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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great day in Lagos! (Every time I read "Lagos" I think "Nigeria" and think you've had a VERY long day's drive!) Sorry you didn't see any dolphins, but it must have been a very scenic boat ride. The castle, or fort, is an intriguing building. The terraced hillsides (and the donkey!) are wonderful and it really seems to be one great meal after another here. I think the Department of Tourism should hire you. I'm ready to book a trip right now.
It was a fun boat ride, the scenery was beautiful, and the meal was outstanding. I know following some of the other trip reports out there that there are so many beautiful places to see, I just need more time and money.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
The fort in Lagos is very interesting! I like that art work, too. Great dinner to finish the day.
I really liked the artwork also, I don't seem to go for the normal artwork, usually I prefer the more funky stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I love all the scenery - and like Laurie, I did a double take about Lagos as well. Thank you so much for the cute donkey photo too!
I thought you might like the donkey photo, although personally Tigger is my favourite.
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Originally Posted by shazza
Beautiful Anniversary Date, and touring Lagos and Foia looked like a fun day, even if you didn't see the dolphins.
It was a good day.
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great days in Algarve and Lagos! Sorry you didn't see any dolphins on your boat trip!
We are heading to Halifax Nova Scotia in Sept and I hope to see some whales, if I don't then I will have to head to Alaska.
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Woke up at 7:30 again and had our usual breakfast buffet; I never tire of the buns and baked goods available. We headed out to the Aqua mall in Portimao, we walked around and I noticed a place where you sit and put your feet in the water and little fishes come and nibble at your feet to clean them. I had heard about this, so at least I knew what it was, it was interesting to see in person. After hitting all the jewelry stores I finally found a ring I liked, I think my DH was very happy as he was getting tired of looking.
Now I have two more Tiggers.
My ring
I also got some shirts for my DD’s, next time I will get everyone’s measurements before we go and translate them to the European sizes, it will make my life so much easier. Somehow I also found another Tigger to purchase and we bought a lottery ticket, although we didn’t win.
We headed back to the hotel, got in our swimsuits and headed to the beach, we again rented chairs to relax in, it was quite windy so we didn’t stay as long as we would have liked. I suffer from migraines and if I get wind blowing on my ears it gives me a migraine. We had not had lunch yet so we went to this little place called the Algar Bar and each had a clubhouse sandwich and a beer. It was a good sandwich but the bacon was on the outside of the bread on top in the shape of an x, a little bizarre. We headed back to the hotel for a little nap.
We then decided to go to the grocery store to pick up some things so we would not have to stop on the way home tomorrow, also since my one DD is vegetarian we wanted to see what was on offer. We toured the grocery store and did find a section of items that would work for my DD, she will have more issues in the smaller restaurants as Portugal is not as far along with vegetarian dishes as other countries, at least she will eat fish so that will help.
We dropped the groceries off in the room and then head to Guia for their famous chicken - it is about ½ hour from the hotel but so worth the trip. We arrived a little after 7 pm, the restaurant is called Teodosio o rei dos frangos, and I highly recommend it. You are shown to your seat, they ask if you are having the chicken and if you say yes they start bringing the food (we have never had any thing else so I am not sure what else they offer), you start with a plate of cheese and olives with a basket of bread, then they bring a lettuce, tomato, onion salad, fries and piri piri chicken, it is all served family style. I had a sprite and DH had a beer, we capped off the delicious meal with chocolate mousse for me, and pudding flan for DH.
We drove back to the hotel and packed up for our check out tomorrow.
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Great purchases! The ring is beautiful and seems perfect for an anniversary. The place you had dinner looks wonderful. The family style made me think of Liberty Tree Tavern.
I'm glad you found a friend for Tigger, and also a lovely ring. Too bad about the difficulties for vegetarians there, although I'm usually happy with just a salad, so that won't keep me from dreaming of a trip to Portugal in the future!
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Your ring is cute! I love that you got another Tigger too. That chicken meal looks delicious!
You can't ever have enough Tigger's, and the chicken was awesome.
