Don't Stop - the Florida road trip section UPDATED 3/16 - Page 24 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I visited Miami during my college years to assist with some dolphin research in Biscayne Bay and I have to say it is a very beautiful city...you captured it perfectly
You love the guy in this shot?? Yeah. I can see that.
Another fantastic update. I tell you what. Mark has a knack for getting great sky shots with that point and shoot of his(I'm talking about your CAMERA Mark! )
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.
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.
Those are great shots of the art-deco hotels. Very nice! I love that you guys eat out from the grocery stores. My DH and I do that too!! It saves money and the food is usually pretty good.
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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.
Thursday 17 December – part one: beginning to fear the worst about our tour...
We were awake just before 7.00 and the first thing I thought of was heading to the pool to see how busy it was. Mark reckoned that it would be mad down there, but I figured we’d be OK and I was right. We had the whole place to ourselves and swam a few lengths before going in what I’d describe as a warm bath. It was like a Jacuzzi, but we couldn’t see any buttons to operate it, even though there appeared to be jets in there, so we settled on it being a warm bath instead.
It was already about 70 degrees outside and very pleasant. Certainly you could easily get out of the pool and not feel too cold. I guessed that later on, it would probably be hot and humid again.
After a while, we headed back to the room for breakfast, which consisted of the cinnamon rolls that we had bought at Publix last night, the orange juice and, of course, some tea. With the glasses and mugs that came with the room, it was all very civilised. This is the life.
After breakfast, it was out on to the balcony to get some photos:
We were due to be picked up for our city and Everglades tour at 9.30, so we headed downstairs at about 9.25. We stood there like lemons for the next half hour and eventually got the hotel front desk to find the number and call them, as I was getting worried that perhaps they weren’t planning on picking us up. It was an answerphone and she left a message and off we went to wait again at the front of the hotel.
Somewhere over the rainbow...
I was just about to give up all hope and thinking that we should just go out on our own, when two guys showed up on Segways and told us that they were from the tour company. Apparently the bus driver didn’t know where our hotel was, which didn’t bode well, but they did say that they had sorted him out with directions.
While we were waiting, Mark asked one of the guys what he thought of his Segway and the guy let Mark try it out, which was a nice bonus for him, especially as we had been planning to do the Segway tour at Fort Wilderness, but I felt that it would be too much standing for me.
Someone looks a little worried in this shot...
The bus arrived a couple of minutes later and I think we both did a bit of a double take, as it was perhaps one of the oldest buses that we had ever taken for a tour. We paid our remaining $100 and got on, hoping that things would get better from here on in.
We had another couple of pick-ups to make on the way along Ocean Drive, which gave me the chance to get some more photos of the architecture along here.
Then it was over the bridge back to the mainland. Our driver, who pointed out that he wasn’t a guide, showed us Star Island, where all the stars live, like Gloria Estefan and I managed to get a photo of the white house where Julio Iglesis used to live. He told us that Madonna had lived here, but had sold up and that Al Capone had come here and literally died not long after he got here.
As we went along the bridge, we could see the port of Miami and the skyline of Miami behind it, with some darkened and threatening clouds behind. We knew those would open up sooner or later. Soon enough, it did, as we got to downtown and Bayside, where we picked up a few more passengers for our tour.
It was pretty hard to get any photos of downtown after that, as the windows were coated in rain, but I did my bet. As our driver rightly predicted, if you wait 10 minutes, then the sun will be out and, sure enough, it was. I was amazed to see how quickly all the rain on the windows of the bus dried off. Soon you’d never have known that it had been raining.
Miami’s light transit system
We headed out through the suburb and saw the monorail system that they have here and the new basketball stadium that they’re building here.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
We had the whole place to ourselves and swam a few lengths before going in what I’d describe as a warm bath. It was like a Jacuzzi, but we couldn’t see any buttons to operate it, even though there appeared to be jets in there, so we settled on it being a warm bath instead. 
. But someone didnt speak to me afterwards, saying it's unfair that i got the shot 
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