The Alaskan Jewel! Welcome Aboard….You don’t Exist! updated 12/13/2015 - Page 26 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So was it Tracy's Ford or Endicott Arm??? Six hours just didn't seem long enough for Juneau! I would much rather lose and get the pie in the face than the green slime!!!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
"I think if/when we go back that will be one thing I will look at. We may look at another line as well just to try something different and also because many offer longer port times. Ideally we would like to do a one way cruise and do some land time in Alaska as well."
The 2nd cruise we took was with Celebrity. We did a cruise tour that started in Fairbanks, went to Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage, Alyeska and Seward. The cruise was from Seward to Vancouver (one way). We had full days in every port. I would highly recommend it. There were a number of options for the land portion of varying lengths. Ours was 6 nights. A good portion of the land tour had transport on the Alaskan RR and it was really nice.
Sounds like a good lunch! Bummer about the announcement though
Lunch was so yummy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
So was it Tracy's Ford or Endicott Arm??? Six hours just didn't seem long enough for Juneau! I would much rather lose and get the pie in the face than the green slime!!!
Endicott is where we ended up. Now I have nothing else to personally compare it to but it was still beautiful in my eyes.
I think I rather have pie in the face too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
"I think if/when we go back that will be one thing I will look at. We may look at another line as well just to try something different and also because many offer longer port times. Ideally we would like to do a one way cruise and do some land time in Alaska as well."
The 2nd cruise we took was with Celebrity. We did a cruise tour that started in Fairbanks, went to Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage, Alyeska and Seward. The cruise was from Seward to Vancouver (one way). We had full days in every port. I would highly recommend it. There were a number of options for the land portion of varying lengths. Ours was 6 nights. A good portion of the land tour had transport on the Alaskan RR and it was really nice.
I had a client do one with Princess that did the land portion at the end of her trip and it was amazing. She said one of the best vacations she ever too. They did transfer by train and bus I believe...it just depended on where they were going each day.
Before I go on I wanted to correct a mistake I made. I mentioned the Pearl had come from Tracy Arm and that is not true. I had a flakey moment. The Pearl goes to Glacier Bay and never goes to Tracy Arm and has a half day at sea before arriving at Juneau. Back to the report…….
I ended up just going out on 7 for a bit while I pondered it over as to which deck I needed to go to get to the front.
It was a little windy out there but not too bad. And it was just really cool to be in this normally restricted area. I hear it really depends on weather and conditions as to how long they keep it open as it can be dangerous if it is wavy or really windy. It must’ve been perfect conditions today as they kept it up for hours.
Actually I believe this is a back-up anchor. I heard some people talking about why would the anchor be up here and it would be awfully hard to move. Then another guy said well ships never anchor anymore…which is not true. I finally joined in the conversation after a bit and told them yes they do anchor…when they tender they have to anchor. I said I was pretty sure this was just a back-up anchor and they agreed that made sense.
I got to talking to a lady for quite some time. I believe she is a professor somewhere, though I no longer remember where. We had such a nice talk and we got on to subjects of glaciers (wonder why?) and culture and people. My great uncle had actually lived with Eskimos in Alaska many years ago (he has passed now). He was an anthropologist and he studied many cultures. He wrote some books….and I will be honest…I have never read a single one though I do have a copy of one somewhere. They are very difficult to read and super technical. Not an enjoyable read by any means. So we talked about him a bit. He has a story that one time he and some of the people were out hunting or getting supplies….something along those lines…and a very bad winter storm came. They basically had to hunker down and wait it out as visibility was zero. I think it was something like 2 or 3 days and they had quite a rough time over those days. When the storm stopped they found out the village was only like 50 feet away. Of course with as bad as it was if they went in the wrong direction they could’ve been lost forever or died.
Anyways…I had a nice chat with this lady. I went to take a picture of the ship.
The lady made the comment that that is where some of the fancy smanchy suites are. I didn’t say anything because those were forward Penthouse suites….just like what I had, only I was in the aft. LOL.
You may notice there is a guy wearing a t-shirt and shorts. It wasn’t quite that warm but it really wasn’t too bad. It was a bit windy and chilly but not uncomfortable at all.
At some point in time they had a naturalist talking on the loudspeaker. It was really hard to hear him in this location. I did think I made out we were in Endicott Arm though.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I finally decided I better go check and make sure Claire made it back to the room so I left my prime spot and said goodbye to the lady I had been talking too.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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