Springing back to Iceland to see it in the green! COMPLETED 6/29 - Page 38 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Too funny with your wheelchair assistant as it sounds like he feared Mark! Crazy lines at the security lines! Another funny thing with those other cars and the map. The best being the car doing the roundabout. Sounds like the moment in the film "European Vacation" with Chevy Chase, when he is trying to navigate one of the roundabouts in London to no success for several hours!
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!
The weather in Iceland just didn't want to clear up for you all, even when you were leaving. Thank goodness for the First Class line as the other looked horrendous.
Too funny with your wheelchair assistant as it sounds like he feared Mark! Crazy lines at the security lines! Another funny thing with those other cars and the map. The best being the car doing the roundabout. Sounds like the moment in the film "European Vacation" with Chevy Chase, when he is trying to navigate one of the roundabouts in London to no success for several hours!
I remember the film and it might have been the same series where they got stuck on the Champs Elysees for ages... now that I can understand. That is one scary roundabout! This was honestly a really tiny one with clear signs of how to get to Reykjavik.
We headed over to passport control, where there was no wait at all, and then down to our gate, passing through duty free on the way. When we got to the gate, I said to Mark that I’d use the restrooms to be on the safe side, and he told me they were some distance away. Ugh, he wasn’t joking! They were back by the duty free shop, and when I walked in, most bits were roped off to the point where I thought they were closed. Thankfully they weren’t. Let’s just say the Dyson Airblade tap/dryer wasn’t the greatest plan ever…. There were still soap suds in the sink when I went to use the dryer, and let’s just say the soap suds ended up all over the mirror…
We settled down to wait to be called for boarding…
Eventually, after some time, our guy turned up again, so we knew it wouldn’t be far off. We were the first to be taken inside the waiting area, and then it all kicked off. Some guy decided he didn’t want his boarding pass scanned, and walked into the area from the other side. What is it with people?
We were given the nod, and we were taken up in an elevator, following an elderly couple. He was walking with a stick, but we ended up going first. We were right outside the plane, waiting to board, and it was fascinating to see the cleaning teams at work – and my goodness, how they work and quickly!
We were soon called on to board, and took our seats. We ended up with a teenager sitting next to us. He was part of a school group that were on board – 29 in total, although nearly all of them were seated at the back of the plane, and nowhere near us. Apparently, they’d spent five days in Iceland – very nice.
Everyone was on board nice and quickly, but then there was an issue with the paperwork for the crew we understood and we ended up sitting there about another 15-20 minutes until that was sorted out. Finally it was, and we were pushing back. There are no photos from the ground, as the rain was coming down again, and it was impossible to shoot through the windows with rain running down it.
Once we took off, it was literally a minute or so before we were seeing a lot of this…
That didn’t surprise me, given it was a miserable day on the ground, but it was a shame, as I was hoping to get some better views of Iceland on the way home. Obviously not…
However, the cloud did break to give us this view… where it was, I do not know, as I don’t think we flew over Reykjavik, but that’s the only place in Iceland I can think of that would look this big and sprawling from the air?
Soon I started to notice that there were slightly different shades of white, and realised that it wasn’t all cloud out there. Some of it was mountains as well – hmmm… could that be Brian, or should I say Eyjafjallajökull? I’m going to say we saw him…. somewhere….!
It was about this point where Mark nudged me and we both moved out of the way to let the teenage boy next to Mark take some shots. Mark told me later that he thinks the kid saw me photographing, and thought it was a good idea, so off he went – good for him!
After a while, they came round and asked what we wanted to purchase in terms of food and drink. I decided to go for this, as I thought it was reasonably priced… and it tasted pretty good too!
Now for the food. I ordered this…
… and Mark ordered this:
Apparently the “chef” who cooked them (trust me, this appeared to be his only job, as we didn’t see him during the flight) had a code for what was required. You had to show a cheesy smile for the buffalo mozzarella and tomato focaccia, while you had to touch your nose for bacon. I didn’t get that one, but it was explained to me that it was an indication of a piggy nose! Oh my goodness, classic!
Your photos from the plane are beautiful wherever they are!! Your meal looks very tasty!! ( I had to laugh to myself when I typed that because it came out as tarty!)
Your photos from the plane are beautiful wherever they are!! Your meal looks very tasty!! ( I had to laugh to myself when I typed that because it came out as tarty!)
So I am making a note to allow for plenty of time at the airport when we leave Reykjavik for Barcelona. We aren't sure if we'll have our own wheelchair for Mike, or if we'll get an airport one, but either way, don't think we'll try it on our own!
So I am making a note to allow for plenty of time at the airport when we leave Reykjavik for Barcelona. We aren't sure if we'll have our own wheelchair for Mike, or if we'll get an airport one, but either way, don't think we'll try it on our own!
No definitely don't. We had a much easier time of it on our first visit, but I think that was because we were flying during the evening, when I believe there are fewer flights. As this was the morning, it was a lot busier.
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