Springing back to Iceland to see it in the green! COMPLETED 6/29 - Page 39 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wednesday 3 May – part three: we’ll be visiting these places next month!
By now we were over the sea in between Iceland and Scotland, and the cloud was low above the sea at one point…
Then we spotted the Faroe Islands, which are about halfway between the two countries. They belong to Denmark, which may sound a bit odd, but don’t forget Iceland once belonged to Denmark as well….
Soon we were seeing some small uninhabited islands off the coast of Scotland…
… and then we even spotted the moon!
We were then over the outskirts of the Scottish mainland, and all I could think about was how desolate it was. I kept wondering where the roads and houses were…
There was even snow on top of some of the mountains…
Soon we were seeing a bit of greenery below us…
… then we were flying over what we believe was Glasgow. Look at how it sprawls out everywhere…
In the distance, Mark spotted the various Forth bridges…
Then we were flying back over countryside again…
It never ceases to amaze me that, for such a small country with a relatively large population, we still have massive areas where no-one really lives. I know I’ve said this with America before, but why on earth do people all congregate together in the cities and not create new ones somewhere?
Next we were over what I think was the Lake District, somewhere else we’ll be visiting during our Scotland road trip next month. It was fascinating to see some of those places from the air, knowing that we’ll be visiting them by land in just a few short weeks’ time…
Next: trying to make it out of the airport with a wheelchair, two suitcases and two pieces of carry-on luggage…
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Wednesday 3 May – part four: trying to make it out of the airport with a wheelchair, two suitcases and two pieces of carry-on luggage…
We flew on and we think this was Manchester…
… but this was definitely Manchester Airport. I was so pleased I was able to pick this out for myself!
I was hoping we might see my parents’ house, as that’s about 20 miles away from the airport, but wouldn’t you know it, the cloud came in shortly after we passed the airport.
It didn’t lift again until we were coming into land. It was exceptionally low lying, and it reminded me of the weather we’d left behind in Iceland. Despite only having a few minutes to photograph things, I was still able to capture the River Thames, Eton College and Windsor Castle – not bad!
The teenage boy apparently tried to get some photos, but these were coming so thick and fast, that there was no way he was going to have a chance at the speed we were moving. As Mark said, you need to learn to be quick!
We were soon coming into land…
… and then we were on the ground…
We ended up on one of the furthest out gates, and realised that we wouldn’t be using a walkway that connects directly to the terminal. Instead, we had the joy of steps. Oh brilliant! Now I had said when I applied for special assistance that I could get up and down steps, but I really was not looking forward to the prospect, especially as then we’d have to squeeze on to a bus that was already waiting for us. No way would I be standing on one of those!
We sat and waited for the plane to empty, and as Mark said, you don’t realise how many people are crammed on to one of these, especially as we usually try and be off as quickly as we can.
Eventually, there was a gap in the passengers, and the crew beckoned to us and the other couple (the guy with the walking stick) to come forward. We were taken off to the right of the aircraft where there was a little seating area waiting for us that would then deliver us to ground level and drive us to the terminal. It was very neat!
While we were there, we were able to see our plane’s big brother – one of the new double deckers, it’s quite something!
I got a few other photos on the journey over to the terminal…
We then all stood on the rear platform, which took us to ground level. At this point, there was only one wheelchair, and the guy grabbed it, which was fine. We were escorted inside to the special assistance area, and they said they’d have a buggy along for the four of us in 10 minutes. Ok. There was a seating area, so that was fine, and we sat there and chatted to the other couple.
After a while, we all started to get a bit antsy. Mark went to check what was happening, as it was well over 10 minutes now, and there was still no sign of a buggy. The staff at the reception area were useless, and frankly didn’t seem to have any interest at all in us. Mark got the brush off, and was starting to get more and more annoyed now. In the end, the other couple decided they’d walk it, and I told Mark to take the wheelchair, and we’d make our way too. Not what we wanted to do, but we felt we’d got no option.
