North to Alaska on the Wonder--August 9-16 - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Cheryl, I was thinking the same thing when I read you were considering that excursion! And you should be fine in your tennis shoes. Most people wore them, but Dave needs a little extra traction and support.
__________________
**Meg**
Upcoming Trips:
2/16--Girl's Cruise on the Magic
7/2017--Sophie's 7th Birthday Blowout at AKV
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.
Dave and I slept in bit and then headed up to our favorite breakfast place: Beach Blanket Buffet. We could feel a bit more movement in the ship that morning, but again, nothing that bothered us. Neither one of us experienced any seasickness during the cruise.
After breakfast, I alternated between starting some half-hearted packing and hanging out on the verandah, soaking in the last day of amazing scenery. We had fun watching Cruise Director Clayton’s disembarkation video. He was very funny!
We then went to the Buena Vista Theatre to hear a presentation about bears in Alaska. We got a lot of really interesting information from that. For example, coastal brown bears and grizzly bears are the same bear, but they are only called grizzly bears in the interior of Alaska and the coastal brown bears have darker coats due to all the salmon they eat.
We split up after the presentation. I headed off to a trivia contest and Dave went back to the room to take a rest.
On the way to the contest, I saw that Belle was in the atrium taking pictures with people. I ran downstairs, but by the time I got there, she was on her last family. But I asked the CM if I could just say hello to Belle when se was done and the handler said that was fine. The CM said, “Belle, there is someone here to say hello to you.” Belle turned around and said, “ Oh! It’s you!” and she came right over and gave me another hug. Then she said, “Have you been enjoying reading on the cruise?” and I had to tell her that I hadn’t had time, because I was having so much fun and I was so tired at the end of the day. She laughed and said, “Well, you can always read when you get home!” and then she gave me another hug and headed up the stairs. I Belle!
I did OK at the trivia contest, I got 123 out of 200. The winner got 173 out of 200. David, the trivia guy, would give you the line from a movie and you had to name the movie AND the actor. It was HARD!
Then I went back to the room and Dave and I went to lunch, back to the Beach Blanket Buffet. (Can you tell we really liked that place?) We had a really good lunch, they had a halibut filet on the buffet line that was scrumptious!
We headed down for one last look at the shops and a bought some Christmas ornaments. Then it was back to our room for more packing and scenery watching. We considered going to the future cruises desk, but we know that we would not be able to cruise again for perhaps 5 years, so we did not want to reservations this early out. Then more verandah time!
We went to our last dinner at Triton’s and really enjoyed it. Dave had the lamb and I had the steak, both were fantastic. It was kind of sad saying goodbye to Arturo and Olivia, our servers. We were going to miss them! It was nice to know that we would get to see them the next day a breakfast for one last goodbye.
(Olivia, from Spain. Our assistant server).
(Arturo, from the Philippines. Our server. Pictured with Dave.)
After dinner, we went to our first show! We saw Disney Dreams and it was wonderful! I really enjoyed it, and so did Dave. I was fascinated with how they misdirected your attention so that performers could change costumes or get ready to fly. It was terribly clever. (As a former theatre teacher, I appreciate things like that!)
Then back to the room, for the last minute packing and weighing of bags and we put our bags outside our door for pickup. Then it was lights out, since we were getting up early to breakfast prior to disembarking the ship.
Up next: Our last day in Vancouver
__________________
**Meg**
Upcoming Trips:
2/16--Girl's Cruise on the Magic
7/2017--Sophie's 7th Birthday Blowout at AKV
It sounds like you guys had a wonderful time! I love all of the scenery pictures, especially the ones you managed to get of the whales. This cruise is going on the bucket list!
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.
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.
Thank you for sharing this report! I loved it! You have me looking forward to an Alaskan cruise my husband & I will be taking in August - our first cruise
OK, I know this report is a few years old now, but I just read the whole thing. We sail this summer, July 6, and I'm reading anything I can to pass the time (although it isn't working). Wishing there were lots more Alaska TR's....
Your information about Vancouver was so helpful! We will be there from July 1 to July 6, and it sounds like it will be easy to do the agenda I have planned. In addition to the places you went, we're planning to go to Grouse Mountain (where I may zipline with the kids) and Capilano Suspension Bridge.
Thanks again for sharing your report!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Belle!
PassPorter Guide Author
Linear Mode
