A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The donkeys are so cute, I didn't realize they could have different coloured fur.
Most of the time, you get the traditional dark coloured donkeys, but they are a range of colours - I know this from much in-depth research at the Donkey Sanctuary...
The donkeys enjoy their work. That's interesting! I wonder how they know that. I'm picturing them talking like Eeyore to the workers there.... O K, I guess I just won't work today. Better luck tomorrow.
Oh my goodness, classic!
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This is turning out to be a great day - cows too! They knew you were coming. So they posed perfectly for your photos!
Let's just say he managed, but if you're going to damage it once, you'll damage it again and again - and that proved to be the case with this.
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Nice bedroom for a prisoner, but then again, I guess he still was a king.
The donkeys are so furry looking! Very cute. I loved their little biographies.
Sorry about Mark's ankle. I hope it didn't prove to be a problem later on. Y'all have had a rough start to this vacation, although you have seen some beautiful sights.
It certainly wasn't the smoothest of starts, let's put it that way. Thankfully things did get better...
Sweet donkeys at the castle and a field full of cows at your next destination! Sounds perfect for you! So sorry Mark hurt his ankle and that it kept creating problems for him.
Ok, so this update comes with a health warning - I am seeing no photos when I try and update this. I assume the photos will show up later and Photobucket is having issues, but if you see no photos, you know the reason why...
Saturday 4 June – part ten: not one for those scared of heights!
We made our way over to the Needles…
Now the last time we visited this, there was barely anything here, just the chairlift down to Alum Bay below, and a couple of shops. Well, my goodness, it’s changed since then, and not for the better. It is now so commercialised, and the aim is obviously to get people to stay all day long, and spend as much money as they can. I get that, but I just hate that it’s so blatant.
We got into one line, thinking that was where we could buy tickets for the chairlift, but a staff member told us we could join the shorter line for the chairlift directly. Thank goodness she did. The line took a lot longer than it should’ve done, as everyone in front of us didn’t seem to have a clue what tickets they wanted.
We eventually headed through…
… and boarded for our ride down to the bay. As you can see, this is essentially a chair lift, and my goodness, you do not get on this thing if you are scared of heights!
If you want to walk back up, here’s how you do it…
However, if you’re not, the views as you head down to the bay are just beautiful. Of course, they would’ve been even better had it not been so hazy and cloudy today.
When we got to the bottom, they did ask if we wanted to stay on, and just go back to the top, but we decided we’d go for a stroll along the beach. One of the main attractions here is the amazing coloured sand.
The last time we came here, we got a souvenir made up with the coloured sand from one of the shops at the top, and it was such a neat thing to do.
I also got some super zoomed in shots of the Needles from the beach…
After a few minutes, we made our way back to the chairlift, and got in line for it, getting a few final shots as we did…
Pictures are there for me, happily, and they're beautiful! I can only imagine how gorgeous it would be on a sunny day. Too bad they've turned it into something more touristy, but at least it seems they've confined that to the top and left the beach area alone.
The chair lift seems a much easier option than walking to and from the beach!
The different colors are cool to see.
Pictures are looking good, even despite the clouds!
I can't imagine why anyone would walk instead of chairlift (except for the fear of heights thing). It makes for so much better pictures when you're up there instead of walking below. Very cool colors too, which I'm sure stand out even more in the sunshine.
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Pictures are there for me, happily, and they're beautiful!
Yay! I just had a quick look and I was like "phew, they're there - Photobucket is finally playing ball..."
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I can only imagine how gorgeous it would be on a sunny day. Too bad they've turned it into something more touristy, but at least it seems they've confined that to the top and left the beach area alone.
The chair lift seems a much easier option than walking to and from the beach!
I'm honestly not sure I'd make it back!
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The different colors are cool to see.
I have such fond memories of the colours from the last time we visited and I was a bit disappointed, as they didn't seem to be as obvious and vivid as back then.
Pictures are looking good, even despite the clouds!
I can't imagine why anyone would walk instead of chairlift (except for the fear of heights thing). It makes for so much better pictures when you're up there instead of walking below.
Nope, neither can I!
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Very cool colors too, which I'm sure stand out even more in the sunshine.
That might be why they looked more vivid the last time we were there.
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The line took a lot longer than it should’ve done, as everyone in front of us didn’t seem to have a clue what tickets they wanted. 
I just had a quick look and I was like "phew, they're there - Photobucket is finally playing ball..." 
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