National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Tracy Arm day was my very favorite of the cruise. It is so awe inspiring and majestic. Like you we just sat on the balcony and took it all in, loving the naturalist commentary. I think the Alaskan cruise is one where it is better to be on the starboard side rather than port, especially in Tracy Arm. Loving your pictures which are bringing back great memories.
Amazing pictures!! And what a bonus to have the narration piped in to your cabin.
I'm now angling for this cruise for our 25th anniversary (which will be 2015)!
Wow, no words. Just simply beautiful. How very nice that they have narration going so you can take it all in from the privacy of your balcony - and still learn something about what you're looking at. That's a great touch!
I had to do a double take at that photo of Mark - just on the edge of the photo where he's leaning on the balcony with his hat on. I thought to myself, "look at that kid with the hat," Oh wait, that's Mark!!
Wow, you aren't kidding! There really are no words to describe the beauty. I LOVE waterfalls and could stare at them forever!
I've always wondered if it would be worth it for me to get an outside stateroom for cruising, but for a trip like this it seems to be a must! How relaxing and convenient it is to hear the narration while watching the scenery from your stateroom!
I think a balcony is an absolute must for the Alaskan cruise.
Tracy Arm day was my very favorite of the cruise. It is so awe inspiring and majestic. Like you we just sat on the balcony and took it all in, loving the naturalist commentary. I think the Alaskan cruise is one where it is better to be on the starboard side rather than port, especially in Tracy Arm. Loving your pictures which are bringing back great memories.
I think it was probably our favourite day of the cruise as well. The scenery was just so beautiful.
Amazing pictures!! And what a bonus to have the narration piped in to your cabin.
I'm now angling for this cruise for our 25th anniversary (which will be 2015)!
That's when we talked about doing it all over again, as that would be Mark's 50th...
Thursday 1 September – part five: here comes the glacier!
What we were heading for, and all looking forward to, were seeing the glaciers at the end of Tracy Arm. I knew we were in for a treat, as we could see the Carnival Spirit ahead of us, right up close to it, and that was where we were heading as well.
These are the Twin Sawyer Glaciers, North and South, which are located at the end of the Tracy Arm. The closer we got, the more admiration I had for the captain and crew getting us in here, with icebergs all around us, some exceptionally close to us.
Soon, we could see the glacier coming up and wow, what a sight it was! We immediately got some shots of it from our room....
Carnival on their way out
... but all too soon we were turning and it looked like that would be the last view we would get of it, so we decided to wrap up and head up to deck ten to see if we could get some better photos. It was busy up there, but it was only really insane right at the front of the vessel, where it was now mobbed and very hard to move around.
We were still able to get lots of good shots and ran into Sue and Bob on the way. Bob told us that the black dots we could see in the distance were actually harbour seals. Mark was able to zoom in with the video camera and confirm that, but sadly neither of us had good enough zooms on our cameras to get good shots of them.
While we were up there, we found some Disney photographers and got some shots with the glacier behind us, which was one of the main reasons for going up there, so that was a result.
Away from the very front of the boat, it was quite pleasant and we were able to get some more shots.
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Amazing pictures!
Am I the only person who thinks those kids in the pool are crazy!?
Yes truly amazing pictures! No you are not the only one who thinks that. I was yelling at the picture: Are you nuts! Your next to one of the most amazing wonders of the world and your swimming? Get out of the pool!!
Well, I was able to make out your black dotted harbor seals, so that's saying something. I can't believe how blue the glacier is...it's just beautiful. And the Carnival ship looked so small next to it.
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simply beautiful. How very nice that they have narration going so you can take it all in from the privacy of your balcony - and still learn something about what you're looking at. 
That's a great touch!
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I can't believe how blue the glacier is...it's just beautiful. And the Carnival ship looked so small next to it.
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