A Magical voyage across the pond LIVE UPDATE 9/30 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I guess your only other option besides a taxi on the return would be if you drove all the way up to Heathrow and left your car there before you left! Seems silly. And expensive.
That would be stupidly expensive - like about £200 (a guess) or $260, plus we need the car with us, as Mari and Raleigh will be here before the cruise, so we need to get around.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about that ETA visa for Canada. That's relatively new. Not expensive, but still, glad you don't need to get it!
That's probably why I hadn't heard of it then, if it's relatively new. That makes sense.
I don't think you can fit four people in a taxi considering how much luggage each of you will have. Glad it all worked out with the ETA Visa as one less thing to worry about!
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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!
You are doing well getting all the details worked out. I can imagine a moment of panic with the ETA visa. I had never heard of these.
It's just as well I was sitting down when she mentioned it, otherwise I think I would've needed to sit down very quickly! I was so shocked and trying not to panic, thinking "just check online, hopefully it will be Ok" and eventually it was... phew!
Pre-trip report – part sixteen: getting busy in the garden
After we got the news that Mari and Raleigh would be joining us and indeed spending the night with us before the Transatlantic cruise, it certainly spurred us on to do some of the things that we’d been meaning to do for some time.
One of those was in the garden. We had a section of grass in front of a wall that just seemed to get waterlogged all the time and it’s been driving Mark crazy over the years, as it’s not that easy to cut. He’s mentioned a few times about putting a flowerbed in there, although I’ve not been sure. I mean, what would we put in there?
We went shopping for some more roses for our front garden – it’s basically made up of roses out there. – and we ended up getting a couple that could go into a potential flowerbed where Mark wanted. That was the start of things. Over a very hot weekend in early June, Mark set about transferring this area from grass into a flowerbed, using the roses we’d bought and some heucheras to go underneath the wall baskets we had. He then covered the whole thing with stones and I have to say it looks amazing.
Here's the process from start to finish: Look – no flowerbed in front of the wall…
It’s starting to take shape!
The plants all laid out…
.. and all planted!
Mind you, I hadn’t been exactly sitting still myself. I had all of these to plant out:
I get the vast majority of my plants every year from my father, who grows literally thousands from seeds. The garden is his passion and let’s just say he grows so much that he now gets his seed from trade places.
I set about putting all of these in the ground and about 10 days later, everything was done.
Our kitchen flowerbed filled with a patriotic red, white and blue theme this year, made up of begonias and lobelia. Sadly, this bad has to be covered in chicken wire to stop the neighbourhood cats digging it up and using it as their toilet
The middle flowerbed on top of the wall, made up of geraniums and alyssum
Some of the stunning double begonias
Some of the various planters and tubs
The wall baskets are full of lobelia and double begonias
My lovely French marigolds
Then there are the hanging baskets, all filled with fuchsias in them, grown by my mum
Wow, Glad things worked out about the ETA visa. I had not heard about that before. But, doesn't Disney handle any visas etc for ports of call for their passengers? Seems to me I recall something like that. Or at very least they would inform you of the need?
Your garden is lovely! I'm so jealous as we never really got one planted this year...gone most of April, so much rain, then gone, more rain...now the weather is nicer but seems like not worth the effort given it's already mid-August. My perennials didn't do all that well due to lack of sun and too much water. the weeds, however, loving life!
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That’s a lot of work, and very well done! Your garden is always amazing. They’re all so beautiful! Bummer about the cats though.
Our neighbors try every year to grow a little produce. Tomatoes, cucumbers, even a few stalks of corn and more. And every year the deer manage to eat it despite his efforts to protect it! Sometimes they get a few things to grow, but the deer always get something to eat!
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My DD and her boyfriend went to Newport this year and stayed on the outskirts of the city and found a decent price on the hotel but anything in Newport Proper is ridiculously expensive. Mark did a wonderful job on transforming the grassy area into a flowerbed!!! Your dad's plants are so beautiful and I have to say you both have such a green thumb as your garden is incredible!
Wow, Glad things worked out about the ETA visa. I had not heard about that before. But, doesn't Disney handle any visas etc for ports of call for their passengers? Seems to me I recall something like that. Or at very least they would inform you of the need?
I think they're covered at ports of call you're visiting, but I'm not sure about the places you embark and disembark. Yes, I would expect them to notify you though of the requirements somewhere along the line....
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Your garden is lovely!
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I'm so jealous as we never really got one planted this year...gone most of April, so much rain, then gone, more rain...now the weather is nicer but seems like not worth the effort given it's already mid-August.
I hear you, I don't think there's much point now.
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My perennials didn't do all that well due to lack of sun and too much water. the weeds, however, loving life!
Why is it that weeds always seem to do well, no matter what the weather conditions are?
That’s a lot of work, and very well done! Your garden is always amazing. They’re all so beautiful!
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Bummer about the cats though.
Yes, we could do without the challenges they bring... let's put it that way.
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Our neighbors try every year to grow a little produce. Tomatoes, cucumbers, even a few stalks of corn and more. And every year the deer manage to eat it despite his efforts to protect it! Sometimes they get a few things to grow, but the deer always get something to eat!
Ugh, that's a pain. The deer sound like more of a pain than the cats here!
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Glad it all worked out with the ETA Visa as one less thing to worry about!
I was so shocked and trying not to panic, thinking "just check online, hopefully it will be Ok" and eventually it was... phew!
– and we ended up getting a couple that could go into a potential flowerbed where Mark wanted. That was the start of things. Over a very hot weekend in early June, Mark set about transferring this area from grass into a flowerbed, using the roses we’d bought and some heucheras to go underneath the wall baskets we had. He then covered the whole thing with stones and I have to say it looks amazing. 
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Mark did a wonderful job on transforming the grassy area into a flowerbed!!! Your dad's plants are so beautiful and I have to say you both have such a green thumb as your garden is incredible!
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