Sue and One-eyed Steve bridge the gap in the UK! COMPLETED 7/1 - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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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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Whew! I was worried about "the boys"! Glad that worked out! I'm so excited to see you are on the ground...though I've already read about you guys in the London Eye. Great update and can't wait to read more about your adventures!!! I'm totally jealous!
We arrived at Heathrow and made our way over the river and through the woods to the station for Heathrow Express. We were originally supposed to fly into brand new Terminal 5, but as it's not yet operational, that would have been a bit difficult! So we landed at Terminal 4, and got on a bus to take us to where we needed to be. We cleared customs and security, got our bags and took off in the direction of the Heathrow Express. Apparently, H. E. doesn't stop at Terminal 4, so we needed to take the shuttle train (think monorail at MCO) to the H.E. terminal. We boarded the train, and this is what we saw on the ground:
The British are very safety minded, and "Mind the Gap" became one of the mottos for this trip. Many of the tube stations had "Mind the Gap" on the platform, and they announced it at each and every stop in a wonderful voice!
The trip to Paddington Station was quick and we had a great time taking in the scenery.
We arrived at the station, and Steve was hungry. So we decided to stop, and have lunch. We had pasties. I had cheese and onion, Steve had lamb and mint. He wasn't totally impressed with his, but he ate most of it anyway! Mine was great!
Feeling better, we headed out toward the taxi stand where we got a taxi to the hotel.
We were spending three nights at the Royal Garden Hotel. We had booked this through the Concierge Collection with DVC, and it did not disappoint. Our room was ready, bell services took care of our luggage, and everyone was just so friendly. I took pictures of the hotel and our room. I didn't take all of these the first day, but I grouped them together.
Our room:
The view:
The front of the hotel:
The lobby:
Steve:
We checked in, and decided that the overnight flight was really beginning to get to us. I needed to call Cheryl to let her know we were alive, but I couldn't get my rented phone to work. I called her from the hotel phone, and she was really glad to hear from us as they knew our flight had been landed for about 3 hours now. We chatted for awhile, and then decided to meet up in the lobby the next morning.
We decided to take a nap, and woke up 4 hours later! We both took showers and felt MUCH better!!! I figured out the problem with the phone AFTER I read the instructions (you think I would have done that on the 7 1/2 hour flight, but no....) and we both called home.
The Royal Garden Hotel sits literally right next to Kensington Palace and Kensington Gardens, as well as Hyde Park. This seemed like a great place to start our vacation, so we walked over to Kensington Palace. The gates were closed, but we took many pictures. The grounds are absolutely beautiful.
We walked the entire circumference of the park, which had to be at least 4 miles! We headed down Baywater Rd in search of dinner, and ended up at The Prince of Wales pub. This was a true English pub, and we found an empty table. We sat for a few minutes before we realized that we needed to go up to the bar, give our order, pay for it, and then it would be brought back to the table. We had a starter (wings and chips) and Steve had ribs, and I had a traditional British dish.....a hamburger! Not sure why, but that was what I was in the mood for! It was very good, and we rolled out. We were two streets from our hotel, so we walked back, and decided to call it a night!
Next..."Fancy meeting you here", The London Eye, and a few old buildings!
Oh! I've just realised where you were staying! I went to university no more than a five minute walk from there. This bus...
...woke me up without fail every Saturday morning (and any days I wasn't already up for lectures) for a year at 8:30am with the words "And on your left is the Royal Albert Hall".
Glad you managed to get your cats looked after and that you made it to the airport in time!
Wonderful update Sue! Now Sulley is all ready to go, especially after learning we can use our DVC points at the hotel! He'll be after me to bank them for sure!
So glad you got the kitty situation all worked out. And I could feel my stomach starting to get in knots and I actually got nervous while you all were getting to the airport and boarding your flight!!
Great update - boy, did you guys do some walking that night! I was so glad when you called that Friday, as I was starting to get worried, knowing that you had landed three hours earlier - it was so good to speak to you guys and know you had made it safe and sound.
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Great update and can't wait to read more about your adventures!!! I'm totally jealous!
]
So we landed at Terminal 4, and got on a bus to take us to where we needed to be. We cleared customs and security, got our bags and took off in the direction of the Heathrow Express. Apparently, H. E. doesn't stop at Terminal 4, so we needed to take the shuttle train (think monorail at MCO) to the H.E. terminal. We boarded the train, and this is what we saw on the ground:
I called her from the hotel phone, and she was really glad to hear from us as they knew our flight had been landed for about 3 hours now. We chatted for awhile, and then decided to meet up in the lobby the next morning. 
We headed down Baywater Rd in search of dinner, and ended up at The Prince of Wales pub. This was a true English pub, and we found an empty table. We sat for a few minutes before we realized that we needed to go up to the bar, give our order, pay for it, and then it would be brought back to the table. 
We had a starter (wings and chips) and Steve had ribs, and I had a traditional British dish.....a hamburger! 
Previous trips: POFQ 2005 & 2007, Boardwalk 2008, BCV & AKLV 2009 (our honeymoon) & 2012, BCV & BLT 2011, BCV 2013, AKLV 2014
What a great room, and a fantastic location 
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I was so glad when you called that Friday, as I was starting to get worried, knowing that you had landed three hours earlier - it was so good to speak to you guys and know you had made it safe and sound. 
Great news - we'll look forward to seeing you then! 
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