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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Alaska 2012 surprise for hubs - questions
We are docking in Vancouver at about 8am Saturday morning. We have two options -
1. Try to find somewhere to store 8 suitcases for the day and spend the day touring Vancouver... before catching the 5pm train to Seattle for our flight home on Sunday. Cost - ~160.00 for 4 adults. BTW - if anyone knows where to stash 8 suitcases - please give me a hint!
OR
2. Rent an SUV from Alamo (at the cruise terminal (opens at 9am) - or the airport?) and drive to Victoria (3 hours) tour Butchart Gardens, then drive another 3 hours to Seattle for our flight home. Cost ~250.00 for 4 adults, plus gas.
Although we had more time than you, we chose to skip Buchart Gardens and just concentrate on Vancouver since it has so much to offer and I am glad we did. We rented bikes one day just a short 5 minute walk from Canada Place and rode through Stanley Park. The weather was beautiful and it was the most amazing experience. It took right at two hours. And there is a wonderful restuarant just a little way from the bike rental place where we had dinner. Restaurant is right on Coal Harbor - name Cardero's - best mussells I have ever eaten in my life - but make sure you make reservations in advance because it is a popular place.
We also bought tickets for Vancouver Trolley which leaves from Canada Place Pier and has two separate loops around Vancouver where you can see bunches all in one bus ride and the drivers give personal narration as you go around. Another great way to see the city.
There is a company inside Canada Place Pier that offers baggage storage either before or after your cruise. Here is a link to their website:
I'd go to Butchart if you've never been. The ferry system was great (much better than the ones we're used to here). It took us a couple of hours to do Butchart, then we drove down to Victoria, and back on the ferry. I had originally planned to do it like you.....go from Vancouver, to Butchart, ferry to Port Angeles and then Seattle but rental car costs were thru the roof so it didn't end up working out that way (I ended up getting a $15/day rental at YVR for the day). Is the ferry cost factored in? It cost us I think $115 each way on the ferry to go over to Vancouver Island and back.
The botanical gardens at UBC are lovely, but they're nothing like Butchart Gardens. If you have a few days in Vancouver, they're worth considering. For a single day?? I'd suggest spending time in Stanley Park, which is a whole lot closer to Canada Place. You could rent a bike, ride around the park, visit the aquarium (if it doesn't offend your professional sensibilities)... Maybe split the day between Stanley Park and Granville Island (lunch based on browsing around the Public Market and vicinity is highly recommended).
I definitely think Victoria in a day is biting off a whole lot more than you can chew. The ferry isn't exactly a drive up and drive on experience. It's about 45 minutes from downtown Vancouver to the ferry, allow at least a half-hour for queuing/boarding (check with the ferry line for arrival time recommendations), 90 minutes on the ferry, a half-hour drive from the ferry to Butchart Gardens.... if your plan was to return to Vancouver, rather than ferry down to Port Angeles, I think the last train out of Vancouver is at around 6:00pm. If everything fell nicely into place, figure you'd get 90 minutes to tour Butchart.
Note also that the train from Vancouver to Seattle is actually a train only a few times a day. The rest of the time it's a bus, so be sure you choose the right "train." I suspect that you could check your bags over at the rail station after your cruise, then head out to tour the town from there. Pacific Central Station is only a couple of SkyTrain stops from the heart of downtown, so whatever time you might spend heading over to the station in the morning will probably be more than made up for by not having to gather up your luggage elsewhere in the afternoon.
Where were you planning to stay in Seattle, and when is your flight the next day? The new light rail line from Downtown to the airport is fabulous, whether you're heading right to the airport from Seattle Union Station, or whether you stay somewhere downtown overnight before heading to the airport the next day.
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Thanks for all the ideas. Regarding the train to Seattle - we are looking at the Cascade express - last train out of Vancouver about 530pm. We leave at 700am on Sunday morning on FREE southwest tickets.... so now it is a matter of 1) verifying we can check train baggage first thing in the morning at the train station and 2) planning our list of things to do between 800amish and 430pmish in Vancouver.
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