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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sunday 20 March – part one: it’s still a little chilly out today...
I didn’t sleep badly at all last night, eventually waking up at around 6.30am. That may sound very early, but bear in mind we were in bed before 10pm last night, so we certainly got enough hours sleep. The bed was very comfortable. It had the odd arrangement of two single duvets that we’d first seen in neighbouring Switzerland. In a way, that’s good, as no-one else is going to be grabbing it, but mine seemed to have a natural inclination to keep falling off the bed.
We got going slowly, both with aching feet from all the walking we did yesterday. We so need to do some more walking over the next couple of weeks, otherwise Disney is going to be a complete bust next month!
We had our breakfast, bought from the shops yesterday, and the cakes I had were just heavenly. No doubt very bad for me, but they tasted so good! No wonder the Viennese have a reputation for being amongst the best in the world when it comes to cakes. A friend of mine, who lived in France for many years, confirmed that – and that’s saying something for the French to say that, as they’re pretty good too when it comes to sweet things!
It looked like a beautiful day outside – barely any cloud around and much sunnier than yesterday, although whether that would mean that it would be colder when we went outside, only time would tell....
We finally set off at around 10am, checking out and leaving our cases with concierge. It wasn’t too cold outside – well, at least it wasn’t, until we got a little bit further out and then the wind hit us, just as it had done yesterday. Ok, so it’s still a little chilly today.
We caught the subway across to the Spanish Riding School, getting off a couple of minutes’ walk away. When we came out of the subway, we were struck by the beautiful architecture. All the buildings in the centre of Vienna seem to be stunning. There’s a lot of what I’d term imperial buildings here, dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.
We walked down to the Hofburg Palace, getting a few photos in the daytime...
... before we headed inside. It was like a zoo in there! We managed to get our tickets quickly enough, even though the American in front of us was having no luck, as the staff couldn’t find her ticket.
We were told that we needed to use the other entrance at the other end of the riding school and that the doors were already open, so after a quick restroom stop, we headed that way.
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2 more wonderful updates. I love all the buildings lite up at night. The place looks deserted, was there anyone around at night? I might have felt a little strange/unsafe in a strange city at night with no one else around.
2 more wonderful updates. I love all the buildings lite up at night. The place looks deserted, was there anyone around at night? I might have felt a little strange/unsafe in a strange city at night with no one else around.
It was actually fairly quiet, but you know what? I know what you mean, but I never once felt uncomfortable or threatened at all while we were out that night. :
I am loving every word of this trip report! I will be leaving the US in exactly two weeks for my first visit to Vienna, immediately followed by my fourth trip to the Czech Republic. I am very excited to see Vienna... especially after seeing your beautiful photographs!!!
I am loving every word of this trip report! I will be leaving the US in exactly two weeks for my first visit to Vienna, immediately followed by my fourth trip to the Czech Republic. I am very excited to see Vienna... especially after seeing your beautiful photographs!!!
Sunday 20 March – part two: will you please stop moving your leg?
On the way, we noticed that the horses were rehearsing just opposite, so stopped to watch that for a few minutes. It was fascinating to see them getting them ready and how much hay they need!
We made our way into Josefsplatz, another fine square with the Hofburg complex beyond.
Then it was inside, into the riding school. We started our climb up to our seats, and my goodness it was a climb as well, with a winding staircase. I ended up feeling quite sick as we walked up there!
We finally made it to the top and got our seats, which were at one of the short ends of the performance arena, opposite where the Royal box is – that’s where all the expensive seats are. We got some photos before the performance started....
... then settled down to read the programme of today’s event. It was fascinating to learn all about the training that goes into both the horses and the riders. The horses don’t come to the Riding School until they’re at least four years old. They then spend the next six to eight years in training, before they start to appear in performances.
As for the riders, they start at the Riding School at the age of 15, then spend the next four to six years, learning the basic skills. If judged good enough, then they’ll move on to become Assistant Riders. He will then spend another four to six years working with a horse, before he gets to perform.
Before we knew it, it was 11am and the show was starting. It was quite funny, as the floor of the arena was all perfectly raked, then the announcer came out, treading his way through and making footprints in it. Of course, a few minutes later, it was all churned up by the horses...
It turned out we were seated next to a guy, who I can only assume has restless leg syndrome, as he didn’t stop moving his legs the whole time he was sat down. I was so relieved whenever he stood up and when the performance finished. It was so bad that Mark even said at one point that he was going to put a hand on his knee to stop it moving!
The first act was with the young stallions, although I didn’t realise that until the end of the act. I was sitting there, thinking “this isn’t the standard of behaviour I was expecting to see from the horses” and thank goodness, this wasn’t the standard you’d usually get in a show. It wasn’t that it was bad, but let’s just say some of the horses were a little on the frisky side and, at times, hard to control.
From there, they moved on to the steps and movements of the classical school, with each horse and rider demonstrating their prowess to music.
Next you move on to the work in hand, which is where the major jumps are performed by the horses, but with the riders leading them, rather than riding them. These include the courbette, where the horse shifts his weight to his hind quarters and then completes a series of forward movements, the piaffe, where the horse springs from one diagonal set of legs to the other, the levade, where the horse raises up on his hind legs, and the capriole, where the horse leaps with all four legs in the air, kicking out with its hind legs.
Once you get through the work in hand, then these movements are shown with the rider on the horse in a movement called schools above the ground, before moving on to more steps and movements of the classical school.
The final performance is the school quadrille, which sees a minimum of eight horses demonstrate movements of classic dressage to music. It’s a long sequence, but absolutely mesmerising.
All in all, it was a fascinating thing to see and one of those things that you can say you’ve now done. I wasn’t as impressed by the jumps as I thought I would be. After all, these are supposed to be the highlights of any performance. I really didn’t like it when the horses did the jumps without their riders, as you could hear the crack of the whip and it just didn’t feel like it was natural, which stuck in my throat somewhat.
My favourite part was the final part, which was certainly the visually most impressive and I was even able to get a couple of photos at the end of it.
I really enjoyed the show and I’m glad we saw it. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, but I’d definitely go for different seats, perhaps that Royal box next time, if we can afford it, as I bet them had a pretty impressive view.
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this is what was opposite the palace! 
Guess the royals don't want to have to go far for a cup of Joe! 
No wonder the Viennese have a reputation for being amongst the best in the world when it comes to cakes. A friend of mine, who lived in France for many years, confirmed that – and that’s saying something for the French to say that, as they’re pretty good too when it comes to sweet things! 
Melanie
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