The Alaskan Jewel! Welcome Aboard….You don’t Exist! updated 12/13/2015 - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Perfect day to see Mendenhall. More amazing pictures. I agree with you - I've done a lot of travelling and Alaska is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. God's Museum I call it
"How was that ship? It looked kind of dated on the outside, but I know that means nothing about the inside. I hear a lot of good things about Celebrity too and they are on my bucket list."
We enjoyed the Millineum. The ship was fine, but we were unimpressed with the staff. They just didn't seem to be well trained. That could easily change, however.
I agree that you had a gorgeous day for seeing the glacier, and, like Cheryl, we noticed the recession of the glacier between our two trips. Can't wait to read about your whale watch.
Wow! You had a gorgeous day to see Mendenhall!! It was raining when we were there. Maybe next time.
It is so sad about the receding glacier. Our guide said it was past the waterfall in the early 80's, if I recall
it was a fabulous day. it was pretty warm too and only needed the coats off and on with some windy patches.
It's so sad how fast it's going.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I'll echo what Colleen just said - you had a perfect day to see the glacier. It is definitely receding - we were absolutely shocked at how much it had gone back in the four years that had elapsed in between our visits there.
Thats so sad.
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What a great day at the glacier! The weather couldn't have been better!
It was a beautiful day.
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Originally Posted by stardust190
So beautiful! You have me sold on an Alaskan cruise with all your pictures.
Great! it is just an amazing place to visit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmymac
Perfect day to see Mendenhall. More amazing pictures. I agree with you - I've done a lot of travelling and Alaska is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. God's Museum I call it
you are so right. I could go every year and not get bored.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
Perfect day and weather to view Mendenhall glacier! your photos.
it was a gorgeous day
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Originally Posted by SharonK0527
Very beautiful pictures! Can't wait to hear about the whale watching!
Coming up!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
"How was that ship? It looked kind of dated on the outside, but I know that means nothing about the inside. I hear a lot of good things about Celebrity too and they are on my bucket list."
We enjoyed the Millineum. The ship was fine, but we were unimpressed with the staff. They just didn't seem to be well trained. That could easily change, however.
I agree that you had a gorgeous day for seeing the glacier, and, like Cheryl, we noticed the recession of the glacier between our two trips. Can't wait to read about your whale watch.
Thats true...I have heard good things about Celebrity but it also depends on the staff onboard and of course what you want out of a cruise and on the ship.
Our driver told us about how he had been hiking a certain mountain recently and while he was there he ran into a Timber Wolf. He said it was really such a cool thing to see. Sounds a little scary though too.
The lower half of the boat has seats and is enclosed but it has windows all around it. The upper deck is outdoors and we are allowed to go up and down as much as we want.
Our Captain was Pete I believe. He told us today we were actually going out further than the normal area they go to as there has been reports of exciting activity. He said if we saw whales along the way he would most likely not stop as where we were going had more promising surprises for us. He said if by the time we got there it was done then we would back track to the other whales. Ok, then, this sounded exciting.
Sammy was our guide for this. She was a college student working here for the summer. I am not sure what her major is, but she knew A LOT about whales, which makes me think this is her field. The Captain even said he learns stuff from her every day.
She started out by tell us safety rules and life jacket locations. She told us how cold the water is, so you really don’t want to go for a swim, but if you did fall in to try and stay calm. If you see someone fall in to yell and point your finger at them and never look away so that they would be able to pull the boat to them for a rescue. She said it’s amazing how fast you can lose sight of a person if you look away.
She told us how this was an extremely clear day and this is not what it usually looks like here. She said normally you never see the tops of the mountains as there is usually a mist of fog. We saw the tops of the mountains pretty much all day long. Wow!
Sammy talked about the whales we would be seeing today…..Humbacks. She said many people come on this tour expecting to see orcas but this is not an area where orcas typically hang out. She said there is a 10% chance of seeing an orca on this tour, so don’t get your hopes up. Darn….but I actually knew that coming in.
