Canals, diamonds and red lights – an Amsterdam getaway COMPLETED - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hmmm...what a strange, but interesting sounding exhibit about death. However, I don't know if I'd like to be the person having their before and after pictures taken.
Not only was this a chance to warm up, but a fascinating little adventure as well. Win-win!
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Hmmm...what a strange, but interesting sounding exhibit about death. However, I don't know if I'd like to be the person having their before and after pictures taken.
I think the people involved in that and perhaps more so their families were very brave doing that.
Friday 10 February – part four: from monster to cuddly toy....
Of course, wouldn’t you know it, we saw a tram leaving just before we got to the stop? We don’t seem to be having much luck with them this trip.
As we stood there, I decided that we’d just go with the next thing that turned up, as they would all take us to some kind of museum and I’d let Fate decide for us. Well, the number 22 bus service was the next one to show up, which took us to the Maritime Museum, so that’s where we got off.
It’s located in a beautiful building...
... but when we went inside, we discovered that it was even more beautiful. The “open” courtyard was just stunning and very reminiscent of the British Museum. We loved it.
We got our tickets and put our backpacks and coats into the cloakroom and headed up to the top floor. Now this was confusing, as there are exhibits on the west, north and east side of the museum (you enter through the south side), but you can’t get from one to the other, so you have to go up and experience each floor, then go to the next section, do the same thing and so on.
We started on the top floor of west, and then went up again to get a quick look at the roof from roof level, but the view wasn’t great.
There was more to see outside though...
There wasn’t much to see on the second floor, so we were quickly down to the next layer, which was all about whales. Anything that is sub-titled “from monsters to cuddly toys” has already got me and this turned out to be an excellent exhibition. It showed you how people used to hunt whales and there were some amazing exhibits, with one allowing you to go inside a whale – very cool!
At the end, just before you head back towards where you’d started from, was an amazing portrait that came to life if you touched items on the table in front of it. The portrait then developed into a video that explained about various elements of the whaling trade and, perhaps oddly, it was presented by a woman, which certainly challenges any preconceptions you may have! We sat there, rooted by what we were watching, for some time.
Then we wandered through the second half of the exhibition, learning how whaling came back in after the Second World War, as people were desperate for food and were happy to take whatever they could. This time though, instead of harpoons, they were using missiles and grenades, which was too gruesome to think about.
The final section looks at how whales are now beloved and that’s where the title of this exhibition comes from. It was all very interesting.
The other exhibition on this floor is all about the golden years for maritime explorations in the Netherlands, which was fascinating. It was interesting to see all the sacrifices that had been made, sometimes for what felt like little gain, if you understand me...
The west side done, we headed back down to the ground floor to sample lunch in the museum restaurant. It was a beautiful setting...
We both ended up going for salads, with me opting for one with grilled eggplants, marinated zucchini, roasted bell peppers, almonds, nougat goat cheese and I opted for a lingonberry dressing to go with it.
Mark went for one with wild boar ham, chicory, walnuts, crispy fried bacon bits, and a lingonberry dressing. Can you see where I got the idea for the dressing from?
My goodness, we both thought that our salads were real winners and they were both pretty filling as well. We were impressed with the place and the fact that it only came to €30 in total, including a glass of wine for me – well, I needed to warm up somehow!
Restaurant
Entree 9 9
Service 9 9
Atmosphere 8 8
Value for money 9 8
Average score:
With lunch finished, it was off to the east side of the museum. Again, we headed to the top floor.
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I was expecting a lot from this museum, after reading about it in my guidebook, but it was better than I had hoped.
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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