Adventures By Disney - A Tale of Two Cities - Page 18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Seeing your photos of London sure brought back fabulous memories!
You live in NYC right?? Compare London to NYC traffic for me. Me, I thought it was a huge cluster-you-know-what but I am from Podunk Indiana! Picadilly Circus was a madhouse, and I love your photo of Harrods!!
Oh my goodness Wendy - it's just as well I wasn't drinking any tea when I read that!
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.
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.
Location: w/future ex husbands tommy lee, robert downey jr, adam lambert in NJ planet poptart
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 10,563
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 0
Likes (Received): 0
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
omg i am at no pee lady- for someone with a bladder infection, uhh wouldnt said person be in the bathroom ALOT?
fancy airplane!! wow
I love all the ABD bags.
london looks spectacular
Seeing your photos of London sure brought back fabulous memories!
You live in NYC right?? Compare London to NYC traffic for me. Me, I thought it was a huge cluster-you-know-what but I am from Podunk Indiana! Picadilly Circus was a madhouse, and I love your photo of Harrods!!
The traffic is one of the many things London had in common with NYC. I'd say they could both be classified as huge cluster-you-know-whats.
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
After getting ready, I set out for my very first adventure. London felt a lot like New York, and everyone spoke English, so it was easy for me to jump right in! I actually think it was a great way to begin my foreign travel – it felt foreign yet familiar all at once.
I set out for the Underground. The hotel's only a block away from the Holburn (which I learned is pronounced “ho-burn”) tube station. Having the tube station so close was really convenient obviously.
Before doing anything, I found the ATM and got some money and then bought a return (round trip) ticket, which cost ₤5.60. I was to take the Piccadilly line, and I just had time to get out my camera before the train arrived.
It was a quick ride on the tube and then a short stroll across the bridge.
There were cheesy entertainers along the way.
Cheesy Band Guys
Now you’d think that guy was one of those human statue type characters, but . He moved around and looked at people. So I guess I’d just call him cheesy guy in stupid outfit. I think he was trying to be a robot or something. Not really difficult to pull off, so I’m not sure why he expects people to give him money for being Robot Guy, but maybe it’s harder than it looks.
Anyway, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do the London Eye because this was the only day I could fit it in my itinerary and I didn’t want to do it if the visibility was poor, so I didn’t get a ticket ahead of time. I had to queue for about 20 minutes, but once I had my ticket, I was able to get right on. The complete circle takes about 30 minutes and because it was a relatively clear day, the view was phenomenal.
I could see Westminster Abbey, Parliament and various other landmarks, including St. Paul’s off in the distance.
You can see St. Paul’s dome
A kind man offered to take my photo…
And I returned the favor before getting back to my own photos.
The same guy offered to take my photo again, this time facing the other direction (and this turned out to be one of my very favorite photos from the entire trip).
Thanks for the great shot, nice-photo-taking dude!
Once I reached the bottom and was back on land, I strolled back to the tube station, noticing that there were more “entertainers” around.
Cheesy Robot Guy with Giant Arms (which is much more complicated and takes much more skill than just being regular Cheesy Robot Guy)
Cheesy Invisible Statue Guy. Forget Susan Boyle, these folks should be on “Britain’s Got Talent”
Actually, it amused me greatly because we have American versions of these in New York City (one of many, many things I thought London and NYC had in common). Except the American versions I’ve seen don’t move, so they’re more like Cheesy Living Statues. So talented, they can’t even move! I expect it takes a lot of concentration, but I also expect that nobody really cares enough to stop and watch for too long or test them too much anyway. I guess I’m in a cynical mood today!
Aaaaaanyway, I walked back to the Underground, getting a few more photos for good measure.
It was a quick ride back to Holburn, and I snapped a few photos of the hotel on the way back to my room.
This isn’t the entrance, you enter through the courtyard, which I didn’t take photos of this day
Not the entrance either
I’d told Cheryl that I’d contact her when I knew for sure what time we should meet up on Sunday. I’d asked the guides about when we might be finished with that day's activities, so I knew what time to tell Cheryl. The trouble was, my rental cellphone was a little tricky to use (and it wouldn’t have been so difficult had I just read the instructions ). In the end, I just decided to pay for Internet for one day and got on line and communicated with her and Karen via PM (and posted a quick live update to the TR).
Once I read the instructions on the phone, I figured out how to place a call and I phoned my DM to let her know that I hadn’t died in a fiery plane crash. The way the phone worked was you dialed the number, but it went to a server somewhere and they actually called you back when your call went through. Confusing! But it worked.
A couple of notes before I continue… I’ve finally ordered my Photopass CD! I ordered it yesterday, so it should arrive by early next week at the latest. There aren’t many Photopass pics on this first night, so I won’t have to do too much backtracking when I get the CD.
The guides took pictures throughout the entire ABD, and they made sure to get a lot of photos of me because I was alone. They were always happy to take any photo I (or any of the Adventurers) asked them to take, as long as they could also take one with their cameras. The Photopass account ended up with over 300 photos on it – some of me, some of the group and some scenic shots, but not of every photo they took of other Adventurers. There was only one border available to add, but that’s really my only complaint with the Photopass. The CD is the same price as the WDW CD (and that’s how I learned the price is going up to $150 on June 15).
Also, while in hindsight I rather enjoyed having little surprises from the ABD, I still would have appreciated knowing a little more about the itinerary so I could’ve planned my free time a little better. I want to give a detailed account of all the happenings, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, this may not be the best TR to read. I’m also happy to answer any specific questions, either posted here or via PM. I’ll try to give warnings when I reveal the surprises, but I can’t promise that I’ll remember every time. And now, the start of the Official Adventure!
