A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 32 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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all the bear photos! Great job! I love zoos, but there is something so wonderful about seeing animals in their own homes acting as they normally would.
all the bear photos! Great job! I love zoos, but there is something so wonderful about seeing animals in their own homes acting as they normally would.
Oh completely and, in all honesty, until we experienced it for ourselves, I had no idea what a wonderful sight it would be.
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Love the pictures of the bears! They look like they are right out of a nature magazine. Thanks for the facts about how bears pee. Now if it ever a question on Jeopardy, I'll be prepared!
Love the pictures of the bears! They look like they are right out of a nature magazine. Thanks for the facts about how bears pee. Now if it ever a question on Jeopardy, I'll be prepared!
The things you never knew you'd learn on PassPorter...
Thursday 3 September – part six: “bear”…. “where?”…. “there!”
We headed next to deer rock, which was apparently a place of peace in the Klingit language and was where the tribes would come to settle any differences they had. Now I had no real expectations here, although we did get to see salmon jumping once again and there was an eagle’s nest. Before long, the juvenile flew back to the nest and I couldn’t believe how well camouflaged he was. You could barely see him once he landed, but I guess that’s the idea.
See what I mean about the camouflage?
Mark spotted something on the ground, and asked one of our guides if it was a bear print. It was, and he was showing us the various aspects of it and I was taking photos….
Then I heard a shout and didn’t actually realise at the time that it was Mark. All I heard was “bear”, the guide asked “where?” and no word of a lie, Mark said “there”. I turned around to see a bear (scuse the pun here…) bearing down on us. This bar could not have been more than about five or six metres away from us. They had warned us if we saw a bear not to stop for anything, as some people decided to take photos, but I needed no telling. Our guide told us to get back, and I was off, scrambling away, thinking all the time “I’m sure I’m supposed to walk backwards and be facing the bar”, but no, my body wasn’t doing that for anything. Fortunately, Mark and our guide were behind me, so I wasn’t the last one…
I clamboured back to where our other guide was and was going to keep going and get back on the bus, but she told me so long as I stayed behind the signs here, I was fine. I think she saw the complete and utter far on my face and did her best to reassure me. My goodness, I dread to think what my heart rate was. I was not expecting that! Now I know why they tell you not to walk off and I was so glad we were with our guide when that little incident happened…
Once I got my composure back and realised that we were a safe distance away, I started to take photos again. It turned out it was a momma bear (even more scary) with her two young…
Try as I might, I just couldn’t get any photo of the cubs and I was not going to get any closer than necessary. Mark didn’t do too badly though …
A few moments later, we were all guided back on the safety of the bus. Our guides thanked us profusely for sticking to the guidelines and not wandering off. The guy, Nate, then told us that the same bear had done exactly the same thing to him earlier on today. He said he had constantly been checking the bushes as he thought she might be there, but it was literally the split second he took his eye off the bushes to explain about the bear prints to us that she emerged. He couldn’t believe he’d been done twice in one day.
From there, we made our way over to Chilkoot Lake, which was very beautiful. I had had enough of standing though and was getting pretty exhausted, so I only took a few photos and then headed back on to the bus to wait for everyone else.
Apparently I missed one of the kids managing to catch a salmon that was jumping in the lake. I bet that was quite something to see.
We headed back to where we had had our close encounter with the mum and her cubs. Sure enough, they were still around, but the guides decided that it wasn’t safe to get off the bus, which after our earlier scare, was fine by me. We did get to see both the mum and the cubs from the bus, which was pretty neat and I was really pleased as I hadn’t got a photo of the cubs yet, but now I could put that right.
With that we were done and made our way back to Haines. Because we were a bit early for the ferry (I heard our guides discussing this, that’s how I know), they took us for a tour around the town. This totem pole was outside the library and he talked us through all the elements of it, which was pretty cool.
Then we headed into Fort Seward and it was modelled on the Presidio in San Francisco, if you think it looks similar.
It was a lovely end to an absolutely amazing tour. If someone had told me beforehand what would happen or what we would see a) I probably wouldn’t have believed them and b) I might not have gone if I’d have known I would get that close to a bear. Anyway, we did it and I loved it and I can now laugh about my terror at the time, as it all worked out for the best.
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That was a very close encounter! I would have been scared out of my mind. When we lived in Alaska it was drilled into you at a young age about what to do if you ever encountered a bear. And I did once, but all of that went out of my mind and I ran. Thankfully everything turned out fine. A mama and her cubs are not to be messed with. I had to chuckle at you saying you weren't the last one though. What fantastic photos you got out of it!
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What a fabulous tour! I was just enjoying all of your Skagway morning pictures. Our day was bright like that too.
Then the excursion really looks like something fabulous! I never did see a bear and your pictures are making me jealous! Those are just fantastic!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciavobella
The bears are adorable. This cracked me up:
Truly, I would have been frightened as well. But what an experience! As you say, now that you can look back on it.
You don't have to be the fastest....just faster than the guy behind you!
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all the bear photos! Great job! 
I love zoos, but there is something so wonderful about seeing animals in their own homes acting as they normally would. 
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The things you never knew you'd learn on PassPorter... 
They had warned us if we saw a bear not to stop for anything, as some people decided to take photos, but I needed no telling. 
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