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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Early to rise today… if you want to see the main sights of the day.. Today we sail into Tracy-
Arm Fjord . We are scheduled to begin early in the morning 5:30 AM!
Not being a complete fool.. I used room service for the first time. I hung my tag outside the door for the first breakfast delivery time, and ordered Coffee and an assortment of Danish. I set my alarm clock to make sure I was up on time, dressed warmly, and headed to my balcony. The best of all worlds.., see the view as we passed in (could see the other side on the way out-so no crowded viewing area for me : ) food as early as I could get it elsewhere, and could slip back into the room if I got cold.
Everything was play it by guess (there would be no announcements in the open area, and you cannot hear them in the rooms-as the announcements could have a negative effect on the local environment and wildlife,.)
And promptly at 5:30 there was an announcement you could hear in the halls only that we had started our way in and expected the transit in and back to take until about 11:00). Breakfast arrived as scheduled (they called first so I knew to come back in to meet them less than 2 minutes later.)
Photos on the way in:
Yes pure glacial ice is this blue!
About 8:15 the ship came to a stop and I could hear an announcement in the hallway. They were announcing that due to ice conditions we would not go any further (and would not get to Sawyer Glacier). The ship turned sideways in the channel (in a fjord the hills on the side are very steep) for people to get photos, and then we reversed course to head out. We waved at our companion, the Mercury as we passed, (and they turned around at the same spot).
I estimated we had another ½ hour to go if we had gone all the way in, so we made it about 5/6ths of the way in. I headed up to get my morning mocha , then returned to my room to watch the other-side of the fjord.
At noon, I headed topside to watch an ice carving demonstration in the icy air (the high today was 54f 12.2C). Then I went to the backstage tour of the Broadway Melodies Theater. Then back to the room for a well deserved nap. I read a book from the library (there were both books to check out and an book exchange where you could leave a book and take another). There was also an Alaska deck sale up in the wind of deck 9 offering t shirts at 2/$20…. But for them too late as I had bought some ashore already. (BTW) the shirt sales were the only Alaska merchandise at this point )
Dinner tonight was semi-formal, but after seeing so few with even a tie on, I just wore a pressed shirt and slacks. Dinner tonight I selected cream of Asparagus soup, Thai Chicken and a sugar-free berry cheesecake (that even the non diabetics ordered..it looked so good).
Our show tonight was singer/impressionist/pianist Bobby Arvon. He was pretty good.
I made a stop at the casino and invested my $10 in a nickel slot machine. I made $17.75 (a 7.25 profit so officially I had recovered the $10 I lost the first day and was ahead of the house Off to bed and my days towel animal.
Ketchikan – Day 6
Arrival today is 0700. I got my morning mocha at 6:30 when the little coffee location opened, and headed upstairs. About 8:00 people started going ashore. I did not take coming in pictures this day :sad:
My excursion this day was to the Saxman Native village. Two buses (one from each ship(yes the Mercury was there with us)made the journey through Ketchikan and a couple miles south to the Native village.
We were ushered into a community hall, and while awaiting the program, I took pictures of the artwork around. The Tilingit people are members of clans (based on their mother’s clan) and were bear, eagle, salmon, etc. Most of these drawings represent these clans.
We then were greeted by a tribal member who shared a little about their complex language (less than 60 can speak all of it). We were next supposed to view a 12 minute video about the tribe. Unfortunately (for them) but fortunate for us, imparting their culture to us was more important to them than money-so as we boarded our buses, they gave each of us a 40 minute dvd entitled The Children of the Southeast Wind.
Exiting the meeting room we observed a woman making some of the ceremonial apparel.
Next to the Beaver Clan Tribal House where an elder greeted us. We were then treated to some native dance. If you look carefully you will a young (about 2 -12/) girl and another child carried by her father. They believe in teaching the children their culture from day one.
A brief video line YouTube - Saxman Native Dancers.mov
We then adjourned to look at Totem poles and how they are made.
about water spots (morning was only rain on entire cruise!)
Returning to Ketchikan I had lunch at Fish Pirates Saloon. Lunch was a diet coke, nice piece of freshly caught salmon, three red potatoes the size of tennis balls, two pieces of corn on the cob (equal to a whole ear) and a chunk of sourdough bread the size of a softball. (TOO MUCH FOOD!) Cost was $24.00.
Cool Beer signs
A land locked duck
Then off shopping. To me Ketchikan had the most LOCAL stores of the Alaska ports. If a store had a notation on the window/etc. of City,.then some Caribbean location I don’t bother to enter : I stuck with local stores all the way! I picked up some huckleberry jam, a t shirt, some ornaments and a ULU, which is a food cutter. There were one’s much cheaper than the one I bought, but they were made in China. I bought one made in Alaska.
Then back to the ship to take a nap and then I took some pictures of the town before we left (ALL ABOARD was 5:30). Then to dinner. Tonight I had French Onion Soup, New York Steak covered with a Gorgonzola laced butter , and Key Lime Pie. The entertainment tonight was a Ballroom Fever musical with the normal cast plus the couple from Estonia that had been teaching dancing on board. Then on to the Schooner Lounge for “Adult Day Care” Like others that have posted reviews elsewhere, I will just say it was a hoot! (And not reveal the fun) : Since tomorrow will be a sea day and I could stay in, I stayed up till almost midnight !
Ready to crash, I was greeted by today’s towel animal and Day 7’s Cruise Compass on “as you depart” , information on tipping, and offering Luggage Valet and OnBloard check-in service for a fee ( I passed as I would have plenty of time at the airport to waste, so I wasn’t paying extra for this service :
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Sounds like a great day at Ketchikan! Glad you were able to get in some shopping...... Hate to see this cruise coming to an end- looking forward to hearing about your last day at sea....
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: ) food as early as I could get it elsewhere, and could slip back into the room if I got cold.
(there would be no announcements in the open area, and you cannot hear them in the rooms-as the announcements could have a negative effect on the local environment and wildlife,.) 
pure glacial ice is this blue!
at our companion, the Mercury as we passed, (and they turned around at the same spot).
, then returned to my room to watch the other-side of the fjord.
I read a book from the library (there were both books to check out and an book exchange where you could leave a book and take another). There was also an Alaska deck sale up in the wind of deck 9 offering t shirts at 2/$20…. But for them too late as I had bought some ashore already. (BTW) the shirt sales were the only Alaska merchandise at this point )
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Pixie Dust
. Sounds like a great day!
PassPorter Guide Author
about water spots (morning was only rain on entire cruise!)
I love tours like that where you can learn more about life in the place you're visiting.
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