A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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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Nice start to the morning, hope you don’t have too many of those Canadian visitors they leave an awful mess. I too hate waiting, but my husband is always so calm, it drives me nuts.
Nice start to the morning, hope you don’t have too many of those Canadian visitors they leave an awful mess.
I know how much you guys love your Canadian geese! I've never forgotten the guide on the Vancouver hop-on, hop-off bus, asking if we liked them. Of course everyone said and his next line? Well, can you take them home with you... please!
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I too hate waiting, but my husband is always so calm, it drives me nuts.
The problem is neither of us are good at waiting, so neither of us is calm!
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The Canadian Air Force! hahahaha.......
Wow, what a beautiful place to be married. I feel like you've posted that before, so I'll say it again.
Patience. Yeah, not my strong suit either.
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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
Oh, you did have a lovely morning for walking around and seeing the sights. I totally understand your pacing while waiting for someone to show up. I feel the excitement as you were so anxious to get going on these cruises.
What a beautiful place! So pretty and restful looking. Yes, our 'towns' with their strip malls look like one another. I cannot wait to retire and move out into the country somewhere.
I smiled when I read the name Tyrwhitt as Dave buys all of his dress shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt mail order and I tease him every time a catalog shows up, though the quality is first rate!
I'm most worried about the teaser....uhoh! I hope things are easily put to rights!
What a beautiful place! So pretty and restful looking. Yes, our 'towns' with their strip malls look like one another. I cannot wait to retire and move out into the country somewhere.
I smiled when I read the name Tyrwhitt as Dave buys all of his dress shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt mail order and I tease him every time a catalog shows up, though the quality is first rate!
Oh yes, of course! I must admit I don't think I've been into one of their shops, but I have heard that the quality is excellent.
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I'm most worried about the teaser....uhoh! I hope things are easily put to rights!
They were for us... others I'm not so sure about...
Glad you have this TR going as I'm a bit behind as I just returned from Las Vegas last night!
That must have been so aggravating for Mari and Raleigh with the flight delay! Not the way you want to begin your trip. I remember my flight home from WDW in 2016 was a four hour delay!
Then to top their situation off with the luggage situation and how poorly it was handled by the Easy Jet staff! At least they finally got it. I feel so bad for that girl you tried to help!
Glad you got to at least see the grounds of Winston Churchill's Chartwell home. It's quite nice with some great views and gardens! Very well done!
It's interesting how you mention how the idea to the National Trust properties came about!
Nice dinner at the George Inn and what everyone needed after such a chaotic start to the trip!
Love the photos of your garden as beautiful as always!
That was quite funny with Mari and her situation with the adapter plug! It's always something simple to solve, when your mind is somewhere else!
Glad you could show Mari and Raleigh where you got married. Looks like quite a nice place from the outside and grounds to match. You had quite a nice morning exploring other parts of town and along the river!
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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!
Last edited by SuperDave; 10-14-2018 at 12:48 AM..
Sunday 9 September – part three: Disney get it wrong… big time!
We had beautiful weather as we drove down…
… and soon we were coming into Dover after about 40 minutes.
As we approached Dover, we could see the English Channel that we’d be sailing out through later today…
… and part of Dover…
… but the Disney Magic remained stubbornly hidden away. Where was she?
We knew she was in, as we’d already seen the photos from people on the Facebook group. Yes, people were up early to see her sail in. Rather them than me. We needed the lie-in today!
And then finally we caught our first sighting of her!
We headed into the cruise terminal area, which was very nice. We passed the former railway station. It’s such a shame this closed down, as it’s right by the terminal and would have been perfect today for cruises. Oh well.
I really liked the fact that you could pull up in the car almost right alongside her.
We got out and took the luggage out of both cars. It was fascinating to see Anne and Sean’s reactions. They were blown away by the sight of her. We’re taking a cruise with them next year, which will be their first ever and it made them very excited for that.
We said our goodbyes and thank yous to them and headed inside the terminal.
The security check was pretty simple and frankly I think you could’ve brought however much wine you wanted on board, as I don’t think the security guys were exactly prioritising that, shall we say?
We headed into the totally non-existent line for platinum Castaway Club members and were seen in a couple of minutes.
Now here’s where I thought Disney got it wrong… big time! They didn’t tell the non-EU passport holders that they would have to give up their passports at check-in and have duplicates, until we got to Ireland. Apparently it was to stop everyone having to get up at 4:00am. I get that, but they needed to tell people. As Mari said later, the advice the US government gives is never to give your passport up to anyone… and yes, I can understand some people saying that includes a cruise line.
For those of us who weren’t American, they wanted to see evidence of our ESTA visa for entry into the States, which was fine for me, as I had a print-out of mine, but a lot of people didn’t. We weren’t told to have one for checking and it’s not necessarily an obvious thing you’d think of as you’re supposed to present it when you arrive in the States and don’t need to do that any longer when you board a plane, so again that was causing issues. Let’s just say there was a massive line to see the supervisor, which isn’t good… A simple email explaining things would have been a good plan.
Was that the first time Anne and Sean had ever seen a cruise ship close up? I can imagine the looks on their faces!
Oooh, yeah, a little extra info goes a long way. If for nothing else, just to cover their butts! "If you'd check the email, you'd see that we mentioned this" sort of thing! Also good for those who booked with a travel agent, as I'd assume a travel agent tells their clients about these little details. I used to anyway!
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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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