The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 4/25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sorry that your ankle was giving you such a hard time. It must have been really tough climbing over that person on the aisle to get into your seat.
Yes, and it makes me wince thinking about it, given the problems I've had with it in the last week or so. For those who haven't seen on Facebook or in the Family Room, I was due to have surgery on it today, but that didn't happen due to the 6" of snow that swept in overnight. I have been in a lot of pain since I had to do an emergency stop a week or so back and really wanted to get it sorted. Oh well, hopefully it will be rescheduled quickly...
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I love the sights when you're flying in to land! The blue water of Turks and Caicos was just so beautiful. My sister and her husband love vacationing there and they rave about the water!
Wow, that could have been a disaster if those had been cherries! I assume you had something a bit different than what the website now has listed, as surely you’d know a cherry from a cranberry. Scary thought, though, as I assume you do not travel with an epi-pen?
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Wow, that could have been a disaster if those had been cherries! I assume you had something a bit different than what the website now has listed, as surely you’d know a cherry from a cranberry.
I'm pretty sure what I had were cranberries and they've either changed the listings on the website or perhaps not updated it. Maybe it used to be cherries?
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Scary thought, though, as I assume you do not travel with an epi-pen?
No, I've only ever had the one allergic reaction and found out what I was allergic to and have just avoided those items ever since.
Looks like your flight went well with the exception of the snail like paces of the boarding process and your flight attendant with the beverage/snack service! Some nice photos from the air of Turks and Caicos and coming into San Juan. It amazes me with all those tarpaulins and the amount of them there are several months later after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. What I did notice about these is that most are concentrated near the shore and not many as you go inland a bit, which makes sense.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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Looks like your flight went well with the exception of the snail like paces of the boarding process and your flight attendant with the beverage/snack service! Some nice photos from the air of Turks and Caicos and coming into San Juan. It amazes me with all those tarpaulins and the amount of them there are several months later after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. What I did notice about these is that most are concentrated near the shore and not many as you go inland a bit, which makes sense.
Yes, they were very much concentrated on the shoreline. I think when we were there, it was something like five months after Maria went through.
Saturday 13 January – part seven: where the heck is the airport hotel?
We taxied to our gate at San Juan and waited for everyone to disembark. It was pretty much the same type of chaos we’d witnessed when boarding and it took ages. We ended up asking the woman next to us to move, so that we could get out while there was a break in between people. I’d said to Mark I wanted to try and avoid using a wheelchair. So long as I could take my time, I figured I’d be Ok, given my ankle had had a break during the flight. I always prefer to walk when I get, as heck, it’s good exercise.
When we got off the plane, I stopped off at a souvenir stand and got a fridge magnet, as I don’t recall getting one before when we were here.
We headed down to baggage claim and after a few minutes, we were reunited with all three cases. I didn’t say anything to Mark, but this was the bit that really worried me, as it was the first time we’d checked our bags at Disney. The funny thing is he then said to me he’d been really worried too, but he didn’t want to say anything to me, as he thought I’d shout at him. Well, at least we were both proved wrong. Phew!
We set off for the hotel and I have to be honest, this is the worst signage ever in an airport. There were no signs towards the main terminal at all, but I knew it was there, having read Google Maps. We took the elevator upstairs and kept going, even though it didn’t look as if there was anything else there. There was, but it was just very weird.
On the way, we found this rather weird Christmas decoration, but heck, it included cows!
Eventually, we got to a point where we couldn’t walk any further inside, so we headed outside and just as we were both beginning to despair that we’d ever find the hotel, I looked to the right and there it was. Phew! The taxi driver told us how to get to it, as it wasn’t as straightforward as it looked. You had to keep walking past the sign for hotel, then turn right and you ended up here, which was the freakiest place ever. I don’t know if it’s being renovated or whether they just ran out of money?
This is where the entrance is from the airport
Once we got inside to check-in, it was fine…
The woman who checked us in was lovely. We asked her if she had power back and she said explaining that power has only been restored to 20% of the four million people who live here. She said you wouldn’t notice much in the main tourist areas, it’s elsewhere on the island. I then asked her if she had power and she said no, still smiling and without skipping a beat. She went on to tell us that the prediction is that they’ll have power by June. What on earth? Again, she was still smiling and her whole demeanour just amazed me. I quietly asked her how they were coping and again, still smiling, she told us that they weren’t. Wow. I was just blown away by her attitude. I do not know how she’s coping and managing to put such a brave face on it.
