Going north, south, east and west THREAD 2 - UPDATED 11/15 WITH PHOTOPASS PICS - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Gorgeous pictures, as always, Cheryl! I love seeing the downtown area as I've never been down there on foot. My friend is a lawyer and works at The Federal Building, so this is the area she goes through on her way to work every day. Your pics of the Manhattan skyline from the ferry are especially pretty. Can't wait to hear all about The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island as I've never been there. More, please!
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-Lisa
The World is a book. Those who do not travel read only a page." - Augustine
My friend, it's been over 24 hours since you last updated.............your ending words "scared me out of crap" as Gabby says. Get busy!
Sorry, I couldn't upload this morning, as the boards were down for their daily maintenance (it's every day at 2.30am EST), so I'll update when I get home from work.
Ok, my lunch plans just went up in smoke, so I have a chance to update now:
Friday 17 October – part three: “don’t use them when they first start working”
We went to get our audio tours and then my National Park passport stamp (thanks for that Terri! ) and the woman there told us that they had had a power outage last night and, as a result, the elevators weren’t working. As she said “I wouldn’t use them when they first start working, just in case.” OK, then…
We walked slowly round the place, learning all about the history of Ellis Island, which served as the country’s immigration depot from 1892 until 1954, and what life was like for the immigrants arriving there. My goodness, when you got up to the hall on the second floor, where they did all the medical checks, the noise just from a couple of schoolgirls, a total of about 50 kids, was just amazing. I dread to think what it must’ve been like with hundreds and hundreds of people in there. The noise must’ve been horrendous.
Amongst the things we learnt were that the doctors had just six seconds on average to diagnose if there were any problems with the immigrants they saw and if there was, then they would be taken to the hospital opposite. Sadly there were a lot of deaths there, but also something like 300 births during the operation of Ellis Island.
The medical checks ”Graffiti” on the walls by the immigrants who passed through here How Ellis Island used to look An example of how they tested the intelligence of the immigrants Feel glad Mark wasn’t the one deciding on whether you should enter the States! The sleeping arrangements for the immigrants
As we went round, the audio guide had excerpts from people who came through Ellis Island and that really helped to bring the whole thing alive. I felt that we came away with a great understanding of what happened there. It was totally different to the last time I had visited it in 1996. The only sad thing was that we looked out at times and saw the other buildings on the island and they are all falling to pieces.
Apparently from the exhibition we saw, that’s how the main building was as well, before they restored it in the 1980’s. I hope that they are able to do something about that one day, as they obviously have a lot of history to them.
How the main room was when restoration work started on Ellis Island And how it looks today How Ellis Island looked before restoration The view back to Manhattan from Ellis Island
We took the ferry boat back to Manhattan and, when we came off, we stopped for food with Mark getting another New York hot dog and me getting a pretzel. I could only eat a bit of it, as it was so huge. Talk about value for money, as it was only $2!
We went into Castle Clinton National Monument, which was built in 1811 as an artillery defence post 300 feet offshore. Eventually landfill linked it to the mainland. Interestingly, it was also the predecessor to Ellis Island, as the first immigration point in the city. Today it’s the place that people go to purchase their tickets for the Statue of Liberty ferry boat. It’s a nice place in its own right and I was fascinated to learn that it was an aquarium once with manatees, seals and penguins.
We walked up to the subway station, passing the Battery Tunnel on the way. When we walked past it, you couldn’t really notice what it was.
We caught the train up to Times Square, getting one that was empty in our carriage when we got on.
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Loved the pictures from Ellis Island...I always find that I get this strange feeling when I go there when I think of all those before us that passed through those doors, and how scared they must have been coming to a new country, not knowing anyone...
Glad you were able to stop so taht mark could have another "NY dog" , those pretezels are terribly big, I get them for lunch many times ($2 = cheap lunch) and never can seem to finish them but they are usually very good.
Love this picture...I think the NY Transit Authority should hire you for their ads, I don't think I have ever seen anyone as happy about the subway before...
Love this picture...I think the NY Transit Authority should hire you for their ads, I don't think I have ever seen anyone as happy about the subway before...
I was thinking the same thing, Meg!!! I also love this picture - what time was it??? How could there have been no one else there?
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) and the woman there told us that they had had a power outage last night and, as a result, the elevators weren’t working. As she said “I wouldn’t use them when they first start working, just in case.” OK, then… 
Sammi
, those pretezels are terribly big, I get them for lunch many times ($2 = cheap lunch) and never can seem to finish them but they are usually very good.
I was thinking the same thing, Meg!!! I also love this picture - what time was it??? How could there have been no one else there? 
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
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