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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Oh my goodness, it's amazing how different the place looks in good weather - a big improvement
The second you said "rough weather", I was thinking "I'd be out of that". Sorry you felt so ill out on the water, but glad you recovered to enjoy afternoon tea - one of my favourite things to do.
It's been fascinating to read this trip report, as amazing as the resort looks, they don't seem to think about some of the basics and again that happened in the evening with the lights and the bugs - you'd think they'd know better.
So sorry you got seasick and didn't enjoy the snorkeling. The evening sounded delicious and fun, except for the bugs. Funny about the crab.
I should have just gone with Ellen and Marianne. They had such a fabulous time on their excursion. I was determined to snorkel and I didn't let my eyes see past that. Now I know...think about the weather. LOL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh my goodness, it's amazing how different the place looks in good weather - a big improvement
The second you said "rough weather", I was thinking "I'd be out of that". Sorry you felt so ill out on the water, but glad you recovered to enjoy afternoon tea - one of my favourite things to do.
It's been fascinating to read this trip report, as amazing as the resort looks, they don't seem to think about some of the basics and again that happened in the evening with the lights and the bugs - you'd think they'd know better.
It was a really pretty place. I still like Negril the best and I think from what I saw at Montego Bay I liked that one better than Royal Caribbean...but that is just personal taste to me.
Sometimes I wondered why they did some of the things they did. I guess they just don't do things that same as what I would expect in the states (or other countries for that matter).
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
It certainly looked like you ladies were the life of the party! Glad you all enjoyed a fun night together after a long touring day.
LOL. We really weren't. Just having a good time. And I really didn't drink that much either. Some of the girls did, but I just had a couple and mainly stuck with beer.
Sadly we had to go home today. I made my flight for the afternoon though so I wouldn’t have to get up too early to leave. I was so glad I did.
Lenora had an earlier flight though today. I met her for breakfast so we could say our goodbyes.
Sadly our time in the water was short and we all had flights around the same time. Actually, my new friends Brittney and Shauna were on the same flight as me. We all went to clean up and gather our things. We would find our bags in the lobby today.
We met back in the lobby and many were worried about their bags weighing too much. I had a scale with me so I pulled that out and it was passed around and people made the appropriate changes if needed.
All too soon my bus had arrived and we had to say good bye to Ellen and Marianne and we loaded up.
We arrived and there was a line, but it moved fairly quickly and we got our bags checked in. We had Club Mobay again for the return trip, which means you get to go through a faster security line….Just like TSA pre-check. I actually got mixed answers on whether I would have pre-check here with my global entry since it is another country, but my ticket did have it marked….so good to know!
Either way, both lines were fast and we breezed right through. Once you get into the terminal there are a ton of duty free shops…TONS! I ended up buying stuff and had to cram it in my already super full carryon bag. (And it was so full that I couldn’t jam it in the overhead later and had to take something out and put it in my personal bag and that thing was stuffed too.)
Shauna, Brittney and I had planned to meet back up in the club lounge once done. I found a seat near some plugs and charged up some more.
I got some food…They had these little pocket type things that are a Jamaica specialty. I can’t remember the name now but they reminded me of empanadas. When we had toured Beaches they gave us each one to try and they were really good…so I got a couple of different ones. Some were pretty spicy but they were so good I just kept eating and eating!
We had lost Shauna and kept texting her and she said she was in the adult area of the club….so were we…and this room wasn’t that big. We then found out that there was a downstairs area and it was divided into adults in one area and families in another. It was huge down there. The area we were in was also for adults, but newer, and mainly for more of the single flyer crowd.
We went downstairs to find Shauna and to take some quick pictures.
We all went back upstairs and when we heard the announcement to go to our gate we headed that way. Our gate was a bit of a ways but we arrived in plenty of time. I am so glad I did the Club Mobay as seating was not vey plenty in the gate area and it was just a very basic area. I had to laugh at how they lined us up for Southwest as well….they had flip cards with the letters and numbers.
