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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Seeing as we live out in the country and not down the street from a grocery store, we have trucks that stop at the front of the house selling items - of course the best one is the bakery truck. He comes each morning Monday to Friday, honks the horn and out you go to pick all your baked goodies, you can also just leave out your bread bag and he will fill it. There is also a fish truck, vegetable/fruit truck and one selling clothes, it just adds to the magic of my vacation.
The fruit and veggie truck.
After we woke up and got going this morning we headed back into Torres Novas with Tia, first stop was to the post office to pay our tolls, and then I bought a robe as it was cold in the mornings and we do not have heat in the house. We continued running errands; picking up paint, and a digital box for the tv. We then took Tia out for lunch. We all had chicken, rice, salad, drinks (non-alcoholic) and Tia also had soup. It was a great lunch and cheap for all the food we got.
Post office
Torres Novas
I like firemen, so I always try to get pictures of them or their station.
Disney is everywhere.
Our wonderful lunch.
Back at home, I made a big pot of Caldo Verde, (a traditional Portuguese cream of potato soup with kale). Even on vacation if you have a house you have work to do, so Carlos started scraping paint off the door and window, once I finished the soup I went out and helped him, then I read while he finished up. For dinner we had soup, salad, and pao com chorizo (bread stuffed with chorizo).
DH working on door. If you notice our doorway into the house by the ladder, we hang strips of plastic in the doorway, that way we can leave the door open when we are around and very few bugs fly in. Also the tank in the corner is how we and millions of others in Portugal heat their water and run their stoves.
Dinner for two.
At 8 we headed out to visit some more relatives, when my DH and his twin were born their mother passed away and never saw them, his Aunt raised the twins for the first four years of their lives. She lives in Toronto and we do not see her often enough. Luckily this trip she was in Portugal at the same time as us so we got to spend time with her. We visited with lots of DH’s Aunts and Uncles and headed home at 10, and off to sleep we went.
Today we headed to Ourem for the market, which is held every Thursday all year long. It has everything you could need: fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers, baked goods, fish, meats, pots, clothes, shoes, tablecloths, etc. It is very loud as the sellers really try to get your attention, I love wandering up and down the aisles looking at all the stuff. We bought shoes, shirts, aprons, olives, and pao com chorizo (yep I love this stuff).
Inside the market.
We got home at noon, ate lunch, I took a nap and DH painted. For dinner today we had salad, and piri piri turkey. After dinner I read and DH continued to paint until it was dark. Then it was off to bed, but not before a gecko ‘or Geiko, as DH called it’ stopped in for a visit, once we saw him safely on his way we turned in.
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Great update - you're really bringing Portugal to life for those of us who have not yet been there. By staying at the house, it gives us a look into what day-to-day life is. Thanks.
I love this peek into life in a village there. Just imagine having a truck full of bread or fresh produce pull up to your house every day! THAT I could quickly get used to. The town looks wonderful as well, and I'd have gone crazy at the weekly market!
Beautiful house, garden, and town! How nice to catch up with so many family member, too!
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Originally Posted by chezp
What a lovely place - both the house and the town. I love the way the trucks stop outside - what a neat idea.
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Originally Posted by shazza
Great update - you're really bringing Portugal to life for those of us who have not yet been there. By staying at the house, it gives us a look into what day-to-day life is. Thanks.
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Originally Posted by lauriep
I love this peek into life in a village there. Just imagine having a truck full of bread or fresh produce pull up to your house every day! THAT I could quickly get used to. The town looks wonderful as well, and I'd have gone crazy at the weekly market!
Thank you every one. I am glad I am able to bring things to life, I was a little worried about doing the report as we didn't do a lot of tourist type things this trip.
I can spend hours at the markets, all larger towns have them the biggest one is in northern Portugal at Barcelos, it could take all day to walk through.
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Today was a day of errands. We picked up some more gifts, and some groceries and stopped for lunch. I had chicken, fries and water, DH had a hotdog with hickory stick topping, and finished off with ice cream.
Shoes for DD's DBF
We had been having some issues sleeping as our mattress is really hard, and probably 40 years old. So in our travels today we stopped to look at mattress. We didn’t want to spend a lot as we were not sure when we would be able to return to Portugal, but we thought we should upgrade, we did find some that were better, but wanted to discuss with Tia first.
When we got back to the house we talked with Tia and she knew of a place to look for mattresses, so off we headed. The store was about ½ hour away and it was already 4 pm so I figured even if we found a mattress we wouldn’t be getting it until Saturday. The store was huge - it had two floors of furniture and it was a large U shape, room after room of furniture, we did find the mattresses and Tia negotiated a good price for us on one, it was a little harder than I wanted but better than we had, she even arranged for it to be delivered today. We drove back to the house and shortly after our new mattress arrived.
Our new mattress.
During our drive we saw a lot of people walking on the road, and when we came to villages, we saw groups of people resting. It turns out they were making a pilgrimage to Fatima as it was the anniversary of the children seeing the vision of the Virgin Mary. I am glad we chose not to go to Fatima this trip; it would have been very crowded. If you ever visit Portugal, Fatima is definitely worth a visit, the new church they have built is beautiful.
We had dinner and did some more laundry. Since we had to hang the laundry to dry, we always had to ensure that we had enough days for it to dry before we were headed off somewhere.
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