A Magical voyage across the pond LIVE UPDATE 9/30 - Page 22 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 love the Transatlantic stuff I got last year. I was stressed about them running out so did rave down on night one. It was a madhouse. They did run out of some sizes, including what Mike was looking at. But they restocked and we got it a few days later. The last night they still had a good selection of items and sizes. But to be safe, I’d get things early on. Just be prepared for a bit of a madhouse.
What a nice surprise that Sara is going you, I bet if you had said to Mark she is your evilest friend he would have gotten it right away.
You're right, he probably would've done!
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It amazes me when people can pack a carry on for anything more than a weeks travel.
We tend to travel with only a carry on for a weekend and no more. It's got more to do these days with experiences where we saw a nice bottle of something where we were staying and of course we couldn't bring it home with us, as bottles have to go in the hold these days.
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It's been so long since I've cruised, I've forgotten the shops are closed when you're in port. Duh!
Well, hey you know what that means, right? It's time to go on another cruise...
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Great minds think alike! You and Mari will have each come up with super cute surprises for each other! How very awesome that the evil travel agent will be on board too!
I wouldn't be surprised if this person is truly only bringing one carryon (but it'd be smarter to have another piece of luggage for that much variety in clothing that seems to be required!)
Maybe they plan on buying luggage when they get to the UK, on board or at one of our stops...
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A friend of mine works with concert tours. So she tours the world with the bands for months and months at a time, and only has one carry on. So it's possible. But then, she doesn't need to dress up!
Wow! You're right though, not having to dress up does help.
I love the Transatlantic stuff I got last year. I was stressed about them running out so did rave down on night one. It was a madhouse. They did run out of some sizes, including what Mike was looking at. But they restocked and we got it a few days later. The last night they still had a good selection of items and sizes. But to be safe, I’d get things early on. Just be prepared for a bit of a madhouse.
Good to know and, to be honest, I was thinking the shops probably would be pretty hectic. We've got Palo on the first night at 7:30pm, so that might give us an opportunity to get there when it's a bit quieter (hopefully) and people are either in dinner or at the show. Fingers crossed...
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wow, that's great your evil travel agent will be joining you, while she's training, perhaps learning of new and exciting things ahead to tempt you with
I want to be the one guy with just a carryon for all that travel...or maybe not because he's going to be either always doing laundry or becoming very stinky I think maybe it's tongue in cheek?
wow, that's great your evil travel agent will be joining you, while she's training, perhaps learning of new and exciting things ahead to tempt you with
Probably!
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I want to be the one guy with just a carryon for all that travel...or maybe not because he's going to be either always doing laundry or becoming very stinky I think maybe it's tongue in cheek?
Glad Sara will be joining you on the cruise! Hope you get to spend more time together other than the one dinner on the first night!
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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!
I know you call Sara the "Evil Travel Agent" but she does a lot of good work for those of us who use her services. I know it's all sarcasm related to this. She did a lot of great work for me with my 2015 Magic cruise. But, then again she did talk me in to spending more money on certain things with excursions and onboard options like the beverage seminars. All good as I enjoyed all so much! I actually wished she suggested more for greater experiences!
Even better as she resides in my home state of Connecticut!
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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!
Last edited by SuperDave; 08-26-2018 at 12:16 AM..
I know you call Sara the "Evil Travel Agent" but she does a lot of good work for those of us who use her services. I know it's all sarcasm related to this.
Oh gosh, it is completely and she knows it. I think secretly she likes that nickname, which I didn't give her by the way - someone else did and I think she mentioned it first to me...
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She did a lot of great work for me with my 2015 Magic cruise. But, then again she did talk me in to spending more money on certain things with excursions and onboard options like the beverage seminars. All good as I enjoyed all so much! I actually wished she suggested more for greater experiences!
That's the thing... she may encourage you to spend money, but you come away, thinking "it may have cost me money, but I'm glad she suggested that..."
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Even better as she resides in my home state of Connecticut!
Pre-trip report – part twenty three: making a day out of clothes shopping
So, in the last instalment, I talked about the question on the Facebook group about packing clothes. I have to admit that’s been in the back of my mind for some time now and I suspect this is going to be one of the most challenging trips we’ve ever taken for that. Now that’s saying something, considering we’ve previously done winter trips and then gone to Disney. That meant packing all the winter clothing, as well as summer items.
Now admittedly, this won’t be quite as extreme and I’m not sure I’ll be packing the summer gear, but then again, who knows? I know from friends in New England and our own experience there in previous Septembers that the weather can still be very hot. We know it’ll be colder on the boat, particularly when we’re out on the open sea, because of the wind whipping across, even if the weather is fairly calm.
I already have some ideas for items to take – jeans will be a must, along with a pair of crops and a pair of leggings (much more comfy) and then of course there will be the items for formal and semi-formal nights. That means a dress for me for formal night and probably a couple of other dresses for semi-formal nights and Palo brunch, as I love the opportunity to dress up. I find it very sad that we don’t do it as much these days. Going back many, many years, if you went to the theatre in London, you would go out in your best. Not any longer. It’s the same with dinner at most restaurants. I think it’s such a shame.
I’ll also take a pair of trousers (pants to you guys ) and a series of tops that I can wear with them for evenings. So there will be a lot of clothes going with me. On the way home, it doesn’t matter, as we’re flying Upper Class and we have a luggage allowance of three cases per person. I doubt we’ll reach that. On the way from Quebec City to New York City, we’ll either fly with three or four cases in total and pay for it. We’ll just see how the packing pans out.
Talking of clothes, someone needed some new trousers for the cruise and there was only one place we could think of to get them, as a lot of places he’d have used before have now sadly closed down. It was in Canterbury and they do alterations, which is perfect, as most trousers are too long for Mark. We were an hour in there, and after a large chunk of change was dropped, three pairs of trousers, a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts later and Mark was pretty much set for this cruise… as far as clothes went away!
Anyway, as we were going there and we have friends who live on the other side of Canterbury, we agreed to meet up and make a day of it. I figured I’d share some of the photos of our day out there. There are none of the Cathedral, as that’s a separate charge. However, hopefully you enjoy these.
We visited Eastbridge Hospital, which has a frieze on the wall dating back to the 11th century and timbers in the chapel that date back to the 9th century. As Mark said, the stories those things could tell…
We also visited the nearby Franciscan gardens, which were beautiful and very peaceful..
In there, we also had some neat wildlife sightings…
Then we wandered through some of the city gardens I often walk through on my lunch-hour, often encountering the same tourist boat as we did….
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It's time to go on another cruise... 
You're right though, not having to dress up does help. 
How great Sara can join you!
I think maybe it's tongue in cheek?
]
She did a lot of great work for me with my 2015 Magic cruise. But, then again she did talk me in to spending more money on certain things with excursions and onboard options like the beverage seminars. 
All good as I enjoyed all so much! 
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