An Easter return to the Isle of Man COMPLETED 5/10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
An Easter return to the Isle of Man COMPLETED 5/10
An Easter return to the Isle of Man
Dates: Friday 3 – Sunday 5 April Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (42), DH Mark (49), DFIL Dave (72) and DMIL Barbara (69) Destinations: the Isle of Man, just off the north west coast of England Resorts: Adelphi Hotel, Douglas Meets: None, outside of having Mark’s parents with us. Celebration: the trip is a 50th anniversary present for them and also for Barbara’s upcoming 70th birthday
This trip starts almost a year ago, in June 2014 to be precise, when we made our first visit to the Isle of Man. Full details can be found in the trip report I wrote about it: Island dreams – a weekend away in the Isle of Man. I won’t repeat the details in that, which include some of the history of the Isle of Man, its geography, how it’s governed etc.
So why are we going back, and so soon? Well, for a few reasons. Firstly, we absolutely adored our visit over there, and really wanted to go back, and see more of the island. Secondly, not long after we got back, Mark’s mum said to us “oh I’ve always wanted to go there”, and was really excited to see our photos. After we’d seen them, we did say to each other that maybe we’d try and book a visit there with them in the future.
Fast forward a couple of months, and EasyJet, the low cost airline, had released its flights for the spring and early summer. Now Barbara had also been interested in going to Northern Ireland, after our visit there back in August 2013. I priced out flights to Douglas in the Isle of Man, and Belfast in Northern Ireland for the Easter weekend. Douglas won out by miles – like it was about £250 for the four of us, while Belfast was more like £400.
Now the only problem was that Dave and Barb were staying in their villa in the south of Spain when these prices were released, which meant we couldn’t just call them and discuss it with them. So I had to text her to see if she was interested. I will be honest here, I was fully expecting a text back to say “thanks, but no thanks”, so I was very surprised when a few hours later, I got a text telling us to go ahead and book it. Ok, not what I expected, but that works for me!
I went for a flight out on the morning of Good Friday, coming back on Easter Sunday night. Over here, Easter is a four day weekend, meaning that we wouldn’t need to take any time off work, which is a plus point. We’d also have the Monday back at home, giving us a bit of the weekend to enjoy. After we went away around the Norfolk Broads last year for Easter, and were away for literally all four days of the weekend, we’d decided not to do that again, as while it’s nice to get away, without some time at home, it doesn’t feel like much of a long weekend break…
After booking the flights, the next thing I needed to book was our accommodation, and I needed something that would be good enough quality for all of us, provided breakfast, but was reasonably priced, given that we’d be paying for two rooms for two nights. What I found that met that criteria was the Adelphi Hotel, so I went ahead and booked it.
The only thing that did worry me is that you can see steps up to the hotel, and Barb does struggle with steps. I emailed the hotel, and I was very impressed when they phoned me the next day to go through it with me. There are ground floor rooms, which hopefully they can have, but there are steps up to the ground floor. I passed the message on to Barb, and she really surprised me by saying that she would be fine with it, so I held the booking.
There were then a couple of other things I needed to book for this trip. The first was a hotel at the airport the night before we were due to fly. I knew that Dave and Barb didn’t usually do this, so this would be a real treat, in particular for her. Now here I need to explain that Dave is ahem, how shall we say this nicely careful with money. That means if he doesn’t have to spend it, he doesn’t, which is fair enough, but it does sometimes mean that Barb doesn’t get to enjoy the nicer things in life, and we think that’s a real shame, as they do have money to enjoy. I went for the Hampton Inn at the north terminal, as we’ve enjoyed our stay there before, and again it was reasonably priced, as I needed to get two rooms.
Alongside that, I also booked valet parking, as that is the only way to go for us whenever we go to the airport. This will be quite the change for Mark’s parents, as usually someone takes them up to the airport, and then picks them up when they get back. See what I mean about not spending the money if they don’t have to? So that’s all booked.
