Rest, relaxation and a bit of rain in Spain COMPLETE 11/10 - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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.
Tuesday 13 October – part three: and what do you get from palms?
It’s not all plants though, as the park is also home to sculptures, including a gently revolving circle of metal spikes that seems to shift shape as it turns.
There’s also a bust of King Jaime I, which commemorates the King’s decision to save the palm groves of Elx from destruction, after the city was taken over by Arabs in 1265.
One of the other highlights for me were the beautiful flowers, especially the stunning Birds of Paradise flowers, which I always associate with Spain. It seems to be the only country I ever see them in.
There were some other stunning blooms as well…
As you can see, it was still wet from earlier rain
As you can tell from the various photos, we both loved this place and got very snap happy here. There were lots of general shots and I was also fascinated by the trunks of the date palms.
Ironically, I hadn’t actually connected the fact that many of the palms were date palms and you got dates from them. D’oh! I only worked it out just before we entered the park, when I saw the dates with bags covering them up, I assume to capture the dates easily when they ripened and fell.
Needless to say, at the shop on the way out, they were selling out dates and I made sure to buy a bag of them.
We were there a good hour or so and all agreed that it had been a very worthwhile visit. Thank goodness the place wasn’t that big and I found it relatively easy to get around the place and see all the main attractions.
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.
Tuesday 13 October – part four: aren’t we stopping here?!
We headed back to the car and headed for Alicante, as I remembered Dave and Barb telling me how beautiful the harbour was there. It was a gorgeous sight, although I didn’t get any photos of it, for reasons I’ll come to in a minute… here are some photos I did manage to get of the city:
Unfortunately, graffiti is a problem in much of Spain Looking up towards the Castle of Santa Barbara
Unfortunately, I didn’t bother with any shots of the harbour, as I was expecting us to park up and stop for a visit, but we missed the turning to the car park and then missed another turn and suddenly, before we knew it, we were a mile or two further down the road, as there was just nowhere to turn back round and we decided it would be easier to just keep going.
We spotted another harbour, further along the coast and tried to get there, but every time we turned right to get down to the coastline, it was a dead end! At one, I got out of the car to get a photo back towards Alicante.
Finally, we saw a car go down a road and figured that we’d follow it. Of course, the car was going to a house along the road and, when we got to the end of the road, we ran into a group of workmen who were about to start work on the road. We tried to turn left and then found a van further up. The workman, who didn’t speak any English, inferred that he’d get the van moved and he went inside to haul the driver out. When he did, we had to back up, as it was only a single track road, with posts either side.
Eventually, we were able to get through, only to realise that we couldn’t get any further along this road, which did run by the beach and we had to turn up the next road and go back to the road we’d started from. What a nightmare!
The next turning did finally allow us to get on to the road that ran alongside the beach and here we found a car park. We walked a little way along and got some photos of the beautiful beach.
By now, it was past 1.30pm and we were all getting pretty hungry, so we stopped at the restaurant nearby for something to eat. There were no menus on the table, so when we ordered our drinks, we asked for some and got the shock of our lives when we saw the prices! Considering that it was a beachfront restaurant, I wasn’t anticipating it being particularly pricey, but it was, with main dishes about €15 (about $22.30), so Barb went with a salad, Dave and Mark had fries and I got some bread, the cheapest thing on offer at €1, but I didn’t spring for the butter as well, as that would’ve cost extra.
The food wasn’t bad and it wasn’t too small a portion, but it certainly brought it home to us when the bill turned up and it was something like €23 (about $34.20) for the four of us. Considering what we’d eaten, hardly great value. :
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I only worked it out just before we entered the park, when I saw the dates with bags covering them up, I assume to capture the dates easily when they ripened and fell. 
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
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