Going north, south, east and west THREAD 2 - UPDATED 11/15 WITH PHOTOPASS PICS - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Friday 17 October – part six: rudeness means no tip!
Finally we headed back down and fortunately we didn’t have to wait too long to get down, but when we reached the ground level, it took us a fair while to get out of the Rockefeller Centre. My goodness, it’s a confusing and very big place. Eventually we were back on Sixth Avenue and we were able to get a cab straight back to the hotel.
Fortunately we were back at the hotel by 4.05pm, just five minutes before the shuttle bus was due, so we only just made it. As soon as the shuttle bus arrived and we got outside, the driver grabbed our cases with the words “is that all your luggage? We have lots of other people to pick up, you know.” He was so off with us and yes, I know it’s four cases, but at the end of the day, it’s the allowance for most airlines in the States (albeit you may now have to pay a surcharge for that many), so it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to him. He was so rude and there and then I thought there was no way that he was getting a tip from us, unless he suddenly behaved in a really pleasant way. There was just no call for him to speak to us in that way.
He was equally unsympathetic as the van filled up with people. He never put any air conditioning on, even though we were all getting pretty hot. Not once did he check how we were. I began to feel like he was treating us like pieces of meat. He was an exceptionally miserable piece of work.
We were the first to be dropped off when we finally got to JFK and we ended up paying an extra $10, as we couldn’t find our receipt to prove that we’d paid our deposit. OK, that’s fair enough, but Mr. Misery kept carrying on about how he’d be out of pocket if we didn’t shell out and was generally being aggressive and rude again. I gave him the full $40, including the $10 deposit we’d already paid, and that was it. No tip. I’m sorry, but in my book, he did not deserve one. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but we were then treated to a tirade of abuse from him. We were called cheap and a few other names that I don’t recall. To my mind, that behaviour just proved that we made a good decision in not tipping that guy. Good riddance to him.
We headed inside to check in and that couldn’t have been easier. No line at all and we were all done in five minutes. We were debating whether to go through security or not, as you never know what’s on the other side, but someone behind us asked that very question and the answer was that all the good stuff was on the other side, so through we went. The woman wasn’t joking. It was lovely in there and packed with restaurants and even wi-fi access. If only our darned laptop would just find a wi-fi signal right now.
We really enjoyed our time there. It was a great terminal and I was very impressed by the fact that not one of the JetBlue planes was running late. Every single one was on time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
We decided to walk down to our gate about 20 minutes before the flight was due to leave and I’m glad we did, as you needed to take a shuttle bus to get there. We got there just as they started boarding. I knew we would be amongst the last to go on, as we were in row two. I had decided to go for the seats at the front with the extra legroom, as they didn’t cost too much more and it was a nice surprise for Mark. He was very impressed with the seats, until I explained that I had paid extra for them, so no, those weren’t the standard seats.
We were on the ground for about 30 minutes, waiting to take off, like any good really busy airport these days. Once we were airborne, Mark pointed out that you could see the skyline of Manhatten and I slowly watched it fade away as we flew out of the city. Behind us, it sprawled for miles. Literally, it was as far as the eye could see, with lights everywhere. It’s quite some city and I hope we get back again, as there’s definitely still more to see in it. I’m very glad that we made a return visit here. It was well worth it and it was lovely to see some old and new PassPorter faces along the way.
We had a reasonable flight, with just a couple of bits of turbulence along the way. The crew couldn’t have been nicer, even though one that Mark got talking to (who was so happy it wasn’t true!) had a bad migraine. You really couldn’t tell the way she behaved. She was a real trooper. Mark got chatting to the guy next to him as well and he turned out to be ex-special forces and was full of stories about his travels.
After sleeping for much of the flight (the jetlag) we landed on time and very smoothly and we were soon inside the airport. It was weird to come into Orlando International Airport at night. It’s not something we’ve ever done before and even weirder for us, we didn’t have to clear immigration and customs. It makes it much more straightforward.
We didn’t have too long to wait before the cases came off and then we were off. I had already called the hotel to ask how best to get there and they told me that they had a complimentary shuttle bus and just to call when we had all our luggage, so that’s what we did. We got the directions to the shuttle stop and headed off there. There were quite a few people already waiting there and fortunately we didn’t have too much of a wait before the bus came. With one other stop at the other terminal, we were on our way and just to show we can tip (despite what that rude driver in New York may think! ), we happily tipped the driver, as he was really nice.
We got to the hotel and I was first in line to check in, while Mark dealt with the cases, as there were a lot of people on the bus. We got our room on the ninth floor and headed straight up there. It couldn’t have been more different to New York. This room was huge.
Shame we didn’t have more time to enjoy it. We literally went straight to bed as soon as we walked in.
Today we walked 6.14 miles The weather today was cloudy, but a bit windy, with temperatures in the 60’s. The best thing today was the view from Top of the Rock. The worst thing today was the rude driver to the airport. Today we tried Ellis Island And the result was it was a fascinating place to visit. The most magical moment today was seeing the view from the Top of the Rock for the first time.
Wow, you got a lot done in one day!
THANK YOU! Thank You!! for NOT tipping rude and unreasonable behavior! As far as I'm concerned, a tip is still a tip, even if you feel obligated to reward mediocre service, poor or downright bad service, should NOT be rewarded!
I'm glad the rest of the traveling part of your day went so well.
Good for you that you didn't tip the rude driver! He definitely didn't deserve a tip. I hope you didn't feel bad after he yelled at you? That hotel room in Orlando looks nice. What's the name of the hotel?
I wouldn't have tipped that guy either. Rude behaviour is just unacceptable, but it is sad how common it is in the service industry. Glad your flight went well. Can't wait to hear about your time in Orlando.
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He was so off with us and yes, I know it’s four cases, but at the end of the day, it’s the allowance for most airlines in the States (albeit you may now have to pay a surcharge for that many), so it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to him. He was so rude and there and then I thought there was no way that he was getting a tip from us, unless he suddenly behaved in a really pleasant way. There was just no call for him to speak to us in that way. 
), we happily tipped the driver, as he was really nice. 
Sammi
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