I got freshened up and changed and then headed down to the lobby to meet my fellow Adventurers. There was a little reception room set up for us with snacks and drinks (soft drinks and wine). We got little gifts, too (and we all know, free stuff rocks! Shoutout to Crissy, who enjoys free stuff as much as I do )
Our guides, Eddie and Andy, were fantastic. I may have mentioned that before, but it needs to be said again! They kicked off the night with a welcome toast, and SPOILERS to follow! the first of the gifts for the night – our ABD lanyards with our first pin.
We also got our story book, which was a lot like the itinerary I already had, but with more of the “story” elements in it.
Then our guides told us a little about what was in store for us this week, including a special surprise that we’d be doing because it was an adults-only trip (generally speaking, there are different activities for adults and kids on each tour and when it’s an adults only tour, they modify the itinerary a bit).
We had a little getting-to-know-you questionnaire that we had to fill out, which helped us get to know our fellow Adventurers and got everybody talking right away (there were a bunch of things like “Was born in May” or “Speaks French” and you had to find someone’s name to fill in for each one (and no repeating names ). It was actually fun and a nice ice-breaker.
I’ll talk for a bit about the makeup of our group. As I said, this was an adults only trip, which wasn’t important to me when booking, but after having experienced it, I think I’d actually prefer an adults-only trip next time (‘specially because of the surprise change in the itinerary).
There were 21 of us in the group, consisting of one family group of 6 (a man celebrating his birthday with his family), a mother and daughter (mom was also celebrating her birthday), 5 couples, a woman and man traveling together (but not a couple) who also knew the birthday guy, and me. There were a bunch of people from California, a few mid-westerners, some northeasterners (mostly Jersey) and a Canadian couple. I was a little surprised to be the only New Yawka.
I didn’t feel uncomfortable being the only solo traveler, and in fact quite a few people told me they admired my courage for going on my own. And the best thing? No know-it-alls!
Then the guides (who were both English) told us a bit about themselves and what they were most looking forward to on this trip. Then we all went around the room and did the same. It was a great way to get everyone comfortable with each other and I think made it more like one big group rather than a bunch of different people traveling together.
After the reception, we were led into another room where they’d set up dinner for us – a traditional English dinner (and I got to try shepherd’s pie for the first time). I took photos of everything (except the main food table ).
Each of the tables had a different cute setup. I took photos of a few different ones.
And there was a chef serving fish & chips – which I had to have!
I did remember to take a photo of the desserts!
The food was delicious and I found lots of things to enjoy. And ok, I’ll admit there were one or two things that scared me a little. Once we’d all eaten, we learned what we’d be doing the next day (breakfast starts at 7, meeting in the lobby at 9 a.m.). Then we were presented with…
Our guide Andy with a silver platter
…our Day One pin, “Cheers”!
Each day had its own theme and its own pin. At this time the guides also presented special pins to those who’d been on ABD trips before, and there were two couples celebrating their anniversaries who got special pins as well.
After that, most people hung around and chatted (I told you everyone was comfortable with each other right away). After about 30 minutes, I decided it was time to call it a night. I went up to my room and got ready for bed. I’d managed to sleep a little on the plane the night before, but I was pretty tired. Still, I took a Tylenol PM, set my alarm for 6, and turned in for the night.
Up Next: The Royal Treatment
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
What a wonderful update Sharon! You did get some beautiful views from the London Eye, although that sky was a bit threatening...
That is too funny to read about your views of our wonderful entertainers - I guess I become accustomed to seeing them whenever we're in London and I don't pay them any attention any longer.
Fascinating too about the Photopass CD - I just never realised that they did that for Adventures by Disney tour. It now makes me think it's even more of a shame that they don't do those on the cruise, if they can do them for ABD... maybe they'll change that one day.
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.
What fantastic views! You can even see some hills in the distance. Wow, what an amazing start to this adventure. I see now why ABD is a bit more costly than other tours. It's money definitely well spent for what you receive. Very much looking forward to tomorrow!!!
__________________
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
WOW! all those pictures from the London Eye!
I love that you got pins every day - I think that's how I can convince DH to go on one of these sooner rather than later.
What a great first day Sharon...the views from the London Eye were amazing, so glad that you had good weather for it and was able to enjoy. I definitely agree with your reasoning on the UK being a great way to start off international travel...
What a nice reception to start off the tour, glad everyone seems like great travel partners and what wonderful gifts. Can't wait to hear about your first tour day...
Love the updates PSha!! That London Eye is amazing. I love the pics of Big Ben. (When my Grandfather was in London for WWII he was a drill sergeant and when he called morning exercise, the gals that worked in the barracks called him Big Ben. Loved to listen to his stories...thanks for the memory)
I SOOOO want to do an ADB trip, and you're only on day 1!! Can't wait to hear more.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Picadilly Circus was a madhouse, and I love your photo of Harrods!! 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
at no pee lady- for someone with a bladder infection, uhh wouldnt said person be in the bathroom ALOT?
. He moved around and looked at people. So I guess I’d just call him cheesy guy in stupid outfit. 
I think he was trying to be a robot or something. Not really difficult to pull off, so I’m not sure why he expects people to give him money for being Robot Guy, but maybe it’s harder than it looks. 
). In the end, I just decided to pay for Internet for one day and got on line and communicated with her and Karen via PM (and posted a quick live update to the TR).
)
). It was actually fun and a nice ice-breaker.
And ok, I’ll admit there were one or two things that scared me a little. 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Linear Mode
