A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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 could too. In fact, I think I could probably spend the best part of a whole day enjoying the gardens.
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I love the three sturgeons fountain. Too bad some lady was acting like that. Certainly takes away from the peaceful atmosphere.
Victoria is quite an amazing town and especially the Parliament, Empress and gardens which you got to visit. All so beautifully done!
Love your tour of Butchart Gardens. Amazing how beautiful this place is from the various moss topiaries, waterfall, sunken garden and Japanese garden. Quite incredible the job they've done here and it's unfathomable the amount of work it must have taken to make it look as beautiful as it does!
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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!
Victoria is quite an amazing town and especially the Parliament, Empress and gardens which you got to visit. All so beautifully done!
Love your tour of Butchart Gardens. Amazing how beautiful this place is from the various moss topiaries, waterfall, sunken garden and Japanese garden. Quite incredible the job they've done here and it's unfathomable the amount of work it must have taken to make it look as beautiful as it does!
It's an absolutely amazing place, especially considering what it started from...
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Monday 7 September – part thirteen: that was timing!
Finally we were into the Italian garden, which they obviously left to last for a reason. Well, I’m afraid I couldn’t fathom it at all. I heard some other people make a similar comment too.
As were here, we decided to go to the gelateria and get an ice cream each. I got the coconut pineapple one and it was amazing. Mark got the chocolate one, and I heard no complaints from him either.
We really lucked out, as literally no sooner than we had got our gelatos, the gelateria closed up shop. It was probably just as well that there was a group of four in front of us, messing about, trying to decide what they wanted, as they probably helped to keep it open for us!
Once we’d had our ice creams, we made our way out, seeing this on the way…
… along with the plant gallery…
We had a look in the gift shop, and honestly expected to spend a fortune in there, but sadly we just couldn’t find anything we liked. We got a fridge magnet, and that was it!
We headed out, and the GPS took us right by this!
We were soon on our way back to the ferry terminal…
As we approached it, there were electronic messages warning that the 6:00pm sailing to Vancouver was already full, but in fairness, that didn’t surprise me, as if you wanted to board that, you had to be in the terminal by 5:30pm, and it was now past that time. We got there maybe 5:50pm, and checked in, presenting our reservation confirmation, which was very important. Those without one had to go into another line, and sure enough, not everyone in that line got on board for the 6:00pm sailing.
We sat there waiting to go, with me working on the trip report, while Mark got bored. Well, maybe next time you’ll ask exactly what we’re doing and plan accordingly…
Eventually, about 6:45pm, we were off, and note the number display in one of these photos – this counts the number of vehicles on board the ferry, so they know when they’ve reached their maximum. Very neat!
We were back on deck four again, the top deck of the car transport levels, and we ended up right next door to the pet area, which I was relieved to see, because having seen the dog on this morning’s crossing, the thought of them being cooped up in a car for an hour and a half seemed horrible. Not a bit of it – their owners can sit with them in this area, which was really nice.
Next: I don’t want the other desserts feeling left out!
Beautiful gardens, gelato, and cows. Now that's how to end your touring there! Too bad they didn't have any better merchandise though.
Very nice to hear about the pet area on the ferry! My four legged kids would love that!
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Tanya
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The gardens look nice but not overwhelming as the previous gardens did! Makes sense that the gelateria would be adjacent to the Italian garden! Glad the ferry trip went fine and that you got to see some of your boys, who were just waiting for you to appear!
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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!
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The gardens look nice but not overwhelming as the previous gardens did! Makes sense that the gelateria would be adjacent to the Italian garden! Glad the ferry trip went fine and that you got to see some of your boys, who were just waiting for you to appear!
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Quite incredible the job they've done here and it's unfathomable the amount of work it must have taken to make it look as beautiful as it does!
I heard some other people make a similar comment too. 
Mark got the chocolate one, and I heard no complaints from him either. 
It was probably just as well that there was a group of four in front of us, messing about, trying to decide what they wanted, as they probably helped to keep it open for us! 
We got a fridge magnet, and that was it! 
Glad the ferry trip went fine and that you got to see some of your boys, who were just waiting for you to appear! 
The gardens are absolutely gorgeous.
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