Thoughts on the "Saints" in the Southern Caribbean? - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Thoughts on the "Saints" in the Southern Caribbean?
Hi there. We will very soon be cruising through the southern Caribbean and I'd be happy to hear any thoughts/advice you have about the Sts..St Thomas, St Kitts, St Maarten, St Lucia, and we are also going to Barbados.
We are on the Carnival Valor and we've picked a Segway tour of old San Juan before we embark and have narrowed down to a likely catamaran with sea turtles in Barbados and a speed boat/snorkle trip in St Marten but we will have free time at every island and are planning to just "wing it" and explore. We have 10 in our group with ages ranging from 11 to 72.
Please share your favourite spots, tours, beaches and also any that you might suggest we skip and WHY if you can. I have found over the years that I get much better advice from the people who have been somewhere than I do from a guidebook. (exception being the passporter, but there isn't one for everywhere else in the world!)
Thanks for your thoughts; wish I could send you a penny, but thanks will have to do!
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.
I just wanted to say that we did the Segway tour of old San Juan as part of our Disney cruise and if it's the same one we did, we absolutely loved it. I can't help on any of your stops though, as we haven't been to any of them.
Make sure you visit Maho Beach in St Martin to see the planes landing right over your head. FYI - Orient Beach in St Martin is a nude beach. I'm cruising this September and was hoping to go in that area (southern Car., not the nude beach LOL!), but no go. Hopefully next time!
I don't know how much time you have in St. Kitts, but the island of Nevis is a short ferry ride away and I can't say enough good things about Nevis. I won a trip there from work 10 years ago and I've been dying to get back there. It's so peaceful and beautiful.
Thank you for the tips!; I forgot I posted the question and I was so happy to find it and to find such good answers!
I am going to check our excursion details and see if we go to Maho beach in St Martin - I know we stop at a couple. I'll tell the gang about Nevis too - that might be doable.
Getting close now, I can't wait! I will try to do a TR about it in the globetrotting forum when we get back and share what I have learned
I'm looking at booking a cruise in either Eastern or Southern Caribbean so I would look forward to reading your TR !
I notice you are also from Ontario can you tell me about flying into San Juan. Airline, direct or not etc .
Yes, part of our group is coming from Ottawa, actually...we are flying out of Montreal after watching flights from Syracuse, Ottawa, Toronto too. Had a bit of sticker shock when I saw how expensive it was to fly there versus to Florida so we watched for months and were able to grab the flights when they came up. We are on American Airlines with one stop at JFK in New York both there and back.
Usually to Florida, we have found the best prices are from Syracuse on JetBlue but not this time. We have booked a night at the Embassey Suites with a complementary park and fly which costs about the same as airport parking would but has the bonus of free breakfast and extends our holidays by one more night
We've flown JetBlue to WDW a few times as well. I often see cruises where I like the ports but they often start from San Juan. A quick look and I didn't find much from Ottawa or Toronto at the times I was looking at.
Enjoy your cruise
We loved spending the day at Magen's Bay when we were in St. Thomas. It was a great relaxing place. Free, too!!
On the way to the beach, there is a great little shack that sells alcoholic shakes! They can make them without the booze, too. It's called Udder Delight. We stopped on our way back to our resort, and the kids slept like angels all night! (we didn't realize there was booze in the shakes until after we'd gotten them)
We loved spending the day at Magen's Bay when we were in St. Thomas. It was a great relaxing place. Free, too!!
On the way to the beach, there is a great little shack that sells alcoholic shakes! They can make them without the booze, too. It's called Udder Delight. We stopped on our way back to our resort, and the kids slept like angels all night! (we didn't realize there was booze in the shakes until after we'd gotten them)
I love that! Ya sure, you "didn't know"! I am a mom too....I get it
Thanks for the tip - most of us are old enough to endulge, so that sounds like a fun little pit stop!
About This Page: 
Guess where we were headed??
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
I can't help on any of your stops though, as we haven't been to any of them.
I'm cruising this September and was hoping to go in that area (southern Car., not the nude beach LOL!), but no go. Hopefully next time!
So cool!
I love that! Ya sure, you "didn't know"! I am a mom too....I get it 
Linear Mode
