To Alaska and Beyond! Updated 4/28 x 3 and it's COMPLETE!! - Page 28 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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After saying our goodbyes to Bear.. our sweet Bear, we headed to the musher's presentation area to listen to Mike. He's a real musher who has been racing in the big treks for more than 20 years. He was extremely informative and we learned quite a bit from his half hour long talk. In addition to telling us about the preparations he makes for every race, he explained all of the equipment he uses, including the gear he wears.
We were surprised when he pulled Matt out of the group to come up and try on his coat and I think Matt was quite happy he did, too. Matt said the coat was so heavy, his knees almost buckled when he got it on.
We were told alot about the Iditarod as well as the Gold Rush sled races. The latter is actually the more demanding of the two. Mike also runs a tour company, where he will take you along on an extended trek- and National Geographic ranked his experience as the 13th best adventure vacation in the world. Not bad!
We also got some information I could have done without- including descriptions of severe frostbite- in fact, in the fall, he's undergoing voluntary amputations of several fingers because of the damage his hands have sustained over the years- thanks to extended exposure in sub zero temps.
One thing was clear, Mike had an unbelievable love and respect for his animals. One of his dogs was present by his side during the entire presentation and didn't move a muscle without Mike there. It was very heartwarming to witness the admiration and love from both human and canine.
We enjoyed the presentation but the part I most looked forward to was next: oh, the joy of husky puppies!
It's safe to say that most of our group after thanking Mike hightailed it to the puppies' area. Erin was able to go in and introduce us to a sweet mama and her litter- the pups were about 2 weeks old. We weren't allowed to cuddle with those little guys but Erin showed us each one and let us take as many pics as we wanted.
We moved over to some older puppies- they were about 2 months or so. There were enough of them that we each got our own to love on for awhile. Our little guy's name was Dozer. Can you tell why?
Aaron tends to be one of those often serious looking teens but I tell you what, Dozer had the kid smiling from ear to ear. Dozer got passed around between us (with the exception of Matt- he passed on holding and I think he was worried about dropping or breaking Dozer). We got plenty of pics and video. I might also add that Dozer barely could be bothered to wake up in the midst of all that passing around. He was just tooooo cute for words.
I actually had a very hard time letting go of Dozer but eventually did as Matt and Aaron had found themselves in front of the gift shop. She who carries the plastic and cash is often needed in these situations.
Both Aaron and Matt picked up a camp hoodie with the dogs on it- it was very cool looking and was $35. I don't recall Kevan or I buying anything- as usual, at least for me, my biggest souvenirs were the photos and memories.
As soon as most of the group was done in the gift shop, Erin directed us back to the bus to begin the journey back to Skagway. Before we got on though, I took several more of the beautiful open valley and meadow set against such an amazing landscape.
The ride back to town seemed to go very, very quick- Matt and I even managed to doze off for a time. Erin asked the group if anyone wanted to be dropped off downtown and got tons of hands raised. I thought that was very kind of her- it saved us quite a bit of a walk.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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