We headed up to our room, which was very basic, but fine for one night…
We had a quick explore and looked at the restaurant that they have here. We weren’t sure about it, but I looked it up on TripAdvisor and it had some good reviews.
Now here I need to backtrack a little. On the way back up to our room, we’d bumped into two couples, who turned out to be from Ontario, Canada. They asked if we were going to eat in the restaurant and we’d said They said they were going to check out the airport. We warned them there was nothing there and I mean nothing. We’d seen a sandwich bar and that was it.
We headed down to the restaurant and who should walk in about five minutes later but those two couples? We ended up sitting next to each other and chatting for the rest of the meal. They were taking their first ever cruise on Royal Caribbean in the morning and one of the women was very nervy about it, shall we say? We did our best to reassure her. It turned out a Disney cruise is on her bucket list. We told her about taking the New York City to Quebec City cruise and they casually said “oh the old city in Quebec? Yes we haven’t been there yet…” What? We’re from thousands of miles away and you’re a short (ish) drive away and you haven’t made it yet!
Anyway, on to the food… I got the California roll, and very good it was too, after I carefully negotiated the wasabi away from it anyway!
Mark had a burger and fries and I heard nothing but good things from him about it…
I also got a bit of chocolate cake…
Despite our initial reservations about how the place looked, it turned out to be really good in the end.
Once we were done with dinner, we headed to bed. Tomorrow would be a big day…
The weather today was cloudy and cool in Orlando with temperatures in the high 50s and humid and cloudy in San Juan with temperatures in the low 80s. The best thing today was the Wonders of the Lodge tour. The worst thing today was how much my ankle acted up today. Today we tried taking the Wonders of the Lounge tour And the result was it was excellent and I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone. The most magical moment today was seeing the stunning Caribbean islands with the beautiful blue oceans surrounding them during our flight.
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I can image not having power so long. I work with a few people from Puerto Rico and their families are up here right now and don't quite know when they'll be able to go home.
I'm glad your meal turned out to be good. It sounds like you had an interesting walk to the hotel.
Liz
Wow! What a hike to get to the hotel. I'm glad it turned out good for you, though. Staying right there was probably the best plan with the cruise tomorrow.
Quite the adventure to get to your hotel.
Power seems like such a normal thing to the rest of us. I can't imagine going without it for so long.... and still knowing it'll be that much longer before it's back. Strong, strong people.
Glad dinner turned out to be so good, and with the Canadians! That's funny they haven't visited Quebec yet. But I guess it's not any more odd than an American who hasn't visited.... oh, I don't know.... Grand Canyon or Washington DC.
That chocolate cake looks so dreamy.
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The resilience of the Puerto Rican people in the face of this adversity continues to amaze me everyday. It’s shameful what is happening to them! Glad you finally made it to your room and had a great meal!
I can image not having power so long. I work with a few people from Puerto Rico and their families are up here right now and don't quite know when they'll be able to go home.
Oh my goodness, that is so sad.
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I'm glad your meal turned out to be good. It sounds like you had an interesting walk to the hotel.
Liz
Wow! What a hike to get to the hotel. I'm glad it turned out good for you, though. Staying right there was probably the best plan with the cruise tomorrow.
It certainly was, given the circumstances. I'd still have loved to have stayed at a luxury seafront hotel, but the one I wanted to stay in had warnings on its site that it wouldn't have all its facilities, but they were still happy to charge full price for that...
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Some nice photos from the air of Turks and Caicos and coming into San Juan. It amazes me with all those tarpaulins and the amount of them there are several months later after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. 
What I did notice about these is that most are concentrated near the shore and not many as you go inland a bit, which makes sense.
The taxi driver told us how to get to it, as it wasn’t as straightforward as it looked. You had to keep walking past the sign for hotel, then turn right and you ended up here, which was the freakiest place ever. I don’t know if it’s being renovated or whether they just ran out of money? 
explaining that power has only been restored to 20% of the four million people who live here. She said you wouldn’t notice much in the main tourist areas, it’s elsewhere on the island. I then asked her if she had power and she said no, still smiling and without skipping a beat. She went on to tell us that the prediction is that they’ll have power by June. 
We ended up sitting next to each other and chatting for the rest of the meal. They were taking their first ever cruise on Royal Caribbean in the morning and one of the women was very nervy about it, shall we say? 
We did our best to reassure her. It turned out a Disney cruise is on her bucket list. We told her about taking the New York City to Quebec City cruise and they casually said “oh the old city in Quebec? Yes we haven’t been there yet…” 
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