A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We were there in May - now *that* was cold! Brrrrr!!
I can imagine there were some very cold cruises. Thankfully though ours wasn't one of them. It was so much warmer than the same time of year four years earlier.
I thought I was the only person who liked Parrot Cay! And Carioca's has mangos in 2/3 of it's dishes and I'm allergic. Great. Steak and potatoes that night...
Oh no! I feel your pain on that, given my allergy to a range of fruits, as I'm allergic to tree fruit, so when I see dessert menus with peaches, plums, apples, pears, plums and cherries in, my heart sinks.
I totally love Minnie's outfit, and would even love a coat like that for me. I agree that Mickey would look much better matching her Eskimo outfit. What an awesome massage! So neat to have the Rainforest to yourselves. Luke would have been so excited to see that train.
Thursday 3 September – part three: sailing over to Haines
Just before midday, we headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet as it was due to open at midday, but when we got there, it was clear it had been open sometime earlier. We headed in and piled our plates high. I really do prefer it when the crew members do it for you. I’m sure they would be able to fit it all much more gracefully than I can. Thankfully, a crew member saw me finish the lane and grabbed my tray to help me out, given I was carrying my rucksack and waterproof coat.
I have to say the food was really good and, in some respects, better than some of the meals we’ve had in the main restaurants so far, which is saying something. The crab cakes were a little spicy for me, but the cod was just perfect and the vegetable lasagne was excellent. The desserts were a little more unpredictable. The chocolate mousse I had (which really didn’t look like one at all ) was amazing, but the choux buns needed a hammer to cut through them and needless to say, they weren’t good.
Once we were done eating, we made our way down to Wavebands which was our meeting point for our tour.
We got our stickers and a few minutes later, we were escorted off the boat…
We were taken to an old brown bus and met Susan, who was a lovely old lady, probably in her 60s or 70s. She drove us over to the boat dock to get the ferry over to Haines. In truth, if we had been in one of the other ships, we could probably have just walked over, as they were moored right next door, but then again, we were right by the helicopters.
We got some glimpses of Skagway on the way and it brought back fun memories of our last visit here when we’d spent a fun couple of hours exploring the town with Sue and Steve.
There was no boat to be seen when we arrived at the dock, so Susan kept us on the bus, chatting to us about what we would be seeing today and it did sound amazing. The ferry was soon in, and we set off. It’s just as well she had kept us on the bus, as the sun was really blazing down and I thought that perhaps I had been a bit rash not to bring the sunscreen out with me.
When we boarded the ferry, the downstairs was totally empty and only about 10 other people joined us down there. I guess the top deck was probably heaving, but we were fine. We snagged a seat by a window and opened it up, so I could get some photos.
The ferry ride took about 45 minutes over a glacial lake from Skagway to Haines. Our guide explained that there are tides every six hours and the difference in water level can be up to 24 feet. Apparently, today it would around 18 feet. Well, that certainly explains why there was such a steep ramp first thing today from the Wonder, but a few hours later, we noticed that it was a lot closer to the dock.
He also told us how the lake is up to 1,400 metres deep and how Haines is the home to the state run Alaskan ferry. 30 of the 33 communities in southeast Alaska can only be only be reached by boat or airplane, and boat is pretty much the way to go for most people. It doesn’t even bear thinking about.
We were told that the food order arrives in Haines on a Saturday and by Thursday morning, many things can already be gone. I can’t begin to imagine living like that.
It is hard to imagine living like Alaskans, isn't it? Our Skagway guide said people line up the day some of the grocery deliveries come in, to ensure they get certain things. We had table mates from Alaska on one of our Caribbean cruises and they talked about driving over 100 miles to get to a grocery store.
The crab on the buffet looked good! When we lived in Alaska many years ago, we lived in Farbanks so it was a bit easier to get to than that. However the cost of groceries was through the roof.
It is hard to imagine living like Alaskans, isn't it? Our Skagway guide said people line up the day some of the grocery deliveries come in, to ensure they get certain things. We had table mates from Alaska on one of our Caribbean cruises and they talked about driving over 100 miles to get to a grocery store.
The crab on the buffet looked good! When we lived in Alaska many years ago, we lived in Farbanks so it was a bit easier to get to than that. However the cost of groceries was through the roof.
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Happy to hear the food was yummy at the buffet! Always lots to choose from, so that's not bad going.
The beautiful weather continues to impress. Gorgeous!!
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Happy to hear the food was yummy at the buffet! Always lots to choose from, so that's not bad going.
The beautiful weather continues to impress. Gorgeous!!
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What an awesome massage! 
So neat to have the Rainforest to yourselves. Luke would have been so excited to see that train. 
Thankfully, a crew member saw me finish the lane and grabbed my tray to help me out, given I was carrying my rucksack and waterproof coat. 
The crab cakes were a little spicy for me, but the cod was just perfect and the vegetable lasagne was excellent. 
) was amazing, but the choux buns needed a hammer to cut through them and needless to say, they weren’t good. 
Apparently, today it would around 18 feet. Well, that certainly explains why there was such a steep ramp first thing today from the Wonder, but a few hours later, we noticed that it was a lot closer to the dock. 
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