National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Friday 2 September – part seven: new members of Charlie and Joe’s!
Sue and I wanted to look in the Christmas shop, but that turned out to be a great big disappointment. The unexpected star of the show was the hardware store that’s one of the few places that’s open year round. We went inside, so Sue and Steve could get an Alaskan number plate (more of that later...) and we also ended up finding everything we wanted between us, including fridge magnets and postcards (us), scrapbooking stuff (both of us!) and shot glasses and mugs (Sue and Steve). It was perfect.
All the purchases made that we needed, we headed back towards the Wonder. It was starting to rain quite heavily now and we didn’t want to stay out any longer than we needed to. :
When we got back to the ship, we spent a bit of time in the room, uploading the (rather large ) number of photos we had taken already and updating the trip report. After a while, it was time to head to the Rainforest to properly warm up.
We spent the next hour or so mainly lying on the hot stone chairs, with occasional very short visits to the gentle sauna and the steam rooms. Eventually, it was time to get dressed and head back to the room, as we’d agreed that we’d meet the others at 6:30am for an early dinner at Beach Blanket Buffet. We were all getting sick and tired of going to bed on a full stomach, as dinner seemed to take a long time. Barb and I discussed this the next day and we suddenly realised that they had changed the dinner time from the last time we cruised. At least that’s what we recall. If that’s right and it was say half an hour later than previously, that would explain why we were all having issues with the late dining.
I was a bit disappointed when I realised that it was the Taste of Alaska menu, but never mind, we still had a great time. I added to it, by attempting to open up a crab claw. I think that’s the first and the last time I’ll try that game... It wasn’t pretty, let’s put it that way!
I was also a bit disappointed with the selection up here. The only seafood were the crab claws and I was hoping for a bit more. The salmon they had was coated in honey mustard and I can’t stand mustard, so that was out for me although I cannot fault the desserts. They were wonderful, especially the coconut one. I wanted some ice cream and asked a Cast Member and he went and got me some from outside. Gotta love cruising!
After dinner, we sat there chatting for ages and then Sue and Steve invited Barb and Bob to be members of their pub Charlie and Joe’s by signing the Alaskan number plate they’d bought earlier in the hardware store, which led to all sorts of photos as Barb wrote an essay on their plate!
Eventually we just about closed the place down and headed down to deck three and Diversions. The drinks menu in here is so much better. I got a glass of Moscato, which I really like, while Mark got a Mai Tai. To be honest, it may as well have been pure alcohol, as that’s what it tasted like!
Steve asked if they could make a Green Python and gave the recipe and we all tried it when it arrived. Boy, it was good and Steve really enjoyed it, despite the look on his face in this shot!
I think this means he liked it!
The trip really caught up with me tonight and I said my farewells quite early on, as I was shattered and we were whale watching the next day in Juneau. This was tonight’s towel animal offering:
The weather today was cloudy and overcast with drizzle later in the day and temperatures in the low 50s. The best thing today was the journey on the Yukon and White Pass Railroad. The worst thing today was the weather. The funniest thing today was our lunch at the Red Onion Saloon. Today we tried going across the Yukon Suspension Bridge And the result was that it was a lot of fun. The most magical moment today was the views from the railroad.
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The unexpected star of the show was the hardware store that’s one of the few places that’s open year round. We went inside, so Sue and Steve could get an Alaskan number plate (more of that later...) and we also ended up finding everything we wanted between us, including fridge magnets and postcards (us), scrapbooking stuff (both of us!) and shot glasses and mugs (Sue and Steve). It was perfect. 
: 
) number of photos we had taken already and updating the trip report. After a while, it was time to head to the Rainforest to properly warm up. 
It wasn’t pretty, let’s put it that way! 
although I cannot fault the desserts. They were wonderful, especially the coconut one. I wanted some ice cream and asked a Cast Member and he went and got me some from outside. Gotta love cruising! 
I got a glass of Moscato, which I really like, while Mark got a Mai Tai. To be honest, it may as well have been pure alcohol, as that’s what it tasted like! 
This was tonight’s towel animal offering: 
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