The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 4/25 - Page 35 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Nice photos of Willemstad and the buildings are just so beautiful and colorful! Some nice bright red flowers in town as well, which adds to the beauty!
I thought it was the most picturesque place we visited in the entire cruise.
Thursday 18 January – part three: learning about life on Curacao
Our first stop was the Curacao National Museum, which I’d read rave reviews about in one of my guidebooks, so I was really looking forward to seeing it. It’s housed in a former Dutch military hospital and it has a very eclectic collection of things such as antique furniture, old kitchen equipment and art.
There was a lot inside it, although we did go round it reasonably quickly. I’d have liked a few minutes more to take it all in.
The first room we went into was all fitted out with mahogany and it’s unusual these days to find this much of this type of wood anywhere. I know, as we have mahogany furniture at home and trying to buy more to fit in with it proved to be an absolute nightmare.
Maravla also talked about how furniture is passed down from one generation to the next. She said she’d been given a mahogany bed, but it was very uncomfortable and she’d often hit herself on it, so she passed it to her sister.
Now in the last photo, you can see a unique use for a chair! For those of you not sure, it was a toilet basically…
Maravla explained how women would walk with water on their heads and then put it into massive bowls. It brought home again the problems they have with water out here and obviously having their own supplies has made a huge difference to them. We did still see various windmills, which were signs of people pumping their own water and Maravla explained that’s probably because they had commercial gardens or farms.
We then went into another room to see this…
This was all hand painted on to glass. I was blown away by this. What an amazing thing it is!
She showed us this mural next, depicting life in Willemstad. She pointed out slaves, a donkey and even a bird (I’m sorry I don’t remember its name) that everyone tried to shoo away, as apparently if it comes to your house, it brings you bad luck.
We were then taken through the kitchen section, which was ridiculously rushed, but I guess they have times to stick to.
We then headed into the back section of the museum…
I was one of the last in, as I’d been photographing on the way (no big surprise there ) so I didn’t catch all of what she was saying. She actually played the big item, which turned out to be a musical instrument, which was neat. She demonstrated the items on the table in front of it, which included maracas and also items to pulp corn into polenta. Gosh, that would’ve been hard work.
We passed through the kitchen area display they had…
… and along the outside passage. We didn’t get any commentary here, but still they had some neat items…
Next: you said three would be fine in those seats!
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Quite the museum and a lot more to see in there than I thought as the building doesn't look that big. I guess they use the space well. Love the glass paintings inside which are so amazing and the work that went into these! That is one odd use for a chair!
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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!
Thursday 18 January – part four: you said three would be fine in those seats!
We were given a few minutes to head off to the out building at the Curacao National Museum…
Don’t ask… no, really don’t. I honestly have no idea.
The out building is home to the first Dutch Royal Airlines jet (now KLM) that flew from Holland to Curacao taking nine days. Look at the state of it!
At least now I now what KLM stands for
This was the route they took!
Not a great photo, but you get the idea about the seats – and you thought airline seats today were bad…
We headed back on to the bus and here’s where it all kicked off. Remember the family of three in front of us squashed on to just two seats? Well, they’d decided that was uncomfortable for them. Gosh, what a surprise! They moved to take up three seats, except there wasn’t another going. Maravla was very good and essentially said everyone needed to go back to their original seats to see if they could solve the problem. No, they couldn’t. The family basically had no choice to go back as they were. In my mind, they made the problem by deciding to sit that way and should’ve said something right at the beginning, not once the tour was underway. It was too late by then. My goodness, you should’ve heard the complaints from them. I’m afraid I had no sympathy, as I saw this problem coming when we left the Wonder…
We set off again, passing more beautiful buildings…
… and seeing this:
Maravla said we weren’t allowed to have fast food today, but this was definitely much more Americanised than St. Lucia or Antigua. We also saw Subway, McDonald’s and KFC and were told that Taco Bell is here too.
I guess this is from the Dutch army, as they’re responsible for defence…
This was the old water desalination plant, which apparently was only replaced in 2016. All I can say is it’s degenerated a lot since then!
Then we headed out to the salt flats and also found flamingos out here, which was such a neat sight.
Next we passed by the international airport and we knew from the discussions we’d had earlier about the first flight here from Holland that there are regular direct flights from here back to Schipol in Amsterdam. It was a decent size, but not too big, and it’s also home to the Coast Guard and apparently a US base.
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Some nice bright red flowers in town as well, which adds to the beauty!
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For those of you not sure, it was a toilet basically… 
I hope you're able to take one, they are truly magical. 
Look at the state of it! 
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