Springing back to Iceland to see it in the green! COMPLETED 6/29 - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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It is so strange how you've being travel land sparsely populated all day and then drive into a major city. Sounds like the spa was a great way to unwind after that long drive.
Sunday 30 April – part ten: admiring the views from the Sky Lounge
We had a bit of down time in the room, then headed up to the Sky Lounge just before 6:00pm. I figured we’d go up a little beforehand, as it’s happy hour here from 4:00pm – 6:00pm, with house wine and one beer on offer. Mark joked that we wouldn’t qualify, as by the time they served us, it would be just beyond 6:00pm, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. The guy asked us immediately if we wanted one of the specials, and we said yes.
We were offered a window table, which is I think maybe only the second time that’s happened to us, and I think we must’ve eaten there about three or four times when we stayed here last year. The view outside was beautiful, albeit it was raining a bit by now, so it looked a bit dreary outside…
I couldn’t help but look out and, once again, marvel at the fact that everything was no longer white. We later talked to one of the servers here, and she said the winter this year hadn’t been that bad… well, that was until the middle of March, when they apparently had a good couple of feet of snow overnight, and it was so bad that people couldn’t get to work. From what she said, this is not something that happens often here
Eventually, we tore ourselves away from the view, and made some decisions about what to eat, but before we got that far, we got the bread…
For appetiser, Mark decided to get some olives and nuts…
I went for the avocado and cucumber shrimp cocktail with Worcestershire mayo, which was Ok, after a horrendous start. I took one bite, and the heat almost took the roof off my mouth. Mark tried the mayo, as I thought that was the problem, but he said he couldn’t taste any heat, so I tried another mouthful, and it wasn’t too bad. The third mouthful was a bit hotter. I did remove a chilli from it, so we think that was what caused the problems…
For main course, I had the seafood soup served with bread, as I was still a bit full from the lobster pizza I had a few hours earlier…
Mark opted for the fish and chips served with tartar sauce and French fries. He raved about how good the fish was, and I sampled a bit and had to agree that it was excellent.
It was about this time that a group of American guys (maybe six or eight, I had my back to them as they came in, so I don’t know for sure), and while they were pleasant enough, they were getting louder as we were in there. I was glad we were on dessert when they arrived, as I figured they’d only get worse with the more alcohol they consumed…
The scene outside was looking a bit more ominous now, but still beautiful in its own way…
For dessert, I went for the tiramisu, which I knew I’d enjoyed last year, and it was just as good this year.
Mark tried the carrot cake and a glass of ice cold milk, and yes you did just read that right. Mark questioned the milk, as he does have dairy intolerance, but decided to try it after the server told us that it was the way to eat carrot cake. Well, who knew? As Mark said, obviously we’ve been eating it wrong all these years. I think Mark was surprised by how much he actually liked it…
With that, we settled up, and I got some photos from the other end of the lounge.
Sky Lounge
Appetiser 7½ 8½
Entrée 8½ 9
Dessert 8½ 8
Service 7½ 8
Atmosphere 9 8½
Value for money 8½ 8½
Average score: 8.33
With that, we headed down to the room and watched the final episode of Line of Duty, and yes it was just as good as we’d hoped. Thank goodness they’ve confirmed that there will be another series next year.
The weather today was mainly dry with the occasional shower and some sunshine, but mainly cloudy and temperatures in the high 40s. The best thing today was the scenery we saw around Kirkjufell. The worst thing today was how boring some of the road was. The funniest thing today was “do you think we might have a problem with people speaking English here?” Today we tried visiting Snaefellsjokull National Park And the result was it was nice, but it wasn’t as beautiful as I was perhaps hoping… The most magical moment today was seeing Kirkjufell mountain.
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Raining or not, those views are still beautiful. And a lovely dinner to go with it. I would expect their fish and chips to be pretty tasty!
That's funny they have milk with the carrot cake. Personally, I think milk should be served with every cake, brownie, and cookie. It just goes with it, plain and simple! Good way to end the day.
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Tanya
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Raining or not, those views are still beautiful. And a lovely dinner to go with it. I would expect their fish and chips to be pretty tasty!
All of their fish is very good, but then again, so is a lot of their food, as they grow so much themselves. That's what we found amazing on our first visit - just how self sufficient they are.
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That's funny they have milk with the carrot cake. Personally, I think milk should be served with every cake, brownie, and cookie. It just goes with it, plain and simple! Good way to end the day.
Now you see the only milk I have is on my cereal and in my tea... and maybe occasionally for recipes, but that's about it.