One lady working it so it took her a bit to keep flipping, but we eventually all got on the plane. And like I said before, my luggage was just bulging so I had to rearrange stuff to make it fit. Kind of frustrating to do when you are boarding.
Once boarded though all went smooth and we were headed to Chicago. Once we arrived there we had to go through customs. It has been years since I have had to do this at an airport and I was a bit nervous, especially not sure how it would all work with global entry. It was a breeze and I got through really really fast! But there was not much of a line either, so even those without global entry were zooming through. We were told that we could go through up to the security agent and show them that we had just come out of customs and they would put us through faster to get back into the terminal. (the regular line was super long) I had gotten through so fast and had quite a bit of time till my next flight, so I just decided to go outside and get some fresh air for a bit before heading back in. Once I had my fill of air I headed back in and went through the TSA precheck line. It was a little longer than I thought it should have been and quite a few were grumbling, but honestly it was still much shorter than the normal line and it didn’t take long to get through.
Once through I got a call from Skip and I told him where I was. He immediately remembered the popcorn place we had been to when we stopped here on our way to Seattle a few years ago. I asked him if he wanted any and he said no. Well I decided to be nice and get some for the family and I headed that way. And yeah..I had to try and cram that in my bag too…but at least this last flight was going to be just about an hour so I wouldn’t be uncomfy for long. I then got myself some food and sat and waited for my next flight.
That flight was another normal flight and I was soon back in Detroit getting my bags. I must be old, but I can’t remember who picked me up, but I am pretty sure it was my parents with Claire in tow. (Skip never will drive that far to pick me up….he always has a farming excuse. LOL)
And then back home to life as normal….It was too short but so much fun!
I will end with thoughts on Jamaica….
It was my first time there and I loved it. I know some people don’t care for it and I am not sure why. The beaches we were on were all great, the water was a perfect temperature to enjoy swimming…or in our case just standing around cooling off and talking. I liked the food and Sandals had plenty of choices.
It definitely was hot there and if I went with my family I would be spending most of the time in the water or any place that had AC….and I am not sure if summer would be my first choice as time to visit….but that is why they schedule these tours then…because it is their slower season.
I had hoped to go to another Sandals location this summer and do another one of these, but I decided to take a cruise with several co-workers this summer and we are bringing our kids so I really think I made the right choice.
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Wow, that club looked amazing - I completely forgot you were at an airport looking at your photos.
Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us. I was expecting to get to Jamaica on one of the Disney cruises early in 2018, but that's gone out of the window... because we're booked on the transatlantic to New York from the UK and then the New York to Quebec City cruise in the fall of next year, so I can't complain. One day, I would love to make it there though.
Too bad you room was on the third floor and not that great. Looks like you had a fun evening enjoying yourselves.
Thanks for sharing this TR as I enjoyed reading it as you had a nice trip in Jamaica.
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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!
Thanks for sharing this TR! I found it really interesting! We had originally planned on going to Jamaica for our honeymoon, but for reasons I can't recall we switched to Aruba. I loved seeing the resorts you went to.
Smart move to schedule a later flight! Like Cheryl, I forgot for a moment that the club was in the airport. for sharing this trip and all the photos of Sandals with us.
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So sorry that you felt seasick during your snorkeling excursion as that is just the worst feeling in the world. It sounds like you had a successful trip getting to view many of the resorts/rooms and also had a lot of fun meeting new friends along the way! Glad your flight home went so smoothly. Thanks again for entertaining us with your trip adventures.
Thanks for taking us to Jamaica! We honeymooned at Sandals Montego Bay 20 years ago and had been to many of those properties so it's fun to see what has changed (and what hasn't)! Glad you had a great time!!
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
for sharing this trip and all the photos of Sandals with us. 
It sounds like you had a successful trip getting to view many of the resorts/rooms and also had a lot of fun meeting new friends along the way! Glad your flight home went so smoothly. Thanks again for entertaining us with your trip adventures.
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