Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - the Hawaii section part 2 THIS SECTION COMPLETED 2/3 - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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'm with Marnie, not sure I could go up in a helicopter without doors! I was green after a tiny plane flight over the Grand Canyon and I imagine this being that experience and then some! But I am glad you did it as I can't wait for he pictures!
Oh gosh - we did that as a family when I was about 14 and that was pretty rough. I remember coming off our plane flight and feeling a bit queasy... Mark and I did a helicopter flight a few years ago down to the base of the canyon and we were both fine with that.
I am so excited to hear about this! I think an open door helicoptor ride sounds like so much fun... especially over Hawaii! Since there were 4 of you (5 including the pilot), did someone have to sit in the "middle" and not get a window/door seat?
The woman of the other couple got the middle seat of the front row - that's how it works, two seats next to the pilot in the front row and two in the back row, each with a window each. I'd already spoken to the company and had the two back row seats guaranteed to us, after I told them it was our wedding anniversary that day.
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Parts of the Hilo airport reminded me of the Poly. The helicopter tour is one of the things I know I want to do when we finally get to Hawaii, but I also know the removing of the doors will be scary. I hope you got to see molten lava because that means we will, too.
Parts of the Hilo airport reminded me of the Poly.
Now you say it, it does!
Quote:
The helicopter tour is one of the things I know I want to do when we finally get to Hawaii, but I also know the removing of the doors will be scary. I hope you got to see molten lava because that means we will, too.
You can do helicopter tours with the doors on - we just thought this would be a unique experience.
Wednesday 6 November – part three: will we be able to find any molten lava?
Finally we were able to come down lower and we saw the macadamia nut plantation beneath us, which was pretty neat.
Then we were flying over forests…
…. and finally we saw the lava field laid out in front of us, literally as far as the eye could see. I just couldn’t believe how big it was. Being up here gives you a much better idea of how big the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is than you could ever get from the ground.
We kept circling around, trying to find some flowing lava, but finding nothing. We were urged to keep our eyes open and then I spotted some, but before I had a chance to find the button on my headphone set to tell everyone, our pilot alerted us to it. I was finally able to get a shot of it, which I was thrilled by!
We started to head out and saw various plants and trees in the lava. Apparently it’s about three years before life starts to come back in the lava, but it can take a lot longer for trees to grow. In some of these shots, you’ll see trees that are dead. The National Parks Service are doing more research to find out what’s causing this, as they don’t know at present.
We headed out to see a series of three waterfalls, which were really neat.
This was the final part of our tour, and soon we were heading back to Hilo airport.
All in all, we had been in the air for about an hour and it had certainly been a once in a lifetime experience. We both agreed that it was good to do it, but once was enough, as while it had been great to smell the smoke from the volcano and feel the heat beneath us, it had been a heck of a battering too. I was worried about wind burn on my face and dearly wishing that I had my sun tan lotion on (I know – d’oh! :foreheadslap) but as it’s in a container that’s bigger than the allowed 100 ml that hadn’t come with us and I hadn’t applied before we left the room.
I think it’s fair to say that we both came off there exhausted and I had a seriously bad hair day. Thank goodness my hairbrush came with me, and trust me, it took about two or three minutes of brushing to get all the knots out of it.
Great photos - that must have been quite an experience. Flying over hot, molten lava in an open-door helicopter - and you say you don't do thrill rides???
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Mark and I did a helicopter flight a few years ago down to the base of the canyon and we were both fine with that. 
Holly: 
The helicopter tour is one of the things I know I want to do when we finally get to Hawaii, but I also know the removing of the doors will be scary. I hope you got to see molten lava because that means we will, too. 
We were urged to keep our eyes open and then I spotted some, but before I had a chance to find the button on my headphone set to tell everyone, our pilot alerted us to it. I was finally able to get a shot of it, which I was thrilled by! 
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