A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 33 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wow, what an amazing tour! I'd love to do that one whenever I make it to Alaska. Awesome encounter with the bears, although I can certainly see how you'd be really scared at the time!
Those bears were CLOSE! I was laughing pretty hard about your comment that at least Mark & the guide were behind you! And Mark's life insurance was paid up, I trust!?
We had looked at an excursion that took you to an area to watch the bears fishing for salmon - can't remember which port - and decided against it as you were likely to see black bears which we have here in Virginia, in abundance. But now I'm kind of sorry we didn't do that.
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Truly, I would have been frightened as well. But what an experience! As you say, now that you can look back on it.
The main thing was we were all Ok and, like so many things (like when we got stuck at Cairo Airport for 52 hours during the troubles in Egypt), we can look back at it now and it's a good story to tell....
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.
Oh wow, that was lucky! I think natural instincts take over, no matter what you're told or how often.
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A mama and her cubs are not to be messed with.
Definitely not and that's what really freaked me out the most, as I knew that.
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!
Thank you so much - we really did luck out this trip with the wildlife, although you definitely did much better with the whales than we did.
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You don't have to be the fastest....just faster than the guy behind you!
Wow, what an amazing tour! I'd love to do that one whenever I make it to Alaska. Awesome encounter with the bears, although I can certainly see how you'd be really scared at the time!
Well, do keep in mind if it's a must-do for you, you'll need to look at cruises towards the end of the season to do it.
Those bears were CLOSE! I was laughing pretty hard about your comment that at least Mark & the guide were behind you! And Mark's life insurance was paid up, I trust!?
As far as I know...
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We had looked at an excursion that took you to an area to watch the bears fishing for salmon - can't remember which port - and decided against it as you were likely to see black bears which we have here in Virginia, in abundance. But now I'm kind of sorry we didn't do that.
I reckon it must've been Skagway, as I don't remember any other similar excursions anywhere else....
This is so cool. I don't even know what to say! It's just so darn cool!!! Scary, but what an experience!
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And Mark's life insurance was paid up, I trust!?
PassPorter Guide Author
and that's what really freaked me out the most, as I knew that.
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