A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure UPDATED 9/7 - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wow, what a fun adventure! I can't imagine living in the tunnels. Living there.
We start school Sept. 1. Just to throw it in there. It is strange how different school starting dates are all over the country!
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Wow, what a fun adventure! I can't imagine living in the tunnels. Living there.
neither can I, and some of them lived in there for year after year as well...
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We start school Sept. 1. Just to throw it in there. It is strange how different school starting dates are all over the country!
It is weird. As an outsider, I always feel as if the States aren't quite one country, although I know of course you all are, but by that I mean it's amazing how much everything varies from state to state. A lot of the things that are different with you guys are the same across the country here you see.
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Some great plans for your trip and seems everything has pretty much come together! Just don't know why DL is so prehistoric for their guests to plan their trips by not allowing ADRs to be booked that far in advance! Just aggravating I'm sure! Glad you got your cruise docs and they certainly look great!
I love your garden as it looks like you've put a lot of work into it! Amazing little day trip with the Ramsay Tunnels. Quite fascinated how much of this has been preserved!
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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!
Some great plans for your trip and seems everything has pretty much come together! Just don't know why DL is so prehistoric for their guests to plan their trips by not allowing ADRs to be booked that far in advance! Just aggravating I'm sure!
It is irritating and certainly very different after what WDW have done now. However, I can understand it from Disney's point of view, given that the majority of guests are local. I seem to remember from somewhere that 80% of visitors are local and only 20% are out of state, whereas in Florida, the figures are reversed and 20% of visitors are local and 80% are out of state. How true that is, I don't know, but that's what I've heard anyway...
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Glad you got your cruise docs and they certainly look great!
They do, don't they?
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I love your garden as it looks like you've put a lot of work into it!
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Amazing little day trip with the Ramsay Tunnels. Quite fascinated how much of this has been preserved!
It was wonderful to see and it felt like stepping back in time.
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The photo of the sailboat looks so peaceful and calming. The tunnels are fascinating and the displays are very well done. Can't wait to see what you all find further in.
We don't start school until September 8. I think we're one of the last holdouts to start the day after Labor Day. The county next to us starts the week before. We just need to go three more years until DD graduates (I like the late start, but they keep talking about moving it up).
We don't start school until September 8. I think we're one of the last holdouts to start the day after Labor Day. The county next to us starts the week before. We just need to go three more years until DD graduates (I like the late start, but they keep talking about moving it up).
Wow, that is late to go back for the States... I know places that go back as early as mid August, so I find it amazing that dates can vary so much from one state to another.
Pre-trip report – part twelve: a real “wow” moment
Now when you last left me, we were exploring Ramsgate tunnels, which were used as air-raid shelters during the Second World War. At this point, we’d only so far seen the tunnels that the trains used to run along, but then we all stood at this entrance…
… and Adrian promised us a “wow” moment when he flipped the lights on, and he wasn’t kidding. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a photo of it as he did it, as I wasn’t at the front, but to give you an idea, here are some shots of inside those tunnels:
We walked a little way, then saw some bunk beds out, so that you got an idea of how people lived. Almost opposite those was a latrine in a little alcove built out of the chalk, and apparently they’d have a roller blind in front of the restrooms, and those in the bunk beds could pull a curtain across, as they always had to have lighting on. We did a test later, when we all turned off our lanterns to see how dark it was (some of the tunnels had lighting, but in other parts we had to use the handheld lanterns we’d been given) and literally that was the definition of pitch black. You know how normally you turn the lights out, and your eyes gradually acclimatise to the dark? Well, not down here, as there is literally no light at all. It was a very spooky experience. Anyway, as Adrian said, you couldn’t turn the lights off down here, as no-one would be able to move around at all, hence the curtains over the bunk beds.
We then headed to one of the 14 entrances that they had around the town, so that residents were never too far from an entrance, and could easily get into the tunnel system. This is from halfway up the first set of steps…
We then walked up to the top of this set of steps, which then dog legged and had a right angle turn in it. Adrian explained that this was in case a bomb exploded in one of the entrances, then the blast wouldn’t go straight down into the tunnels. Here’s the view up to the top, where the entrance once would’ve been…
Notice the graffiti? This wasn’t from the days of the Second World War, as the inhabitants would’ve treated it like home. sadly this was from the intervening period, where people, generally youngsters would’ve got into the tunnel system, and carved their names into the walls to mark the achievement. Part of me was very sad to see this, although part of me also thought this is part of history as well, however unpleasant it is to look at.
We made our way back down the steps…
We were escorted further along the original tunnel, and were shown a section where they’re currently working to clear it, so that future visitors can see more of the place. I hope they’re successful, as I’d love to go back and see more of it.
A little further down, we were shown this, which was beneath a shop. We were told the story of a guy who, during an air-raid stayed in his shop above, as he still had means to cook. It was a Sunday, and everyone took their Sunday roasts round to him to cook, then the air-raid started, and they assumed that he’d headed for the shelter. he stayed up there the whole time, cooking away, was absolutely fine, and when the all-clear came, he brought their lunches down. It was a neat story!
With that, we made our way back to the original railway tunnel, and saw replicas of how people would have lived in those air-raid tunnels during World War Two. It was a stark reminder of the hardships they went through…
With that, our tour was over, and we had a quick browse through the exhibition on Operation Dynamo, also known as the D-Day landings that I’m sure you guys are familiar with. A lot of the ships left from Ramsgate, which is why it’s appropriate to have the exhibition here. To give you an idea…
This is the memorial that they unveiled back in 2000 at Ramsgate Harbour. I was a journalist then and I covered the ceremony, which was attended by the famous World War Two singer Dame Vera Lynn
This gives you an idea of what Ramsgate Harbour would have looked like when the Little Ships sailed for Dunkirk
With that, we headed outside, and the beach was a bit busier now:
On the way over to our friend’s, we stopped off at a garden centre that’s home to various other shops, and there we both managed to get a pair of walking boots each at a massively reduced price. I think mine were supposed to be £120 ($186), and I got them for £55 ($85), and Mark got a similar deal – bargain! Now those are definitely going to be coming to Alaska with us…
Next: how many times are you going to tell us you’ve changed the time of the flight?
The memorial at Ramsgate is beautiful. Vera Lynn!! I read that name and immediately heard "We'll Meet Again" and "The White Cliffs of Dover" in my head. She's wonderful!
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neither can I, and some of them lived in there for year after year as well... 
Just don't know why DL is so prehistoric for their guests to plan their trips by not allowing ADRs to be booked that far in advance! 
Just aggravating I'm sure! Glad you got your cruise docs and they certainly look great! 
Anyway, as Adrian said, you couldn’t turn the lights off down here, as no-one would be able to move around at all, hence the curtains over the bunk beds. 
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