Canals, diamonds and red lights – an Amsterdam getaway COMPLETED - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wonderful shots of the skaters at night. It sounds like they've got the winter we usually have this year. We've got no ice and snow at all, and I'm not complaining! Just reading your description of the cold wind whipping around while you wait for the tram... brrrrr. That caprese looks perfect!
I think you guys - and us to a certain extent with a couple of exceptions - have had a very mild winter... I hope I don't jinx things by saying that!
Glad you had a great dinner! Great shots of the canals. When we were there, there was a carnival in Dam Square, so it was hopping! I guess you wouldn't expect that in the winter though! More please!
I do love the cow section of that store. What a fun place to shop.
In the last update you have a picture of the lemoncello as the site you see when you go outside...I don't think that is what it was supposed to be. LOL
Love the knife rack
Well spotted! Here's the good shot that was supposed to go in there....
Saturday 11 February – part one: do I have to take a photo of you?
Well, we must’ve been tired, because after going to bed at around 10:00 pm last night, we slept in until nearly 8:00 am. I guess that’s a combination of tiredness from everything we’ve done over the last couple of days and the cold we’ve experienced.
The room was absolutely baking, which Mark told me about a number of times. In fairness, he had said last night that he thought it was too hot, but I thought it was fine and, bearing in mind how cold I was, I wanted as much heat as possible. Well, now it did feel like an oven. I turned the heating down, but it was so bad that I even had to open the door to the balcony (don’t get excited, it really wasn’t much – we’re talking a few inches here! ) to get some of that lovely cold, fresh air in.
We had breakfast in the room, which consisted of the muffins we’d bought from a couple of days ago and they were still excellent. I didn’t want a tea this morning, as I knew it would just make me even hotter, so we passed, but maybe that would be a bad thing...
We took the luggage down to reception and checked off and headed off towards the Diamond Museum, walking across the square in front of all the museums on the way. It didn’t feel that cold to us when we started out, something we both commented on.
In front of the Rijksmuseum was the I Amsterdam sign, which we wanted to get some photos of. However, there were a pair of very irritating girls, who spent forever getting photos of themselves around the sign. Every time we thought they’d finished, they’d carry on. Even worse, just as we set up the tripod and they moved out of shot, they came back in, just as the photo was taken. I couldn’t believe how rude they were.
The best was yet to come. One bounded up to me, totally oblivious I think. “Could you take a photo of us?” She started carrying on about their names, how one began with an I and the other with an M, so they’d be in those letters and could I focus on them. is the simple answer, when you have one of the worst cameras I’ve ever come across. I couldn’t get it to zoom in and to be honest, I couldn’t have cared less about getting a decent photo of them. I was shooting into the sun and it was probably the worst photo I’ve ever taken – I hope they enjoyed it.
When they finally moved it, there were about four couples, all waiting to get their photos by the sign, and finally we managed to get one.
And I just noticed... they’re still in these shots!
Then it was over to the Diamond Museum. To get to it, you go through Coster Diamonds, who are one of just four diamond manufacturers in Amsterdam now. A lot of their place is closed for restoration (sound familiar? ) but there was one room where a guy was polishing diamonds and it was fascinating to see. We would learn more about that process in a minute.
Sorry about the obnoxious girls. I really hope the photo you took for them is a bad one! A cupful of diamonds? Wow.
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What annoying girls in the picture. That reminds me of a story a friend told me a while ago...he used to work at the DL submarine ride, and he and the other CM's got really annoyed by all the people who would stop the line as they were trying to board and ask a CM to take a picture of the family in front of the submarine. If you've ever been on that ride, you know how slowly the line moves, and how slowly the boarding tends to be since everyone needs to walk carefully down the steps into the submarine.
Anyhow, he said that after a while, he and the CMs came up with a new plan...when people would hold up the line and ask him to take a picture, he'd take one and focus it way behind the family...but then he'd quickly take a second one for them that was ok.
I can understand people being excited when they're on vacation and see something interesting, but that's no excuse to let your brain go to sleep!
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I think you guys - and us to a certain extent with a couple of exceptions 
- have had a very mild winter... I hope I don't jinx things by saying that!
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
More please! 
Here's the good shot that was supposed to go in there.... 
I didn’t want a tea this morning, as I knew it would just make me even hotter, so we passed, but maybe that would be a bad thing... 
) but there was one room where a guy was polishing diamonds and it was fascinating to see. We would learn more about that process in a minute. 
A cupful of diamonds? Wow.
My normal everyday computer routine!
That reminds me of a story a friend told me a while ago...he used to work at the DL submarine ride, and he and the other CM's got really annoyed by all the people who would stop the line as they were trying to board and ask a CM to take a picture of the family in front of the submarine. If you've ever been on that ride, you know how slowly the line moves, and how slowly the boarding tends to be since everyone needs to walk carefully down the steps into the submarine.
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