A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 had to laugh that you were a bit disgruntled with the placement of the duty free, yet you thought of your loyal TR followers and took pictures anyway . Off to a good start!
__________________
Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
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Great start Cheryl I'm so looking forward to reading this TR! It was so nice meeting up with you and Mark even if it was for a quick picture! I hope we can actually spend more time together on a future trip!
Wow, I can't believe how quiet Gatwick was! The South Terminal looks nice now - I normally fly out of North (BA to WDW or Easyjet to Edinburgh for work) but will have to hope for a departure from there so that I can have a nose.
They've certainly done a lot of work at the south terminal, but then again, the north terminal got the attention a few years ago. Up until then, the north terminal was far superior.
I like your Gatwick photos! We flew in/out of Gatwick on our trip to England 14 years ago...it has really changed. Also like the photo of the Brad Pitt Chanel ad...
Can't wait for you to take off and get there! And I'm guessing you burned your mouth or ate some very crispy bread for the next update.
I had to laugh that you were a bit disgruntled with the placement of the duty free, yet you thought of your loyal TR followers and took pictures anyway . Off to a good start!
Well I knew people would be disappointed if I didn't...
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Great start Cheryl I'm so looking forward to reading this TR! It was so nice meeting up with you and Mark even if it was for a quick picture! I hope we can actually spend more time together on a future trip!
I hope we can too. I'm so glad we were able to get together, even if it was very brief.
Thursday 6 December – part two: that took the roof off my mouth!
We headed out just after 9:20am, as that’s when our gate was due to be announced, and sure enough, it had been – gate 13, which isn’t one of the usual ones Virgin uses, so it was a pleasant change, a nice short walk over there.
Our plane!
We had a few minutes to wait at the gate…
…. and then they called for Premium Economy, and off we went. We were on one of Virgin Atlantic’s newer planes, and I thought it had some good, and not so good points. The good was the nice big screen in the seatback, and the touchscreen technology, and Mark thought the seat was wider too. The not so good was the table, which was really hard to pull out, especially with my RSI (or carpal tunnel to you guys ).
The new entertainment system
We grabbed ourselves some drinks and settled back and waited for take-off…
We were told that there would be a delay while they de-iced the wings, as it was still pretty cold outside, but in the end, we don’t think they did anything, as they told us it would take 10-15 minutes, and we were moving away from the gate in literally about five minutes.
We made our way towards the runway, and having watched the scene from above in the lounge earlier, it was fascinating to now see it from ground level. Suddenly, we had a much better perception of where we were going.
We couldn’t get over the name of this airline!
We were pleasantly surprised that we barely had a wait, and then we were on the runway, and taking off. I got some great shots as we left the ground….
I have to be honest, I couldn’t believe how green the land beneath us was, and how few towns and cities there appeared to be.
Soon we were seeing the English coastline, with the Channel beneath it….
… and not long after that, we were into the clouds, with nothing more to see.
The entertainment system started up, and once we had our tutorial on how to use it (it’s very cool, and even has news updates on the hour, which was the best! )…
…. we were off and running. We both watched the Dark Knight Rises, and I loved this film. It was very long, but despite that, I felt it was well paced, and actually needed to be that long for everything to fit together in it. I’m really glad I got to see it.
While we were watching it, lunch was served, and sadly it turned out that the only option on the menu for vegetarians was all they had on board…. Thai green vegetable curry. Now anyone who’s had Thai green curry knows that this isn’t for the faint hearted, and I really do not like overly spicy food. My goodness, this practically took the roof off my mouth. I wasn’t happy about it, and asked for a complaint form, as I don’t think it’s fair to literally just have the one choice only on board for non-meat eaters. I was told by a steward that you can make special requests online, and I think I might do that in the future, as I don’t want to be in this position again.
However, at least I was able to get the smoked salmon appetiser than everyone else had, thanks to Mark’s quick thinking as the salad that came with the vegetarian option was nothing special. I also had to change out the dessert, as they couldn’t tell me what was in it, and I wasn’t about to take the risk, with my allergies to tree fruit, so I got the chocolate brownie from the main menu.
Mark opted for the chicken:
Once lunch was done, and the Dark Knight Rises had finished, we both tried to sleep. I managed to sleep for maybe 20 minutes, then just cat napped for the next hour or so after that, which actually helped to make the time go a lot quicker. By the time I properly woke up, we only had four hours left, so I started to watch the Bourne Legacy, knowing I’d only get one more film in while on board, and this was another winner as well.
WOW Force One. How funny. Great shots of the countryside. Sorry about your lunch, I'm surprised in this day and age they wouldn't have more vegetarian options or at least make them a little non spicy.
Yikes! I wouldn't have been able to eat that spicy curry, either! I love the mild red curry, but I agree, if you're going to offer only one veg entree, it shouldn't be that HOT! The new seat-back screens look great.
Love how you even managed to make the traveling look fun. Was that the lounge you can precook and pay for online? I am thinking it might be a better option than buying breakfast in one of the restaurants.
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wow! That plane looks nice Sorry about the poor vegetarian options. You would think with more and more people going vegetarian or vegan they would have more choices. At least you knew you would be getting amazing food at WDW and on the cruise!! Can't wait to hear more!
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to wait for your flight from the lounge!
I'm so looking forward to reading this TR! It was so nice meeting up with you and Mark even if it was for a quick picture! I hope we can actually spend more time together on a future trip!
PassPorter Guide Author
I'm so glad we were able to get together, even if it was very brief.
Now anyone who’s had Thai green curry knows that this isn’t for the faint hearted, and I really do not like overly spicy food. My goodness, this practically took the roof off my mouth. 
Sorry the food selection was limited! 
Deb
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