Don't Stop - the Florida road trip section UPDATED 3/16 - Page 45 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great update! I've been telling DH for years that someday I'd like to take a 2 week vacation and just drive down to Florida, down one coast all the way to Key West and come back along the Gulf coast. Maybe some year. First we have an Alaskan cruise this May!
Saturday 19 December – part five: sampling more Key West treats at the island’s sweetest shop!
We walked up towards Mel Fisher’s Maritime Museum, stopping to get some photos of the very impressive Key West Museum of Art and History. It’s a beautiful building.
Mel Fisher’s Maritime Museum is just nearby and we headed in. This tells the story of Mel Fisher’s exploration and the treasures he discovered from various wrecks, most notably two Spanish wrecks. It’s a really sad story, as he searched for years and, although he found it, during all the searching he did, his eldest son was killed. They say money can’t buy everything and, despite the fact that he was eventually able to keep his haul, after a long court battle with the state, I’m sure that never made up for his loss.
There are some amazing treasures to be seen in here and, despite the fact that we have seen the finds from the Tudor warship, the Mary Rose, I was still impressed with what they brought ashore here. Some of the jewels were breathtaking.
You can pick up one of the gold bars – and it weighs more than you think!
When we came out of there, I realised that we had pretty much done everything that I wanted to do in Key West, so I suggested taking the Old Town Trolley Tour back to our hotel and having a break, before our sunset cruise.
On the way, we walked back through the Clinton Square Market and found a lovely little sweet shop in there. I was attracted by the promise of handmade ice cream in there and they were selling key lime pie (again handmade), so we went in to get some key lime pie for Mark and some ice cream for me. We were also able to sample some of their delicious chocolate, although my goodness, it was rich, especially the European chocolate and the coconut ones. There was no way I could eat more than a tiny bit of that stuff. :
”Now which one should I go for?” “Oh my, that’s big!” “But boy, it’s good!”
Your ice cream looks very good. What flavor is it? Mel Fisher's Museum is very interesting. I remember how hwaving the gold bar was. We always injoy going to Hemmingway's house to visit the cats. We have 2 cats with extra toes and they always get into trouble. Those cats are so well taken care of.
Liz
Yum! Those cookies looked good! What flavor was your ice cream? Every Labor Day weekend our little town has it's annual Melon Festival and your cone looks just like our cantaloupe ice cream, which is AWESOME!
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The ICe cream looked so good. I loved seeing all those cats and what luck to get live there pampered and taken care of. I am enjoying your trip and all that you were able to do.
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Aug,1978- LBV;Apr,1987-Disneyland;March,1993-offsite;Jan,1997-offsite;Aug,1999- CBR;Sept,2000- ASMo;Aug,2001- ASSP;Aug,2002- ASMU/AKL;Jan & July 2003-POR;June,December 2004- PC;January 2005- ASMU; Aug 2005-PC;Dec 2005-AKL;Jan 2006-CBR ; July/Aug-Saratoga springs; Dec. PC;April 2007- Disneyland;Aug 2007-Disneyland & So Cal;Dec 2007-POFQ; Aug2008-POFQ & Nov 2008 PC,Y&B May 2009 ASmu, June 2009 PC ; Nov 2009 WL & POFQ;Jan 2010 BW & WL; June 2010 POFQ ; Aug 2010 Poly ;Oct 2010 WL; Jan 2011 PC
Great updates, Cheryl. The Old Town Trolley Tour looked very good. We've taken the Old Town Trolley in other cities (most recently San Diego) and have found the drivers to be quite witty and fun. The Mel Fisher Museum would be a "must do" for my family of treasure hunters! And I'm not a big seafood person, but those conch fritters looked good. What did they taste like? Can you make a comparision to any other seafood? Can't wait for more.
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