A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - Page 39 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I just had dinner at Chefs last Sunday after the marathon. We had a great time. Service, food , and friendliness were all at the top of their game. You must have just had a bad night for the staff maybe?
I'm glad to hear that it was good when you were there. It won't stop me going back, but I won't be racing back on our next trip....
How great that you were able to meet up with Laurie! I definitely want to see some of the procedures at AK on my next visit... all because of Laurie's TR's!
Love those little rat feet! So cute!!
Last time we were at RPW, my kids spent probably an hour at the petting area, as they were THOROUGHLY entertained by the goats who were all fighting each other! The 16 yo boy especially thought they were great and will still randomly state "goats are awesome"!
That was the problem. There wasn't really a proper ending, because you don't have a reason to be taken off your "two week safari". I found that we were just brought back with no story explanation of why the two weeks ended up. There's just no story at all now, which isn't an issue, but it's just a bit odd at the end with no proper wrap-up.
Our driver made some sort of joke how a 2 week trip was wrapped into 18 minutes. Some of that Disney magic. LOL
Fun meet up with Laurie. Meeting up with new friends is such fun.
Your safari did have lots of animals, but I'm still partial to the giraffes and you got some great pictures of them. I know you all had a great time with Laurie at Rafiki's.
Love those little rat feet! So cute!!
Last time we were at RPW, my kids spent probably an hour at the petting area, as they were THOROUGHLY entertained by the goats who were all fighting each other! The 16 yo boy especially thought they were great and will still randomly state "goats are awesome"!
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Your safari did have lots of animals, but I'm still partial to the giraffes and you got some great pictures of them. I know you all had a great time with Laurie at Rafiki's.
I did actually ask the two Cast Members who were assessing the trainee whether one of them was Stefanie, but they couldn't tell me.
Saturday 8 December – part three: two famous female sightings
Our first stop was the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, where we saw some wonderful sights.
Mark was more patient than me and managed to get a shot of the hippo when he came up for air.
There were no meerkats, because as Laurie explained, they can’t take one away from the group for too long, so because of today’s examination, all the meerkats were off display, and near the one being examined. It was just wonderful to hear all of these extra comments. I did say to her that it was like wandering around Animal Kingdom with our own personal guide and I meant it!
We rounded the corner to the gorillas and were greeted with an amazing sight – Lily playing with her mother. My goodness, it was just wonderful to be able to stand there and watch them playing. It was such a treat to get this lovely glimpse into their everyday lives.
There was nowhere near as much excitement everywhere else, with the males not doing much. I felt really sorry for them, after learning that they’ll live a solitary life, as they’re part of a blood line that’s done a lot of breeding, and they don’t want to inter-breed.
When we came out of there, we headed down to see the kangaroos, getting some photos on the way…
When we got to the kangaroos, I was delighted to see Rhonda back out there, and eating pretty well. It was a very cool moment.