National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I just love photos where you're looking just about straight up. It just makes buildings and structures that much more impressive and makes for a great photo. At least you got the tail end of the sunset, still made for good photos too. I imagine you guys must have been dead-tired, and then to have the curtains fall again. Geeeez....
I think it's fair to say we were pretty tired, as we had packed a lot into the day.
Wow...what a beautiful city Seattle is. You got some breathtaking shots! I can't beleive how much you pakced into one day.....and I thought I was one to be on the go all day long.
I would've dropped in the bed and just worried about the stuppid curtain rod in the morning..of corse though you probably had city lights shining in, which wouldn't be too nice.
I can't wait to read more.
It was more of a case of having to pack things in, as we literally had that day to see Seattle and that was it. It would've been nice to have had more time, but it just didn't work out that way.
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Thursday 8 September – part one: do I really need to take dirty tissues out of my pocket to go through security?
I didn’t have the greatest night’s sleep, as I was up a couple of times in the night with a runny nose. Guess that cold still isn’t done with me then?
Finally we surfaced just before 8:00am and I spent some time online, doing a few bits on the boards and finishing sorting out all the photos we took yesterday.
Eventually, we headed downstairs for breakfast and the spread today wasn’t very veggie friendly, with no hot items at all that I could eat, which was a bit of a disappointment. I stuck to fruit and two rounds of cereal.
Then it was back to the room to finish re-packing into four cases and to enjoy the last of our time online, before we had to go down and meet our towncar.
This is the first time we’ve ever used a towncar service and it was excellent. The guy chatted to us the whole way over to the airport and was so nice. I gave a tip on top of the $40 charge. I’m not sure if that’s how you do things or not, but it felt like the right thing to do, as he gave very good service.
We headed inside and quickly found the bag check area and put the bags through, with the woman commenting that they were of a good weight. We told her that’s why we carry luggage scales with us.
Then it was off to security and this has to be the toughest security I’ve ever been through in the States. We waited in line about 15 minutes and then had to take just about everything off. One of the TSA guys joked that we’d soon be going through in Speedos. OK, not a great thought...
We both ended up with that weird body scan thing – whatever it is. I didn’t find it invasive at all. If I’m honest, I just found it a bit silly, especially when the guy asked if I had anything in my pockets and I told him “dirty tissues” (well, I do have a cold! ) and he told me to take them out. For goodness sake...
When I did the pat down, the woman told me that the problem was my Eeyore necklace and I should take it off in future. Well, as I’ve cleared goodness knows how many airports in the past wearing it, it won’t be coming off the next time I travel...
We found our way through to the gates and there really wasn’t much seating there at all, but finally we found something. We did see this...
I have to be honest that I really wasn’t overly impressed with Seattle International Airport. It just didn’t do much for me at all and we didn’t have the greatest experience with it. At least they had free wi-fi, which was a score for them, so I logged on for a few minutes.
Soon we were being called for boarding and off we went through a huge long enclosed corridor, surrounded by planes outside. It was all a bit surreal.
Here’s our plane – as you can see, it was a biggie!
The seats were nowhere near as big as on Air Canada and the luggage space overhead wasn’t the greatest either. Mark’s case was too big for it and had to go under the seat in front of us. Thank goodness at least mine fitted up there, or we’d have been in trouble.
We set off and I got some great shots as we took off, as it took us a fair while to get above the cloud cover today.
It took forever for the fasten seatbelt sign to go off. In fact, at one point, I wondered if it would just stay on for the whole flight but eventually it went off and we were able to retrieve the laptop, as I had read everything that I’d bought on with me and trust me, there wasn’t much in their magazine. :
We passed off some stunning scenery on the way, although when we asked the crew where we were, they couldn’t help.
We were served complimentary drinks, which included both beer and wine, which did surprise me, along with a snack pack, but that was it. Then again, the flight was only about an hour and a half, so I guess there’s not much more you can do in that time.
Isn't security odd? I've been on a couple flights with a monitor that shows what you're flying over and I absolutely love that feature. I'm always looking out the window wondering what I'm seeing down below. It's not all marked like a map. I can't wait to hear about the little Montana airport as we've flown into Kalispell before and I think I have an idea.....
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I'm not happy to hear that the Seattle airport experience wasn't the greatest. I'll have several hours to kill there after the cruise next year. Guess I'll try to leave the ship as late as they'll allow. I hope the finicky TSA agents there don't have a problem with my scooter!
Wonderful scenery from the plane. I wish they had the live flight-map video available on all flights.
