Canals, diamonds and red lights – an Amsterdam getaway COMPLETED - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Suddenly the meatloaf I am making for supper doesn't sound so good!
I am loving all the pictures of your walk. I like the rebeelious side and taking pictures fo the "forbidden" things too.
I really need to win the lottery or I'll never have a chance to see any of these wonderful places.
That's the rebel in me...
I hear you about the money - if we won the lottery, a lot of the money would go towards travelling. We are very lucky to live where we do and to have so many countries within easy reach for very little cost (I think this entire trip, including all the spending money, worked out to be less than $1,000, which I thought was good value! ) and being DVC members helps with all the trips to the States. However, there are so many places in the world that I would just love to see if money was no object....
Friday 10 February – part one: what do you mean “there’s no hot water”
I finally woke up around 7:20 am, after being woken up a couple of times during the night by someone having issues with their sinuses, shall we say although in fairness to Mark, he did do his best to deal with it. Thank goodness for Olbas Oil is all I’m going to say!
I had a shower and really enjoyed it – lovely and warm and easy to operate. I told Mark as much and he headed into the shower, only for a torrent of abuse to emerge from there a couple of minutes later! He told me, in no uncertain terms, that there was no hot water and in fact it was now freezing cold. It would be fair to say that he was not a happy bunny.
I did momentarily suggest he went down to reception to tell them what had happened, but the mood he was in, I quickly figured that perhaps wasn’t the greatest idea, so I set off. I stopped at reception to explain to the guy that my husband was “not very happy”, refraining from words such as “steaming from the ears”, “absolutely furious” etc. and the guy was great. He immediately reported it and, sure enough, there was a problem with the whole system at the hotel. He told me that we could have breakfast on them this morning, which was a good way of trying to set things right straightaway. I got us both a cup of tea, hoping this would warm Mark up a bit...
I headed back to the room and told him about our free offer, warning him not to be too excited, as the breakfast selection wasn’t exactly great. The eggs and bacon were the only hot items and definitely looked like they’d seen better days, the choice of cereal was pretty much muesli and grain and that was it, although the cheese, bread and salad looked encouraging. Oh and forget the fresh fruit – it was in a bowl and a lot of it was looking past its sell by date.
Despite this, we weren’t going to pass up the offer of free food, so down we headed, with the receptionist apologising profusely to Mark. Apparently, they already had guys on their way out to sort the problem, so that was good.
In fairness, the breakfast wasn’t as bad as I thought it might’ve been. I made up a cheese roll, while Mark made up a bacon and egg one and neither was too terrible. I also had some of the various breads, that were quite nice with some jam. Oh well, the muffins live to fight another day...
We headed back to the room and got ready to head out into the great tundra beyond... my goodness, it was still cold out there today! And wouldn’t you know it, we stood there for ages waiting to cross the road. We realised that the two muppets standing by the button you press to get the green man hadn’t pressed it, but only after two sets of traffic went through, including one of the trams we wanted to catch.
this is a police station... on stilts! We think the reason for this may be this place – the American Embassy maybe?
We got another one a few minutes later and headed up to the banks of the Amstel to take the other tram we needed.
We got that easily enough, then just after we set off, there was an announcement in Dutch which seemed to relate to Waterlooplein, which I knew was on our route. It was obviously to say there was some problem, as we then went a totally different way. Well, that made up my mind for me and as it wasn’t going past Artis any longer, where the zoo is, I figured we’d go to the Troppenmuseum instead.
The view down towards the Magere Brug or Skinny Bridge
We got off the tram nearby and saw the Muiderpoort, one of the former city gates.
We crossed the canal, getting some photos as we went and had a brief look in Oosterpark, but the wind really was biting there, so we didn’t last there long.
Ack! No hot water?? Poor Mark. Not what you need to counteract the cold outside. Very nice of the hotel to offer free breakfast, but it doesn't sound like it was worth very much! It does look sooo cold outside!
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Ack! I knew that was what was coming--no hot water in freezing climate! The photo of the police station on stilts cracked me up--they need to upgrade--our mobile command centers are on lifts that go up almost two stories, for big event crowd control/bird's eye view! They are all over the city right now for Mardi Gras! In honor of your meal the previous night--I had an Italian omelet for breakfast: meatballs, ricotta cheese and red sauce!
Oh, no. No hot water! I hate when that happens! At least they tried to make up for that right away with breakfast. Yikes!
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Evem though that ice was much thicker, I don't think I'd skate on it. I guess I'm just a scaredy cat. Amsterdam certainly is beautiful, and maybe it's because I have a thing for winter photography, but it looks so serene and peaceful there.
Ack! I knew that was what was coming--no hot water in freezing climate! The photo of the police station on stilts cracked me up--they need to upgrade--our mobile command centers are on lifts that go up almost two stories, for big event crowd control/bird's eye view! They are all over the city right now for Mardi Gras! In honor of your meal the previous night--I had an Italian omelet for breakfast: meatballs, ricotta cheese and red sauce!
Oh wow, I hadn't thought about that side of things for Mardi Gras - wow!
And how great to encourage someone else to have an Italian breakfast!
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not the best bit of this trip... 
about that... so what did breakfast end up being then? 
Bless you, Cheryl, for your power of suggestion! 
) and being DVC members helps with all the trips to the States. 
Beautiful pictures from this morning! 
Amsterdam certainly is beautiful, and maybe it's because I have a thing for winter photography, but it looks so serene and peaceful there.
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