Springing back to Iceland to see it in the green! COMPLETED 6/29 - Page 28 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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More amazing scenery! That is funny with the mountains as it seems you were just driving around them or besides them and not getting closer! Just the way the roads are here.
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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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Mark did an excellent job driving this whole time. Boring or repetitive scenery can make driving tedious. So cool to finally see church from such distance! Wow!
Mark did an excellent job driving this whole time. Boring or repetitive scenery can make driving tedious. So cool to finally see church from such distance! Wow!
He did and you are so right about the boring scenery making driving tough. If it's beautiful scenery, then the drive just seems to go by so much quicker.
Sunday 30 April – part nine: how much building work is there here?
The scenery was still beautiful, albeit in a very different way. It was now more built up, although in places, it was still very desolate.
We were amazed by how many cars and vans were coming towards us. We could only think that perhaps people had visited Reykjavik for the weekend, and were now heading back to wherever they had come from. It was very surreal…
Before we knew it, we were back into the city, and into traffic…
I do find it amazing how Reykjavik is like any other city, yet the rest of the country is just deserted.
As we drove along this road, towards our hotel, we were staggered by how much building work there was going on. There had been a lot a year or so ago, but now it just seemed to have multiplied. I guess this is what happens when your economy is on the up, supported no doubt by tourism.
Soon we were seeing more familiar sights…
… and we were back at the hotel. Honestly, Tinkerbell was once again sprinkling her parking pixie dust all over Mark. There was no on-street parking to be found anywhere nearby, but there were five parking spaces for guests in the car park. I figured they’d all be taken, but there was one left.
We headed inside…
… checked in properly, as we hadn’t earlier, and upon discovering the spa wasn’t included with our room (darn it), we decided to splurge and add it on for our stay. We took our bits, including robes and slippers, up to the room, which was very nice, but not as big as our one last year. I thought I’d booked the same, but obviously not.
It still had a nice view…
We headed back down to reception to go and retrieve our luggage, and then we changed and headed down to the spa. We spent some time in the hot tub, then I headed into the steam room. Sadly it didn’t seem to do much to clear my sinuses, which was frustrating, but heck… I went back into the hot tub for a while, then washed my hair, and headed into the sauna to dry off. Again I could’ve done with the sauna being a bit hotter, and even throwing water over the coals didn’t do much good.
We sat there for a while talking, and were just about ready to head out when another couple appeared. Ok, we’ll take that as our cue then… We’d had the whole place to ourselves, now they can have the same thing.
When we got back to the lobby, there was a family there, and a kid with a towel around him. I didn’t twig at first, but Mark thought that he was expecting to go down to the spa. I don’t think so. Hot tubs, saunas and steam rooms are not suitable for children of that age, and unless they’d got a room that included access to the spa or had paid for the upgrade, as we’d done, their keys wouldn’t work on the lock to the spa Hmmm… me thinks they’re about to get a nasty shock one way or another…
Glad you made it back to civilization safely. The long boring drive thru the desolation would have put me to sleep. Judy would been the one behind the wheel just like Mark. The snow capped mountains against the patches of green and the water made for some very nice pictures. I found it interesting (?) that there were so few vehicles on the road and even though it looked like there were some farms along the road that there was only the one spot with the horses. I know that if you had seen any cows they would have been pointed out. I will have to do some research on Iceland to see just what the elevation is with the mountains. It may have been an optical illusion but they mountains seem to be like hills.
You scored an amazing view from your room! Very nice.
I'm guessing the time in the spa was much appreciated by Mark after all that driving. Probably felt pretty good!
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Tanya
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Glad you made it back to civilization safely. The long boring drive thru the desolation would have put me to sleep. Judy would been the one behind the wheel just like Mark.
And I don't know about you, but I feel I need to stay awake on journeys like that, as I don't want Mark to fall asleep and at least if I can talk to him, that must help...
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The snow capped mountains against the patches of green and the water made for some very nice pictures. I found it interesting (?) that there were so few vehicles on the road and even though it looked like there were some farms along the road that there was only the one spot with the horses. I know that if you had seen any cows they would have been pointed out.
How well you know me!
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I will have to do some research on Iceland to see just what the elevation is with the mountains. It may have been an optical illusion but they mountains seem to be like hills.
I had a quick look and one set of mountains we passed through on the way back to Reykjavik were about 3,000 feet.
You scored an amazing view from your room! Very nice.
I'm guessing the time in the spa was much appreciated by Mark after all that driving. Probably felt pretty good!
Amazing photos of Iceland and a never get tired of the scenery. Out in the middle of nowhere and then Reykjavik appears suddenly in your view! Nice view from your room even with the car park in front of you!
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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!
It is so strange how you've being travel land sparsely populated all day and then drive into a major city. Sounds like the spa was a great way to unwind after that long drive.
Amazing photos of Iceland and a never get tired of the scenery. Out in the middle of nowhere and then Reykjavik appears suddenly in your view! Nice view from your room even with the car park in front of you!
You are so right - I didn't get tired of the scenery during this entire trip, as it was all so beautiful.
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That is funny with the mountains as it seems you were just driving around them or besides them and not getting closer! 
Just the way the roads are here.
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Pixie Dust
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
PassPorter Guide Author
It was very surreal… 
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