Three Adults & a Toddler – 6/7-13/09 - UPDATED 11/20 - Page 47 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Kelly, I am officially all caught up on your TR! Wow, sounds like quite a few busy days. I'm sorry to hear about Dylan getting spooked by Mater, as that picture is adorible of his face though (I'm sorry baby pouts, I can't resisit) and that he wouldn't wake up and was too cranky for you to get back for AKEMH's. Your breakfast at CRT for Becki's B-day looked delicious and how sweet of your server to bring Dylan his own French Toast Sticks. Your tea looked great. If it is in our budget for our trip, I will have to treat my mom to that as you've highly recommended it being great! Thank you again for the recommendation! I'm sorry to hear your adventures to DTD for T-Rex's wasn't the greatest! I'm glad to hear you and Mike had a wonderful dinner at Sanaa for your Anniversary! More please!
What a nice anniversary dinner. I'm a Sanaa fan also. With 3 good choices now at the AKL complex it makes it a very hard decision. It's nice that Sanaa is open for lunch also. Great photos of Kidani.
Okay...caught up. Sorry about the trip to DTD and on such a hot and humid day...UGH. I know that can take a lot out of you. But sooo glad you got a nice evening with your DH. Your dinner at Sanaa sounded amazing!! I love giraffes and we saw one sleeping so close to the resort on a couple of nights.
Ok, so I really need to get this TR done with as I'm leaving in like 48 days to go back and I'll need to start the countdown for that trip like I did for this one.
BUT, since the Sunrise Safari is next and I want to make sure I do it up right (as much as possible anyway) I need to take more time with that update. So I need to go back and watch the video from it so I remember some tidbits for you all. I hope to be back soon! Thank for hanging in there!
ohhhh i cant wait for this update...its the one i've been waiting for Take your time but I cannot believe we are in for another PTR how awesome is that????
I'm hoping to watch the video tonight of the Safari and take notes while watching.
And yes, Crissy - another PTR. I'm closing in on 30 days, which will be 11/8. So I may have 2 going at once for a bit or this one will be a race to the finish.
WARNING!!! If you DO NOT want to know about the Sunrise Safari, DO NOT read this post!!!!
Ok, now on with the show:
We had to get up early today as today was the day for the Sunrise Safari!! I was SO excited about this day. Easily one of the best reasons to stay concierge at AKL. We met in the lobby and waited for everyone to arrive. I believe we headed out to the buses (2) around 7:30am to head for the lodge. Our ‘tour guide’ was the animal curator for the lodge. His name fails me, maybe Shelley can help me out. Oh! That reminds me Shelley (the Pooh) from the boards was also staying concierge and would be on the Sunrise Safari with us – we had tried to meet up earlier, but our schedules just didn’t work out, so we finally got to meet her and her daughter. They were also on the bus with us. Anyway, our guide was fantastic!! He really knew a lot and made some jokes, so it wasn’t all just cramming information down our throats.
We were taken in thru the back entrance (CM) of AK, so no pictures there. We saw the parking lot – across the street, far, far away that the CMs have to park. Further along we saw a little building with bicycles, where we were told another location by the parking lot for the CMs to use to travel back and forth so they don’t have to walk such a long distance. Very interesting. We also learned about a cell tower that was designed to look like a tree to blend in with the rest of the park while you’re in it. Once we got to the entrance we unloaded the buses, our tickets were scanned and we made our way into a back entrance of AK.
It was a short walk and then we were at Kilimanjaro Safaris. We loaded the safari vehicles and we were off! We still had our guide from the bus ride over and he was very informative. This safari was similar to the ones you take when the park is open, only this time you have someone explaining everything to you, giving you tidbits along the way, the ability to ask questions – and get them answered, and the vehicle makes stops and you could stand to get a better view and picture.
I'm excited and ready to go!!
The first animal we came to was the Greater Kudo. We were told that these animals were also over at the lodge, but there was a difference between those here at the safari and those back at the lodge. What’s the difference? Horns. Females are on the safari and males are at the lodge. If I remember correctly it was because they were a little too successful at breeding. Speaking of breeding we were told that Disney does a very good job managing the breeding of all the animals and they are able to track them genetically.
We then saw a Yellow Backed Duiker way back in the foliage (therefore no good pic of one) and learned they were great swimmers.
Next up was a Black Rhino. We were told the main different between Black and White Rhinos were the shape of their lips. The Black Rhino has a triangular shaped lip and uses it to pull leaves off trees and bushes to eat. (The White Rhino has a square shaped lip.)
There were some Black Vultures and Yellow Bill Storks in the area of the Black Rhinos. The vultures feed by sight – so when they see food they eat it – so Disney has to be very creative about feeding animals otherwise the vultures would eat it all. The Yellow Bill Stork feeds by tactile location; the animal keepers created a device the storks could feed out of – a bucket with a plastic ball (like from a ball pit) that floats in order to ‘plug’ the hole where the food is; the storks bills are long enough to get the food out.
