To Alaska and Beyond! Updated 4/28 x 3 and it's COMPLETE!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
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A note or two before the next installment- the stateroom is smaller, than that of DCL's but I found the storage space to be better utilized and at the time, it felt like there was more of it. That offsets the size factor, at least for me.
Also, in one of the previous Coming Up Next lines- I mentioned Can we buy a tent in Skagway? I totally forgot to put that in the report. When we realized how huge our balcony was- Aaron suggested buying a tent in Skagway and that he wanted to sleep out there.
Now we can get on with the business of THIS installment:
Matt and I returned to Kevan and Aaron sitting out on the balcony claiming to see sea lions. They had the binoculars out and everything. I had to laugh because I could see with my own eyes- they were huge beds of seaweed and kelp.
We decided to get ready for the safety drill around 3:30. Kevan was still entranced with the balcony and put his on out there. He began talking about how high the railing was and he just didn't understand the occasional story of a cruise passenger who would accidentally go overboard. I distinctly remember him saying... "See, check me out! It's not happening!" Thank GOD I had my camera around my neck because what he did next had me almost on the floor in hysterics and had to be captured for posterity!
Matthew spit out his Coke when we saw him do this- I grabbed my camera super quick and was able to get that shot the second before he decided enough. And then he saw me and heard the click. He immediately said.. "That's going on Passporter, isn't it?" Uh, yes dear. It is most CERTAINLY going on Passporter.
After we all had kind of calmed down, everyone was orange foamed and ready to go- Kevan got this pic of Matt and I before we left.
As Lynn said back on our first Disney cruise together, nothing accentuates a gal like giant blocks of orange foam.
Our assembly station was W 13 and I quickly briefed the stateroom door to check out the assigned route. I led the boys out and there were two families who got right behind us who kept saying they didn't know where to go and asked Kevan what to do. He suggested following us- and I kind of loudly pointed out the green signs that directed us all to the Schooner Bar- our assembly station. In general, it was crowded but orderly and people moved fairly quickly.
We took a seat at the station. W 13 was sharing an area with the people who were assigned G 14. (First word off your trip report key phrase-vocabulary list). G 14 people were directed into Chops Grille. There was the tiniest, cutest little Thai girl in the safety vest directing people in- and she kept saying G 14 in this big booming voice- and it ended up sounding more like G Foorrrteeeeeeeen This Waaaaay! It was absoulutely hilarious- hearing this big voice out of such a little person!
Most everyone showed up on time and we were done with the safety drill in about 15 minutes. We headed back to the room, dropped off the lifejackets and went right up to Decks 12 and 13 for sailaway.
I must say, it was a much more low key sailaway than DCL or even the Monarch of the Seas cruise to the Bahamas this past Dec. They played more relaxing music and without warning, the horn blew- and we were pushing off.
As we made our way down the harbour, all the other ships, including the Princess and Holland America docked at Canada Place followed suit..
We got several send offs from boaters and passengers of other smaller craft in the harbour.
The ship approached the Lions Gate Bridge:
Our cruise director, Mike (who reminded me so much of Tom Green- that I started calling him Tom Green) was telling everyone to cheer as we made our way under- and it was amazing to see how many cameras and videocameras popped out. It was a really neat sight to see the ship pass under- and there were several bikers and joggerson the bridge who stopped to watch us pass under.
We stayed out on deck for about another half hour, enjoying the views and scenery. Matt and I headed downstairs to get my onboard email account set up. I got a $5 credit for being a Crown and Anchor member - which was one of the only coupons in my couponbook I used during the trip. Kevan and Aaron headed back to the stateroom to park themselves on the balcony once again.
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