A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 1 COMPLETED 2/16 - Page 37 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Ok, I have to ask: So they changed the ending to the safari? I am so glad to hear that as I didn't like the Little Red story AT ALL (especially after having been on it numerous times...). Do they simply end the tour as if you'd been on the safari "for two weeks", then?
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.
Glad you got to see the kangaroo. I didn't even know there was one there. I'm wondering how much the drivers are trained on all the animals. We had sat in the front seat and I asked the driver if the giraffes were babies. She simply replied "No" and never said another word on the topic.
Oh wow! That's something I've never seen before for myself, so that really surprises me....
The picture with Simba is soooooo darling! You really had a good stroke of luck (or just experienced Photopass photogs) as your Photopasses so far from your trip are all excellent!
Trust me, we had some not-so-good photos too... I'm only sharing the best ones!
Great Photopass pics, you and Mark always look so happy together. I'm glad there is a change to the safari because I was getting tired of the storyline, but it sounds like people are left a little empty handed at the end of the ride with no wrap up.
I'm behind again and trying to catch up.
Love the Cars section of Art of Animation Resort! Very well done! Your PP pictures on the bridge to France are great.
Saturday 8 December – part two: woodrats, donkeys and one famous mandrill!
The safari took ages, as there were so many animals, so the truck in front of us kept stopping all the time, which made us late for Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We headed over to the train station and had about a 10 minute wait before a train finally showed up.
Soon we were on our way, and had some great views of the backstage area, and also some of the animals, which we’ve not seen in the past.
As soon as we arrived, I headed straight for the operations area, which was really busy. I had to ask some people to move aside, so I could get to my friend, and that’s what Laurie already felt like to me, even though we were only just meeting for the first time.
We settled down to watch the work being done on the Key Largo woodrat, which was fascinating, although I couldn’t bear to watch when they got the needles out. It was amazing to be there with Laurie and watch it through her eyes. It was her trip reports that convinced me we needed to go back to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, as there were so many wonderful things happening up there.
After they finished the examination, they were going to do a second one, which was a shame, as it pushed back the meerkat examination, which I’d love to have seen. Sadly, we figured that would be starting just as we needed to leave for lunch, so we decided to cut and run.
We wandered through the rest of the area, seeing this quite lively tortoise!
Then Rafiki wandered out, and we were first in line to see him.
We headed outside and into the petting zoo, where we saw donkeys …
… one of whom was very vocal!
We also saw sheep, goats, and pigs, but sadly no cows in here.
That done, we headed back to the entrance, where I got a snack. I was attracted by a Mickey bar, but when I saw they now have Haagen Dazs, that won over for me.
As soon as I finished, we headed back to the train station, and lucked out, as a train was just coming into the station.
When we got back to Harambe, we couldn’t believe how many people were waiting for it. It was like one of the busiest weeks of the year, yet Animal Kingdom was pretty deserted too. It was pretty odd.
I can't believe you're already 37 pages in, and I didn't even know this thing had gotten started. When I clicked on the TR link in your siggy it kept taking me back to the PTR. Anyway, I'm going back to read everything I've missed, and it looks like it's going to take me a while.
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That's something I've never seen before for myself, so that really surprises me....
! Great Safari Pictures!!
<--- Disney Fantasy 2016!
It was amazing to be there with Laurie and watch it through her eyes. It was her trip reports that convinced me we needed to go back to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, as there were so many wonderful things happening up there. 
Sadly, we figured that would be starting just as we needed to leave for lunch, so we decided to cut and run. 
Anyway, I'm going back to read everything I've missed, and it looks like it's going to take me a while. 
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