Returning to Roman times… COMPLETED - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I continue to love your photos from the air! Sounds like your seats in the back of the plane weren't so bad after all. And how very strange they didn't have a convertible for you. Oh well. I'm thinking that you guys just might go on another trip sometime where a convertible will work out. Maybe.
Well, you guys are certainly doing your best to talk me into that...
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I finally got to catch up on this TR today. Congrats on the new camera! I love Sony cameras as they just seem to fit me. Your pictures of the Alps from the plane are breathtaking. Italy does look beautiful from the air.
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Originally Posted by chezp
Now this just shows how spontaneous the purchase was - I had to go and find it to check. It's apparently an HX300.
This is what I ended up getting for my replacement of my Sony HX100 that had an issue. Got it last week. Haven't played with it much, but I loved the HX100. Hoping I like the 300 as much.
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Sorry to hear about the lack of the convertible...Great photos of the Alps and Mt. V as you descended into Naples. I'll never forget hiking up that monster in 2007!
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I finally got to catch up on this TR today. Congrats on the new camera! I love Sony cameras as they just seem to fit me. Your pictures of the Alps from the plane are breathtaking. Italy does look beautiful from the air.
It was beautiful from the air and from the ground as well. It's definitely a country we need to see more of.
This is what I ended up getting for my replacement of my Sony HX100 that had an issue. Got it last week. Haven't played with it much, but I loved the HX100. Hoping I like the 300 as much.
Sorry to hear about the lack of the convertible...Great photos of the Alps and Mt. V as you descended into Naples. I'll never forget hiking up that monster in 2007!
We were talking about that during our weekend there. On the Monday, as you'll see from the photos when we get there, you could not see the top of it at all, as the cloud was so low. I was saying if you'd hiked up it, like you did, you'd have been really disappointed to get no view at all.
Saturday 4 May – part four: meeting those fun Italian drivers!
We headed out, and immediately encountered Italian idiots on the road. We had a taxi overtake us, and a car come towards us half on our side of the road, never mind the pedestrians who just stepped out in front of us.
Then we hit the freeways, and because the exits were so close together, we managed to take a wrong turn, and ended up doing what felt like about three or four 360 turns around slip roads to get back on the right route. It was very surreal!
The universal sign Good old Mount Vesuvius again!
While doing that, we saw these guys…
Honestly no sense at all – you crash on one of these wearing that, and there will seriously be nothing left of you!
All the time, there was the ominous sight of Mount Vesuvius, which dominates the landscape here. I couldn’t believe that there were houses built all the way up to the start of its summit. Bearing what happened here all those years ago, do people just not learn?
Soon we were heading south, towards the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento, and the landscape was much greener, although still very much dominated by mountains…
Soon we were coming off the freeway and into a set of tunnels, which literally had been carved through the mountains.
Then we were on to the “scenic road” (that’s what they called it) and getting some views of the Italian countryside…
… and the Bay of Naples, once again dominated by the sight of Mount Vesuvius…
We also saw some beautiful buildings, unsurprisingly many of them were hotels…
I loved these little carts by the side of the road. A very cool idea!
As you can see, the mountains were once again a key part of the landscape, with protection put in for drivers, just in case anything should fall from them…
Next: I think we’ll follow the hotel’s directions…
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I read an article about Mt. V after we returned from our Med cruise in 2007 that more than 3 million people live in the potential blast zone - and the evacuation plan requires 3 days notification to get everyone out.... The International Volcano Geologists group (not their real name - but basically who they are) ranked Mt V the #1 most dangerous volcano with regard to possible loss of human life.
I read an article about Mt. V after we returned from our Med cruise in 2007 that more than 3 million people live in the potential blast zone - and the evacuation plan requires 3 days notification to get everyone out.... The International Volcano Geologists group (not their real name - but basically who they are) ranked Mt V the #1 most dangerous volcano with regard to possible loss of human life.
Sadly, that does not surprise me in the slightest. I have no idea why on earth they don't seem to have learnt from the past. Why would you build towns and cities on top of somewhere that's been obliterated in the past by a volcano? To me, it just defies logic to me.
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Your pictures of the Alps from the plane are breathtaking. 
Italy does look beautiful from the air.
It's apparently an HX300.
It's definitely a country we need to see more of. 
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