Making lemonade out of lemons…. In a titanic way! COMPLETED 5/13 - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
An amazing time at the sanctuary and you got so much out of it! It makes it even better on how welcoming they are to their guests and treating them like family as you experienced! That was interesting on how your love of donkeys came to be.
I loved the feeling, as you said, of being welcomed into the family. I don't think there are many places you'd get such an enthusiastic welcome.
Saturday 15 April – part five: is that what I think it is in the water?
We had stopped at Drains Bay, and here we learnt a bit more about how the coastal road was created in the 19th century. Before it was done, this part of Northern Ireland actually had better links with Scotland than inland! Back then, when the road was created in the 1820s, blasting was in its infancy, which was something I’d never have thought of, as you kind of take it for granted these days, so the short tunnels we’d already driven through were quite a challenge to the road builders. The road was eventually finally completed in 1842 and is officially now known as one of the 100 best drives in the world, and given what we’d already seen, I could understand why.
We headed down to the beach, and got some photos…
Now it may look beautiful in these photos, but my goodness, it was one of those days where the wind was still whipping around, and every time the sun went in, it was very cold.
Once we were done with photos, we made our way back to the car park, and as we were both starting to get hungry (well, it was past 1:00pm by now…), we ended up getting lunch here…
I wasn’t sure if they’d do anything I could have, as usually these places just do burgers, but when we checked, they did a “fish supper”, which was really just fish and chips, which was perfect. There were way too many chips for me to eat though…
We sat outside eating them, and thankfully weren’t plagued by birds, which was a relief, as usually that’s one of the problems. What a beautiful view for lunch.
Now while we had been waiting for our food, we’d seen this amazing sight, given it was only mid April, and as I mentioned earlier, not the warmest of days…
We actually saw the guy just as we were leaving. There were public toilets in the car park, and he was coming out fully dressed, and Mark asked him how cold the water was, and he cheerfully told us it wasn’t too bad, and that he’d have stayed in longer, but he didn’t have time! Wow, rather you than me!
We set off again, following the coastal road, and passed this country park…
We stopped a little further up to get some photos of the bay here…
You could still see back to Belfast in the distance from here. We continued on our way, seeing lots more beautiful scenery, whether it was the brilliant turquoise colour of the sea, or the brilliant yellow of the heather, it was just glorious wherever you looked. Thank goodness Mark had suggested this, and the comments he’d read about this being amazing, whatever the weather, I think would be spot on. Apparently he’d read something that said even if it was wet, windy and miserable, it was still beautiful, and I can believe that.
Beautiful country! I'm quite sure it looks very nice in the rain too, but so glad you guys got some sunshine. What a great spot for lunch too.
But I cannot believe someone was actually in the water. And all the way in the water! That's just crazy!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Those pictures are so beautiful. I can't believe someone was actually swimming that day. It had to be cold. Our lake is still only about 45 degrees right now.
Liz
Not sure I'd want to be swimming without a wet suit this early in the season.
I MUST get to Ireland soon. We'd planned a trip for our 10th anniversary but went to China instead. Now, sadly, we can't do the trip we'd planned as it was a cycling trip and Mike just couldn't do something like that these days. Good reminder not to think you have time to see something or do something later.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Those pictures are so beautiful. I can't believe someone was actually swimming that day. It had to be cold. Our lake is still only about 45 degrees right now.
Liz
I don't think open water, be it lakes or seas, ever warm up that much even in the middle of the summer - or at least that's been my experience.
Not sure I'd want to be swimming without a wet suit this early in the season.
I MUST get to Ireland soon. We'd planned a trip for our 10th anniversary but went to China instead. Now, sadly, we can't do the trip we'd planned as it was a cycling trip and Mike just couldn't do something like that these days. Good reminder not to think you have time to see something or do something later.
Well if you do plan on doing it, let us know, as we want to go back and we've never visited Ireland, except for a day trip to Ireland, so we definitely have a lot to see there...
Wow, I can't believe that guy was swimming!! More beautiful scenery! I loved my trip to Ireland, and will definitely make it back to include Northern Ireland someday.
Gotta be Cadbury caramel eggs for me. I dislike the creme ones. So, you're all welcome to the zillions of those my sweet tooth would demand if I liked them.
I only eat the caramel ones in private because I like to lick at the caramel as one might an ice cream cone. No one needs to witness that!
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
It makes it even better on how welcoming they are to their guests and treating them like family as you experienced! 
That was interesting on how your love of donkeys came to be.
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
What a beautiful place!!
Alaskan Mom aka Bonnie
Linear Mode
