Don't Stop - the Florida road trip section UPDATED 3/16 - Page 42 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Cheryl,
Loving your report! Before your report leaves Key West I just wanted to ask...is the bar on the roof of your hotel open to the public or reserved for guests of the hotel? We love Key West but can only handle a couple days and nights at a time. We get very little sleep while we're there. But lots to see and do and it looks like you are hitting all the highlights and more.
I honestly don't know. I'm tempted to say hotel guests only, but having said that, there wasn't anyone actually checking and asking for room keys when we went up there, so maybe not?
ah...... thanks for the picture of the southernmost point guest house. that's where we stayed!! we got married at the hyatt and me and Ken and our friends and family took over the southernmost point guest house. It was lovely!! You're bringing back good memories!
Ya gotta get your picture taken by the buoy and conchs.
Saturday 19 December – part three: these cats have a better life than we do!
Instead, we headed for the Hemingway House and got a combo ticket for that and the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, which I wanted to visit as well.
We lucked out, as a tour was just leaving and our guide was informative, filling us in on the life and death of Ernest Hemingway. Boy, he was quite a guy, especially with the ladies. He got through a few wives, shall we say and we were both surprised to discover that he killed himself.
The entrance hallway The living room The dining room The kitchen The main bedroom The view from upstairs
We saw the main house, then the study, where Hemingway would spend the morning, either writing 700 words or working until lunchtime, whichever came first. He wrote an amazing volume of novels and short stories here and it’s obvious that Key West agreed with him. As for the rest of his day, he would pretty much spend it in a bar. Although Sloppy Joe’s was his favourite, he was happy with any bar, so we later heard on the Old Town Trolley Tour.
Then it was outside to see the beautiful gardens and swimming pool here. Ernest Hemingway got a real bargain here. This house was designed by someone else (sorry, but I don’t remember who) to be hurricane proof and it was, but the guy basically went bankrupt and then lost the house. Hemingway got it for just $8,000 and back taxes and that was it. That was quite the deal.
We also saw lots of the 44 cats here that have six toes and all but one are descendants from Snowball, Hemingway’s original cat. The one who isn’t was pretty smart, as he rolled up here as a kitten and apparently took residence in the master bedroom, which is where we saw him. Our guide said that he’s rarely left the room since. From what we could tell, those cats are very well looked after, with weekly visits by the vet. As our guide said, they have a better health care plan than he does! There’s even a cat cemetery here, so when they die, they still stay at the house.
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But the walrus mailbox is the cutest! 
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Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
PassPorter Guide Author
this mailbox!!!
I'm tempted to say hotel guests only, but having said that, there wasn't anyone actually checking and asking for room keys when we went up there, so maybe not?
ah...... thanks for the picture of the southernmost point guest house. that's where we stayed!! we got married at the hyatt and me and Ken and our friends and family took over the southernmost point guest house. It was lovely!! You're bringing back good memories!
It sounds perfect. 
That's why I loved it so much...being a Manatee of course 
Deb
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