Holy Great Movie Ride (April 5 - 10)! TR Begins - COMPLETE!! 6/8 - Page 27 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 used to always eat at Pecos Bills...BBQ Pork, YUM...but I can't remember the last time we did. Now it's going to have to get on the list. And yeah!! That pedal is darn hard to push down!
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Great updates and pics! I am so jealous that you got two awesome captains in a row for the Jungle Cruise. I keep riding it in hopes of getting one of the really funny ones, but I only seem to get mediocre ones at best.
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.
I read about the cream cheese pretzel in one of your TRs from last year, so when we went last December we had to try them. They were awesome! We ended up getting them twice and my DH was mad when we went back the second time and they were out. He made it his mission to come back until they finally had some ready.
Looking forward to more!
__________________
A dream is a wish your heart makes...
Katherine
Last edited by WishandDream; 05-24-2010 at 02:46 PM..
Our Thursday morning started with the usual wake up call around 7:30. Andy got up and showered while I laid in bed a few more minutes. I have to have a few minutes of laying there with the TV on to get moving in the mornings. I’m weird, I know. After a bit of the Must-Do’s on TV I got up and got ready, only to realize while I was getting ready, “Oh crap, I forgot the AK opened at 8 every morning this week” Oops. Oh well. We’d get there when we got there. We were out the door and on a bus very shortly after 8 and headed into the park before 9 so I wasn’t too worried. We did our usual FP EE and hop in line deal and then we made our way over to Africa, stopping for a photo along the way…
We were able to get in line for the Safari and be on a truck fairly quickly, but the bad thing was we were in the backity back, which made for a very BUMPY ride. I got a couple photos along the way though (one of which I posted on the photoblog yesterday).
I love how this guy is like playing peek a boo or something. Be sure to check out the blog for the other giraffe photo. It’s one of my favorites.. it’s just funny I think.
We decided to mix things up a bit and because our time to get another FP was so close we decided to grab breakfast and then get a FP for the Safari to ride later in the day, which is something we’ve never done (ride twice and later in the morning).
We grabbed some pastries from the Kusafiri Bakery and ate in the Tusker House outside area. I took a couple photos while Andy was in line ordering our pastries.. one of them I posted on the blog a couple weeks ago, showing Harambe.. And this one I just liked because I love the attention to detail.
After we ate we went and got our Safari FPs and then walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. We actually got to see this guy’s front end as opposed to his rear end which we usually only see…
He kind of creeped me out… I guess that’s why he shows us his backside so much, it’s his better side…
We took some time to birdwatch a bit… Then we moved on through and stood for quite sometime with my buddies the Meerkats…
This guy was doing a great impersonation of my Mittens kitty.
Next up was the gorilla section, and again, I could stand out there and watch those guys all morning. They are so fascinating, breathtaking, and downright scary at times. This guy was chillin’
I have another one that I love that I posted on the photoblog as well as here on the boards in the photo archive. He caught me taking his photo and totally posed. If you check out the Animal Kingdom section of my blog you’ll see it.
Once we made our way out of the trail our time for the Safari had arrived. (Not a lot of waiting going on at the AK this morning, can ya tell?)
Let me tell you, this was one Safari I will NEVER forget. The driver we had… Andy said he was definitely a graduate of the Jungle Cruise academy. He was so dry in his humor and it was hilarious. And he drove like a bat of you know where. Insane!
As we turned the corner where the rhinos are, we had to stop for a few minutes, and at the time we weren’t sure why, but later in the safari we discovered the culprit. One of the new tours that are available to any concierge guest was out on the trail in their sweet open air van. Jealous? Me? Never! (yeah right…..)
Anyway, while we sat there I took a photo of this guy who was checking us out..
And we got some shots of sleeping beauty…
Andy gets credit for that one because he was on that side of the truck.
Meanwhile, the kid in front of us was totally sporting his pop gun rifle that he’d purchased (where the heck did he get that? Do they sell those at the AK? Are they crazy? It’s about preservation!) So he’s aiming this thing left and right and the next thing you know, our driver, who had a fabulous Indian accent, says to him something like please don’t shoot the animals, we’re about preserving the animals. Shoot the poachers
Finally we were moving again, and he was definitely giving it some gas, because we were bouncing all through the savanna. The elephant area proved to be quite a forum for our driver’s sense of humor. One of the male elephants was having a moment, if you know what I mean, and it was all out there for God and everybody to see. (well everybody but me, because I totally was looking in the wrong direction….not that I’m sorry about this…) and everybody was cracking up and I guess to deflate the situation our driver made a comment about how it was a Male elephant as you could obviously tell….It was quite a moment on the Safari… and I’m sure it was one of those you just had to be there moments… but we laughed all day about it.
We spotted the white rhinos taking a snooze..
And when we got to the lions we had to stop again so the tour could back it up beside the rock, up close and personal, with the lions. Next thing we know, we hear some weird noise come from that van, and the lion’s head popped up like shot! Obviously the tour van people were guaranteed a lion viewing…
Once this crazy safari was over we made our way over towards Asia to use our FPs for EE but the ride was down at the moment and they weren’t sure when it would be up and running again so we opted to go to the Yak and Yeti bar for a drink to cool off and relax a bit. A picture along the way…
And the fabulously refreshing Yak Attack
And the bar at the Yak and Yeti
Well folks, the plan had been to eat at Flame Tree, but once you take an Andy Loflin into a Yak and Yeti, there’s no escaping without food. So we decided to order a couple appetizers and eat at the bar. We ordered the dim sum basket (oh how I love that thing) and Andy had a bowl of rice to go with it. I know there’s a good number of folks who just don’t like Yak and Yeti, and that makes me sad. We think it’s fantastic and we think said folks should give it another try. After lunch we went to check in EE again. It had just started back up and there was a line to Kalamazoo (well actually, almost to the bridge leading to Nemo) for FPs. We hopped in line and it was moving very quickly seeing as it had just started back up. We were in our beloved back car before we knew it. In the FP line.
After EE we were feeling pretty sweaty and ready to rest so we made our way towards the exits. Along the way we stopped to chat with the birds…
There’s a very up close and personal shot of this fella on the blog, again in the Animal Kingdom section.
And this guy was going to town cleaning himself..
Andy absolutely loves those birds so he always insists on going through the little cave to the little swinging bridge beside the macaws…
All in all, a good, animal based morning at the Animal Kingdom was complete, and we were on a bus back to Pop to rest and relax by the pool!
Another great update!! What a wonderful morning at AK!!! And DH & I are just the opposite of you & Andy, we've only eaten at Flame Tree which is ......so we've never given anywhere else a chance!! Maybe someday we'll get to try Y&Y!!!
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Now it's going to have to get on the list. And yeah!! That pedal is darn hard to push down!
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We ended up getting them twice and my DH was mad when we went back the second time and they were out. He made it his mission to come back until they finally had some ready.
Deb
Oops. Oh well. We’d get there when we got there. We were out the door and on a bus very shortly after 8 and headed into the park before 9 so I wasn’t too worried. We did our usual FP EE and hop in line deal and then we made our way over to Africa, stopping for a photo along the way…
Susan
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