A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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More wonderful pictures! I love the droplets of water on the rose!
The gardens and lawns are so beautifully manicured! I can't imagine the landscaping staff they have!
WOW! Gorgeous doesn't seem to do the gardens justice. Now I am SO sad we didn't get to Victoria.
The colors are so amazing. I could just sit on a bench in that sunken garden for hours, I think.
I could've done too. I keep thinking that maybe we need a night in Victoria and two full days, so we can spend longer in the gardens and explore the city properly.
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Every photo is just so beautiful! I can't believe this is all in one place. And you're not done yet! I can't imagine the gardeners upkeep they must do on a daily basis though....
I cannot even begin to imagine how many gardeners they have there... a lot, I'll wager.
More wonderful pictures! I love the droplets of water on the rose!
The gardens and lawns are so beautifully manicured! I can't imagine the landscaping staff they have!
I was intrigued, so I went searching and I found this article from the Vancouver Sun. I can't believe how few people they have, especially as the Butchart Gardens website says they put out a million bedding plants each year!
I was intrigued, so I went searching and I found this article from the Vancouver Sun. I can't believe how few people they have, especially as the Butchart Gardens website says they put out a million bedding plants each year!
indeed! 50 gardeners (or 70 in the summer)?!?!? For someplace that size, I am just flabbergasted!
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Monday 7 September – part twelve: are those bobbing on the water?
Finally, we were at the bottom of the steps in the Japanese Gardens, and there was plenty here to photograph, including this cute bridge…
They also had a traditional rock garden here…
… and this delightful little tea chamber, although sadly if you sat inside it and looked up, you’d see how much graffiti there was on the interior of its roof. How awful.
They also had this fun addition, which was very cleverly done. It may look as if the steps were bobbing on the water, but they were very carefully anchored down.
At this point, you could also see down to the cove where seaplanes would land for Butchart Gardens.
We started to make our way back through the Japanese garden, following a different route this time, and discovering all sorts of wonderful little nooks and crannies along the way.
Despite the fact that there were other people here (I promise there were, I’m just very good at photographing around people these days ), it felt very peaceful here, and I liked the way that most people respected that. There was a very loud couple, who I think were American, although I’m not that good with accents, so they could’ve been Canadian, and they did come through talking in very loud voices, which did interrupt the atmosphere somewhat. Why do people feel the need to do that?
With that, we were out of the Japanese garden, and we moved into the star garden. This is probably best viewed from above, but there wasn’t such a vantage point. It’s essentially a pond that’s done in a star shape.
I loved the scent of the rose garden too. We saw it when it was in full bloom. Nothing like it. But the Japanese garden was so green and lush and peaceful. I just felt like I could spend hours there.
I love the three sturgeons fountain. Too bad some lady was acting like that. Certainly takes away from the peaceful atmosphere.
The Japanese garden is so very peaceful. I wasn't even there and could "feel" how peaceful it is! Except for the obnoxious tourist....
50 gardeners? Plus summer help. Wow. That's a lot of work!
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), it felt very peaceful here, and I liked the way that most people respected that. There was a very loud couple, who I think were American, although I’m not that good with accents, so they could’ve been Canadian, and they did come through talking in very loud voices, which did interrupt the atmosphere somewhat. Why do people feel the need to do that? 
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