The Trip of a Lifetime to Alaska – Land and Sea – Trip Report - COMLETE!! 4/13/12 - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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! I read through your whole PTR and TR today, and all I can say is wow! What an amazing trip so far and you haven't even gotten to the cruise portion yet. The scenery and the wildlife is all just fantastic!
Day 6 – Thursday June 30th – Train to Seward and Kenai Fjords Cruise – Part 2
We arrived in Seward and it was a cloudy and cool. We found the Major Marine representative and she put us on a shuttle. After a short ride into town, we were given our tickets and were taken down to the dock to board the boat. You are assigned a table, where you can keep all your stuff, and then walk around the ship (it had 3 levels, the first two had outdoor areas and indoor seating, the third was just outdoor which I never got up to). They also serve a meal (prime rib and salmon) which we opted out of, as I knew Colin wouldn’t eat it and I think it was $20/pp (at least for adults). They have a small snack menu (hotdogs were on there, which the kids had) and complimentary hot chocolate, tea, and coffee. We still had snacks left over so I was mostly eating those. There is also a National Park Ranger on the boat (Captain Mark) who did a great job explaining wildlife we were seeing (puffins, cormorants, bald eagles, sea lions, whales, sea otters, glaciers) and he also did a junior park ranger program for the kids (Colin participated, Alexa felt she was too old )! The water is a cyan blue, apparently from the silt from the glaciers. If it wasn’t 50 degrees out and glaciers around you, you’d think you were in the Caribbean just looking at the water!
Matt’s pictures……..
After the tour ended, we walked around the downtown area for a bit, before checking in at the HI Express.
After checking in, we went to go find some dinner, and ended up just down the block at Chinooks. Matt had rockfish, I had a burger, Alexa had salmon, and Colin had chicken tenders (can’t remember if he ate these ones or not). After dinner, the kids went swimming in the hotel pool, and then we packed it up for another day.
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Wow! That sounds (and looks) like a great tour! What is that a picture of that looks like penguins on the rocks?? I know it can't be penguins, right? But it sure made me look twice....
That looks like a great tour! The color of the water is so pretty! I love all the animals you saw, and all on one tour! So much wildlife in one area...it's just amazing and beautiful!
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Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
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Wow! That sounds (and looks) like a great tour! What is that a picture of that looks like penguins on the rocks?? I know it can't be penguins, right? But it sure made me look twice....
I think it's a type of puffin? No, they aren't penguins!
What an amazing boat ride, you got to see so much, I lovce all the pictures of the whales, and the sea otters once you got off the boat were the cutest things, that one that you got a close up of looks like he is posing for you. What an incredible day.
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)! The water is a cyan blue, apparently from the silt from the glaciers. If it wasn’t 50 degrees out and glaciers around you, you’d think you were in the Caribbean just looking at the water!
My normal everyday computer routine!
No, they aren't penguins! 
PassPorter Guide Author
You saw just about every awesome sight possible from the glaciers to the whales. I bet it was an amazing experience. 
Deb
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