Celebrating the holidays and hogmanay COMPLETED 2/25 - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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A nice start to your day at the zoo! It certainly looked like quite a cold day, but didn't seem to bother the birds much at the zoo as they seem well insulated!
Good name for your newest addition and best of luck with many years of joy and happiness with Clarabelle!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
We have a neighbor two doors down and across the street who has several kids who visit late into the evening. Almost without fail, one of their car's alarms goes off. So annoying!
I love the theming in the restrooms. The giraffe on the door is beautiful!
A nice start to your day at the zoo! It certainly looked like quite a cold day, but didn't seem to bother the birds much at the zoo as they seem well insulated!
Good name for your newest addition and best of luck with many years of joy and happiness with Clarabelle!
We have a neighbor two doors down and across the street who has several kids who visit late into the evening. Almost without fail, one of their car's alarms goes off. So annoying!
I love the theming in the restrooms. The giraffe on the door is beautiful!
Saturday 27 December – part two: they’re sensibly indoors!
This was the rhino enclosure – a bit odd to see a safari scene with snow in it!
Inside was this guy…
… and this mother and, if you look very, very carefully, child. He wasn’t posing for photos sadly.
When we wandered back, the male (I assume he was male ) had decided he wanted something to eat.
They have an amazing area outside to live in, and this was very much the hallmark of everything we saw here. There’s even a “rhino underpass” that you walk over, and the animals can wander from one part of their enclosure to another, if the desire takes them.
Can you tell which area we headed into next?
Unsurprisingly, they weren’t that keen on heading outside, although there was one brave guy sticking his head to see what the weather was like!
The rest of them were all sensibly indoors…
… although as we left, there was a brave soul who ventured out to explore the snow.
He didn’t last long, and soon he was gone too. I can’t say I blame him!
As we walked along, we heard this guy singing…
The trees were beautiful:
We had a look through the painted dog conservation area, where first we found these guys, the rock hyrax, which I have to confess I’ve never heard of before.
The theming of this reminded a bit of Disney…
Eventually we found a small group of painted dogs, but my parents were disappointed, as they told us there are usually a lot more than this.
The roan antelopewere a bit hidden away behind a fence, but I did manage to sneak one photo of them…
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Enjoying your snow safari! There's a photo of a rock hyrax in the Table Mountain day of my South Africa TR. They call them "Dassies" there. Do you know what animal they're most closely related to is? I'd have guessed a rodent, but it's the elephant! And a little birdie told me that painted dogs are coming to DAK as part of the night-time safari!
Enjoying your snow safari! There's a photo of a rock hyrax in the Table Mountain day of my South Africa TR. They call them "Dassies" there. Do you know what animal they're most closely related to is? I'd have guessed a rodent, but it's the elephant!
No way! I'd have guessed rodent too.
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And a little birdie told me that painted dogs are coming to DAK as part of the night-time safari!
Oh cool! When does that night-time safari start - do we have any timescales yet?
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Oh cool! When does that night-time safari start - do we have any timescales yet?
I'm not sure. I hope we don't have to wait for Pandora to open for the safari to open later. I know they're installing the artificial dusk lighting now, and the hyenas should be out of quarantine very soon. My guess is that the safari will be ready sooner than Rivers of Light or Pandora, but whether or not they'll open it sooner is anyone's guess. The new Harambe marketplace food court is making rapid progress so that should be ready to go live maybe in the spring--I hope in time for your visit!
I'm not sure. I hope we don't have to wait for Pandora to open for the safari to open later. I know they're installing the artificial dusk lighting now, and the hyenas should be out of quarantine very soon. My guess is that the safari will be ready sooner than Rivers of Light or Pandora, but whether or not they'll open it sooner is anyone's guess. The new Harambe marketplace food court is making rapid progress so that should be ready to go live maybe in the spring--I hope in time for your visit!
Oooh that would be good! I'm hoping the safari will be one of the first things to open, and knowing Disney, I suspect so, as they'll probably want to get one of their "new attractions" open as soon as they can to keep interest up in the developments at Animal Kingdom and of course to encourage visitors. I don't have any inside line on this, that's just my guess.
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Saturday 27 December – part three: stand back from the tapir!
We next came across the sitatunga, including a cute baby.
We all thought this was hilarious!
I was intent on photographing this one, right on the limit of my 50 times zoom…
… when everyone else pointed out this guy was much closer!
We also saw some scimitar-horned oryx, one of whom was obviously desperate for a drink, bless him!
My 50 times zoom came into play again with the Eastern Bongos…
Next we headed into the Cloud Forest…
As you can see, there wasn’t much to see at first, then we found the tapir…
… who had this warning sign on their enclosure!
Next, we headed towards the cheetah, finding the Visayan Warty Pig on the way. As you can see, we were on a walkway above them, which made for some neat views…
Then we got to see the cheetahs from above – what a sight!
We headed over to see the lions next, and just as we did, the heavens opened. Considering that, at one point, they had forecast heavy rain for the whole of today, we hadn’t done badly to manage this long without. I think by now, it was about 11:15am. I snagged one photo through the fencing:
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It certainly looked like quite a cold day, but didn't seem to bother the birds much at the zoo as they seem well insulated! 
) had decided he wanted something to eat. 
I'd have guessed rodent too. 
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