Getting some winter sun in Mallorca, Spain COMPLETED - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
PassPorter.com
Award-winning travel guidebooks

   guidebooks   |   news   |   podcasts   |   boards   |   blog   |   worksheets   |   photos   |   articles   |   updates   |   register   |   follow us on


Forums Closed
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!

Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!

Go Back   PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums > PassPorter Universe: General Trip Planning and Discussion > Globetrotting: General Trip Reports
Register


Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.

To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.

If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 02-05-2014, 01:23 AM   #11
chezp
PassPorter Message Board Manager
PassPorter Guide Author

Community Rank:
Legend VIP
 
chezp's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 190,285

Post Thanks / Like
Sunday 12 January – part ten: the cathedral at night

Then we headed back to the hotel, passing more of the sea as we did. I was able to grab a number of shots as we drove past it.



Then we were on our way out of the city…



When we got back to the hotel, we were lucky enough to find a parking spot right at the front of the hotel which was definitely a result. Mind you, we thought the place was a lot quieter now, as a lot of people did appear to be checking out this morning. We saw a lot of people with suitcases, many of them containing bicycles. Whether they were heading out on a day trip in a vehicle or going home though, I don’t know.

We headed downstairs to check out how busy the pool was, and the verdict was that it wasn’t. Literally there were two people sitting on loungers, and no-one in the pool, so we went up to our room to get changed, and then headed back down. By the time we got there, we were the only people there. we had the place to ourselves. We grabbed a couple of loungers nearest where the late afternoon sun was still streaming in, as by now, it was heading towards 5:00pm.

I went to go down the steps into the pool, and got a bit of a shock, as it was a lot colder than I thought it would be. I got used to it for a while, before heading off to do 10 lengths. I didn’t want to do too much and wear myself out, as we’d already done a lot today, so I stopped after that, but my ankle, which had been playing up a bit, felt a lot better after its workout in the water. Mark stopped at about the second step and then headed back to his lounger, declaring it was too cold for him.

When I got out, I headed over to the sauna to sit and warm up in there for a while. Honestly, it is crazy that you have to go outside when you leave the pool to walk over to the fitness centre. I’m sure in the summer it’s fine, but it was a bit of a shock to the system today.

Once I’d spent a few minutes in there, and warmed up and dried off a bit, I went back to the pool, and we gathered up our stuff, and headed back to the room, where I grabbed a shower, and washed my hair.

We headed down to dinner around 6:30pm, and it was certainly a lot quieter in here tonight, which fitted with a lot of people leaving this morning. I reckon there was about half the number of people in there, compared to last night.

The whole time we were there, despite my best attempts to speak Spanish to the staff, they kept replying in German, which just goes to show that they make up the majority of the guests, as they obviously assume everyone is German. When we went to pay, and the woman who served us heard us speaking English, her face was a picture!

There was a lot of the same food, although there were some changes. I was personally delighted to see vegetable lasagne, as it’s been a long time since I’ve had that, so I happily dug into that. I also thought the salad selection was better, as they had aioli mayonnaise, which neither of remembered seeing last night, and they had some fish salad item as well. They still had three different cooked fish, so there was plenty for those of us who don’t eat meat.



I was also very taken by the courgette (zucchini) cream soup. It didn’t look like courgette at all, as it was a creamy colour with noodles in it, so very gingerly I took my first sip of it, and despite appearances, it definitely tasted of courgettes, and very good it was too.

Mark raved about the pork and crackling, saying it was melt in the mouth. In fact, he was so taken with it that he went back for seconds, although he was disappointed not to get given as much on his second visit up there…

The desserts had also changed, and I liked the way that they’d lay bananas, or almonds, as it was tonight, on top of the various desserts, so you could easily work out what it was. Very helpful for me, with my allergy to tree fruit.



All in all, I was very impressed with the food here. Considering I wasn’t sure what to expect, as it was half board, I thought we really got our money’s worth, with some good quality food, and a very good selection of it too.

Es Siurell

Appetiser 8½ 8½
Entrée 8½ 9
Dessert 9 8½
Service 8 8
Atmosphere 8½ 8

Average score: 8.45

We went back to the room to gather up our stuff, as we were heading out again. There was still one thing I desperately wanted to do today, and that was see the cathedral all lit up at night. We parked in the same place we’d used before, and headed out into the park, to see this beautiful sight in front of us:

Wow, it was just as breath taking as I’d imagined.



Once we’d taken some photos, we paid the massive 15c (20c), as this car park calculates its charges by the minute, which I think is a good system, and then we headed out.

We drove along the seafront again, although I was only able to get photos if we weren’t moving, so the shots are very limited.



We carried on so far that we ended up leaving Palma by a completely different route, joining the motorway as it started. We were soon back at the hotel, and of course there was no parking left in front of it, although fortunately we were able to find a space just opposite the hotel – a big improvement on last night.



With that, we headed back to the room. It had been a wonderful day, and I’m absolutely in love with Palma – what a beautiful city it is.

The weather today was cloudy with some sun and a little bit of rain with temperatures in the low 60s.
The best thing today was spending time in Palma.
The worst thing today was getting up those horrible twisty and turning roads to the monastery.
Today we tried going to the Monastery at Lluc
And the result was it was a lovely place, but wow, what a journey to get there!
The most magical moment today was walking out of the car park and getting my first full look at Palma Cathedral.

Next: are the swans Ok?
__________________

Relaxing on board the Magic. The trip report for our back-to-back cruises on the Disney Magic has started!
My Countdown Counting down to: 2019
Happy New Year!
My PassPorter Bookshelf
My Previous Trips21 trips to WDW, 6 to Disneyland in California, 9 to Disneyland Paris, 1 to Hong Kong Disneyland, 1 to Tokyo Disney, 1 to Aulani, 1 to Hilton Head, 2 to Vero Beach and 13 Disney cruises on the Magic, Wonder, Dream and Fantasy
chezp is offline  
 
Reply With Quote
 



Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump














Please login or register to hide these ads -- it's free and easy!

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:01 PM.

-->

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Feedback Buttons provided by Advanced Post Thanks / Like v3.4.0 Patch Level 1 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
(c) 1998-2017 PassPorter Travel Press/MediaMarx, Inc.
Celebrating 19 Years of Making Dreams Come True
Ad Management plugin by RedTyger