Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Could you do a weekend a month for volunteering? It is a bit of a drive, but if you were just doing it every few weeks, maybe it’s workable? But I guess you visit frequently enough to get your Donkey fix!
We do and it's not a nice journey. You have to go past Stonehenge, which invariably has horrible traffic jams, plus the hotels around Sidmouth aren't cheap, so sadly it's not really an option.
Your donkey photos always make me smile. Such cute creatures! The donkey names are wonderful, too.
I love their names too. Most come to the sanctuary with names, although they do name some, if they get them and they've been neglected and never named.
Saturday 31 March – part three: learning about donkey welfare checks
I had no idea what the “tea in the paddock” event was, all I knew was that it was taking place from 11:00am to 3:00pm and, right next to my mini donkeys, there was a huge marquee serving cream teas and with a jazz band. I’m not sure what the donkeys made of the noise.
As we had a list of what was going on and we’d been told all the talks would now be inside, due to the inclement weather, we made our way over there. We caught the end of the working worldwide talk, which was really interesting. I was so pleased to see that one of the people giving the talk was Lynne, who we’ve spoken to many times in the past about the donkeys and she’s always chatty and friendly and she worked perfectly doing this as well.
This was the first time we’d been inside the Donkey Assisted Therapy Centre, as usually it’s closed and only open for the work they do with children. I understand them not opening to the public during those sessions, but I did say that I hoped they’d continue to open it up whenever they could, as it was fascinating to get a glimpse inside here.
It wasn’t that easy for me, as I had to park the scooter up, as I didn’t think taking it into the area where there was sawdust on the floor was a good plan and of course I can’t stand for long periods at the best of times with my chronic fatigue. Add in an ankle injury and that worsens things, but I did keep getting up to take photos. I couldn’t resist!
The next session was from two vets, all about the regular welfare checks they do on their donkeys and this was so interesting.
They literally check everything you can think of and probably things that had never crossed your minds. It’s not just about hooves and checking for lameness, but they check to see if the donkey’s happy or nervous and they do that by walking all around it. If it’s happy, you should be able to do that easily, and if not, you’ll feel the donkey tightening up – and apparently most at the backend. Of course, the worst affected may even kick you, so it’s not for the faint hearted!
Then they check the jaw and if there are any problems, it may be a visit from the donkey dentist to check on teeth. Apparently, donkeys chew around 50,000 times a day, so this is really important. There are also checks for skin conditions and for things like lice, then you watch them walking around to see how they carry themselves. There was so much to it, way more than I’d ever have thought, so I learnt a lot from this presentation.
It was after this talk that we chatted to the vets and learnt about how Benji’s coping after Gareth’s death.
From there, we headed over to the gift shop to have a look at it, as it’s in a new, much larger space and wow, it’s amazing now!
I’m so pleased with what they’ve done with it. I think it’ll help them to bring in a lot more money. We browsed and I thought about what I wanted to get, but as we’ll be coming back tomorrow, I figured I’d wait until then to actually purchase anything.
My goodness when I first saw the title of this thread yesterday, I had to giggle because over here, welfare checks are a completely different animal (no pun intended ). I pictured the donkeys sitting by the mailbox waiting for a check to come! Glad to hear it is more like a check up for their well being!! :waytgo:
It's amazing how people don't understand that the scooter can literally run you over. And they just stand there like a pylon.
Little man syndrome! They're so dang cute! What an excellent presentation! Lots of great info and insight into what they do. Very cool!
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Tanya
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My goodness when I first saw the title of this thread yesterday, I had to giggle because over here, welfare checks are a completely different animal (no pun intended ). I pictured the donkeys sitting by the mailbox waiting for a check to come! Glad to hear it is more like a check up for their well being!! :waytgo:
Oh my goodness, that's classic! Mind you, I'm sure there are a lot of checks that arrive at the Donkey Sanctuary and they're technically for the donkeys....
I too was thinking the same about your title! That's quite an interesting event with the tea event here and not what I'd expect here! Very interesting with the vets and glad you got to experience this as perfect for you as you learned and got so much out of it!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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The donkey names are wonderful, too. 
We browsed and I thought about what I wanted to get, but as we’ll be coming back tomorrow, I figured I’d wait until then to actually purchase anything. 
). I pictured the donkeys sitting by the mailbox waiting for a check to come! 
Glad to hear it is more like a check up for their well being!! :waytgo:
They're so dang cute! What an excellent presentation! Lots of great info and insight into what they do. Very cool!
That's quite an interesting event with the tea event here and not what I'd expect here! 
Very interesting with the vets and glad you got to experience this as perfect for you as you learned and got so much out of it! 
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