Knights, Lights, Rides and Bikes! PTR - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I can thoroughly recommend the canal tour in Amsterdam and the Anne Frank House is not to be missed - very sobering, but I genuinely believe everyone who goes there should visit it.
We haven't been to Brussels in years, although we keep talking about going back. We love that city - there's so much to see there. I can't remember if the Manneken Pis statue is near the main square, but if it is, you should check it out, as it's such an icon for the city.
Your plans sound great, Maci, even if they are kind of last-minute I've been to Amsterdam a few times and my personal highlights are canal tour and Anne Frank Museum. Oh, and the Rijksmuseum is pronounced a bit like "reeksmuseum" (like "reek" = to smell bad ).
I hope you enjoy DLP. Can't wait to read how you like Chez Remy! Sequoia Lodge is a personal favorite of mine, even if the rooms look a bit dated.
Thank you! I needed that And I'm sure we will love DLP and everything we manage to do in Amsterdam too. I'm just so excited for everything!
Quote:
Originally Posted by a_bernard
i have been to Amsterdam, but it's a long time ago, i still remember doing the red light district though. and in Brussels, we went in the city square where there's delicious waffle shops every where you have to try them they are so good, different than the ones here, they put a glaze on them really good and of course belgian chocolate shops everywhere, everyone from our group got chocolate and waffles.
Oooo Belgian Waffles! How could I forget those?! We will be having waffles and chocolate for lunch Thursday I'm sure
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I can thoroughly recommend the canal tour in Amsterdam and the Anne Frank House is not to be missed - very sobering, but I genuinely believe everyone who goes there should visit it.
We haven't been to Brussels in years, although we keep talking about going back. We love that city - there's so much to see there. I can't remember if the Manneken Pis statue is near the main square, but if it is, you should check it out, as it's such an icon for the city.
Sounds like I have the top two on my list! Whew! The time slots for Anne Frank are already filling up, thank goodness I wrote this today so I was looking into things! There's an optional 30 minute intro... I think we might want to do that too but not sure!
It sounds like you've got Amsterdam pretty well scoped out. There won't be time to do everything, but if you do the Anne Frank house, a canal tour, a museum, and just walking around you'll have hit the highlights. The cheese tasting sounds nice, too. One of my favorite meals ever was at a rijsttaffel restaurant in Amsterdam. There are many of them all over the city-- Indonesian "rice table" meals. SO delicious and I've not had a similar meal anywhere in this country.
Good luck with your plans for Amsterdam! I was able to do a day after a business trip to Germany (flew in and out of Schipol). We did the Anne Frank House/Museum, I think we took a boat tour, and my co-worker wanted to go to a Diamond tour to see the expensive diamonds. We were also lucky there was a festival/carnival going on at Dam Square at the time.
Thanks! Hoping to firm it all up in the next few days
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
It sounds like you've got Amsterdam pretty well scoped out. There won't be time to do everything, but if you do the Anne Frank house, a canal tour, a museum, and just walking around you'll have hit the highlights. The cheese tasting sounds nice, too. One of my favorite meals ever was at a rijsttaffel restaurant in Amsterdam. There are many of them all over the city-- Indonesian "rice table" meals. SO delicious and I've not had a similar meal anywhere in this country.
Thanks! We have 2 FULL days so I'm hoping we can get a good amount in. I'll definitely look into those restaurants, Erik said he had places he wanted to take us but if it's not something we can try here I definitely want to see if we can try it there!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Good luck with your plans for Amsterdam! I was able to do a day after a business trip to Germany (flew in and out of Schipol). We did the Anne Frank House/Museum, I think we took a boat tour, and my co-worker wanted to go to a Diamond tour to see the expensive diamonds. We were also lucky there was a festival/carnival going on at Dam Square at the time.
It's festival season but I haven't actually looked into if any were going on, it's not like we would be able to change our dates around it! So going to be happily surprised if there is The Diamond tours didn't appeal to me too much, too much jewelry schlepping in the Bahamas/Caribbean for me I think!
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.
Sounds like some good plans you got and great suggestions here from Laurie and Cheryl.
Doing a Rijsttafel meal in Amsterdam is definitely worth it. The Indonesian style food is quite good and there are some restaurants and buffets located in town with this cuisine.
