On the road (2) – beaches, castles and chateaux COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 22 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Just got caught up on your last few posts. The photos are amazing, those rooms are just so ornate and detailed. I don't know how they lived in those rooms, I would be scared to touch anything
The grounds are beautiful as well...I don't think you could ever get tired of strolling the gardens.
We then retraced our steps, coming back out by the water parterre, where we had to try hard not to play skittles with the pedestrians who were everywhere. It was amazing how, in the space of an hour, this place had become so crowded.
We returned our golf cart, agreeing that it had been €30 very well spent. The good spend was proved further when we saw the line for the toilets, which had got worse....
We got a few final photos of the gardens and the palace before heading out, on the way getting a fridge magnet and book.
We headed back to retrieve the tripod and got a few final shots.
Then it was back to the car, where Tim gave us quite a turn, refusing to boot up and having to be reset before he would do anything. They certainly know how to sting you for the parking here, as we ended up paying €8 ($9.60)for the two and a half hours we were there.
We headed out, first going the wrong way, before Tim was fully awake, but allowing us to get some nice photos of the palace from the main road:
Then it was through Versailles itself.
All too soon, we were on the motorway and dodging the manic French drivers. There wasn’t much to see for much of the journey, as the sights tended to be industrial... Trust me, Paris is not a pretty city on the outskirts.
We soon started to follow the signs first for the parks, then the hotels, then the Disneyland Hotel.
Look at the size of this McDonald’s! A glimpse of the Sequoia Lodge The Panoramagique balloon (see where they got the idea for Characters in Flight? ... and now it’s over the Hotel New York
Great photos of Versailles! I've been there and had no idea that it was that big--we only toured the actual palace! (I was with a tour group in high school)! Its absolutely beautiful! Yeah! You are at DLP!
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Did you and Mark have a chance to visit Marie Antoinette's little chalet (or countryhome) that is on the grounds? It was one of my favorites!
Jill
We didn't, but thanks for the recommendation. We're back there in September, staying a hotel overlooking the gardens of Versailes, so I'll keep that in mind for then.
From here, we then made our way through the Queen’s chamber, which ironically I thought was more impressive that the King’s chamber.
Cheryl
Another GREAT update. I remember from my tour, In the Queen's Chamber - photo above- the rather large dresser in the back corner of the room was Marie Antoinette’s jewelry case.
I love the golf cart idea - how wonderful and what a great way to tour the gardens. We I went I was on a tour and didn't really get to the see the gardens. But seeing your photos I'll have to plan another trip back there someday.
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Cheryl, I see from your trip ticker counters you are heading to Egypt. I can't wait for that report. My mom has been wanting to go for years so I'll be sure to have her check out our report.
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Cheryl, I see from your trip ticker counters you are heading to Egypt. I can't wait for that report. My mom has been wanting to go for years so I'll be sure to have her check out our report.
We can't wait for that one as well. We've both wanted to visit the pyramids for a long time and finally in January, we'll get the chance.
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This place is huge!!! How long did it actually take for you to get through the whole thing?
. But seeing your photos I'll have to plan another trip back there someday.
Holly: 
Deb
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