Passing through the Panama Canal - a Passporter's Tale **Updated 8/21** - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 glad you guys are having a great time!! My boss is on the cruise with Deb (Hi Beci! ) and it sounds like a fabulous trip. Glad you and Lesley are enjoying it! I can't wait to hear about the Zipline tour as that is on my personal "to do" list as well.
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We pulled out of Aruba last night at 6pm headed due west for the Canal. We supposedly arrive in Colon tonight around 11pm and drop anchor until the morning - I think we enter the locks about 8am - and I plan to be up and on deck to see it. The morning workout will have to wait!! It will take us about 8 hours to transit the complete canal.
This morning I was up earlier than usual - since we set our clocks back 1 hour - we are now on central time (hey all you central folks) - this will last until we leave the canal (I think). But as a result - the sun was up at 515am and I was awake at 615. I headed up to the gym for 50 minutes of cardio - 35 elliptical and 15 treadmill. Lesley is at her villa spa time this morning - so I am solo. I decided to take a bit of offline time, write this - send it, download photos from the camera, shower, breakfast, etc, etc.
Yesterday was a great day in Aruba. I started with my excursion - I thought it was just kayaking... nope. It was snorkeling and kayaking... and of course - my personal mask and snorkel were back in my room, under my bed. Oh well - I used the ones they provided. The guides were telling everyone how beautiful the reef was - but I saw a former elkhorn and staghorn forest now rubble covered in fire coral (sometimes a little knowledge is a bad thing - I kept this info to myself). Then we snorkeled over the top of the break into about 40+ feet of water where there were large (very large by Florida standards) boulder corals and then we went out to the drop off (everyone remember the drop-off from Finding Nemo?) where the volcano drops to 200 feet on the way to 900 feet before climbing back up to Venezuela.I saw squid mating, some long spined black sea urchins as well as the group played with a brittle star. After snorkeling - we headed back to the beach/mangrove park and got our open top sea kayaks and set off for a 2 mile kayak - luckily it was one way with the wind to our backs. Aruba has a constant easterly wind - so it would have been hard to go another way. We did a point to point kayak trip - and learned a bit about the island. It was a wonderful morning.
I came back to the ship, showered, changed and decided to head out into port for a bit to take some photos and maybe get some lunch. I ran into another PP - LaurieP - who was also shopping and tagged along with her. I ended up getting gifts for some folks - and grabbed lunch at Iguana Joes (ok not exactly local - but it worked). We came back to the ship about 3pm and I opted for pool and Rainforest time and was up on deck at 6pm when we sailed away from Aruba. I think I could handle a return visit to Aruba. It is a beautiful location. Arid and desert-esque - not what you expect from a tropical Island.
Dinner last night was tropical themed - followed by a tropical deck party - most of which I opted out of - I wasn't feeling all that hot. I did do the limbo at dinner - and there is the required goofy picture (thanks to our assistant server Gabriella) that I usually manage to avoid by being behind the camera... oh well - it's on my camera and I don't know if it will EVER be posted.
Plans for today -
Gym - check
shower, breakfast
11am - second half of a talk about the Panama Canal by a former PC pilot (and USACE dredge captain - who knew?)
12 - "The Art of Entertaining" -table service
After that - lunch and who knows what..... haven't gotten that far yet.
Ok - that's it for now - I am going to log on - send this, download email and get right off (saving those expensive internet minutes).
That was an awesome day in Aruba snorkeling, kayaking and shopping!
I'd love to see that goofy picture.
Have a great time traversing the Panama Canal tomorrow.
Wow, what a wonderful day! I was looking at that kayak/snorkel trip but have never been in a kayak before.
I hope the picture sees the light of day, or at least the light of the Passporter's forum!
More please! I can't wait to hear all about the canal passage! Thanks for sharing!
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) and it sounds like a fabulous trip. Glad you and Lesley are enjoying it! I can't wait to hear about the Zipline tour as that is on my personal "to do" list as well. 
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