I also finally managed to get the car rental sorted out for the weekend. I say “finally managed”, as it took forever to get something that sort of worked for us. Firstly, I got stupidly high quotes, and a lot of them didn’t include insurances, so I knew we’d get stung for paying for that when we arrived – not the start to the holiday you need. Eventually, after a lot (and I mean a lot ) of shopping around, I went with Avis’ agent on the island. If I went through Avis, the car I was getting would cost me £180 for three days, but if I went through their agent, so still renting with Avis, it cost £110. I know which price I’ll take!
So what about once we actually get there? Well, given that Mark’s mum can’t walk very far, I decided to focus this trip around the trains that run on the Isle of Man, as I’d been keen to do some of those last time, and it hadn’t worked out. The plan is to take the Manx Steam Railway from Castletown, near the airport, to Port Erin on the Good Friday, the day we get there. Then we’ll head for the Sound Visitor Centre right at the south of the island, which we thought was stunningly beautiful on our last visit, and where we lucked out and saw some seals – hopefully we’ll luck out again this time.
Then on Friday night, Mark and I are going out for dinner with my former school librarian, Carole, who we met up with for the first time in over 20 years last time. Originally, she wasn’t going to be on the island, as she was due to fly home and see her mother, but the air fares turned out to be crazy, and given she’s retiring this summer, she opted not to go, which means we get to see her again. I can’t wait! We’re going out with her to French restaurant L’Experience, and I have to say the menu looks amazing. Carole wrote a very complimentary review on TripAdvisor about it a few weeks ago, and that pretty much sold me. By the way, Mark’s parents have opted not to come with us, so we’re not intentionally leaving them out.
Then on the Easter Saturday, the plan is to take the Manx Electric Railway from Douglas, where we’re staying, up to Ramsey. We went to visit Ramsey last time, and we weren’t overly taken with the town, but from what I’ve read, the train journey is supposed to take you through some beautiful countryside, and that works for me! If we have time today, I’d like to visit the Manx Museum in Douglas, as we never saw that last time.
On Easter Sunday, the plan is to drive to Laxey, and then take the Snaefell Mountain Railway, which runs up to the peak of the highest mountain on the Isle of Man. There are supposed to be some magnificent views from there, provided the weather cooperates, so keep your fingers crossed for us on that. We’ve then got a late lunch booked, before we head back home.
So there you have our plans for our long weekend away as we return to the Isle of Man…
Have a great time, Cheryl! I'm glad you're going back to this location. It's got just the kind of scenery I enjoy-- coastal and a bit wild, not overly-developed. The airfares really are low for the four of you. What a nice treat for Mark's parents.
This sounds like a wonderful trip! I really hope the weather works in your favor, especially for the train rides. That will be some beautiful countryside!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
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.
Have a great time, Cheryl! I'm glad you're going back to this location. It's got just the kind of scenery I enjoy-- coastal and a bit wild, not overly-developed. The airfares really are low for the four of you. What a nice treat for Mark's parents.
I saw Mark's cousin today and apparently Barb had been telling her parents how much she's looking forward to it! And you're right, it is beautiful scenery. I'll be sure to get a few shots for you.
This sounds like a wonderful trip! I really hope the weather works in your favor, especially for the train rides. That will be some beautiful countryside!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
and also for Barbara’s upcoming 70th birthday 
Ok, not what I expected, but that works for me! 
careful with money. That means if he doesn’t have to spend it, he doesn’t, which is fair enough, but it does sometimes mean that Barb doesn’t get to enjoy the nicer things in life, and we think that’s a real shame, as they do have money to enjoy. I went for the Hampton Inn at the north terminal, as we’ve enjoyed our stay there before, and again it was reasonably priced, as I needed to get two rooms. 
So that’s all booked.
Eventually, after a lot (and I mean a lot 
) of shopping around, I went with Avis’ agent on the island. If I went through Avis, the car I was getting would cost me £180 for three days, but if I went through their agent, so still renting with Avis, it cost £110. I know which price I’ll take! 
We’ve then got a late lunch booked, before we head back home. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Parlor Panther in 'stalking mode'
Katie's graduation
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Linear Mode