For museums you might want to also consider the Rembrandt museum, which is well worth visiting!
Also for food, their are many kiosks and carts throughout the city that you can get pickled herring. I'm a fish lover so I enjoyed it. Half of the fun of this is the actual downing of the herring into your mouth. There is a correct procedure to do this and the vendor will show you how to do this correctly! It's a lot of fun as I did this, when I was there back in the late 90's!
Well. there's always the so-called cafes as well, but never did that, even though it's perfectly legally in Amsterdam! I guess, if you're bored....
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 07-24-2014 at 09:52 PM..
Thanks for the response on my France TR and hope you are enjoying it! I thought it may be better to put my response to it here as your trip is more current than mine and you'll check it more often!
Below is some info and my experience regarding the wine tasting and dinner in Paris that you seemed interested in, on your upcoming trip! Please feel free to ask about this and Paris in general as I have visited Paris on five occasions for 19 nights there! I may be able to help you with some things, but not all, so feel free to do so!
Glad you're reading my TR! O Chateau - Wine Tasting in Paris, Paris Wine Bar & Wine Tours is a lot of fun, with great hosts and sommeliers, who definitely know their wine! They are very knowledgeable on wine and do it in a very non snobbish way! It's well worth doing!
Check out their website as there are various tastings and meals to chose from. I did my tasting the first day off the plane with jet lag in high gear! I didn't have time to have lunch after checking in at my hotel, with security etc at CDG airport, so I opted along with the one hour wine tasting, a cheese course to complement it! I think that covered my lunch! There were about twenty or so of us for this tasting from many parts of the world! It was a lot of fun! I got a 10% discount for this. If you decide to do this, LMK and I should be able to get that discount for you via PM!
I also did a wine dinner there the following night. The two experiences were very different. Smaller group with about 10 of us for the dinner! They are certainly quite generous with the wine! They want you to become educated about wine and enjoy yourself!
Dave
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
i know those are the best waffles ever and there's so many shops and it smells so good when you walk around that area where theres a multitude of chocolate shops and waffle shops
Sounds like some good plans you got and great suggestions here from Laurie and Cheryl.
Doing a Rijsttafel meal in Amsterdam is definitely worth it. The Indonesian style food is quite good and there are some restaurants and buffets located in town with this cuisine.
For museums you might want to also consider the Rembrandt museum, which is well worth visiting!
Also for food, their are many kiosks and carts throughout the city that you can get pickled herring. I'm a fish lover so I enjoyed it. Half of the fun of this is the actual downing of the herring into your mouth. There is a correct procedure to do this and the vendor will show you how to do this correctly! It's a lot of fun as I did this, when I was there back in the late 90's!
Well. there's always the so-called cafes as well, but never did that, even though it's perfectly legally in Amsterdam! I guess, if you're bored....
I only recently started eating fish, so I'm not sure I'll be up for pickled herring... but I did mention the Indonesian food to Erik so he'll make it happen for us! The cafes are intriguing but it's also not my thing, so I think we'll kind of check them out without making any purchases!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Sounds like you've got a lot of great things on your list to see in Amsterdam!
Thanks! I'm hoping we aren't trying to do too much!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Marci,
Thanks for the response on my France TR and hope you are enjoying it! I thought it may be better to put my response to it here as your trip is more current than mine and you'll check it more often!
Below is some info and my experience regarding the wine tasting and dinner in Paris that you seemed interested in, on your upcoming trip! Please feel free to ask about this and Paris in general as I have visited Paris on five occasions for 19 nights there! I may be able to help you with some things, but not all, so feel free to do so!
Glad you're reading my TR! O Chateau - Wine Tasting in Paris, Paris Wine Bar & Wine Tours is a lot of fun, with great hosts and sommeliers, who definitely know their wine! They are very knowledgeable on wine and do it in a very non snobbish way! It's well worth doing!
Check out their website as there are various tastings and meals to chose from. I did my tasting the first day off the plane with jet lag in high gear! I didn't have time to have lunch after checking in at my hotel, with security etc at CDG airport, so I opted along with the one hour wine tasting, a cheese course to complement it! I think that covered my lunch! There were about twenty or so of us for this tasting from many parts of the world! It was a lot of fun! I got a 10% discount for this. If you decide to do this, LMK and I should be able to get that discount for you via PM!
