Island dreams – a weekend away in the Isle of Man COMPLETED 7/15 - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Great scenery and loved the thatched cottages! Some good photos of your boys, pigs and those beautiful cats! The interior of those cottages were quite striking! Sorry to hear about you camera batteries. The older these batteries get, the less the recharge capacity gets. They lose a lot of their velocity over time. Good to replace them, every so often, depending on their use....but for you, it's quite vast!
I found that out when I went to France as I had to buy a full set of rechargeable alks in Paris at a FNAC store. They weren't cheap either (set of 4 for the camera), but these got me through my whole trip! My others, I started with on day one in Paris, were three years old and had quite a bit of use. I think the older they get and more you recharge lessens their capacity!
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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!
Your battery issues sound like the problem I had with my Sony camera. It was to the point where I'd get four shots and the battery was already dead. They ended up replacing the entire circuit board.
The pictures of the farm and the animals were great. I really would love to have one of those Manx cats. I really know how frustrated it is when you think you are have everything fully charged only to learn they are not!
Great scenery and loved the thatched cottages! Some good photos of your boys, pigs and those beautiful cats! The interior of those cottages were quite striking! Sorry to hear about you camera batteries. The older these batteries get, the less the recharge capacity gets. They lose a lot of their velocity over time. Good to replace them, every so often, depending on their use....but for you, it's quite vast!
I genuinely think I just forgot to charge one of them. I was in quite a funk over my camera and therefore probably didn't bother, as I wasn't expecting to use them. I think that's all it is, as they've performed excellently up until then.
Your battery issues sound like the problem I had with my Sony camera. It was to the point where I'd get four shots and the battery was already dead. They ended up replacing the entire circuit board.
I remember you saying you'd had issues with yours.
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Saturday 14 June – part eleven: “you’ve been upgraded!”
Before long, we were heading down towards Douglas…
It was about here we had a near miss with a learner driver, who was being taught at the time, who pulled out right in front of us. That was a close call!
Then we were heading into Douglas, and seeing a mixture of modern and old architecture…
Finally we found our way on to the promenade, which is where we knew our hotel was. It was lovely…
I was delighted to see one of the horse-drawn trams…
However, there was only one slight problem. We couldn’t actually find our bed and breakfast. We drove up once, turned around, and drove back, and in the end, I decided the most important thing was to find a parking space, as they seemed to be pretty rare around here. Mark did, and while he waited in the car, I went to try and find our place. I did find it, and it’s signed, just not as prominently as the places around it, so I think our eyes went to them, rather than the Ellan Vannin. All found, I came back to get him, and we headed over to it…
We headed inside to check in and we were told we’d been upgraded to a suite which sounded wonderful to us. The woman took us there through the dining room, and opened up the door, and we couldn’t believe what was waiting inside for us!
Isn’t it just amazing? We were exceptionally impressed – this is the perfect place to spend the night!
We spent a bit of down time here, with me working on the trip report, and Mark taking a well deserved nap. After all, it had already been a long day.
Eventually, about 4:30pm, we headed out again, so that we could take the horse-drawn tram along the promenade.
This is the breakfast area:
And this is it from outside – in fairness, it doesn’t say the name in very big letters, which is why we missed it…
I was fascinated by this place, which is apparently the Tower of Refuge on St. Mary’s Isle, a partially submerged reef within Douglas Bay. The structure was built by Sir William Hillary, who helped to found the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, after several shipwrecks on the island.
Next: getting the horse-drawn treatment around Douglas
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Some good photos of your boys, pigs and those beautiful cats! The interior of those cottages were quite striking! 
The older these batteries get, the less the recharge capacity gets. They lose a lot of their velocity over time. 
Good to replace them, every so often, depending on their use....but for you, it's quite vast! 
My others, I started with on day one in Paris, were three years old and had quite a bit of use. I think the older they get and more you recharge lessens their capacity! 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
. I really know how frustrated it is when you think you are have everything fully charged only to learn they are not!
PassPorter Guide Author
That is one very large year old pig. 
The Manx cat is so cute. 
) but I thought exactly the same as you!
We drove up once, turned around, and drove back, and in the end, I decided the most important thing was to find a parking space, as they seemed to be pretty rare around here. Mark did, and while he waited in the car, I went to try and find our place. I did find it, and it’s signed, just not as prominently as the places around it, so I think our eyes went to them, rather than the Ellan Vannin. All found, I came back to get him, and we headed over to it… 
which sounded wonderful to us. The woman took us there through the dining room, and opened up the door, and we couldn’t believe what was waiting inside for us! 
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