From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 found it strange for you to do this Cheryl with the parking as organized as you always are! These things happen and seems like it worked out overall!
I know - I blame the lack of planning time, plus with it being February, I don't think that helped. By that, I mean usually months finish on 30/31 and therefore I think 4 March sounded later than it was.
Friday 24 February – part one: can we get into the Clubhouse?
We really did not have a good night’s sleep at all. I don’t know what time I first woke up, but I heard things moving around outside. It felt as if we were in the middle of the building site, and it pretty much carried on, on and off, for the rest of the night. We were not impressed. I do remember asking Mark what the time was a couple of times, and he replied 4:00am, and 5:00am. Ugh! At least he was awake and able to download as many TV programmes as we hadn’t seen, so we can watch those while we’re out in the States, and find ourselves with nothing on the TV. This may sound odd to you, but it does come in handy on the cruise in particular, where you spend a lot more time chilling…
We also didn’t find the room very warm. We’d turned the heating up when we got back from dinner last night, assuming that we’d wake up in the middle of the night cooking, but that never happened. All in all, given we’ve stayed here a couple of times before, this stay was very disappointing.
I got some photos of the view outside, once it was lit, but frankly it wasn’t much to look at…
We got ready and headed down for breakfast, and this is the first time we’ve had a late enough flight to be able to enjoy the hot breakfast, as it’s only offered from 6:00am, and usually our flights are so early, we’ve already had to leave, so Mark was pleased to be able to sample it. I didn’t get a photo of his plate, but trust me, it didn’t look overly appetising, so I didn’t bother going to get any scrambled eggs, as the sight of his didn’t really inspire me.
Once we were done eating, we headed back up to the room to brush our teeth, and then set off. In the elevator on the way down, we picked up a couple of people who apparently had been on an Emirates flight that was due into Manchester yesterday, but the flight couldn’t make it in there due to Storm Doris. They told us the footage of them attempting to land is on YouTube. Ugh, I bet that wasn’t fun at all.
We headed into the terminal, and luggage drop off for EasyJet was the quietest I’ve ever seen it. It was a bit busier at a couple of the other airlines, but Virgin Atlantic was still looking remarkably quiet. Where was everyone?
We headed over to customer services to enquire about the Clubhouse, and whether there was any availability. My goodness, there were loads of people waiting in line for Virgin Atlantic. They share a desk with Virgin Holidays, and no-one was waiting for them, but apparently you can’t switch between the two, which was a bit frustrating to say the least.
Thankfully, we probably only waited about five minutes, and then we asked about availability. At first we were told that we could get in after 9:30am, which I didn’t think would really work, as presumably we’d have to pay for it as well. At this stage, I had no clue how much it would be. Then the woman said she’d make a call. It turned out they could accommodate us straight away, but it would be £45 ($56) each.
We made our way through premium security – a very nice perk that you now get with Premium Economy. We scanned our boarding passes through the machine (admittedly it took a number of attempts to get it right! ) and then we literally had no-one in front of us, so we walked straight up. Just as I’d thought, I didn’t need to get my disposable contact lenses out. I thought as much, but as it was my first trip travelling with them, I wanted to double check. Previously I’d had maybe one or two spare pairs with me, so having up to 20 was a very different matter.
I got selected for special treatment through the metal detector, but goodness knows why, as the woman who came to do the search took one look at the results and said “no, nothing there”. Ok…
We made our way into the departure lounge, and this was absolute chaos. There were crowds everywhere, and frankly if you could get a seat, I would think it would be a complete miracle. I immediately took the decision that the lounge would be a good decision. Mark stopped to browse for books, but didn’t find any, and I took the opportunity to get a couple of photos.
I must admit I was having a lot of fun getting to know my new camera, adjusting settings, and seeing how shots came out. I cannot begin to tell you what a relief it was to have a new old, knowing that it would (hopefully!) be a lot more reliable than my previous one. I still have that one with me, just in case, as you never know…
By the time we got to the Clubhouse Lounge, it was maybe 8:20am, so we knew we’d have a good couple of hours in here before we needed to board our flight. Now I will say here as far as the price goes, the ordinary lounges would’ve set us back around £30 ($37) each, so I didn’t feel it was that much more, and I knew we’d get excellent service here. What had put me off was that some of the reviews of the other lounges really weren’t that great, and it was quite a bit of money to pay for something that might not be that spectacular…
We got a very quick tour of the place, but as it’s nowhere near as big as Heathrow, we were left to explore for ourselves. The first place I headed to was the spa…
I had no idea whether they’d have any availability for a treatment, so I asked before even looking, and I was delighted when I was told they could easily accommodate me. I was going to go for my usual hot stones treatment, but the woman on reception told me that they do this to be relaxing, not to work out knots, which is different to the way it’s usually done. She recommended an oil back massage instead, saying that would work better for what I wanted, so I went for that.
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It sounds like you made the right decision going to the Club Lounge. I hope you like your massage!!. Sorry about your less than relaxing evening at the airport hotel. .
It sounds like you made the right decision going to the Club Lounge. I hope you like your massage!!. Sorry about your less than relaxing evening at the airport hotel. .
Yes, it wasn't the greatest start to a vacation, but thankfully I think that was perhaps our worst night's sleep for the whole holiday, so that wasn't too bad....
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Definitely did not sound like a good night - the lounge did seem like a lot of money but I guess you have several hours to spend and they have quite a bit of offerings for you to partake in. A landing that ends up on u tube = too scary for me to even watch.
Sorry to hear that your room was not that great and that you had a hard time sleeping! Sounds like your breakfast was less than appealing as well! Glad you got into the clubhouse spa and hope you enjoy your massage!
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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!
Definitely did not sound like a good night - the lounge did seem like a lot of money but I guess you have several hours to spend and they have quite a bit of offerings for you to partake in.
Airport lounges tend to be a bit of an expensive treat these days...
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A landing that ends up on u tube = too scary for me to even watch.
Bummer you didn't sleep well, but hopefully the massage gets you relaxed before your flight!
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Mind you, did I see that right, she managed to cling on to the phone she had in her hand during the whole thing?
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These things happen and seems like it worked out overall! 
I don’t know what time I first woke up, but I heard things moving around outside. It felt as if we were in the middle of the building site, and it pretty much carried on, on and off, for the rest of the night. We were not impressed. 
I do remember asking Mark what the time was a couple of times, and he replied 4:00am, and 5:00am. Ugh! At least he was awake and able to download as many TV programmes as we hadn’t seen, so we can watch those while we’re out in the States, and find ourselves with nothing on the TV. This may sound odd to you, but it does come in handy on the cruise in particular, where you spend a lot more time chilling… 
that never happened. All in all, given we’ve stayed here a couple of times before, this stay was very disappointing. 
Where was everyone? 
Mark stopped to browse for books, but didn’t find any, and I took the opportunity to get a couple of photos. 
I was going to go for my usual hot stones treatment, but the woman on reception told me that they do this to be relaxing, not to work out knots, which is different to the way it’s usually done. She recommended an oil back massage instead, saying that would work better for what I wanted, so I went for that. 
. Sorry about your less than relaxing evening at the airport hotel. 
I NEVER want to be on a flight where the landing ends up on YouTube!!! 
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