Don't Stop - the Florida road trip section UPDATED 3/16 - Page 32 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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'd forgotten how much rain Miami can get but it's usually in the summer. Those pictures of the hotels are beautiful. I remember driving around there years ago looking at all the hotels.
Liz
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Friday 18 December – part one: those are some seriously nice properties!
The day started early for me, as I was awake at 6.00. So far, no sign of the rain, but that would soon change... On top of all the rain yesterday, they were saying that there was more of the same to come today, including a tornado watch, which is always a cheery prospect. Mark asked what we should do in case of a tornado and I just suggested that we follow whatever everyone else does. It’s not something we ever experience at home, thank goodness.
I got going with a shower and I seriously want one of these at home. That’s not likely, not unless we move house anyway, as our corner bathroom is tiny. This shower would probably take up the whole of our bathroom.
We had breakfast and got all packed up, as today we would be driving to the Keys. We set of not much before 8.00, with me having to make a second trip back to the room to pick up our various bits of food and drink, as we couldn’t carry it all. Fortunately we had weighed the cases and they were all still coming in below weight, which was good. Heck, we were still going to get enough charges for our luggage on our flight up from Key West to Tampa on Sunday. I didn’t want any more charges for overweight cases. :
As we set off, it was raining, but not too badly, although hard enough that trying to get photos was hard going. It was when we got on to the freeway that it turned into a nightmare. Mark really couldn’t see where he was going and I was so glad that he was the one driving and not me.
Finally we made it off the freeway and I think we both breathed a sigh of relief, especially as the roads that we went on to were a lot quieter. Mark had said that he wanted to see if we could get a photo of the entrance to Coral Gables, so we headed for the Miracle Mile, which is packed with shops, mostly to do with weddings. It’s a weird sight and I can’t think of anywhere else in the world that has a shopping street like this, devoted to wedding. I got some photos as we drove along it and then managed to get the sign as we entered Coral Gables.
From this side, George Merrick looks a lot more presentable..
From that point on, we turned on to a much quieter road and then kept stopping, so that I could snap away and get photos of the beautiful houses along the road.
I thought these street markers were really cool
There were some stunning properties here, although I did notice that the cars on the driveways weren’t exceptional ones at all. It struck me that these were perhaps not wealthy people who lived here and that would fit with what we had learned yesterday on the tour, as those who live here pay the most taxes anywhere in the state of Florida. Looking at this area, you can easily believe that.
I took us on a driving tour of Coral Gables, courtesy of my guidebook and we quickly found the Granada entrance, modelled on the one in Spain...
Next we saw the Country Club Prado entrance.
I have to admit to drawing a blank on the Alhamabra Water Tower, which should have been easy enough to find, but it wasn’t.
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Holy rain, batman! I enjoyed looking back at your photos to see the "before" and "after" the rain. Incredible. I do recall hearing about that on the news. Very interesting about Ms. Tuttle and how she was so important to Miami. I had no idea. And the area of Coral Gables is beautiful, great photos. I also found it interesting on your nighttime shots how that one place changed colors.... reminds me of a certain castle??!!!
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Bummer about the rain again. I was just thinking how strange it would be for someone to stumble upon a trip report online and suddenly see a picture of their house. Looking forward to more!
Bummer about the rain again. I was just thinking how strange it would be for someone to stumble upon a trip report online and suddenly see a picture of their house. Looking forward to more!
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Mark asked what we should do in case of a tornado and I just suggested that we follow whatever everyone else does. It’s not something we ever experience at home, thank goodness. 
This shower would probably take up the whole of our bathroom. 
: 
I got some photos as we drove along it and then managed to get the sign as we entered Coral Gables. 
You got some great photos, though!
I can't believe how much rain there was while you all were in Miami!
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