The Holi-Canoli! Whirlwind Trip That Wasn't Supposed to Be - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Would Love to try that coaster!!! I remember the flume ride from High School some 24 years ago. We did get soaked though, but that was because the guys we rode with brought on the empty cups from lunch and were scooping the water and dumping it on us girls. Boys!!
And Oh My...the cakes!! They look FAB-U-LOUS. Could be because I just dumped my entire salad on the floor of my office.
Gonna have to get to BG at some point with the boys.
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Like I said before, I always like Skyride type rides. I like the bird's eye point of view. The only thing I don't like is being suspended above the ground by a wire. Yikes! And I certainly don't like it if it sways. But, I ride it anyway because I like the view.
This is Kumba, the fantastic coaster we had just ridden.
Victoria not really wanting me to take a picture ~
The coaster you see here is called Cheetah Chase. We never rode it. It is like the Primevil Whirl without all the spinning. The building behind it is the Timbuktu Theatre.
(War Eagle!)
Another Skyride car and the wooden coaster in the background is the first coaster we rode - Gwazi.
And, the coaster that had me a little scared, SheiKra. You can see the drop that plummets straight down! A car is going up in the first picture and is about to start hanging in the second picture. FUN!
We got off the Skyride in Egypt with the intent of riding Montu which is a coaster off by its lonesome in Egypt. You walk to it and then walk no further. You have to turn around and go back. It's in a strange location in my opinion. This picture cracks me up! Can you see Victoria?
Montu ~ Once again, another fantastic roller coaster. The coasters do not disappoint.
In Egypt, they had a special, limited time attraction called Tut's Tomb. You walked in and saw what archeologists saw when they found King Tut's tomb. It was neat.
We left Egypt and made our way to Nairobi. These plants are actually set up as a sun dial. It was so pretty!
There was a tortoise habitat in Nairobi. I'm not quite sure what this big tortoise was doing to this little one. At first, I thought he was trying to climb over the little one. But then, I started wondering if something else was going on. The little one looks scared! His head completely disappeared.
A lone tortoise minding his own business...
Crocodiles!
Rhino ~
My favorite ~ Elephants! We got here just in time to see a feeding demonstration, and we were introduced to the elephants. They were so sweet. I loved watching them.
We left Nairobi and walked to Timbuktu.
The Scorpion coaster was on our list of must-do rides. It was another very nice ride.
After Scorpion, we went to the Timbuktu Theatre to see the 4D show, Pirates. It was cute. It doesn't compare to Disney's 4D shows.
We left the theatre and walked back to Nairobi to catch the train. The train is one of the best features at BG Tampa. It takes you on a tour of the Serengeti Plain where you can see many animals. I had been looking forward to this all day.
I will be back in a little bit with more. I have to upload and resize the pictures.
We had a little wait for a train. We were all getting pretty tired at this point, I think mainly due to the heat. We were going to enjoy getting sit down and ride for a while.
The train arrived....
and we boarded and were on our way. For some reason I like this picture of the “plain” and the Skyride.
Hanging out the train...
Giraffes!
I don’t remember what these are. Gazelle?
Montu!
I love the giraffes! They are beautiful animals.
You can pay to have a tour of the Serengeti Plain where you drive onto the plain itself. We didn’t have to do that. We can do that at AK for FREE!
At the San Diego Zoo, we learned that these animals are on the lookout. They normally are surrounding a baby, and there are four of them - one facing North, one facing South, one facing East, one facing West. Since there are just three here and no baby, I figured they were just on the lookout.
Rhinos and ostriches ~
The Skyride and SheiKra ~
A long-horned something or other.
Three tired, hot and sweaty people.
We got off the train and were feeling a wee bit hungry for some dinner. We got off the train in Stanleyville. We didn’t ride it all the way around the entire park. So, to travel from the Nairobi train station to the Stanleyville train station took 30 minutes. It was a nice ride.
Stanleyville is home of SheiKra, just in case you had forgotten. Let’s take a look at SheiKra again. The hang...
The drop...
A turn...
Another turn...
Through a “cave”...
And here is the big splash at the end.
AWESOME!!!
After watching SheiKra again, we went to the Zambia Smokehouse to rustle up some grub.
They had a very nice selection. I got the Beef Brisket Wrap with coleslaw and strawberry shortcake for dessert. You can just see my shortcake in the left corner.
Michael got the Sampler Platter (chicken, ribs and beef brisket), fries and apple cobbler for dessert.
Victoria got the Smoked Chicken Platter, fries and chocolate truffle cake for dessert.
Michael had seen the pumpkin cheesecake in the queue, so he got one of those, too, after he had eaten everything else.
Filled to the brim, we left the smokehouse and were ready to go home. Here is the Log Flume once again.
We visited some animals along the way.
A pretty fountain...
Crocs and turtles...
As we walked in the parking lot, we could see Montu. I snapped a couple of pictures. The park closed at 6 p.m., and that is when I took my final picture.
We went home. The traffic wasn’t too bad. We played Wii that evening, and I didn’t have to cook thanks to the eat all day dining deal I had gotten us at BG. I would definitely do that again.
really love and appreciate all your pictures, it's like reliving the experience again. My daughter and i also went on all the coasters, they're pretty scary, i surprised myself by going on all of them
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