Going north, south, east, west - Chicago UPDATED 1/7 - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sunday 26 October – part two: will we finally get into the Shedd Aquarium?
We headed for the Shedd Aquarium and we definitely did the right thing in not going there yesterday. This morning, there was no-one at all in line and we walked straight in. As soon as we showed our Go Chicago card, we were told to take the elevator up the main lobby and then we picked up our tickets from the will call window. The Go Chicago card certainly did help to cut out a lot of lines and lived up to expectations in that respect. We got a locker for our coats, as it was really warm inside and headed into the aquarium.
The first thing we saw was the Caribbean Reef, which was a huge circular tank, full of marine life from that part of the world. It was very easy to see the animals here, but sometimes they really didn’t think about photographing them. Sure, there was no flash photography, which is always good to see, but you don’t want to the sight of illuminated signs glaring into the tanks, which is something what we got here sometimes and that was frustrating.
From there, we headed down a level into Wild Reef, which was celebrating its fifth anniversary. Lesley told me that the last time she’d been here was about 10 years ago, so this section was new to all of us. It takes you through the coral reefs and again, it’s very well laid out. They really made an effort to try and bring things alive here, with huge displays of coral that were life size and areas that explained how fishing can be good or bad for the environment, depending on how it’s done.
Perhaps the most fascinating animals we saw in there were these guys:
These were the best photos we could get of them, as they moved so fast and I can’t remember their name now, but maybe someone can help me out with that? They would pick up small pieces of stone in their mouth and then deposit it elsewhere in the tank. They were very methodical about it and ceaseless in their task. They just didn’t seem to want to stop,
Then it was back up to the main lobby level and the next area we visited was the rainforest themed and gave you some idea of what life is like there. They had signs that showed how high the water levels can get during the rainy season and they were above your head. There were also some scary sights in there, with huge fish and snakes. This wasn’t one for the faint hearted and, although those sort of things don’t usually bother me, I did get a bit creeped out by this snake!
After that, we went into the older section of the aquarium. Lesley told us that these were the areas that she remembered from previous visits and there wasn’t the same level of theming or activities here, although they have staff here who were doing activities for the kids, including a camping area, complete with a toy possum. That was a little bizarre.
The sections were divided up with areas such as local rivers, where we learnt a lot about creatures that are invading these rivers from other parts of the world. In particular, the jumping carp and the fact that they had to put electrical barriers in place to stop them getting into the Great Lakes.
Now I don’t see you... And now I do!
Sadly, of course the top attraction here, the Oceanarium was down for rehab, the first time in its 30 year history, so the website had told me before we left home. It was odd though. I was expecting to see at least some information about what they were doing and perhaps to even be able to see work progressing on the site, but there was nothing. It was almost as if they were trying to pretend that it didn’t exist and it was very odd. Still, despite the fact that wasn’t open, I still enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would and I guess we’ll have to come back to see it again when the Oceanarium re-opens.
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Great photos from Shedd's!!! We visited there and loved it and so did my kids!! Sorry that Oceanarium was closed, that part is really nice, but it leaves you something to see the next time you visit!
Sunday 26 October – part three: close encounters with Sue and friends
Finished in the Shedd Aquarium, we headed next door to the Field Museum again.
We didn’t really need our Go Chicago card to get in here, as it was free basic admission day, but it helped with getting us into one of their special exhibitions, all about natural disasters, which was excellent. It covered everything from volcanoes to earthquakes and flooding and tsunamis. I particularly liked the bit explaining how volcanoes are created and how different combinations of things like gas can change the result you get from a volcano. Sadly, you weren’t allowed to take any photos in there though.
We carried on through the upper level and found a recreation of a Maori meeting house, which was really interesting. To ensure it was authentic, anyone who wanted to go in there was asked to take their shoes off first, which was a nice touch.
We headed through the exhibition on life in the Polynesian Island and Hawaii.
Then it was into the Gem Hall, which was a disappointment. It wasn’t very well laid out at all and a lot of the stones were missing as they ware about to rehab this area and, to be honest, it needs it. It wasn’t the same standard as other parts of the museum.
My only photo in here!
Our next stop took us into the Hall of Jade, which sounded really good, but again, it was a bit of a disappointment. A lot of the pieces of the jade were tiny, until you got to the end of the exhibition and it was really the old school of museums, where things were just labelled and then you look down to read the labels to see what they are. It’s not really what you expect from museums today. :
It was the same story in the World of Plants, which I’m sure was fascinating and I took a few photos in there, but there was really too much to take in and there wasn’t enough to keep your interest.
You definitely can’t say the same of the next exhibition we went in. It was all about the evolution of the earth, with particular emphasis on the dinosaurs. None of us really realised that there have been six extinctions to date in the earth’s history. The only I knew about was when the dinosaurs died out, but there was much more than that. The skeletons of the dinosaurs, early mammals and even early man were the highlights in here and it was fascinating to see them.
We couldn’t resist getting a shot of this sign for Sue!
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