A magical Mediterranean vacation THIS SECTION COMPLETED 8/9 - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Ahhhhh, Venice. Just beautiful!!
I have to tell you, there's a grocery chain here in the US, Trader Joe's, and they now carry boxes of frozen macaroons. Simply thaw and enjoy. I can say the coconut ones are delicious! Thought of you as soon as I saw them!
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I think I can beat that with what we saw on the way to Murano the next morning, but I'm getting ahead of myself...
I can only imagine what that may be
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Ahhhhh, Venice. Just beautiful!!
I have to tell you, there's a grocery chain here in the US, Trader Joe's, and they now carry boxes of frozen macaroons. Simply thaw and enjoy. I can say the coconut ones are delicious! Thought of you as soon as I saw them!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh wow, I would be in heaven with those!
There is also a company that produces the Ready to Bake kind too. I saw it in a store recently. They are the coconut variety by the Immaculate Baking Company. It's in the refrigerated or dairy section. They serve some of their other cookies on JetBlue flights!
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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; 07-27-2014 at 02:39 PM..
There is also a company that produces the Ready to Bake kind too. I saw it in a store recently. They are the coconut variety by the Immaculate Baking Company. It's in the refrigerated or dairy section. They serve some of their other cookies on JetBlue flights!
Those aren't French macaroons. The French ones aren't made of coconut, and are a sort of sandwich type cookie. But I do love their products.
Friday 4 July – part six: exploring life in 18th century Venice
Soon we were coming up to the famous Rialto Bridge. This dates from the late 16th century, and until the Accademia bridge was built in 1854, it was the only way of crossing the Grand Canal by foot.
It looks like the guy doesn’t want his photo taken in this shot!
This section of the canal is just so picturesque, so naturally I went overboard with getting photos…
Soon we were pulling up to Ca’Rezzonica, which I wanted to visit, so we got off here…
This is now a museum of how Venice would’ve been in the 18th century, with exhibits taken from other palaces or museums. It’s one of the few palazzos in Venice that opens its doors to the public, and that’s why I was really keen to see it.
We paid and I got some photos in the courtyard…
Then we headed inside, and sadly it said that there were no photos allowed in here. As there were no photos, and I can only find limited information available online about each of the rooms we went in, this will be a very sketchy account. It’s a shame, as they had so much information in each room, but of course I couldn’t photograph it.
The palace was designed by the greatest Baroque architect of the city, Baldassare Longhena for the Bon family, and work started in 1649. Longhena’s died in 1682 at around the same time as his client and the work came to a halt, leaving it incomplete. The palace is named after the Rezzonica family from Lombardy, who moved to Venice and then bought the palace in 1751. Work was completed on it five years later.
Most of the main rooms are on the first floor, which is the first you visit. You enter in through the ballroom, which as you can imagine from the name, is extremely sumptuous. It’s double the height of the other rooms, which makes it even more impressive. In fact, given this, it’s interesting that the tour starts here, rather than ends here.
The ballroom is at the back of the palace, but at the front are impressive state rooms that overlook the Grand Canal below. One thing I can tell you is that all the rooms on this floor had the most amazing frescoes. You looked up and each was different, dating from different eras. There was one from the 1930s, which of course looked very different to all the others. You could also see in some rooms that there was water damage to the ceiling, which was a shame, but it looked as if they made every effort they could to repair it.
Upstairs, the focus was more on murals, which were so beautifully done, using shadows in an extremely clever way to make them appear to be truly three dimensional. We stood there for some time, just admiring the artistry that went into creating them. Whoever did this was truly talented.
The third floor was home to an exhibit of various art that went on for some time. While I’m sure any art lover would be horrified, we didn’t spend much time here, as we’re not really into art. Give me architecture any day. It was a shame to end it that way, and had I known, I would’ve gone up here first or just skipped it altogether.
When we came out, we considered going to the café there for something to eat, but nothing in there really struck us, so instead we headed back to the vaparetto stop, only to discover one had just left, and when we checked the timetable, there wasn’t another one due for another 25 minutes.
Ok, no choice but to walk then… This was where the map in my guidebook came into its own. I was diving off tiny alleys that I thought couldn’t possibly lead anywhere, but my map was good, and sure enough they did!
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While I always love the pastoral views of your trips, I have to say these pics of Venice just leave me breathless. Also helps me picture the scene when I'm reading Donna Leon's books set there.
Oh wow Venice is exactly how I pictured it. Rory is wondering where the vampires are and he is very jealous of your Gelato. I am not sure why because we can get both gelato and macaroons walking distance from here.
Very picturesque indeed. Wow! I can't pick just one, if I had to. Every one is better than the last. Beautiful!
The palazzo sounded fascinating. What a shame you couldn't grab any photos though. Is sounded wonderful. Well, except that last room.
Your adventure on foot looked just as beautiful as the one on water!
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I like the views on foot in Venice better than on the Grand Canal. Just wandering all the tiny alleys you see some beautiful views. I agree, they all seem like they'll be dead ends when you enter, but they all connect somehow. Getting lost in Venice is really fun, and be little streets are where all the good restaurants are!
The palazzo sounded very interesting and beautiful, it's a shame you couldn't get some photos of it. The photos from your walk are amazing though, it really is a beautiful city. I do hope to get there someday!
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As there were no photos, and I can only find limited information available online about each of the rooms we went in, this will be a very sketchy account. It’s a shame, as they had so much information in each room, but of course I couldn’t photograph it. 
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