A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 53 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sunday 6 September – part four: trying to avoid the “food induced coma”
We headed back to the room, and so that I didn’t fall into that “food induced coma”, I sat outside on the veranda for about an hour, writing up the trip report, and taking in the view, every so often jumping up to grab the odd shot or two.
We started to do the packing around 2:15pm, and that took us an hour with no issues. We’re going back with four cases, and all will be considerably underweight. One will probably be quite empty, the one we’re still to pack, and we already have one that’s packed with things we’re not going to need again this trip. Yes, there will be a charge for that with WestJet, but heck, if it’s Canadian dollars we’re paying in, that’s going to be quite reasonable, given the strong exchange rate.
The funny thing was about five minutes after we started to do the packing, the Wonder began to pitch a bit more – not what we needed. Then about five minutes before we finished, it stopped. It was as if Captain Robert knew, and thought “heck, I’ll just make it a little bit harder for them”.
Once we were done with packing, we thought about going to the Rainforest, but we figured we’d stay put instead, and enjoy the beautiful views from our cabin.
We ended up watching another of the presentations by Doug Jones, the naturalist, this one about bears, and I think I appreciated it much more now, having seen them up very close and personal!
We kept our eyes out for orcas outside, especially as Doug had told us earlier on that he often sees them between 5:00pm and 6:00pm. Well, he might do, but we certainly didn’t. They could easily have not been there at all or on the other side of the ship, but we’d have definitely spotted them ( even me! ) as it was like a mill pond outside. In fact, the only rocking and rolling we’d had at any time today was when we did our packing… typical!
Lovely scenery to assist with your packing. And that water is indeed calm, wow! Glad you got to hear another presentation, and about all your bear encounters this time.
I can't believe it's nearly over already!
__________________
Tanya
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Lovely scenery to assist with your packing. And that water is indeed calm, wow! Glad you got to hear another presentation, and about all your bear encounters this time.
I can't believe it's nearly over already!
I know but that's just the cruise portion, there's still more of Canada to come and then Disneyland!
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Great photos of the ship afterwards, too. 
Then about five minutes before we finished, it stopped. It was as if Captain Robert knew, and thought “heck, I’ll just make it a little bit harder for them”. 
They could easily have not been there at all or on the other side of the ship, but we’d have definitely spotted them (
even me! 
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