The also offered free hot chocolate (and coffee too I believe) and some donut holes to snack on. Skip went up and got some …..well when he came back he wasn’t really sharing. He got cocoa for Claire but wasn’t going to share the donut holes and she had a few tears (lack of sleep was catching up to her) and he gave over a few, but none for me. So I got up and got myself some …and by then there were literally only a couple of donut holes left and then he was stunned I didn’t bring more back for him. There were a few tense moments over these stupid donuts….but life goes on.
With this tour they really respect the whales and she told us that they only approach the whales from the side as to not scare them and also will only get so close to them. I understand how that is important. However I saw several of the smaller boats on this tour get pretty darn close and that would be pretty cool….but I will respect the whales.
Sammy talked the whole time. She had kind of a dry sense of humor as she would spew out all this info and then throw in a joke in a serious tone and see if we were listening and I would look up at her each time…thinking that can’t be right…and sure enough she would crack a smile.
And then there was a sighting. But this was not one of those sightings we were going to pass by…this was one of those 10% chance sightings…An Orca! Claire and I RAN up the steps to get a look.
It was a pod! We would see them come up and then lose them for a bit and then they would pop up somewhere else. The Captain was good about swinging the boat around to see them and to let both sides of the boat see them.
Oh Ok, that is so not fair. Mark's wanted to see an orca and has done a load of whale watching trips now, including two in Alaska and no sightings to date. Can you tell I'm jealous on his behalf?
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I'm sure your photos don't even do the beautiful day and scenery justice, I can't imagine how lucky you were to get to experience all this on your tour so far! Looking forward to hearing how it turns out!
How to see a whole pod of Orcas!!! Although I'm with Cheryl and a tiny bit .
Still marveling at your weather! I'm not sure I knew there were so many mountains around Juneau! We had rain, steady and CONSTANT, the whole time in Juneau.
Aren't the Orcas so fun to watch. We were fortunate enough to see them as well on our last trip, and the landscape behind yours looks exactly like ours. Perhaps it was in the same area. We even saw one breech. WOW is all I can say about that sighting. So glad you got to see some.
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Great day for whale watching. Orca sightings are pretty rare. We've dome 4 whale watching tours and only saw orcas once. Great pix again. Can't wait for the next installment
Oh Ok, that is so not fair. Mark's wanted to see an orca and has done a load of whale watching trips now, including two in Alaska and no sightings to date. Can you tell I'm jealous on his behalf?
I was pretty darn excited to see them. One can always hope but I knew the chances were pretty slim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
How great you got to see orcas! That is the one thing we didn't get to see in Alaska!
We were pretty excited
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
I'm sure your photos don't even do the beautiful day and scenery justice, I can't imagine how lucky you were to get to experience all this on your tour so far! Looking forward to hearing how it turns out!
It is just so amazing there. Everywhere you look there is beauty!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
How to see a whole pod of Orcas!!! Although I'm with Cheryl and a tiny bit .
Still marveling at your weather! I'm not sure I knew there were so many mountains around Juneau! We had rain, steady and CONSTANT, the whole time in Juneau.
LOL. We really had a great day and I was so thankful for it. I was so happy that we never had a constant rain the whole trip. Even in Ketchikan it was off and on and not very hard at it's hardest.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
Aren't the Orcas so fun to watch. We were fortunate enough to see them as well on our last trip, and the landscape behind yours looks exactly like ours. Perhaps it was in the same area. We even saw one breech. WOW is all I can say about that sighting. So glad you got to see some.
they really are so cool to watch. Now I am jealous. I kept yelling out to them to jump, but they didn't seem to hear me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmymac
Great day for whale watching. Orca sightings are pretty rare. We've dome 4 whale watching tours and only saw orcas once. Great pix again. Can't wait for the next installment
I was pretty darn excited. It really made my day and if we didn't see another whale the rest of the day we were already happy!
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your photos.
It is definitely receding - we were absolutely shocked at how much it had gone back in the four years that had elapsed in between our visits there. 
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Mark's wanted to see an orca and has done a load of whale watching trips now, including two in Alaska and no sightings to date. Can you tell I'm jealous on his behalf? 
That is the one thing we didn't get to see in Alaska! 
to see a whole pod of Orcas!!! Although I'm with Cheryl and a tiny bit 
The scenery in your photos is simply stunning. 
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