On the road (2) – beaches, castles and chateaux COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wednesday 9 June – part three: what a way to see the gardens!
Just off this room is the King’s chamber, a set of opulent rooms.
Then it was into the room of peace.
From here, we then made our way through the Queen’s chamber, which ironically I thought was more impressive that the King’s chamber. I’m not sure what that says...
Then it was into the Guards Room, which proved to be amazingly devoid of guards on the day that ordinary Parisiens stormed the palace, as word had already gone to them about what was happening outside and many had vacated their posts.
We finished our tour in the Sacred room...
Then it was back downstairs...
Here it wasn’t very well signposted at all. We wanted to see the gardens, but you actually had to exit the palace to see them, which wasn’t explained anywhere. It also turned out that there was only one set of toilets inside the palace, as one set was closed, which of course meant huge lines for those. There was another set outside at the entrance to the gardens, but the lines for those were no better. I decided I could hold it for a while...
As we walked into the gardens, figuring that we wouldn’t see much of it, due to my inability to walk too far, we spotted our saviour, a golf cart that was available for hire. It was €30 ($36) for an hour and they told us that we should do the whole marked tour in that time. It was really easy to follow the route laid out for us and it took us through most of the gardens, showing us sights that we could never have seen otherwise. :
Mark in the driving seat!
We headed first along the water parterre, getting some lovely views of the palace.
Then it was through the north parterre....
The route we were taking
And down through the walled gardens, but of course, you couldn’t see much of those unless you got out on foot. Instead, I concentrated on getting photos of the fountains as we went down.
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Wednesday 9 June – part four: our golf cart tour of the gardens
We eventually came out by the Apollo fountain, where a great deal of work was being done. This was true of the gardens in general. As we came back, we saw various walled gardens closed off. As Mark said, they were probably getting them ready for the peak summer season.
We passed the Grand Canal and then headed down a cobbled tree lined street, which meant very few photos, as that was too tough for me to photograph on.
We turned by the Temple of Love....
... and headed up to the Petit Trianon, which was given to Marie Antoinette. Again, there was work going on here.
From there it was up to the Grand Trainon and it was here that we found some toilets, with absolutely no line. OK, so they weren’t superb, but heck they were free and we were both able to take advantage of them without any long waits. That would prove to be a good move...
Look, no hands! Our green machine!
It was then back down the cobbled street to the Grand Canal....
... the Apollo fountain, where we went down a lane lined with statues.
From there, it was through more walled gardens, although this time, I did get out to get a photo of the Colonial Grove. I tell you, it took me enough time to find that. I can imagine you could easily get lost in these walled gardens.
Mark takes a breather from driving!
From there, we continued back, passing the Latone Fountain and Parterre, with some lovely views up towards the palace.
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