At first, it wasn’t too bad, as we only had our two pieces of carry-on luggage, and I took mine between my legs on the wheelchair, so Mark only had to manoeuvre the wheelchair and his carry-on luggage, and at least special assistance had its own special lane for immigration, which meant no waiting in line, which was a bonus.
We then headed down to the baggage reclaim, and that’s where things got a lot more tricky… Mark had been worried that the luggage would’ve been going round and round without us there, but the luggage from our flight was only just coming off now, and our suitcases made their appearance a minute or two after we arrived, so that was something, but good grief, it took a long time to arrive!
Then we had two pieces of carry-on luggage, two suitcases and a wheelchair to manage with. Somehow, and in all honesty, I’m not sure how, we did it. I kept hold of my carry-on luggage, and grabbed one of the suitcases, while Mark was pushing the wheelchair with one hand, and was pulling the suitcase and his carry-on with the other hand. We made it through customs, and then realised we didn’t have far to go to the car park.
I told Mark to leave the wheelchair, and we pretty much dumped it. I don’t like doing that, but if special assistance had done their job, and had someone waiting, we wouldn’t have had to. I said I’d manage with the crutch, as it wasn’t that far to the car park, and I did it fine, pulling one suitcase with my carry-on luggage attached to it. It was certainly much easier for Mark.
We got back to the valet parking, handed our paperwork in, and they handed over the keys. I had to sign something, but Mark had already spotted the car, so opened up the trunk, and started to load it, and then we were on our way.
We headed out of Heathrow…
… and were on the M25 almost immediately, which is the benefit of terminal five in that it’s right by the motorway. Sadly, it wasn’t that much of a good run home, as we ran into traffic at a couple of points, but as Mark said, that was hardly surprising, given it was now rush hour. It had taken an hour to get from the plane to the car park! We’ve managed it in half the time when we’ve come back to Gatwick from the States to put it in perspective. Mind you, it could’ve been much worse, as Google Maps did tell me that one set of traffic would add 21 minutes to our journey, and really it didn’t, it was more like 5-10 minutes, which was bad enough.
Finally, we were home, and unpacked everything, and Mark dutifully went off to get a pint of milk, as we wouldn’t be having a grocery delivery until Friday night. I’d wisely decided it would be too much to try and get a home delivery tonight, and then I’m away for work tomorrow night, hence the decision to hold off for a little while. There was no point in buying stuff we wouldn’t be there to use.
With that, real life commenced. The washing machine was on, it was time to catch up with some of the TV we’d missed while we’d been away, and although it was cold and cloudy, at least it wasn’t that windy any longer, which was something…
The weather today was cloudy with some rain in both places, with temperatures in the low 40s in Iceland, and the low 50s in the UK. The best thing today was the cool shots I was able to get from the air. The worst thing today was the mess over special assistance at Heathrow. The funniest thing today was the poor Americans at the car rental place. Today we tried flying home on British Airways And the result was it was a pretty good experience. The most magical moment today was spotting landmarks of the United Kingdom from the air.
Really cool picture of Windsor Castle from the air! How annoying about the mess with special assistance.
It was a real pain, but honestly, I am so happy that as I write this that special assistance is a dim and distant memory and now I can walk properly again - to me, that's the most important thing!
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Great trip, and certainly one that's made me even more excited for our visit to Iceland. Now just 78 days away!!
Oh my goodness, it's coming up really quickly! I can't wait to see the photos on Facebook and I really hope you'll do a trip report, as I'd love to read all about your experiences there.
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Despite only having a few minutes to photograph things, I was still able to capture the River Thames, Eton College and Windsor Castle – not bad! 
I said I’d manage with the crutch, as it wasn’t that far to the car park, and I did it fine, pulling one suitcase with my carry-on luggage attached to it. It was certainly much easier for Mark. 
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