The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 4/25 - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What interesting history with Britain, I don’t ever remember celebrating the Queen’s birthday in Canada, I do know the official date as my Dad’s birthday was the same day.
I had a look on Wikipedia and "some Commonwealth realms" participate in the Queen's birthday honours, so I guess Canada doesn't? Perhaps that's part of the French influence - I guess it would be a bit controversial to be involved in this?
So do they speak the Queen’s English, or more of a patois?
Both. They spoke Queen's English to us, but did give us examples of patois - and they did in St. Lucia as well. I found that fascinating. Some of it was easy to work out, other bits impossible!
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I have such mixed feelings about the formerly colonized islands, and the tourist industry, and peddlers along the streets....very complicated....
Interesting beginning to your tour and amazing how much of a British influence there is on the island. Nice facts about the island and especially the disciplinary procedures in the schools. Definitely could use this in the U.S.
I think a lot of countries could learn from them. I know we could.
I bet you would - dare I ask how bad the weather is with you today? The photos I've been seeing on Facebook have been horrendous and breath taking at the same time. It's amazing how snow can bring such beauty and yet cause so many problems....
The weather was definitely not very nice here. The snow we got was very wet and heavy, so many trees and power lines came down. My town was 95% without power, with full restoration not expected until tomorrow. But we keep reminding ourselves of Puerto Rico and try not to complain too much. My power is back on now, luckily.
The weather was definitely not very nice here. The snow we got was very wet and heavy, so many trees and power lines came down. My town was 95% without power, with full restoration not expected until tomorrow. But we keep reminding ourselves of Puerto Rico and try not to complain too much. My power is back on now, luckily.
Yes, you're right - when compared with Puerto Rico, that does put things into perspective.
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Monday 15 January – part four: what spectacular views!
Antigua is divided up into six parishes – I don’t remember them all now, but I remember Saint John’s, Saint Peter’s and Saint Paul’s, so you get the idea… there’s a village (villages are the next level down from parishes) that we went through that’s called All Saints, because three different parishes meet there. The name makes sense now I think about it…
We talked cricket and I think Christine was delighted that we’d heard of Sir Viv Richards (a famous West Indies cricketer) as I guess most Americans don’t really do cricket. Neither do we, but we knew some of the big names…
I got various photos as we went along. We even found more cows!
We learnt that Antigua is renowned for coral and sandstone and that’s why it has beautiful white beaches, as opposed to black beaches. There was honestly so much more that Christine told us, but I really can’t remember it now. You could tell that she loves her home. It really shone through with everything she said and I love to see passion like that.
Soon we were getting into Shirley Heights, a former military complex named after Sir Thomas Shirley, Governor of the Leeward Islands, who strengthened the island’s defences in 1781. Wow, what superb views there were from here, although we hadn’t seen anything yet…
She pointed out various things, including a hotel resort and then something nearby that looked like a hotel resort. it was a rehab place set up by Eric Clapton. Apparently he used to fly through Antigua to get to Montserrat, where he’d record. He fell in love with the place and, in Christine’s words, “when he had his issues”, he wanted to give back to the community and one of the provisos that he set out was anyone who lives in Antigua, no matter how rich or poor they are, can use it.
Look how beautiful and blue the sea is!
Once again there was a lot more history here, so much so that again I couldn’t retain it all. I do remember that Antigua had 40 British forts, something to do with the fact the French and Dutch were all around and they were able to mobilise all of them within half an hour. Impressive! We had earlier learnt that once Antigua became British, it stayed that way until it gained its independence.
We really didn’t have long here, just time for me to grab some photos and go and use the restrooms, but it felt like a huge rush. It was disappointing not to have five more minutes to take it in a bit more.
From there, we headed to the Shirley Heights Lookout for some truly spectacular views over both English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour far beneath you. It’s 500 feet above sea level and this was originally a Signal Station, which used a system of flags during the day and guns at night to convey messages over to St. John’s.
I had read about them in the guidebook and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this tour. Oh my goodness. It was as beautiful as I’d hoped. Christine pointed out what she called the “reptile” – can you see it, complete with legs? She also pointed out Montserrat, which is French owned and explained that Guadeloupe is further on, also French. You could now see the need for the forts here.
Beautiful. I had no idea Antigua was so hilly. Nor so dry! I guess in my mind, it was a flat tropical place. But from what I see here it looks hilly and more arid. And gorgeous!
Very nice with the Eric Clapton place. We’re fans of his, and that’s a wonderful thing for him to do there!
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Beautiful. I had no idea Antigua was so hilly. Nor so dry! I guess in my mind, it was a flat tropical place. But from what I see here it looks hilly and more arid. And gorgeous!
Definitely hilly. I wouldn't say it was arid, as it was pretty green, but we were told at each of our ports of call that each island didn't get much rain and whenever it rained, they were so grateful for the water. Let's just say Aruba was definitely way more arid, as you'll see when we get there...
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Very nice with the Eric Clapton place. We’re fans of his, and that’s a wonderful thing for him to do there!
Those are some spectacular views and photos of the island. Too bad you weren't given more time to see more of it. Very interesting about Eric Clapton as I knew he has spent a lot of time in Monserratt. Quite a nice gesture on his part.
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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!
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Definitely could use this in the U.S.
The photos I've been seeing on Facebook have been horrendous and breath taking at the same time. It's amazing how snow can bring such beauty and yet cause so many problems....
You could tell that she loves her home. It really shone through with everything she said and I love to see passion like that. 
it was a rehab place set up by Eric Clapton. Apparently he used to fly through Antigua to get to Montserrat, where he’d record. He fell in love with the place and, in Christine’s words, “when he had his issues”, he wanted to give back to the community and one of the provisos that he set out was anyone who lives in Antigua, no matter how rich or poor they are, can use it. 
We had earlier learnt that once Antigua became British, it stayed that way until it gained its independence. 
Very interesting about Eric Clapton as I knew he has spent a lot of time in Monserratt. Quite a nice gesture on his part.
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