National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 34 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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.
Sadly it didn't. We saw a fair bit of the town, but missed that, although we saw it from the bus later.
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Sunday 4 September – part two: a Wonder-eye view of Ketchikan
Ketchikan is a lovely place and very walkable and we just strolled around, taking lots of photos. It was certainly very busy, with lots of people shopping either at the start of end of their day in the port.
We found this very cute park:
We were hoping to find an ATM, as we were getting a bit low on cash for tips etc, but having seen a sign for one inside a building, we were darned if we could find it. Oh well, we’ll manage and get some cash when we get to Seattle and civilisation! We tried looking in this place, which had some odd additions.
I soon realised that breakfast had been a long time ago and I was starting to flag and was desperately in need of sugar, so we headed back towards the ship, stopping for photos on the way.
Once back on board, we headed straight for the Cove Cafe to get some of those lovely petit fours desserts, which I love in there. That was exactly what I needed.
We headed upstairs into the Outlook Cafe, which I’d somehow managed to miss up until now this cruise and sat there munching, admiring the view over the town.
When we were done, we walked back along deck ten, getting some photos from the Wonder’s point of view of Ketchikan.
No doubt some of our fellow Disney passengers heading out on this excursion!
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That is such a cute town! My friend was born there and moved here to WI at age 7 and she still remembers a lot about it. I can see how! I'm glad you were able to start the day with such a nice massage too.
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Just caught up with your last few updates So cute the bear sighting at the salmon dinner although I think I would have been kind of nervous with him so near Sorry you had so much rain on this trip but it certainly didn't slow you down any! Your pics of the Toy Story show were adorable as were the characters pics you all took together! The town of Ketchikan looked charming and I was glad you found a nice Christmas Shop to do your shopping finally! Can't wait for more.
Finally caught back up! First, I'm a bit surprised the bear didn't come closer, given all that grilling salmon! Glad the tree was as close an encounter that you had.
I almost cried hearing a chocolate souffle went untouched!! If I ever get around to finishing my TR, you'll hear that we managed to go up to Palo on our last night just for souffles, and the server gave us a hard time that we didn't wait for her to pour the vanilla sauce into it. We've had it so many times, that we know exactly how it's done, so when they brought it to our table we were not even thinking about waiting for her to come do the pouring! I was too anxious to EAT it!!
What a charming town to explore. I know I keep saying this, but it reminds me so much of coastal Maine. The Alaskan mountain scenery is much more majestic, but the feel of the seaside town is so similar to the town I used to live in.
That is such a cute town! My friend was born there and moved here to WI at age 7 and she still remembers a lot about it. I can see how! I'm glad you were able to start the day with such a nice massage too.
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. I'm guessing your walking around will take you to Creek Street. Can't wait to see what pictures you'll take there.
Great pictures from Ketchikan! 
Oh well, we’ll manage and get some cash when we get to Seattle and civilisation! 
So cute the bear sighting at the salmon dinner although I think I would have been kind of nervous with him so near
Sorry you had so much rain on this trip but it certainly didn't slow you down any!
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