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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It kind of snuck up on me that it was almost time to book for Christmas next year at the AKV. This will be our first trip home. It is our home resort so I know I can book at the 11 month mark. The question now is Standard View or Savannah View. I am having a difficult finding a clear answer as to the difference. If it helps I am hopeful to be booking into a 2BR. Any assistance on understanding the difference would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Basically the Savanna View category guarantees you a room that overlooks the savanna and the animals. The Standard View will be a non-savanna view.
At Jambo house there are only a small number of Standard View rooms and they are all over the pool. At Kidani there are more Standard Views. There you could be over the pool or you could just look out on the parking lot.
I would go for the savannah view, for the reasons Tim gave - at Kidani, you could end up overlooking the parking lot and that's not something I'd fancy. :
If you have the points, I would highly recommend the savannah view. There is nothing like having that morning cup of coffee on the balcony while watching giraffes and zebras just feet away!
We had a savanna view over Thanksgiving and my kids couldn't wait to look outside first thing in the morning or when we got back to the room at night (even if it was dark!) to see what animals were out there. We really enjoyed the villa but the animals were like icing on the cake! Hope that helps!
Definitely Savannah! We were in Jambo House right after DVC opened villas there and we LOVED hanging out on the balcony watching the animals. There was one cattle-type animal that actually kept escaping the enclosure, and walking right up to the builing along the first floor. That kept the kids entertained for a long time!
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If you are staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge or Kidani Village, the savannah view is the ONLY way to go! We stayed at Kidani Village last May and had a savannah view. The kids and the in-laws still talk about how amazing it was.
The Savanna view is very nice, but there are nearly two dozen other Disney resorts from which you cannot view animals from your balcony. You can't see a zebra from any BoardWalk, Beach Club or Saratoga Springs balconies, and yet those are still great resorts, IMO.
Booking a Two Bedroom Villa around Christmas it requires about 25-30% more points for a Savanna view compared to a Standard View. That is an awful lot of points, IMO.
If there are young children in the group, I might be more inclined to splurge. But if we're talking about mostly older kids and adults, or kids who are ambivalent about the animals, I'd probably just take the Standard view and use the "savings" for another trip or to add a couple extra days to the stay. There are plenty of public viewing areas to catch a glimpse of the animals.
We booked a standard at AKV and ended up changing to a Savannah view. It was a great choice for us and well worth the points. We were in Jambo house and overlooked the private Savannah. Awesome!
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