Doctors, sheep and the Shard – an unusual weekend out in London COMPLETED 6/3 - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great shots of your walk around London! Sitting in the middle of a busy road taking pictures. The question wouldn't be "what were they thinking?" but rather "were they thinking at all!" I can't say the skeletal horse with the ticker tank excites me, however, now the Shauns are more my type of statue.
Oh gosh, I love the Admiral Shaun!! And it's fun seeing the pictures from Trafalgar Square over to the London Eye, as we did that walk several times when we were in London. I love being able to say "Oh, I know where that is!"
Great shots of your walk around London! Sitting in the middle of a busy road taking pictures. The question wouldn't be "what were they thinking?" but rather "were they thinking at all!"
True!
Quote:
I can't say the skeletal horse with the ticker tank excites me, however, now the Shauns are more my type of statue.
Oh gosh, I love the Admiral Shaun!! And it's fun seeing the pictures from Trafalgar Square over to the London Eye, as we did that walk several times when we were in London. I love being able to say "Oh, I know where that is!"
That is one of my favourite walks, dating back to the mid 1990s, when I was studying in south London. I'd head into central London regularly to meet a friend who worked at Oxford Circus and I'd often get off at Westminster and walk up to Trafalgar Square and then catch a bus the rest of the way.
Saturday 23 May – part five: that’s a sight you don’t usually see on the River Thames!
We made our way down towards the London Eye, and I have to say it was packed along here, busier than we’d seen anywhere else in London, so I guess that’s where the crowds were.
We found our final Shaun of our trail, another very patriotic one!
We carried on along the riverbank, and saw a sight you don’t usually see on the River Thames – a house being towed along! It looked like they were being filmed for something, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for that on TV…
As we got a bit further along, we realised we’d made a faux pas walking along the riverfront, as Waterloo station, which is what we were heading for is set quite a way back, so we made our way over there, dragging now, as we’d been walking for about an hour and a half. When I looked it up on Google Maps when we got back, it was about three miles…
We were so glad when a Tube arrived, and we were able to grab seats, even if it was only for a couple of stops. We just both needed to sit down so badly.
When we got to London Bridge, we made our way over to the Shard, but on the way there, I found a Krispy Kremes – closed, what is it with donut places tonight?
We walked into the Shard, and this was the first thing we saw – and we didn’t even have to go looking for it! This one is Rainbow Shaun…
We headed through security, and made our way up through the two different elevators. I remembered that they had messed with my head last time, so whenever they stopped, I just closed my eyes, and that seemed to do the trick.
When we got up there, it was a very chilled atmosphere, although sadly the sunset really wasn’t playing ball tonight. We were hoping that we’d be treated to a beautiful sunset, but I think the rain earlier put paid to that.
We went to go and get our free champagne, as when we’d booked the tickets, we’d booked the package that included a glass of champagne each, so of course it wasn’t free. We could have white or rose, so we asked which was sweeter. We were told the rose, so we both went for that.
We were both pretty exhausted, so we sat ourselves on the floor to enjoy our champagne, and some strawberry coated popcorn, which I’d noticed they were selling. Now I appreciate to some of you that may sound disgusting, but we fell in love with something similar when we were in Tokyo Disney, so I couldn’t resist trying this, and it was actually pretty good.
We must’ve sat there for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, just chilling and taking in the view. It was so lovely up there to see the light gradually fading.
Eventually, we got up to get some photos…
It was really cool to see parts of London gradually light up in front of our eyes. Every so often, you’d hear someone “ooh” or “ah” and you’d look, and sure enough another famous monument or building then had its lights on. It was as if the city beneath us was coming to life as darkness fell.
The London Eye
The Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Hayward Gallery
The OXO Tower
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Blackfriars station
The BT tower (to the right of shot) and to the left, the arch is Wembley stadium, where our hotel was
The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben
We headed up to the higher viewing level, as it was getting a bit hot downstairs, and upstairs, it’s more open to the elements. It was just what we needed. Once again, I got some photos…
Next: watching London transform into darkness beneath us
Great shots from the Shard, and perfect timing with the lights coming on. You can really see how massive St Paul's is from there-- it covers a lot of ground!
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Great shots from the Shard, and perfect timing with the lights coming on. You can really see how massive St Paul's is from there-- it covers a lot of ground!
It does. Our headquarters are just opposite it and every time I go up there, I'm always the one gawping out of the windows admiring St. Paul's. Of course, those who work there every day are oblivious, as they get used to seeing it.
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