Looked like a nice meal overall and I remember this place from your TR last year! Even though, the weather was a bit dreary outside the views were quite good and better yet, they're free!
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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!
Looked like a nice meal overall and I remember this place from your TR last year! Even though, the weather was a bit dreary outside the views were quite good and better yet, they're free!
Well free on top of the price of the meal of course... and nothing's cheap in Iceland!
Monday 1 May – part one: what’s that pounding noise?
Over dinner last night, I’d checked the weather forecast for today, and it looked as if the whale watching could be a bust. It was saying rain, and high winds, with speeds around 25 mph. That was as bad as we’d had on our arrival day, which was pretty strong, and then it would be even stronger out at sea and out of a safe harbour. We figured we’d see what it was actually like in the morning before deciding what to do.
We woke up about 6:30am, and Mark eventually told me cheerfully that the pounding noise I could hear outside was rain. Ok, that’s not a good start then…. He got up, and had a look outside (thank goodness for a sea view) and said it was rough. A little while later, I checked it out, and yes it was definitely rough. There were white caps in the water, even in the harbour. I checked the Accuweather forecast, and it was still saying wind speeds in the high 20 mph, so we decided to forget the whale watching.
I did check the operator’s website, and while the 1:00pm wouldn’t work, as we had the puffing watching booked (provided the weather was Ok for that ), then did have another sailing at 5:00pm. I checked the weather forecast was then, and although the wind was supposed to drop in the early afternoon (we’d see whether it did or not….), it was due to get stronger again, with mid to high 20s mph by 5:00pm. Ugh, this was not going to be our day, was it? Oh well, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be then. There’s no point in making ourselves sick for the sake of a free trip out on the water. That would just be stupid.
We headed up to breakfast just after 8:00am, and it was really busy up there, way busier than last night at dinner. There was literally about one table left, so we were lucky to find somewhere to sit. They had a pretty good selection…
… and I even summonsed up courage to cook my own waffle.. and even better, it wasn’t a complete disaster!
From up here, you could see how much the weather had set in for the day. It didn’t look at all promising.
The red and white boats are from the whale watching company and you can probably see the waves in the harbour
After breakfast, we headed back to the room and I worked on the trip report, while we contemplated what to do next that wouldn’t involve us ending up too much like a drowned rat…
Eventually, we decided to head out, and kind of make it up as we went along. I decided that the one thing I really wanted to see was the lake that we’d previously walked on when it was iced up now, as I knew it was a lake again. We headed out that way, and on the way, saw the Arnarholl park, which again had been covered in snow last year, and now it looked like… well a park!
We passed through the city….
… and quickly found the lake. Wow, look at it now!
We drove round, and parked up at the other side to get some more photos. Can you see how much the wind is blowing the water just on a self contained lake? Goodness only knows what it would’ve been like out at sea…
We stopped to look at the front of city hall, which again had been iced up today. Now the ducks were having a field day in the wet weather!
We drove through familiar parts of the old town….
… and made our way out here:
We could clearly see the whale watching ships were still in, so they didn’t even go out at 9:00am. A little while later, I found out there was a yellow weather warning about wind for the whole of Iceland, so I’m taking a guess that nothing went out today at all….
That's disappointing about the whale watching but you took it very well on the chin and you guys seem to be making the best of the day!! The lake is beautiful even in the rain and those ducks do seem to be enjoying themselves!!
Don't you hate it when the weather changes your plans?! That's why we always research alternative things to do, right?! Or worst case scenario, that's when we take an honest to goodness day off and nap, read, and watch tv.
Yeah, I don't think any boat operator was going out in those winds. No thank you!
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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
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The guy asked us immediately if we wanted one of the specials, and we said yes. 
Mark tried the mayo, as I thought that was the problem, but he said he couldn’t taste any heat, so I tried another mouthful, and it wasn’t too bad. The third mouthful was a bit hotter. I did remove a chilli from it, so we think that was what caused the problems…
Mark questioned the milk, as he does have dairy intolerance, but decided to try it after the server told us that it was the way to eat carrot cake. Well, who knew? As Mark said, obviously we’ve been eating it wrong all these years. I think Mark was surprised by how much he actually liked it… 
It was saying rain, and high winds, with speeds around 25 mph. That was as bad as we’d had on our arrival day, which was pretty strong, and then it would be even stronger out at sea and out of a safe harbour. We figured we’d see what it was actually like in the morning before deciding what to do. 
Oh well, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be then. There’s no point in making ourselves sick for the sake of a free trip out on the water. That would just be stupid. 
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