A 40th celebration to end the world! THREAD 2 COMPLETE AGAIN 4/27 - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great sightings out on the Savanah around the Lodge I can't wait to show your pics to Lucille and have a funny feeling we'll end up spending more time just seeing what is there at AKL if she can check out all the animals than I had planned for
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Fantastic photos of the beautiful lodge and all the animal activity! I only book AKL when I can make it a priority to spend a lot of time at the resort. As you say, there's too much going on to leave!
Your pictures from the 5th floor are beautiful! And the animal activity is really amazing! Is it just me or does anyone else think that flamingos look beautful from far away, but up close...not so much!
Your pictures from the 5th floor are beautiful! And the animal activity is really amazing! Is it just me or does anyone else think that flamingos look beautful from far away, but up close...not so much!
Wednesday 12 December – part three: how can I leave with this going on?
As I headed for the Mara, I felt a few spots of rain, but it never came to anything. I was very disappointed in the Mara’s selection. Where were all those unique items that they used to have from Boma? I used to love coming in here for those. What a shame to see those gone… I picked up some fruit, and some celery, and carrots with ranch dressing, and refilled our mug.
Then I headed back inside, stopping in Boma…
… and then heading up to the Victoria Falls Lounge.
From there, it was back to the lobby, and the Zawadi Marketplace. They had some nice stuff in there.
I grabbed some potato chips, and headed back into the lobby. It was about 1:40pm by now, and I figured that the luggage wouldn’t have made it yet, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask, so I did, and lo and behold, it had made it!
I headed back to the room, and discovered Mark had had a visitor while I’d been gone, guest relations with our DVD. No, we had no idea either… A few minutes later, bell services arrived with the luggage.
I decided that, as Mark still wasn’t feeling too good, it was time to head out to the parks. I know it sounds mean, but he was in the best place, and there wasn’t much I could do to help him. However, it was very hard to leave the room, as I just kept seeing more and more interaction out on the savannah. Honestly, in all our stays here, I’ve never seen so much wonderful activity out there.
I'm so enjoying this trip report and as usual all your wonderful pictures.
Completely OT, I watched an episode of Midsomer Murders last night and the opening scene was a donkey sanctuary. I knew what it was right away and immediately thought of you. In the show it was called Juggs Wood Donkey Sanctuary. Is that a real one or made up? They showed the donkeys several times.
Your photos are making me put a leisurely visit to AKV on my short list. I can easily see spending a couple of days there without needing to go anywhere else.
Nice job with the restaurant photos as well.
(I'm interested in the Donkey Sanctuary question too - we've seen all the episodes of MM )