On the road (1) Six countries, nine days COMPLETED - Page 50 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Saturday 27 March part three: chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!
We checked how Sabine and Manuel were doing and they had just got their food. Having found out from reception where the Hard Rock Cafe was, we set off and got some photos of the cathedral on the way. Its certainly a stunning building, but my goodness, I didnt realise it was so black. : Some bits were in white and the contrast between them was quite stark. We couldnt work out how only some parts were white and others werent. It was very odd.
We walked down the main shopping street and it was so crowded! My goodness, the world and his wife appeared to be out. From talking to Sabine later, we worked out why, its because every shop in Germany, bar bakeries and gas stations, have to close on a Sunday, so if you work all day, Saturday is the only day you can ever shop. For us, it was a bit like going back to the dark ages, as thats how the UK used to be about 20 years ago. Now everythings open on a Sunday, albeit for limited hours, as theyre only able to open for six hours on a Sunday.
The people here seemed to have something of an attitude, something we both felt. It was very much a feeling of dont get in my way and it wasnt nice. I had one woman cut right in front of me from nowhere. One second she wasnt there, the next she was and the look she gave me was really cutting. I was quite shocked.
Finally, we found the right street and made it to the Hard Rock Cafe and Sabine came over to meet us. They had finished eating and were just waiting for the check, so we went and sat down with them, which confused their server no end. We sat there chatting for a few minutes, catching up, and then headed out.
The next issue was sorting out food for me. Id wanted to try the new McDonalds veggie burger that theyd been advertising ever since we arrived in Germany, but I was worried that it might contain Quorn that Im allergic to, so I asked Sabine if she could check on that for me. She did and told me that sadly it did contain Quorn, so that was that idea out. Just as well I asked her to check though.
Mark wasnt hungry, after our huge breakfast earlier, but I was, so we headed to a nearby bakery and I got a Berliner, with Manuel getting one as well. Essentially, they were donuts and they were very nice too. It was just what I needed.
Id already sent Sabine a text to say that I wanted to go to the chocolate museum and they were happy to do that. I knew, from how far wed already walked, that it couldnt be more than five minutes walk and it wasnt. We passed through a neat square on the way....
Then it was down to the waterfront of the Rhein, where we got a few photos, including some of the four of us.
We headed down to the chocolate museum, where it was time for more photos before we went inside. I was pleased to finally get a photo of the big Lindt bunny. Wed seen a few of those on top of various gas stations as wed travelled around, but wed not been able to get any photos of them. Now at last we could!
We went inside and it was mayhem in there, with so many people milling around. What seemed to be a school party headed in and they all made a beeline for the shop. Fortunately, that got rid of a lot of people, but that place was mobbed. We got our tickets, which were 7.50 ($10.13) each and headed inside. Unlike the Mercedes-Benz museum, you could really tour this any way you wanted to. We walked through the explanation of how chocolate is made and didnt spend much time there. Having been to Hershey Park and the Valor chocolate factory in Spain in the last six months, we already knew a fair bit of this.
They had a greenhouse with the cocoa trees in and they had a special system for letting people in. One set of doors had to close before the next opened, so that they kept the temperatures the same in there and, my goodness, it was hot in there! It was fun trying to get photos without the lenses of the cameras fogging up.
The next section we went into was really interesting. It was an actual production line for chocolate, so you could see how it was made. At first, I wasnt sure if the production line really was working, but it was and it was fascinating to see how it was done. We took lots of photos here, although I didnt envy any of the workers I saw here. They all seemed to have really dull and repetitive jobs. Not something Id want to do. :
This area also gave you some views of the Rhein outside, as this is right on the waterfront and the city to the other side. From here, we could see how heavily it was now raining. Well, at least we were inside while the weather was bad.
Next: a Mickey mouse sighting and the Milka moo cow!
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Thanks for all the lovely photos of the cathedral! I remember going there when I was about 8 or 9 when we lived in Germany, and somewhere (in mom's house) there is a small replica of the cathedral at Koln.
Yay! I've been waiting for Sabine and Manuel! That cathedral is really interesting!
...and now, I'm having a craving for chocolate for some reason... must be some around here somewhere...
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: Some bits were in white and the contrast between them was quite stark. We couldnt work out how only some parts were white and others werent. It was very odd. 
I had one woman cut right in front of me from nowhere. One second she wasnt there, the next she was and the look she gave me was really cutting. I was quite shocked. 
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