A tale of two cities… and a few other places… COMPLETED - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Awesome plans! I've been following your adventures on FB too. Please tell Jan our thoughts and prayers are with her today.
I've only just seen this, so sorry I missed that. To be honest, she spent a lot of yesterday trying to deal with how she felt and we didn't even say anything to her about the fact it was the anniversary of Bill's death, as we were doing everything we could to get her through it in the best possible way. Hopefully that makes sense?
Well, we're home. We dropped Jan off at the airport hotel she stayed at last night and I know she actually got on an earlier flight to Ireland for her tour there, which is good.
She adored the spa time, way more than we thought she would, and she loved Glastonbury Tor and Stonehenge - the only two things she requested. I had an amazing time at the Donkey Sanctuary with my adopted boy Gareth - totally magical and Jan got some wonderful shots of the two of us together.
We were both genuinely very sad to say goodbye to her last night, as we'd had a complete blast with her. It will be a while before the trip report is up and running, so please bear with me...
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Sounds like a great trip and glad to hear Jan enjoyed it so much! I think she really needed this after losing Bill two years ago! Glad you and Mark could help her with a good time in Paris and London!
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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!
Glad that everyone had a great time. Looking forward to more donkey pics. Thought about you as my son's little friend had a barnyard birthday party complete with a soft fuzzy donkey. He definitely was one of the favorite animals.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Glad that everyone had a great time. Looking forward to more donkey pics. Thought about you as my son's little friend had a barnyard birthday party complete with a soft fuzzy donkey. He definitely was one of the favorite animals.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Ok, I spent all day yesterday working on the trip report, so let's get it underway...
Saturday 16 September – part one: “it’s a good hop picking morning”
It was a sickeningly early start to the day, not because we had an early train across the Channel (we didn’t), but because today was the day that we could finally book our shore excursions for our January 2018 southern Caribbean cruise. So did we get what we wanted? Well… frankly, that would be telling. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the pre-trip report for that vacation…
After doing that, we had breakfast, and got going, loading up the car. For moments, I had visions of our road trip with Mari and Raleigh around Scotland, as we loaded up the boot. Ok, stop panicking. For starters, there’s only one of Jan, which will mean less luggage. It will all fit fine, I’m sure… No, it will. Let’s be positive.
Once we were all loaded up, we headed off, and it was a beautiful morning. As Mark repeatedly told me, “it’s a good hop picking morning”. No, I had no clue what it meant either. I gather it’s to do with the hop picking season they used to have in Kent, but much more than that I couldn’t tell you. Maybe they had low lying mist like this during those days…
However, the sun was peeking its head through the closer we got to the terminal…
When we got there, we were in for a shock. We drove up, seeing one other car behind us. All good so far. However, when we got to the check-in, no, it was packed, like about seven or eight cars deep at each ticket window/machine. Wow, I’ve never seen it this busy before! I knew immediately the chances of us getting on an earlier train, which we were hoping to do, were extremely slim.
We pulled up to the machine, and unsurprisingly, the machine told us we’d be on the train we booked on – the 9:50am. It was now 8:00am. Ugh! Ok, we took a risk, and it didn’t pay off.
We headed into the car park, and watched some of the frankly terrifying antics in the car park, with people not seeing cars reversing, and people walking out in front of cars, and then I suggested that, instead of waiting for our boarding call, we just head off. I know, very naughty, but it was freaking me out sitting in the car park, and we had no intention of going into the terminal.
On the way out of the car park, we saw a Eurotunnel staff member, so asked her if we could go through. We were letter P (they board by letters), and she said she’d just sent O down, so to wait 20-25 minutes. We pulled up into a space nearby, so we could keep an eye on the board. The whole time, O wasn’t even called, but obviously she’d told people to go. We saw a P letter board, and just as we were contemplating whether to go, she came back to us, and told us we could go.
We headed off, following a completely new system to get out of the terminal. I have no idea why they’ve changed it. I also have no idea why it was so chaotic today. We asked the staff member, and she had no idea. It was all very weird.
We were straight through the British passport control, then we got singled out for some special treatment, shall we say? We both had to get out of the car while it was searched, and my goodness, it was freezing outside! It was only just 50°F, and boy you knew about it. I was very relieved when they finished their search, and we could get back inside in the warmth, and promptly turned on the heated car seat, that’s how cold I was!
The French passport control didn’t even bother to look at our passports. He looked at us, and waved us through. Ok, works for me…
We pulled into the waiting area at around 8:45am, and I immediately had the feeling that we would get on an earlier train. Remember, we were booked on the 9:50am one, and when we arrived, we were told we couldn’t get on an earlier train. I quickly dashed for a restroom break, realising boarding would start 25 minutes before the train was due to leave, and as we were in the first lane, we’d be amongst the first to board.
Sure enough, just after 9:00am, we were boarding, and we were on the train. We were lucky and were downstairs. I just hate going upstairs, as I often end up feeling motion sick.
Next: someone may have been going a little too quick, shall we say?
Glad that you got onto the earlier train after all! It looks like the vehicles have to make a pretty sharp turn through the doors onto the train. Although it may just look that way since the picture is from a distance.
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It will be a while before the trip report is up and running, so please bear with me...
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
So did we get what we wanted? Well… frankly, that would be telling. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the pre-trip report for that vacation… 
No, it will. Let’s be positive. 
I knew immediately the chances of us getting on an earlier train, which we were hoping to do, were extremely slim. 
Ok, we took a risk, and it didn’t pay off. 
We both had to get out of the car while it was searched, and my goodness, it was freezing outside! 
It was only just 50°F, and boy you knew about it. I was very relieved when they finished their search, and we could get back inside in the warmth, and promptly turned on the heated car seat, that’s how cold I was! 
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