Sun and sightseeing in Spain COMPLETE - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Saturday 20 September – part two: great Olympic moments
We walked over to what was Gaudi’s house, but is now a museum. We didn’t go in, just grabbed some photos from the outside.
Then we walked through some of the gardens. We were particularly taken by an area with huge caverns.
We had a look in one of the gatehouses at the entrance, which houses the information centre, explaining more about the park and then quickly browsed the shop in the other gatehouse, but it was so hot in there, we quickly made our purchases and got out.
The walk back down to the station was much more pleasant. Isn’t that always the way when you’re going downhill?! We jumped back on the train and headed over to one of the stops nearest Montjuic. This was the area of Barcelona that we ran out of steam to see last year and I didn’t want to miss it again. When we got to the station, we took the funicular train up to Montjuic. Unfortunately, most of it was in tunnels, which meant no photos, but we made up for that a moment later.
Just around the corner was the cable car that takes you right up to Montjuic Castle, which would be our next stop. We had some wonderful views as we travelled up there.
When we got there, it wasn’t exactly as I had imagined. For starters, we’d managed to come during a weekend when they were putting on circus skills workshops for children, so the place was inundated. Fortunately, much of the outer walls of the castle itself were free from the displays. They seemed to mainly be confined to the battlements below, which allowed us to walk around and get some photos, both of the castle and the views from it. It was depressing to see a cruise ship in port, knowing that the last time we were here, we were in that position, about to head out on the sailing of a lifetime. We’d had a great time and I’d love to do it again one day.
The place really was mobbed, so after walking around and getting some water, we headed back down the cable car, snagging one to ourselves. Once again, we were treated to some great views over the city.
When we got back to the base station, we walked towards the Olympic Stadium, from the 1992 games. I had read in guidebooks that it was open and free to enter, but I didn’t actually believe that, just because it didn’t sound right. As Mark said, at home, either these sort of facilities would not be open or there’d be a charge for them. There wasn’t much open – just one little section, but you could still get some good views of the track below. It’s now used by a football team, but we were both struck by how small and intimate the stadium seemed, not what we expected before. It brought back some wonderful memories from those games and it was great to see interpretation boards, reminding you of some of the athletics highlights that had taken place there, all those years ago.
There was a small, reasonably priced café there, so we both grabbed a portion of fries each and then headed out. It was just starting to rain, but it was light and, to be honest, it was helping to take the edge off the temperatures, so it was a pleasant change. We walked around to the front of the stadium and then took a few more photos.
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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?