Next we saw and heard about another type of antelope, which I’m pretty sure was a Bongo (it was hard to understand on the video). We were informed that they are called the “Ghosts of the Forest” (with a quick stop at Wikipedia saying that they are nocturnal and live deep in the forest) and are an endangered species. This is where zoos come in for conservation. Our guide stated zoos are very controversial, but are good in ways that they preserve animals too. He said no zoo keeper wants to see a caged animal. He said they’ll take an endangered species and rehabilitate them on a reserve where they will have offspring and hopefully the offspring can return to the wild to procreate.
Next up: the Saddle Bill Stork, which gets it name from the markings/color on its bill, Pelicans, and Hippos. The Hippos were another animal that were successful at their breeding and the one, yes one, male had to be separated from the females. Hippos are one of the most dangerous animals, but they don’t eat meat – they’re vegetarians. I believe they are dangerous because people think they’re going to be nice, but they’re very protective animals.
Next we were informed of just how many animal keepers there are. The West Savannah has about 20, the rest of the Savannah has another 20, plus there are keepers covering from 5am to 9/10am (before park opening) and a night crew. Overall there are 200-230 keepers for the animals at AK and AKL/V.
When we reached the Thompson (Tommy) Gazelles, we were about 1 mile from the lodge. Pretty far, but doesn’t feel like it would be that far really. We were informed that the Cheetah was the fastest animal on the savannah with top speeds reaching 65mph, where as the Tommies can reach speeds up to 55mph. You do the math. BUT, the cheetah can only sustain that speed for 3-400 yards where the Tommies can keep their 55mph for a longer time, so in reality the cheetah only succeeds at catching his prey 33% of the time.
The Elands were in the same area as the Tommies. We were informed of that the clicking noise that they make is all about dominance. But it’s caused by muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the joints of their legs, so it’s not like they can really do much of anything about it.
Someone at this point asked about the chain mesh on the trees. This is on the trees to protect the bark, not the animals. Some of the animals rub on the trees and therefore rub the bark off the trees.
Wildebeasts were next, but I don’t think we learned much except for that it was Scar’s fault not the Wildebeasts.
And now for my favorite animal!! The Giraffe!!! There apparently is a debate about whether or not the different markings on giraffes are because they’re different species or what. Our guide told us that he believes it’s more about location than species on why the markings are different. We were informed that giraffes don’t really eat palm trees, but they do. Several palm trees had been planted the day before and the guide was sure that the giraffes would be in that spot the rest of the day eating them – you could see where other trees had been – meaning not much was left but the trunk.
See the palm trees that have already been destroyed by the giraffes?
Next up: the Mandril Monkey. They use color in their face and uh, … bottoms to communicate. When a female is in heat her blood supply increases and therefore makes her derričre more colorful.
We passed a ‘Disney’ Baobob tree, meaning Disney made it as real baobob trees take 800-1000 years to get as big as the ones seen on the safari. These trees are very slow growing and get leaves for a short time. They are very good at preserving water though. Elephants will rub on the trunk for moisture.
Speaking of Elephants, they were up next. There are 3 Elephant exhibits. We didn’t learn too much else about them. I think we were running behind a bit and kind of had to hurry through the end. Oh well.
We also saw the Ankole Cattle. We were told that they were the oldest domesticated animals and the only ones domesticated animals at AK. Someone asked about the Ankole at the lodge that tilts his head. We were told that he had a bad ear infection and now has equilibrium problems and that’s why his head is tilted. Poor guy – I know how he feels –probably like I do after flying. But our guide said other than his head tilt he has no other side effects.
We quickly went by the Hidden Mickey / Flamingo Island and then saw the White Rhinos – where one trotted right by our vehicle. We learned that the reason the lions are almost always asleep is because that’s pretty much what they do – even in the wild. They mainly wake to hunt, but since they don’t have to do that, they sleep.
After our safari we got off, which are strollers were right there. Very nice valet service!!! I only wish it was like that all the time. And headed to Pizzafari for our buffet breakfast through a now open and getting full park.
We made it to Pizzafari together were seated at our table – they were assigned for us, and then the chef came out to explain what we’d be having. Sorry, I forgot to take pics, but it was DELICIOUS. I think this was the first time I had plantains and they were quite good.
Once Dylan was done eating he made friends with Shelley and her daughter Stephanie who were at a table near us. He was very friendly that day and just went right up to them and I think even sat in one or both of their laps. Soon we were all done and decide to go about our day. I stopped to give our guide one of the CM appreciation cards and I think he was very happy with it.
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