National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Someone at work was telling me how he swims at an OUTDOOR pool - bear in mind, with wind chill, it's been mid 30s during the daytime recently here. I cannot begin to imagine doing that! He keeps telling me that it's alright, it's heated, but I keep pointing out to him it's the getting in and out that's the problem!
That's Crazy!!! I always think about that when I see all those kids swimming in the pools at Disney, especially in December when it really drops at night. They must be little popsicles when they get out!
Friday 9 September – part one: “this is the most amazing sight I’ve seen in two days at this park”
I slept really well in our nice quiet cabin and loved how peaceful it was... Mark, well that’s another story. He told me he’d been awake for much of the night, as it was just too quiet. I don’t know – you just can’t win with some people....!
I got up and found out how to work the heater, as the cabin was freezing. It reminded me of being in a student house, where you got up, turned on the heating and went back to bed to warm up. At least there was no stray wildlife sitting outside admiring the (now covered) hot tub, so that was a good start, as that had (seriously! ) been one of my worries last night...
We got going slowly, as Mark was understandably not feeling at his best, although at least he said he felt better when he got up. We had a breakfast of tea and the doughnuts we bought at Wal-Mart last night and then I went and dunked my feet in the hot tub for a few minutes. It was cold out there, but warming up all the time.
We also did some re-packing, as I had the great idea last night of going back to three big cases for our road trip, as then we’d be able to fit all the cases in the trunk, rather than, as we had yesterday, one of our hand luggage cases on display in the main part of the car, which didn’t seem to me to be a very good plan. We took out anything we might want to use and put stuff like sweatshirts, the tripod, gloves, and food, on the back seats. It took a while, but hopefully it will be worth it for the next week or so.
We headed out not long before 10:00am and checked out, getting a few final shots of the hotel area on the way.
The views from outside our hot tub cabin Our cabin Inside the lobby of the main Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel
Already it was busy out, although we managed to find a parking spot easily enough by the hot springs themselves. We made our way up the boardwalk, marvelling at the sight in front of us, which is called Palette Spring, because of the rich colours. It was just stunning. A guy said to Mark that this was the most amazing thing he’d seen in two days at the park, so we knew we’d started well. It was just absolutely breathtaking.
Next: I cannot believe he’s sitting this close to the road!
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I can't resist a tie-in with Disney at this point. It's amazing what the Imagineers create to look like nature, but it's just mind boggling that nature creates something so incredibly beautiful! I can't imagine what it must have looked like in person. You're really convincing me to try to plan a trip there sooner rather than later!
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2013 WDW trip here!
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I can't resist a tie-in with Disney at this point. It's amazing what the Imagineers create to look like nature, but it's just mind boggling that nature creates something so incredibly beautiful! I can't imagine what it must have looked like in person. You're really convincing me to try to plan a trip there sooner rather than later!
I was thinking the same thing - it almost looks like this could fit in somewhere by Big Thunder Mountain! Nature is amazing.
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He keeps telling me that it's alright, it's heated, but I keep pointing out to him it's the getting in and out that's the problem! 
I always think about that when I see all those kids swimming in the pools at Disney, especially in December when it really drops at night. They must be little popsicles when they get out!
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Mary - not enough trips!
PassPorter Guide Author
At least there was no stray wildlife sitting outside admiring the (now covered) hot tub, so that was a good start, as that had (seriously! 
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