National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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's sounds like a great trip so far with a number of memorable experiences. I'm definitely looking forward to reading and seeing more of this report.
Is there any chance that the dining on the Dream raised your expectations to some extent? Obviously bad food is bad food, but everything food-wise on the Dream, for me at least, felt so good.
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After reading several trip reports, it seems that on a whole there is a downward slide in the quality and variety of food from Disney. I hope that there are enough complaints that they will work on this.
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It's sounds like a great trip so far with a number of memorable experiences. I'm definitely looking forward to reading and seeing more of this report.
Is there any chance that the dining on the Dream raised your expectations to some extent? Obviously bad food is bad food, but everything food-wise on the Dream, for me at least, felt so good.
I think you could be right, especially as on two out of the three nights, we were eating at Palo and Remy. Of course, there's also the thought that the restaurants there are newer, so also have a more special atmosphere.
Saturday 3 September – part one: I don’t want to make myself sick...
It was an early start again today, as our tour was meeting at 7:45am, which was a slight improvement on yesterday, but not by much...
We met up with Bob at 6:45am and headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet, as Barb was looking for her Key to the World card and would join us as soon as she found it. My goodness, we saw the difference in just being a few minutes later, as there was quite a line to get in there.
Finally, we were in and loaded up on plenty of food, and thankfully the hot water for the tea was much better than yesterday. Barb eventually found us. She hadn’t been able to find her card, so had gone to guest services and got a new one printed up. We were sitting there chatting for some time and eventually had to make a move, as we only had 20 minutes before we were due to leave the ship.
Around this time, I was texting Wendy. As I hadn’t heard from my parents yesterday (they were due to ring me at midday our time), I texted her and asked if she’d call them. She’s good – not only did she do it straight away and had a great chat with my dad, she was texting me at the same time!
We headed for the Walt Disney Theatre and barely had time to sit down before the adults only group, who let out a loud cheer when they heard those words heading off the ship. It was pretty overcast and cloudy, but thankfully not raining.
You can just about make out the top of the Mount Roberts Tramway
We headed for the bus and had a 20 minute drive over to Auke Bay, where we’d be taking our whale watching cruise from. It was nigh on impossible to get any photos out of the “prison van” we were in, as that’s what it felt like. I managed to get a couple of shots, but everything kept steaming up, so it wasn’t easy. I figured we’d explore the town later, but I wasn’t reckoning with the weather. Ok, I’m getting ahead of myself here...
We made it to Auke Bay and I have to be honest that I was feeling pretty apprehensive by now. I was remembering far too well the whale watching we did five years ago at Monterey Bay, which was not a pleasant experience. : It had turned out to be exceptionally rough, with Mark being sick at the back of the boat and me asleep for much of the trip, as it was my first ever time on Dramamine. Not something I want to repeat in a hurry... yet here I was.
They took 16 of us for the first boat, asking for bigger groups, so we ended up made up of a group of eight, a group of four and the four of us. It was a lot better than some of the boats we saw out there, which must’ve had hundreds of people on board. This was a nice sized group and gave everyone a good chance to see everything.
I tried to hide it, but I wasn’t fooling anyone. As soon as we boarded, Mark asked why I wasn’t taking photos. Because I don’t want to make myself sick basically....
We left the confines of the harbour and were bouncing up and down a fair bit, but I was doing OK, although in fairness, I was watching what was going on board, rather than anything else, as that might make me sick.
Our naturalist was Ali, who it turns out is studying in Washington. We learnt this, as she told us how she takes the Alaskan ferry down to her university and it takes three days. She was very enthusiastic and did a very good job of explaining the area to us. We saw Admiralty Island, where the bear population outnumbers humans by something like six to one then Shelter Island, where at least there are no bears, but then again, there’s also no sewage supplies, running water or electricity. Not sure I’d like that one either...
Of course, we were all here for one thing and that was whales. I have to say here that I was sceptical, especially given the luck I’d had so far this cruise. It felt like we belted along for ages and ages and ages and then suddenly we were slowing down, as whales had been sighted dead ahead. Yeah, right...
Next: so, with my luck so far this trip, will we find whales?
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Oh, no.... I hope you see whales and do NOT get sick! I'm prone to seasickness on smaller motorized boats. Never have been sick on a sail boat. Guess I'll need to take some bonine that day for sure.
Wow. My fear factor of water is probably right up there with your seasickness factor. I think I'd be just as nervous. And now I'm nervous to find out whether or not you actually saw any whales!!!!
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Hope you didn't get sick, but did see whales! I find that I cannot take pictures if I'm starting to get nauseous, something about trying to focus, and the lense moving in and out that makes me just green(as I learned in a tiny plane over the Grand Canyon).
Oh, my gosh, you are definitely following our footsteps. We were on the Red Dolphin on our tour with Ali as well!! I hope your whale watching was better than ours. We took the later in the day tour as a compromise to DH who is NOT a morning person. We saw very little on our tour, but the morning group got quite a show.
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Another one VERY prone to seasickness (Marine Biologist that gets seasick... can you see the irony?). Have you tried Bonine? I take it the night before, and the morning of the trip and have NEVER gotten sick since (knock wood). I HIGHLY recommend it!!
Hope you didn't get sick, but did see whales! I find that I cannot take pictures if I'm starting to get nauseous, something about trying to focus, and the lense moving in and out that makes me just green(as I learned in a tiny plane over the Grand Canyon).
I know that feeling! I learnt that lesson in a bumpy ride in a helicopter coming back into Vegas, after having been out to the Grand Canyon.
Oh, my gosh, you are definitely following our footsteps. We were on the Red Dolphin on our tour with Ali as well!! I hope your whale watching was better than ours. We took the later in the day tour as a compromise to DH who is NOT a morning person. We saw very little on our tour, but the morning group got quite a show.
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Barb eventually found us. She hadn’t been able to find her card, so had gone to guest services and got a new one printed up. We were sitting there chatting for some time and eventually had to make a move, as we only had 20 minutes before we were due to leave the ship. 
heading off the ship. It was pretty overcast and cloudy, but thankfully not raining. 
I managed to get a couple of shots, but everything kept steaming up, so it wasn’t easy. I figured we’d explore the town later, but I wasn’t reckoning with the weather. Ok, I’m getting ahead of myself here... 
: It had turned out to be exceptionally rough, with Mark being sick at the back of the boat and me asleep for much of the trip, as it was my first ever time on Dramamine. Not something I want to repeat in a hurry... yet here I was. 
Because I don’t want to make myself sick basically.... 
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