To Alaska and Beyond! Updated 4/28 x 3 and it's COMPLETE!! - Page 32 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It kind of reminds me of when you get to feed the fish on the Behind the Seeds tour: they're all calm and then you throw the food in and it's a frenzy.
The next few posts as I detail our experiences at Mendenhall Glacier will be more packed with photos- with the exception of Tracy Arm Fjord- this is the area I took the most photographs in. I believe in about the 3 hours we spent here, I took over 400 and lots of them turned out, making it very hard to choose the ones for the next installments.
As we made our way from the hatchery towards the Tongass National Forest where Mendenhall Glacier was, we passed the Governor's Mansion.The actual residence is the white house on the hill with the green roof. Was actually quite unassuming, in terms of governor's mansions. Sean noted that Juneau's most distinguished resident spent the months of February, March and April there- and the rest of the time in Wassila and evidently, Juneau natives thought she should be there alot more. I just thought it was amusing you could see the Food Lion and the Governor's Mansion almost next door to each other.
As we approached our destination, out came the bear safety handouts and our mini lesson on, well, bear safety. Do not feed the bears. (Don't worry.) Use bear safe trash cans. Never run from the bear. (I was going to be too shocked if I actually saw one- so far my only sighting was a photo on the back of a bus- my hopes weren't exactly high.)
One aspect I really, really liked about this tour in particular is that we got to all these neat places but once we were there it was an explore on your own- which worked great with a teenager and a preteenager. When we were dropped off- there were two options for touring- to take the main sidewalks up to the nature center and observation points- or to take nature trails to the same destinations. We elected to go with the nature trails.
The trails were majestic, quiet and ever so serene. The only sounds you heard were the sounds of running water from the creeks running alongside the path and the clicks of my camera. I'll let the pictures do the talking here:
And for those who needed it, one of many.. bear safe trash cans..
The paths led us around to the massive body of water in front of the glacier. I got my first glimpse of the glacier through foliage about 1/2 mile before we got down near the lake..
And for those who somehow missed a GIGANTIC glacier, here's a little smidgin of direction just for them.. I had to laugh at this because honestly, there really, really was no missing it.
This picture has an inside joke that I will let you all in on.. back in HS, Brandi (BeatlesBran to PP'ers) and my cousin Jenn would always say my name in this funny voice.... and say "Mo-rain.." Well, it turns out you see, that there is such a thing as a moraine.. when a glacier moves through a valley and pushes gravel and dirt, it leaves behind little ridges. So when Matt found this sign, we had an amazingly good laugh..
After some time, the fellas were already way ahead of me and approaching the water. I had no problem taking my time,the views were just too good to pass by quickly. I took this one during my solo time on the end of the trail and it's one of my favorites of the whole trip.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
This picture has an inside joke that I will let you all in on.. back in HS, Brandi (BeatlesBran to PP'ers) and my cousin Jenn would always say my name in this funny voice.... and say "Mo-rain.." Well, it turns out you see, that there is such a thing as a moraine.. when a glacier moves through a valley and pushes gravel and dirt, it leaves behind little ridges. So when Matt found this sign, we had an amazingly good laugh..
Haha! I remember when I learned about a MO-RAAAAINE when I started teaching 4th grade. And then the one class I had when you were at The Nut totally got into saying it that way during Science class. MO-RAAAAINE!
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Brandi
Bakelins chillin' at the pool after a fun week at Disney!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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