National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The National Park displays look great-- very well done! Apart from that, the area around Pioneer Square looks a bit sad. Every city has spaces like this, but it's sad to see the effects of the bad economy so clearly. I love the way the transportation works-- seems like it's pretty easy to get around.
WOW! You certainly got a lot done in one day. And you really had some beautiful weather for touring. First, the woman on the pig was hilarious. She seemed to be a bit of a grump anyway. I love all the aquarium photos, especially the seals and otter since I have a soft spot for all marine animals. That furry seal was adorable.
she was a bit of a grump! Wasn't the furry seal just lovely? People always say we do a lot and I guess we do, but we do, in fairness, take our time a lot more these days, as with my chronic fatigue, I just can't go at the pace I used to...
Wow, you live in such a beautiful part of the world and how lucky that you get to go into the city so regularly. Mind you, I'm guessing it's a bit like us with London - you end up taking it a bit for granted?
Its true, we do tend to take it for granted. We are definately lucky!
Wednesday 7 September – part eight: the buses and the trains run together?
When we got to the bus terminal, we headed down the second staircase, as we’d been told to, and the weirdest scene greeted us, with both trains and buses running on the same lines. It was like nothing we’d seen in our lives before, but it was very clever.
We got the first bus that came in and it was just four stops up to the Convention Centre, with me snapping away and videoing, so fascinated were we by this system.
When we got back to the Convention Centre, it was only a short walk back to the hotel and then we had some downtime before we were due to head out again to meet up with Barb and Bob.
We set off around 5:20pm and walked down to the downtown monorail station, finding a monorail there just a couple of minutes after we arrived. This time we were on the other track and they had a neat way of getting passengers to it:
We arrived at the monorail station and found Barb and Bob waiting at the bottom of the ramp for us. We headed off, although we all found the map to be a little confusing, as you needed to look at it from a 90 degree angle, if that makes sense, to see it from the way we were standing. We got there in the end and set off, seeing some sights on the way, including the International Fountain, although sadly that as down for rehab.... This originally dates from the World’s Fair in 1962 as well, although what you see today is a renovated version, dating from 1995.
... and the Key Arena...
This park covers quite a big area.
When we got to the edge of it, we made our way along to TS McHugh’s. Barb and Bob had found a couple of places near to the Space Needle that were possible for dinner and we went for this one, as we were able to find a website and see the menu and it looked pretty good.
We all opted just for entrees and that was definitely the right decision, as when they arrived, they were absolutely massive.
I went for the seafood Caesar salad topped with sautéed prawns and sea scallops. It was a bit of an odd combination, but not unpleasant, just nothing spectacular.
Mark went for Hunter’s Chicken, fresh oven-roasted chicken breast finished with a roasted garlic Zinfandel sauce including Champ (Irish mashed potatoes), seasonal vegetables and Irish soda bread.
The service was Ok, but nothing special, especially as it took a long time to replenish my water, which I drank very quickly. I was going to go for a dessert, as I spotted one with the words “Bailey’s ice cream”, which is always a winner for me, but we were all just too stuffed. The bill, for the four of us, including wine and beer for all of us, came to $100 including tip.
TS McHugh’s:
Entree 7½ 9½
Service 7 7
Atmosphere 7½ 8
Value for money 8½ 8½
Average score: 7.94
We walked back through the park, getting some neat shots of the evening sun catching the Space Needle and the moon in shot as well, which was pretty neat.
Nice to have Barb and Bob enter the report again! The transportation system in Seattle sure looks like a winner. The Boston/Cambridge system has a couple of stations where the trains and buses run through the same areas and pick up at the same spots. It can be confusing as it makes you think you're in the wrong place if you're looking for a bus and see a train!
Nice to have Barb and Bob enter the report again! The transportation system in Seattle sure looks like a winner. The Boston/Cambridge system has a couple of stations where the trains and buses run through the same areas and pick up at the same spots. It can be confusing as it makes you think you're in the wrong place if you're looking for a bus and see a train!
Really? We must've missed those on our last visit, although we went out to Cambridge on that trip - maybe I just wasn't paying attention?
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Really? We must've missed those on our last visit, although we went out to Cambridge on that trip - maybe I just wasn't paying attention?
The lines that overlap aren't on any routes you'd have been likely to be travelling. They go from Cambridge out to the suburbs and the ones in Boston are new since the Big Dig.
The lines that overlap aren't on any routes you'd have been likely to be travelling. They go from Cambridge out to the suburbs and the ones in Boston are new since the Big Dig.
I remember that - they were right in the middle of doing that when we were last in Boston.
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I love all the aquarium photos, especially the seals and otter since I have a soft spot for all marine animals. That furry seal was adorable. 
People always say we do a lot and I guess we do, but we do, in fairness, take our time a lot more these days, as with my chronic fatigue, I just can't go at the pace I used to... 
Mind you, I'm guessing it's a bit like us with London - you end up taking it a bit for granted? 
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