A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 47 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Just got caught up with your last few updates! Your couples spa treatment for Mark's Birthday sounded wonderful! It's so nice that they served you fruit and tea during the experience. Although the price sounded expensive, it was probably comparable to other cruises and it was Mark's 50th Birthday celebration so it was suppose to be something very special!
Well, that was my logic. Just so long as I get something just as special for my 50th birthday.
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Your tour sounds quite interesting and it was so great that you got such a wonderful guide. What was the temperature like outside on this day as it looked quite damp out?
It's always damp in Ketchikan - at least that's my view from our two visits there, as they always seem to have rain in the air, even if it's not actually raining. I have it in my notes that it was in the low 50s.
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Saturday 5 September – part four: are we going to see any bears?
I have to be honest, fascinating as the forest was, I think a lot of people were getting disappointed at the lack of wildlife sightings. I was looking forward to eagle sightings, but DJ told us that, with the amount of seagulls around, we wouldn’t see one. Apparently both the gulls and the eagles go for dead salmon, and as there were loads of gulls, they were scooping up all the dead salmon, so the eagles wouldn’t bother with what was left.
People kept asking about bears as well, although I was less concerned about that, given we’d already seen quite a few over the years. DJ showed us a bear claw, which was very neat. I have to confess I didn’t ask how she got hold of it…
Our next stop was the salmon hatchery, and it was fascinating to see it at work…
What was also fascinating to see were all the seagulls, launching themselves on any dead salmon they came across:
I am no fan of seagulls, given that I’ve worked on the coast, but at least here, I could see them at work, rather than just squawking around.
DJ noticed that there seemed to be quite a gathering further along the walkway where we’d just come from, and she radioed Maddie. Sure enough, a bear had been sighted down there. However, just as we were about to set off that way, someone noticed that we had a bear of our own just ahead of us. We quietly made our way over to a better viewing spot, although some of our group did start acting like kids at this point, and shouting in excitement, and DJ had to tell them to stay quiet and move slowly if they didn’t want to scare the bear away. Remember this…
She reckoned he was a juvenile, about two or three years old, who’d only recently been kicked out by his mother. From what we saw of him, he didn’t seem to be doing too badly.
He obviously decided that he didn’t want to eat his fish in front of us, and set off…
Now this is the point where some of the adults in our group started to act like kids again. They were literally running over to get a better view of the bear. Of course, the bear responded by running off himself. Oh well, at least we’d already seen some wonderful bear activity before these idiots scared the poor thing off.
Once he’d disappeared, we headed off towards the old saw mill.
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I hate it when people are stupid. It just ruins it for the rest of us! At least you got some amazing photos of the bear though!
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A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure UPDATED ...
The spa looked Heavenly. We like to do them on land but have never done them at sea - might have to rectify that.
The Pacific Northwest has a ton of moss but I see what you mean about the way it is draped on the trees - reminiscent of the Spanish moss in the South.
Love the bear sightings with their catch - now that I haven't seen.
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The spa looked Heavenly. We like to do them on land but have never done them at sea - might have to rectify that.
Oh you should, it's a great experience.
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The Pacific Northwest has a ton of moss but I see what you mean about the way it is draped on the trees - reminiscent of the Spanish moss in the South.
Love the bear sightings with their catch - now that I haven't seen.
I don't think I've seen many photos (outside of nature documentaries etc.) of it now you say it...
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What a wonderful morning at the spa!! Great pictures from your nature walk. I'm glad you were able to get some shots of the bears before people in your group chased him off.
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It's so nice that they served you fruit and tea during the experience. Although the price sounded expensive, it was probably comparable to other cruises and it was Mark's 50th Birthday celebration so it was suppose to be something very special!
What was the temperature like outside on this day as it looked quite damp out?
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Oh well, at least we’d already seen some wonderful bear activity before these idiots scared the poor thing off. 
Looking forward to more photos!
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