A tale of two cities… and a few other places… COMPLETED - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sunday 17 September – part ten: the highlight of the day for Jan
The first stone for the Notre Dame was laid by Pope Alexander III in 1163, and work carried on for the next 170 years. When it was finished, it was 430 feet long, with towers reaching into the sky more than 200 feet. Over the years, it’s played host to a range of important events, including royal weddings, a thanksgiving service for the liberation of Paris in 1944, the state funeral of General de Gaulle and a ceremony where Napoleon crowned himself as Emperor of France.
It turned out to be the highlight of her day, when we asked her later on, so it all worked out for the best! It is a beautiful place, and probably one of my favourite churches in the world…
While in here, Jan lit a candle for Bill, and I know that brought a lot of emotion out, but I hope it helped in some small way.
I absolutely love these windows – they’re my favourite part of the church.
While we were in there, vespersstarted, and it was a bit weird to be walking around there while a service was going on. However, so many people were still taking photos that I ended up getting a couple of shots as well. I don’t think I’d like to go to a service in here with this many people watching… I tried to be respectful, but equally, they wouldn’t allow people in during services if they had a huge problem with them being in while this was going on…
I took this on the way out, because we all thought it looked like the shadow of Quasimodo.
Had to check to see that I wasn’t looking at the wrong page.
Now, it is Friday the 13th, so you could blame that!
Or if you’d been up watching the Cubs game last night!
Had to check to see that I wasn’t looking at the wrong page.
Now, it is Friday the 13th, so you could blame that!
Or if you’d been up watching the Cubs game last night!
It is 100% Friday 13th... I knew it had gone too well. I really wouldn't mind, except the instalment now showing is NOT the one I posted this morning, so something went very, very wrong this morning... Sometimes I really hate technology!
It's an amazing church indeed. But yes, it feels weird to be in there admiring the place and taking photos when a service is going on!
(if I can ever figure out flickr, perhaps I'll get going on a TR too)
__________________
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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Sunday 17 September – part eleven: what do you want to do about dinner?
When we came out of there, it was still raining. We’d asked Jan what she wanted to do about dinner, and she opted for a nearby café, which we’d been into before. We knew we’d had a good meal here before, and hoped it would be the same again. It was certainly packed out when we got in. We were about as close to the back as it was possible to be. I went in first, then found Jan and Mark. We were so lucky to even get a table. As you can see, it’s a really traditional French place, and that’s one of the reasons I love it in here.
We started off with some lovely traditional French bread.
I opted for the mozzarella cheese with salad, tomatoes and basil, and this arrangement was a lot more traditional than the one Mark got last night…
It was very tasty, although to be honest, I could’ve done without the salad, and ending up leaving most of it.
Mark was going to go for something else, but our excellent server asked whether he was going to try the beef bourguigon (beef stew with red wine sauce), and eventually he talked Mark into it. When it turned up, it came with fries, which isn’t what Mark had asked for. He wanted rice, and when he mentioned it to our server, he was so good about it. He told me I could have the fries – result!
We all ended up having dessert, and crepes too… well, when in France… Mine was with Grand Marnier, and good grief, I knew it – it was like having neat alcohol in places!
Mark had chocolate and banana, which was an interesting combination, and not one I’d have picked…
As we were in France, I had to have one of these… a pistachio macaron…
All in all, it was an excellent meal, with great, good humoured service, and despite the fact that service is included in the price, I made sure to tip him extra, as I thought he deserved it.
Les Tours de Notre Dame
Entrée 8˝ 8˝
Dessert 8 8˝
Service 9 9
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 8˝ 9
Average score: 8.70
When we came out, the sun was just setting, and thankfully it was dry, although cold, and I cannot begin to tell you how many police there were around. Again, it didn’t really help to reassure me, it just made me wonder what intel they have. I guess I shouldn’t have such a suspicious mind, but that’s how I felt.
We wandered over to the Seine…
… and headed into the station. Oh my goodness, the train was mobbed! I swear, had it not been for the fact that we were in the last carriage, we might not even have got on board, that’s how busy it was. We managed to find seats within a few stops, thankfully, as the train more or less emptied out at one stop.
There was a beautiful sunset over Paris that we caught glimpses of as we raced along outside of Paris…
Two stops before we were due to get off, this guy got on and he had music booming away. I wouldn’t have minded if it was decent music, but it wasn’t. Like earlier, it was just boom, boom, boom and it drove us all nuts. We were so glad to get off the train, and get away from him… Why do some people have to spoil it for others?
We had fun and games getting up the escalator with a woman who couldn’t cope with the hand luggage she had, and stopped right at the top. I think you can guess what happened next. Despite guessing this might happen, and trying to avoid her, I managed to bash into her, and she gave me a filthy look. Well, I’m sorry, sort your stuff out away from the top of an escalator then!
The last we saw of her, she was still trying to get out of the exit gates…
We headed back to our respective rooms, waiting ages for the lifts – honestly the service from those was terrible!
We somehow managed to stay up stupidly late, watching a programme we’d really got into last weekend. It has to be good drama for us to stay up past 10:00pm, after such an exhausting day!
The weather today was sometimes sunny, with some cloud and some run and temperatures in the low 60s. The best thing today was how much Jan enjoyed everything! The worst thing today was how long it took Jan to get through immigration. Today we tried taking the train from the airport into Paris And the result was it was a pretty good journey. The most magical moment today was the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Dinner looked wonderful! Especially the desserts.
The twilight and sunset pictures are so pretty. It's the best time of the day, no matter where you are! Everything looks magical.
Yes, why do some people insist on blaring their music?! In private please!
__________________
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
Looked like a yummy dinner! I love a good beef bourguignon.
You did stay up later than I’d have thought with that full of a day. What show kept you up?
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I really wouldn't mind, except the instalment now showing is NOT the one I posted this morning, so something went very, very wrong this morning... 
Sometimes I really hate technology! 
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