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Originally Posted by chezp
Another great day - love the shot of the two Tiggers together.
Thank you.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Great purchases! The ring is beautiful and seems perfect for an anniversary. The place you had dinner looks wonderful. The family style made me think of Liberty Tree Tavern.
I really am pleased with the ring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I'm glad you found a friend for Tigger, and also a lovely ring. Too bad about the difficulties for vegetarians there, although I'm usually happy with just a salad, so that won't keep me from dreaming of a trip to Portugal in the future!
I am hoping to go back in 2 years with my DD's and then we will really be able to report on the vegetarian options. I think the problem is going to be the addition of chicken stock in the rice and soups, and that they love to put churizo sausage in everything.
I am hoping to go back in 2 years with my DD's and then we will really be able to report on the vegetarian options. I think the problem is going to be the addition of chicken stock in the rice and soups, and that they love to put churizo sausage in everything.
I'm familiar with that problem! So often rice is started with a chicken stock base. I'll look forward to your report in 2 years, although I'm ready to leave for Portugal NOW!
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Woke up at 7:50, had breakfast, finished packing, and loaded up the car. One of the things I like in Portugal that I wish we did more of in Canada was how they conserve energy. In each hotel room you have to insert your room card key into a card holder to turn on the power. Also, when we took the stairs all the lights are motion activated - when you go down one flight, the flight behind you turns off and the lights for next flight of stairs turn on. This also happens in the parking garage - as you pass through each area the lights turn off behind you.
We were on the road at 9:30, saying goodbye to the Algarve for another trip. We took the express toll highway back. At 12:30 we stopped for lunch, I had my favourite pao com chorizo, Pepsi and chocolate mousse, DH had soup, cod perogies, Pepsi, and rice pudding, it was all very good and filling. We got back on the road, drove for a little while and then stopped in Torres Novas to get milk and meat, arriving back at the house at 2:10.
Lunch, the triangle shaped items are the cod cakes.
We looked everywhere for the keys to the house but couldn’t find them, so we went next door and borrowed them from Tia. It turns out they were in DH’s shorts in the laundry, which we realized once we got inside and I started a load of laundry.
We headed next door to visit and shared a wonderful dinner of salad, rice, homemade fries, pork slices, fresh fruit and pudding flan. We stayed and chatted until 9 pm, with me occasionally running back to check on the laundry. Each load takes about 2 hours to wash, no matter where we set the dial on the washer. We headed back to the house and I caught up on my notes.
Today was cold and rainy, so I spent the day indoors reading and pricing out a late August trip to Disney World for me and my 2 DD’s. The pricing was pretty good and the dates worked so when I arrived back in Winnipeg I did book the trip. I also made many trips to the clothesline, but the rainy weather was not helping the clothes to dry. My DH spent the day puttering and visiting people in the town.
For lunch we had chicken noodle soup and sandwiches and for dinner we had curry chicken with rice. It is really hard to make our own food since we never stay more than about 6 days at the house at any stretch and in total we are never in Portugal longer than 3 or 4 weeks. Also all the relatives want to feed us so it really is hard to plan meals. We usually buy quick to prepare items, but next time I am going to pack a bunch of assorted spices and bring them with us. I am also looking forward to the future when we go for 3 or 4 months at a time and can really enjoy picking up food from the market and enjoying it.
After dinner we watched a movie and then because we were so cold we turned in for the night.
DH has a difficult time parking at the house due to the way the driveway was built so he had me take pictures of his progress to park, since I didn't have many pictures from this day I decided to include them.
Backing out of that driveway must be even harder! That's a long wash cycle. I can see that you have to be home for a couple of days to have time to do the wash and give it time to dry.
Yes we wish we had been there when DH's dad had it built, so we could have offered some suggestions.
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Originally Posted by lauriep
Backing out of that driveway must be even harder! That's a long wash cycle. I can see that you have to be home for a couple of days to have time to do the wash and give it time to dry.
Actually DH, drives on to the neighbours vacant property and turns around then drives out. If he ever has to back out we will be in trouble as its too steep to go fast, but you need the speed to beat the traffic.