A magical Mediterranean vacation COMPLETED - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Catching up now. Beautiful sunrise!! I don't think I'll ever be awake early enough to catch one myself
Love the great pictures and history lesson in Athens. I thank you for all your hard work in getting them. I prefer heat to cold, but all that walking in the baking sun sounded miserable.
The museum sounds amazing...........wish we could have visited that, Hmmmm guess we will just have to go again, let's say in the fall though
Glad you had a little break from that heat.
It has wonderful photos of the museum, inside and out, and also the site.
Oh cool - thanks for that! I've added it to my basket on Amazon and will hopefully get it at some point. I might even ask for it as a Christmas/birthday present.
Catching up now. Beautiful sunrise!! I don't think I'll ever be awake early enough to catch one myself
That is one of the bonuses to being an early riser!
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Love the great pictures and history lesson in Athens. I thank you for all your hard work in getting them. I prefer heat to cold, but all that walking in the baking sun sounded miserable.
It wasn't fun at all, but I'm glad we did it and got up there.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
The museum sounds amazing...........wish we could have visited that, Hmmmm guess we will just have to go again, let's say in the fall though
Glad you had a little break from that heat.
I think I've singlehandedly managed to put every PassPorter off visiting Athens in the summer!
Tuesday 8 July – part seven: we’ve said once already!
When we came out of the New Acropolis Museum, we got some more photos of the excavations outside. We both agreed that once this opens to the public, it will definitely be worth a return visit. :waytgo:
It was still exceptionally hot, but having spent the last couple of hours in proper air conditioning, it wasn’t as sapping now. It was like Florida – you come outside and actually for a few minutes, there’s that relief of suddenly being warm again, before you get too hot, if you know what I mean?
We headed down the road and into Plaka, one of the main districts of Greece, which given its location it’s not surprising to find out is packed with shops and restaurants…
I was able to find a fridge magnet here and a book about the Acropolis. That is one thing I would say wasn’t good about the museum, the book selection. The official museum guidebook was “now available” (not bad five years after opening) but only in Greek, with “other languages coming soon”. And no I am not joking about that! It is a pretty poor show when the nearby shops can give you what you want over the museum – oh and it didn’t have any fridge magnets either.
I also got a small change purse for €1.50 ($2), which I thought was an absolute bargain and with that, we were done, and headed back to the meeting point. It was just after 2:00pm, and we were due to be picked up at 2:30pm, and we were the first people there. We had a woman constantly trying to sell us a tablecloth, and she really did start to annoy us. Fair enough the first time, but once we’ve made it crystal clear we don’t want it, I don’t expect you to come back to me twice more…
Finally our guide showed up, and we chatted to her for a bit, learning that the museum was built on the site of a previous museum and most Greeks were relieved to get rid of the thing, as in her words, it was very “small” and “embarrassing”. Well, you certainly can’t say that now about the new museum.
As we waited, we saw Mari and Raleigh arrive. It’s amazing how we keep bumping into them in port, even though we’re not on the same shore excursion. They seemed to be having a great time, and had thoroughly enjoyed their lunch they made on their culinary experience. Wouldn’t you know it, they later told me all the items were vegetarian, so I could’ve done it. That was the only thing that totally put me off that…
Mari asked us to get some photos of Hadrian’s Arch, as she was having issues with her camera, with the battery constantly dying. I know someone else on the boards had that issue, and she later found someone else that had that problem, so I guess sadly, wonderful as the camera is, it’s a known issue.
Eventually, just before 2:30pm, our bus showed up, and we eagerly hopped on it to get back into the air conditioning. The journey back was a lot quicker, only about 20-25 minutes. I got some photos as we drove along…
I believe this was the stadium of Olympiakos, the football (soccer) club…
… and then some photos of Pireaus as we approached the port…
There she is!
We headed in through the departures area, and they were doing security checks here with port staff, rather than on the ship, which made sense. The only problem was they didn’t like Mark’s rucksack, as it had a tripod in, so we had to take everything out, and we lost the Euro travel money card for a few hairy minutes, which we could’ve done without.
Finally we were through and heading back to the ship, and again we were presented with cold towels and lemonade.
This photo, from, I think, your second Acropolis post, shows where I used to live. The hill is Lycabettos. I can't figure out how to add an arrow to point out my building, but I lived on the hill, in a building to the right in the top block before the green of the hill. It was an amazing location, and I had quite an amazing view, as you can imagine, of the Acropolis and the hills and marble quarries beyond.
What a successful adventure! So glad you could do all that at your own pace, and at such a bargain too.
Cold towels and lemonade. Woo hoo!!
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This photo, from, I think, your second Acropolis post, shows where I used to live. The hill is Lycabettos. I can't figure out how to add an arrow to point out my building, but I lived on the hill, in a building to the right in the top block before the green of the hill. It was an amazing location, and I had quite an amazing view, as you can imagine, of the Acropolis and the hills and marble quarries beyond.
The museum looks great! I love those kinds of places where you can see the excavation still going on - I just think it adds so much to it. That's what the Terra Cotta warriors museum in Xi'an is like (for when you get to China!).
That's too bad about the book situation at the museum, though. I never understand when museums don't have a great, basic book in the languages that would make most sense (local language, plus maybe English, French - something that many people would speak). That's such a missed opportunity. I've been a number of places where I thought perhaps I should just put a book together myself!
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I've added it to my basket on Amazon and will hopefully get it at some point. I might even ask for it as a Christmas/birthday present. 
once already! 
And no I am not joking about that! It is a pretty poor show when the nearby shops can give you what you want over the museum – oh and it didn’t have any fridge magnets either. 
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