It's going to be hard for the rest of your trip to live up to your experience in Seattle! Beautiful weather, good food, good friends, lots of fun tourist spots! I was telling a friend of mine about our trip as she really wants to take an Alaskan cruise. I told her I never wanted to until I read your TR! I'm anxious to hear about your visits to the National Parks.
Isn't security odd? I've been on a couple flights with a monitor that shows what you're flying over and I absolutely love that feature. I'm always looking out the window wondering what I'm seeing down below. It's not all marked like a map. I can't wait to hear about the little Montana airport as we've flown into Kalispell before and I think I have an idea.....
I'd love it if they provided maps that show you your route - that would be the coolest thing.
I'm not happy to hear that the Seattle airport experience wasn't the greatest. I'll have several hours to kill there after the cruise next year. Guess I'll try to leave the ship as late as they'll allow. I hope the finicky TSA agents there don't have a problem with my scooter!
We may just have hit security on a bad day - and I guess it also depends on which terminal you're flying out of as well.
It's going to be hard for the rest of your trip to live up to your experience in Seattle! Beautiful weather, good food, good friends, lots of fun tourist spots! I was telling a friend of mine about our trip as she really wants to take an Alaskan cruise. I told her I never wanted to until I read your TR! I'm anxious to hear about your visits to the National Parks.
You're right about the rest of the trip living up to Seattle, but I don't think I'm giving too much away to say that actually it did!
National Parks coming right up - you're going to get so much about that, I think you'll be sick of them after this trip report!
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Those are beautiful night time shots of the skyline! Sorry to hear about the super meticulous TSA agent, but I suppose I'd let myself be inconvenienced a bit if they're really going to be that careful with any potential bad guys! Still...dirty tissues? LOL!
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Wow, complimentary drinks on a domestic flight?!?! I've never heard of such a thing (unless I was lucky enough to be bumped to business or first class).
Sorry the airport was so boring! Glad the time there wasn't too long.
Thursday 8 September – part two: the cutest airport ever?
Soon we were coming into land and the services all ended early, as they warned us that there would be some turbulence and there was, although I’ve felt worse – mainly on our flight out to LA!
When we landed, we found one of the cutest airports I’ve ever been in. It was really small, but it had wood everywhere and just so much character. I was really impressed with it.
We finally made it to baggage claim, after all my photos and a pit stop to buy a Montana fridge magnet, just to prove we’d been here and Mark went to Avis to get the car sorted out. They didn’t have a Chevy Impala and gave us a people carrier instead. It was quite a beast, when Mark finally found it in the car park...
Our luggage all safely arrived, we loaded up our new vehicle and set off in search of Bath and Body Works, as apparently Bozeman had one. I was amazed at how big Bozeman was. It was like a small town, but with everything you’d expect in a city.
We finally found the mall it was in, after some searching, and that was home to a Sear’s, Jo-Anns (I resisted the temptation to go in... ), a Macy’s and a JC Penney’s. As I say, not what I expected to find here. :
We parked up outside Barnes and Noble and of course Bath and Body Works was on the far side of the mall. We finally found it and I was able to get some more of my favourite hand sanitiser and we were good to go.
We headed back to the car, feeling in need of a little something, only having had breakfast so far and the snacks they provided on the plane. I’d seen a Burger King on the way here and fancied doing a drive-thru, as it’s such an American thing to do! Of course, we have drive-thrus at home, but not to the extent that you guys do here, so it’s still a treat to me.
Very handy for the fries!
I got the fish bun and Mark got the whopper and we made meals out of both of them. It was great and just what we needed to keep us going.
Our next stop was Wal-Mart, as I wanted to get some water and Sprite to keep us going for the next week, knowing that we’d be doing a lot of driving. We also got some fresh fruit, including a selection pot that we could have later when we got to Yellowstone and some chips and doughnuts and muffins as breakfast items for the days when breakfast isn’t included with our room or we just want a snack.
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At least you got the tail end of the sunset, still made for good photos too. I imagine you guys must have been dead-tired, and then to have the curtains fall again. 
Geeeez....
I think it's fair to say we were pretty tired, as we had packed a lot into the day.
The guy chatted to us the whole way over to the airport and was so nice. I gave a tip on top of the $40 charge. I’m not sure if that’s how you do things or not, but it felt like the right thing to do, as he gave very good service. 
: 
I can't wait to hear about the little Montana airport as we've flown into Kalispell before and I think I have an idea..... 
Tricia
), a Macy’s and a JC Penney’s. As I say, not what I expected to find here. 
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