess I'm thinking that even though it's the family resort, it doesn't have to be all playgrounds and arcades. But I'm sure there's more to come.
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I did like Sandals better too...and it was a lot of arcades, water parks and stuff for kids...but the kids seemed to be having a great time. The best Beaches is Turks and Caicos. That is loved by every person who goes there. My cousin wants to go there possibly next year and I want her to pack me in her suitcase.
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Some rooms had a second room attached for the kids to stay in. I started getting lax with my pictures since I was so hot, so I am not sure if I ever took a picture of one of those rooms.
Once everyone arrived the chefs got started. I think we had a set menu…I can’t remember if were even allowed to choose between steak or chicken or given both.
For dessert they brought out these, which were good but we had to share them with the person next to us. Marianne and I shared. We tried cutting each in half so we could taste each one.
When we were done we went and used the bathroom and were just so tired and ready to head back to Sandals. We talked to one person and asked if we could go to the lobby to wait for the buses and she said sure. As we started to walk that way we were stopped and told we had to wait as Beaches had a special treat for us yet. UGH. LOL. We were enjoying our time but we had been going all day in the heat and were now just ready to chill.
They led us to the area with the stage that has the Sesame Street show.
Little by little everyone trickled in and we waited and waited. The passed out popsicles, but I am not really a fan of those.
We kept waiting and it was starting to become a joke. They told us they were going to give us a snippet of the show but evidently the characters weren’t ready.
Finally it started.. I know my pictures are out of order, so I’ll just post them as is. The show started and a song was sang and a little bit of the show went on and then they went back stage…..OK…then we were told there was some technical difficulties or something…and they started the show again. It was bizarre. Total Déjà vu.
After that, we headed out and got a gift from Beaches as well. It was this cooler that holds 6 cans and it is long and slim. It was really funny looking and we made jokes about it. When I got home and showed it to Skip he thought it was funny looking too. We used it once and it would only hold 5 beer cans and it was hard to get them out.
Beaches is a great resort for families. There is so much to do plus a beautiful beach. It does have Sesame Street for the little ones, but it’s not in your face. You can choose to do those activities or not. Otherwise you would rarely even see the anything to do with Sesame Street throughout the resort.
We made the short drive back to Sandals where we would have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. Swimming was number one for all of us.
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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Oh my goodness, that was classic about the show! When you said it was lunchtime, I was like "right, time to get some serious air conditioning", then I saw where you were eating and I thought "maybe not"...
Oh my goodness, that was classic about the show! When you said it was lunchtime, I was like "right, time to get some serious air conditioning", then I saw where you were eating and I thought "maybe not"...
It was cooler in there...much better than outside...but it was still pretty warm.
The employees were really having fun…and drinking, which I wondered if that was normal, but one of the gal’s told me since today was the emancipation day they were allowed to.
The alcohol was flowing but I only had a few fruity cocktails. They went around pouring stuff into people’s mouths…but that’s not my thing. I don’t care if others want to do it, but for me…it would make me puke.
After a while I noticed Lenora had left and another gal had too so I assumed they went to the beach. Ellen, Marianne and I decided to go look at the tables set up along the beach and we bought some things….I think I bought a necklace for Claire.
Ellen says they go blind from landing like this and when they become too much of a nuisance with their flock, the flock will lead them to land but make it so it’s a death landing….as in crashing into something. I have no clue if that is true, but she told me to google it. LOL.
It was time to get out and get showered again for dinner. Tonight we had to catch a shuttle and head over to Beaches where we would have dinner at the Italian place. We really were not feeling up to going there. We debated on skipping it and just chilling. The heat was really bad and the best place to escape that was in the water…but we decided we better do what was right and went and got ready.
One thing about Sandals and Beaches…most places are open air….just a few areas are actually totally enclosed. A/C is not like what we have in the States either. It’s those wall unit things…they do a good job, but definitely not as cool as central air. I advise lots of sundresses.
We arrived and got seated and tonight our group was of several people we had met and been chatting with. Kimberly, a gal we had met last night, was seated next to me and we chatted quite a bit. She was hilarious. She just comes right out and says stuff and it totally made me laugh.
The food was excellent and the conversation was good too. We talked business a bit…got to know each other and asked how long each had been in the business. I was shocked how many years some had been in…20 plus and some were still very new. It was very interesting to hear how everyone does their thing.
We headed back to Sandals and we decided to meet up…but whatever it was we wanted to go to was now ending. We ended up just having a few drinks and then calling it a night. It was late and we were tired and we had a really busy day with another one scheduled for tomorrow. It was another great day and I really fell in love with Sandals Negril. The beach was great and so was the pool. There is a lot going at the pool, plus other included excursions if you choose to do those during your stay. The resort got an A+ from me. I did talk to some of the other girls who had more dated rooms, so not all have been redone yet. If you don’t plan a lot of time in your room than that might not be a big deal, but I was happy to have a newly refurbished one…and though I didn’t have a view, my location next to the pool and just steps away from the lobby was fantastic.
