Don't Stop - the Florida road trip section UPDATED 3/16 - Page 37 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Such a shame (and not to mention scary! ) you didn't have sunny weather to enjoy the 7 mile bridge. My DH Ken just adores it and dreams of riding it Harley Davidson style some day! I'm interested to know where you stayed! I sure hope you get some sun soon!
You've now officially passed me on the Keys. I have only made it as far as Big Pine Key, where I stayed almost exactly 36 years ago at Seacamp, a marine biology/oceanography camp at the Newfound Harbor Marine Institute.
Sorry about all the rain. It sounds like the stuff Bob drove through on one of our trips to Orlando. We had to turn off the audiobook we were listening to because the rain was so loud on the roof. And there was flooding along the Interstate and lots of emergency vehicles. Every time I would say, "I think it's letting up," it would get harder and harder. That became the running joke! Not much fun, but Bob did great and we made surprising good time, all in all.
Anyway, I hope the weather is kinder to you from now on. I am really enjoying seeing South Florida through your eyes.
__________________
"&Larry"
A beautiful day in the neighborhood!
Last edited by LLaffinPlace; 03-07-2010 at 04:04 PM..
That was some rainstorm. I've driven to Key West several times but never in the rain. The drive across the seven mile bridge is beautiful on a sunny day. I'm glad you made it through all the rain in one piece.
Liz
That rain is just crazy! I've been in no visibility rain a few times here in Kentucky and it is never fun. You managed some neat pictures in spite of the rain.
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 31,940
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 2
Likes (Received): 7
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 1
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by LLaffinPlace
You've now officially passed me on the Keys. I have only made it as far as Big Pine Key, where I stayed almost exactly 36 years ago at Seacamp, a marine biology/oceanography camp at the Newfound Harbor Marine Institute.
Larry - we have something in common!! I used to TEACH at Seacamp.... I taught there the summer of 1992... just a couple of years after you were there I am sure.
Glad you were able to make it despite all that rain! I must say, even with the rain, there is nothing better than the color of that water! More please!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Wow! We would have just been stuck sitting on the side of the road, because I do not believe I could have drove in that rain . Glad you made it to your hotel safely!
Holy cow! That drive would be my worst nightmare coming true. We've driven thru some horrible rainstorms where you couldn't see the car or semi in front of you. Going over a bridge that was seven miles long would've make me chew my nails. Put those two together and I would've been a mess. Mark!
__________________
ºOº ~*~
Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
Wow, you weren't kidding about the amount of water from that rain!!! DH and I drove through a horrible rainstorm (non-hurrican produced) on our first trip to WDW in 1987 and then again in 2005 (hurrican produced) and believe me I really don't want that experience again!
Can't wait to hear more, hope it's a dryer report.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Glad you were able to make it despite all that rain! I must say, even with the rain, there is nothing better than the color of that water! More please!
Friday 18 December – part six: this is some hotel!
When we got to Key West, everywhere you looked, it was flooded, as you can see from these photos. Fortunately, most people were being sensible in dealing with it, except for the four wheeled drivers, who would go through and soak the rest of us. That’s fine for them, as they’ll get through OK, but what about the rest of us? You could easily flood people’s engines, doing that, but I guess that just doesn’t concern them.
Taken just as a four wheeled drive came charging past us
Finally, we made it to Duval Street, the main street in Key West, where our hotel was located. I saw a big building and figured that was it and so it turned out to be. We were later to learn that it was the tallest building in Key West, which was neat.
We drove through the swimming pool that was the entrance to the car park and unloaded the car with me finding bell services inside, as we needed their help with all the stuff we had.
Mark then went to park the car, while I went with bell services to the room. He explained how historic this place was and indeed there’s a photo of Harry S. Truman at the elevators in a photo taken at that spot. Looking around this place, you can see the history. It looks how I would imagine it to do in the 1920s.
The bell services guy also told me that there was a bar at the top of the hotel, that gives you views over all of Key West and where you can watch the sunset from. I never realised that, but very neat.
When we got to the room, the guy told me that it was a very nice room and that we had been upgraded to a junior suite. When we opened the door, I was immediately taken by how big this room was. This was a really nice surprise, particularly after the terrible journey we had to get here.
A nice surprise for being Priority Club members The view from our room, overlooking the pool
After I finished taking photos of the room, there was still no sign of Mark and I was getting a bit worried about him, so I went to have a look for him. No sign of him anywhere, so I went back to the room and, sure enough, that’s where I found him.
We sat in the room for a while, with Mark unwinding after the drive down, which was understandable.
About an hour later, Mark suggested going up to the bar at the top to see what the views from there were like. It was still really windy and we figured that there wouldn’t be any great sunset tonight and we were right, but the view from up there was pretty neat. The only problem was the wind and we could see the startings of a new storm out to sea already, so we made a hasty exit from there, before it got any closer.
We decided to head down to the lobby and get some photos there.
Wow Cheryl. Excellent updates. I'm so sorry you and Mark had to drive through flooding in December just to get to Key West. Your room looks wonderful. More please.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
) you didn't have sunny weather to enjoy the 7 mile bridge. My DH Ken just adores it and dreams of riding it Harley Davidson style some day! I'm interested to know where you stayed! I sure hope you get some sun soon!
Deb
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I hope there is some bright sunny weather headed your way soon! 
Susan
. Glad you made it to your hotel safely!
Mark!
ºOº ~*~ 
PassPorter Guide Author
You could easily flood people’s engines, doing that, but I guess that just doesn’t concern them. 
When we opened the door, I was immediately taken by how big this room was. This was a really nice surprise, particularly after the terrible journey we had to get here. 
Linear Mode
