National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 33 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Must remember to eat before I read your updates! Looks like a great meal, but unfortunately very slow service. You must've been so exhausted after such a long day!
Your poor camera flash...I can't even begin to imagine how many pictures your camera has taken!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
What a lovely evening. Your meal at Palo looked splendid. Sorry about your camera. But I imagine in the 6 years you've had it, it's probably taken at least half a million photos (but probably a lot more!). I hope you find a new camera you love just as much.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Must remember to eat before I read your updates! Looks like a great meal, but unfortunately very slow service. You must've been so exhausted after such a long day!
Your poor camera flash...I can't even begin to imagine how many pictures your camera has taken!
I'm guessing here, but I think it's at least 150,000 now. I know it's been around the clock many, many times and that's 10,000 photos each time it goes back to the beginning of the numbers for the next round.
What a lovely evening. Your meal at Palo looked splendid. Sorry about your camera. But I imagine in the 6 years you've had it, it's probably taken at least half a million photos (but probably a lot more!). I hope you find a new camera you love just as much.
You know what? You're probably not far off - I'm probably being conservative in my estimates. One day, I'm sure I'll find something, but so far, nothing's that grabbed me.
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Wow, I can't believe how close you were to the bear up the tree! Great pictures from the Toy Story show, and looks like a wonderful meal at Palo. Especially that dessert!!
Toy Story looked like a great show. I'm glad you enjoyed it! And dinner did look wonderful, even if you were dead tired. What a long day that was!
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Sunday 4 September – part one: now that’s a deal I just have to take up!
As soon as I woke up, I presented Mark with the birthday cards I’d brought with me, as it was his birthday today.
As you can see, it was a bit gloomy outside...
We got going and headed on down to meet up with Sue, Steve, Barb and Bob for breakfast at 8:30am at Triton’s. As we came out of the room, I had a message left for me, offering me a hot stones massage with a foot and ankle massage for just $119, instead of $214. Ok, that’s sold – I so need to book that and hopefully with my friend Emily again!
We headed on in for breakfast, which is so good in here. There’s such a huge choice on the menu. I went for the mango yoghurt and Frosted Flakes to start with...
Then I had the French toast and pineapple stack, which was wonderful and very unusual. This place really gets my approval. I wish all the dining rooms offered this breakfast.
While we were there, Bruce came in, looking for Marta. He settled down next to us for a few minutes, then went to look for her, and I’m sure you can guess what’s coming next. You got it – Marta walked in literally just seconds after he left and then she sat there, waiting for him. It was like a comedy of errors! Eventually, just as we were finishing off eating, Bruce arrived back and they finally found each other.
We headed back to the room for a while, then it was off to the spa. I saw Gabor, who I think is the manager of the spa, and showed him my special offer letter. It was about 10:15am and he asked me how 11:00am suited me for the treatment. Well, that works for me!
I headed into the changing room and found Sue and we saw together in the Rainforest, until Emily came to get me and then I headed off for a very relaxing hour of wonderful soothing massage. It was a great treat and just what I needed.
When I came out, everyone had disappeared, so I headed back to the room and found Mark there and we watched as we arrived in Ketchikan, seeing signs of civilisation the further up the channel we got, including floatplanes and even an Air Alaskan jet landing at the airport, which was neat.
It was amazing to see how many cruise ships were already in port, when we arrived. The place was packed, with three others in. It would be interesting to see how busy Ketchikan was as a result, although hopefully some of them would start moving out earlier than we would...
We were supposed to be all ashore at 1:30pm, but we ended up being a bit later than that, as the Carnival Spirit was in our dock and only left a few minutes before we arrived. We suspect they overstayed their welcome...
We went down to deck three to go ashore and were met with a huge long line. Disembarkation was in the atrium and the line snaked all the way back to Parrot Cay. It probably took us about 10 minutes to get off, although much of the delay seemed to be down to the Disney shore excursions, which we’re guessing took priority over the rest of us.
When we did get off, we were greeted with a lovely sight. I would say that Ketchikan is a mixture of both Skagway and Juneau. It’s about the size of Juneau and, just like it, the only links in are either via plane or boat, which I still find very surreal. The idea of having towns that aren’t linked to the outside world by road is just so unfamiliar to me. It’s got touches of Skagway in terms of its buildings, which are beautiful colours and have a lot of character to them. You do certainly get the “big town” feel and there were a lot more tour organisations, touting their tours with all the cruise passengers pouring off from all four ships.
As soon as I stepped off, I knew where I wanted to go – the Christmas shop, especially after the disappointing one we’d visited in Skagway. This couldn’t have been more different.
It was packed with lots of wonderful things to buy and we got away with two Christmas ornaments, three fridge magnets and a set of salt and pepper shakers, which were magnetic Orcas. Ok, so we didn’t get to see any yesterday, so this is about as close as we’ll probably get now... I was very impressed when I asked about getting my postcards in the post and the girl took them from me straight away, as they had an outgoing post tray there.
The next store we hit saw us spend about the same amount again ($50), which was good for three T-shirts for us. All in all, I thought the prices were very good there. We decided after that to just wander around the town, as it was getting way too easy to spend money here.
I'm jealous of all the time you were able to spend at the spa! You are so right about towns with character...Ketchikan looks so interesting! I'm glad you were able to get some Christmas goodies! I can only imagine what your home looks like for the holidays!
I hope the day turned out great in honor of Mark's birthday!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
I've been slowly but surely catching up. You have had some exciting days. I luagh when you talked about slopy Joes...I guess it's something so normal here, I assumed everyone eats them. It's something that we serve at a lot of parties as it's easy to make in bulk.
The scenery you have seen is just breath taking. I love the little bear in the tree. He looks so cuddly, though I'm sure he isn't.
Ketchikan. I have one word.....KetchiCandies!!!!! I found my way there thanks to Jenn from Bingo and her talk of their chocolate covered oreos . I'm guessing your walking around will take you to Creek Street. Can't wait to see what pictures you'll take there.
What a lovely morning-- great breakfast (the pineapple French toast looks so yummy!), relaxing time in the Spa. Ketchikan, I guess, is the place to shop! I won't jump at too many souvenirs in Skagway, other than at the hardware store. (Thanks, Holly, for the KetchiCandies info!) I like the look of the town and the way they've re-purposed the old buildings.
I'm jealous of all the time you were able to spend at the spa! You are so right about towns with character...Ketchikan looks so interesting! I'm glad you were able to get some Christmas goodies! I can only imagine what your home looks like for the holidays!
I hope the day turned out great in honor of Mark's birthday!
Well, it will look wonderful when I'm FINALLY allowed to put up the Christmas tree. Very sore point, as I wanted to put it up last weekend before Thanksgiving, but someone (can't think who... ) told me : but it's going up on Saturday!
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Sounds like a good meal at Palo, despite the slow service!
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I know it's been around the clock many, many times and that's 10,000 photos each time it goes back to the beginning of the numbers for the next round.
One day, I'm sure I'll find something, but so far, nothing's that grabbed me. 
Ok, that’s sold – I so need to book that and hopefully with my friend Emily again! 
Eventually, just as we were finishing off eating, Bruce arrived back and they finally found each other. 
It’s got touches of Skagway in terms of its buildings, which are beautiful colours and have a lot of character to them. You do certainly get the “big town” feel and there were a lot more tour organisations, touting their tours with all the cruise passengers pouring off from all four ships. 
. I'm guessing your walking around will take you to Creek Street. Can't wait to see what pictures you'll take there.
: but it's going up on Saturday! 
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