I also did a wine dinner there the following night. The two experiences were very different. Smaller group with about 10 of us for the dinner! They are certainly quite generous with the wine! They want you to become educated about wine and enjoy yourself!
Dave
I still haven't even gotten into any additional Paris plans... most of the "free time" is just meal time so it looks like we will be needing quite a few restaurant suggestions! We are doing the wine & cheese in Amsterdam too so I'm not sure if we'll want a full tasting again, but I'm going to investigate more soon!
Quote:
Originally Posted by a_bernard
i know those are the best waffles ever and there's so many shops and it smells so good when you walk around that area where theres a multitude of chocolate shops and waffle shops
Once I realized we wouldn’t be able to work a meet with Cheryl since our time in London is midweek and actually pretty limited, I looked into other things I wanted to do with quite a bit of free time… namely something involving a certain wizard I grew up with.
We are flying in overnight so we actually have the majority of the day Monday to explore anything we wish! We are going to keep it downtown and I hope to see Kensington Gardens and maybe find a Police Box! Our first event is the Welcome Dinner, but I know we will be tired and trying to fight jet lag so a good portion of this time might be dedicated to a quick afternoon nap to try to get on the right schedule. We also have tickets for the London Eye this day. Mom is TERRIFIED of heights and I hate Ferris Wheels (even though I’ve met the grandson of the inventor, I still wouldn’t ride one with him LOL!) But we will go on this because I’ve heard it’s just so amazing, and sometimes you just need to face your fears! We also will need to find lunch at some point during this day, so hopefully we find something good near the gardens or the Eye?
So the next day, we also have a pretty serious amount of free time, the whole day after lunch (which we did ask and will be finished around 1pm) and this is where I started looking for wizards and witches! A Muggle Tour seemed highly rated but really was just a lot of walking around London but highlighting different things than the Double Decker Bus Tour would I imagine. This was an option but when talking to my friend whose sister studied abroad over there she said if we really want to get magical, head to the WB Studios Tour. I had originally ruled this out because it’s well outside the city.
Well, she said they will come pick us up and take us etc etc and it’s so worth it. So that quickly became our number one choice once we realized how easy it would really be. We booked into the 5pm tour, with 2:45pm pickup in the city. I figure we can nap on the bus if we need to… we will get back into London around 10pm, then make our way back to our hotel. We did call to confirm with ABD that we would indeed have the whole evening free, and they said they were getting a lot of calls about Harry Potter! So maybe we will have some fellow tour members on this journey with us!
It's definitely a commitment, the whole trip taking about 7 hours and needing to be reserved in advance at 92 Euro per person (you can not buy tickets there, they must be in advance, and this price is for transfers and entry) but I think it will be very worth it. Harry Potter has been around for quite some time, but it might not be around forever so we wanted to make sure we got to see this stuff while it was still around and on display!
There’s also a cafe at the Studios (thank goodness) because we will need to eat dinner at some point! The tour has rave reviews on TripAdvisor and having just re-watched most of the movies a few weeks ago, plus having a few of them on my iPad for plane rides, I feel freshly re-Harry Pottered and ready to explore all the props and sets! We have a mostly full day with ABD the following morning so I doubt we will do much else in London this evening once we return. We have a final free lunch on our own before heading out of London and into the countryside, so I’m sure we’ll still manage a great taste of local fare even with eating in a Studio Cafe one evening!
Wasn't there someone on here who did the HP tour? I seem to remember reading about it and I don't frequent any other boards. Sounds just perfect for that free evening, and your other plans for the previous day sound great. You'd never get me on that wheel, though!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I've been to Amsterdam a few times and my personal highlights are canal tour and Anne Frank Museum. Oh, and the Rijksmuseum is pronounced a bit like "reeksmuseum" (like "reek" = to smell bad 
). 
And I'm sure we will love DLP and everything we manage to do in Amsterdam too. I'm just so excited for everything!
finalizing all your plans for Amsterdam. 
There is a correct procedure to do this and the vendor will show you how to do this correctly! It's a lot of fun as I did this, when I was there back in the late 90's! 
I thought it may be better to put my response to it here as your trip is more current than mine and you'll check it more often! 
It's well worth doing! 
They want you to become educated about wine and enjoy yourself! 
Linear Mode
