An Easter return to the Isle of Man COMPLETED 5/10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 coastline photos are amazing. Wow, I'm so glad you had the sunshine to liven up the colors too. Stunning! And - cows!
__________________
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
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Saturday 4 April – part three: cold, but beautiful…
Once everyone had disgorged, we set off again, catching a glimpse of the Laxey Wheel along the way…
… then getting some wonderful views back across Laxey…
Now it was about here that we turned a corner, and remember what I said earlier about the carriages being open? Well, now we really felt the wind, as we were truly exposed. I was so glad of my two sweaters, Disney Cruise Line rain jacket, and gloves – you get the idea! However, even though the wind was biting, my goodness, the scenery was just absolutely glorious….
Then look what we found!
We also found some of these guys…
We all commented that you literally only needed to go a few minutes, and the scenery would change completely. From lush green fields, filled with animals to sheer cliffs dropping into the sea like this:
Then we were back into the sweeping fields again. As you may have noticed, from Laxey, we lost the roads, and I remember reading in my guidebook that the scenery was most stunning once the train moved away from the roads, and my goodness, they were right!
Soon we were getting glimpses of sailing boats off the coast of Ramsey, and then we were seeing the town itself:
The scenery was well worth the cold air, I think! I love train travel when the tracks don't parallel the roads. A lot of the Amtrak lines, once you get out of the congestion of the Northeast, are like that. Just the train and nature!
Incredible views. Worth the cold!
I very much know what you mean - the pefect blue sky making for wonderful photos but the air is so crisp you can't feel your fingers pushing the button on the camera. It's deceiving!
__________________
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
The scenery was well worth the cold air, I think! I love train travel when the tracks don't parallel the roads. A lot of the Amtrak lines, once you get out of the congestion of the Northeast, are like that. Just the train and nature!
To me, if the train parallels the road, then what's the point? For us, we can just drive it and get the same views, but with the bonus of we can stop for photos whenever we want.
I very much know what you mean - the pefect blue sky making for wonderful photos but the air is so crisp you can't feel your fingers pushing the button on the camera. It's deceiving!
Wow! Spectacular scenery! I'm all caught back up - fell a bit behind as I'm on a girls' weekend at a friend's mountain cabin. Scrapbooking our 2013-14 New Years cruise on the Fantasy. I thought of you, Cheryl, on the way down, as a saw so many cows, and dozens of baby calves!
Catching up on today's update. I had wondered when you started if it might not get chilling since it was open air. But you did get such beautiful photos and even saw cows.
Wow! Spectacular scenery! I'm all caught back up - fell a bit behind as I'm on a girls' weekend at a friend's mountain cabin. Scrapbooking our 2013-14 New Years cruise on the Fantasy.
Sounds like fun!
Quote:
I thought of you, Cheryl, on the way down, as a saw so many cows, and dozens of baby calves!
When we got to the railway terminus, they stopped, and most people jumped off, including me, although they said to Barb that if she stayed put, they’d go further up, and it would be easier for her to get off, as she’d be getting off on to tarmac, rather than gravel, so Dave and Mark jumped back on, but I took the opportunity to get some photos.
I have to say that by now we were all freezing, and all we wanted to do was warm up. We were told that there was a café just a few minutes’ walk away, and that sounded good to us, so we set off that way.
We had the choice of a Costa Coffee or a local café, and of course, we chose the local one, as we figured they needed the trade more. We had a very pleasant hot chocolate in there, but we didn’t stay long, as the next train was due in about 15 minutes’ time.
We made our way back, and there was no train in sight, so we settled down to wait. When it did arrive, it was another open air one, which was a bit disappointing, as the woman who’d sat next to the two of us had told us that there were some enclosed ones, and we were hoping for one of those. Oh well. We made our way to the front, figuring that at least we’d be behind glass. Now whether it was that or whether it was the fact that the wind was blowing a different way, or that we were now going back, I don’t know, but the wind was much kinder to us on the return journey, thank goodness.
Of course, what did we see coming towards us just a few minutes into the journey? You got it, a covered one! Oh well, there was no way of knowing that…
I was on the other side this time, which gave me a very different perspective, including these adorable little cuties.
Soon we were coming back into Laxey, and now it was time to take the Snaefell Mountain Railway.
I must admit I wasn’t convinced we were going to get on it, as there were a lot of people already on board when we arrived, and quite a few people in the queue before us, but we did make it on, and snagged a row each, although we quickly realised that you can only really seat either an adult and a small child on one of these rows or two adults, one half hanging off it, which is what Mark and Dave both ended up doing.
For the first half of the journey, we were definitely on the wrong side, as all the views were to the right, and we were on the left, but I did my best with my super zoom, and managed to snag one or two photos….
We made it about halfway up, and crossed this road, which is part of the famous TT motorcycle course…
… and then suddenly everything changed, and all the views were to the left, and my goodness, they were just breath taking!
Glad it wasn't quite as cold coming back! You wouldn't have been able to get as many good photos if you'd been in an enclosed car on the outbound journey.
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The coastline photos are amazing. Wow, I'm so glad you had the sunshine to liven up the colors too. Stunning! And - cows! 
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Pixie Dust
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However, even though the wind was biting, my goodness, the scenery was just absolutely glorious…. 
We made our way to the front, figuring that at least we’d be behind glass. Now whether it was that or whether it was the fact that the wind was blowing a different way, or that we were now going back, I don’t know, but the wind was much kinder to us on the return journey, thank goodness. 
Oh well, there was no way of knowing that… 
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