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Your dinner looks very good and nice photos from the resort!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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Your dinner looks very good and nice photos from the resort!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Beautiful shots around the resort and it sounds like dinner was excellent but pouring into people's mouths? No thank you!
Yeah...not my style either. I have been on booze cruise years ago where you go out to snorkel or some other activity and at the end they do that stuff too and I always hated it. It surprised me the amount of people that would line up to get it poured in their mouths.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Your friend had such a beautiful view from her room! Glad you enjoyed your stay at Sandals so much. Your dinner sounded productive and fun.
She had an awesome room...I was a teeny bit jealous. hahahaha
Today we were moving to Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay. Yes they keep us hopping here, but this way we would be closer to other Sandals resorts and get to experience another place as well.
We had to be packed up and our bags were whisked away to make the transfer as well..
I took a few food shots…Some things were so strange to me and others were normal. Compared to Disney…the food was comparable. I found most everything I tried really good and I never went hungry.
They had mango on the buffet all the time and I was in heaven. We love Mango but it is so costly that I don’t get it often to eat at home. When I do, Claire eats the whole thing in one sitting.
I think this was Lenora’s plate…..it can’t be mine…it’s way to healthy. negril191 by Jenseib, on Flickr
After we were done we went outside and were taking pictures and just enjoying the beautiful views….and saw this guy.
Lenora asked me to take a picture of her and to be sure to get the white bird on the railing in the shot too. I totally laughed. It wasn’t…”get that beautiful ocean in the background in my picture”…but get that white bird. Hahahaha. I kept teasing her about it.
It was time to head to the lobby area and get ready to leave. We all bundled in and then we needed to find our bags that were waiting out there and take them to one of the buses to be loaded.
There was a lot of construction along the way and we were told that people often run out of money and then live in these half built houses. Most are made out of concrete…..I supposed to withstand the weather. We also commented on all the brightly painted homes in Jamaica. In the US…you would see something like that and think UGLY…In Jamaica…oh look at that cute one over there. LOL. Different culture and it makes it acceptable. LOL.
OOOOH! I forgot to mention….there was a hurricane out in the ocean and it was predicted to hit parts of Jamaica…but luckily it died down and we just got mega rain instead.
It was threatening rain and because of this our schedule had been changed a bit. Instead of heading right off to tour rooms, we were going to have some class. Actually in the original schedule we were emailed the class was supposed to have been yesterday and I was glad it had been changed.
I found some seats towards the front and sat down. The class was interesting, but a lot of it was similar to the yearly class we have to take that is offered in local cities. (I typically attend in May or June when one is offered for my area).
After a bit I got antsy and needed to stretch so I headed off to the bathroom. When I came back I waited in the back a few minutes…just to stand and to not interrupt the current speaker.
After lunch we had a little bit of time before our tours were going to start. We took a look across the water and the new over the water bungalows they are building. These are super popular and though at the time not finished they are booked out very far in advance and super pricey.
After lunch we gathered around again and signed up for our dinner locations for the next 2 nights and got some paperwork and then we were heading off in groups to tour this resort.
Going on the room tours is mandatory…it is the reason we are here and we had to sign papers that we would do everything offered for the most part. Because it was raining today they did allow people to bow out. A few actually did, which I was shocked. We were here for this very reason and though down time is nice, this was not a vacation. That being said, I got the feeling some people were there for just that reason. Some brought their spouses and said they were in business together but I found out accidently from talking to one husband that he has nothing to do with the business at all and he was just along for the ride. Another lady had her daughter with her…a girl probably about 12-14 years old. I am not sure how she got to bring her as there was no way she was in this business.
Our first stop was to take the boat over to their little private island.
Oh wow, I'd have been in heaven with all that mango too - I love it! And how cool to have the peacock visit you at breakfast. I love peacocks. We have a resident family of them at the hotel where we have our health club memberships and I never get tired of seeing them.
And cows and donkeys? Cool! Sorry about the weather, but it does sound like it could've been a lot worse...
Nice photos of the next Sandals resort. How cool to have a visit by a peacock at breakfast!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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.
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It is nice but seems like they are just trying to make the big sell for ownership in this! 
How cool to meet Elmo and Big Bird! 
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When you said it was lunchtime, I was like "right, time to get some serious air conditioning", then I saw where you were eating and I thought "maybe not"... 
And how cool to have the peacock visit you at breakfast. I love peacocks. We have a resident family of them at the hotel where we have our health club memberships and I never get tired of seeing them. 
Sorry about the weather, but it does sound like it could've been a lot worse... 
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