Florida flowers and Caribbean cruising THIS THREAD COMPLETED - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I really liked the KSC the one time we went there, but with all the updates,I think we need to go again!
Sounds like you're heading back to the bubble next!
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Wow, imagine being at work and having an alligator show up next to you!
no I can't imagine that - it just freaks me out too much!
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Your story about the abandoned bags reminded me of when DH and his brother were in London Heathrow ( quite a number of years ago now) and due to a cancelled flight had to spend the night there. Peter went to use the bathroom and left his bag with his brother to watch. He said that almost immediately, security came over to his brother asking where he had gone and inquiring about his suitcase. You're so right, a lot of Americans still think nothing could ever happen here. I am such a "fraidy cat" that those bags would have made me think twice too!
That sort of thing worries me so much, especially given today's society. It takes everyone to be vigilant and I just realised everyone realised that.
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The Apollo/Saturn exhibit does look a bit outdated compared to the Atlantis one!
I hope that's next on their list of things to do, as having seen what they've done with Atlantis, they could make such a difference to that exhibit too.
Wow, that thing is huge. I'm not sure how else they could display it, I'm sure it's quite heavy too! But I agree, they could at least have more interactive type exhibits.
That's true, I hadn't thought about the weight of it...
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Strange about the bags.... I wouldn't leave my bags open for theft like that - nor would I sit by lonely bags! Strange.
I hadn't even thought about the theft aspect of things - good point.
Thanks for the update on the restroom situation. I'll have to remember that!
Little tips like that can be so valuable, as you'll find out when we get to SeaWorld - there, I was able to use a very valuable tip from someone's trip report on here.
The Saturn/Apollo exhibit doesn't look like it's changed much since my visit to KSC. Maybe time for a little update. I am fine with the observation tower being removed from the tour. That part wasn't too exciting.
Friday 27 February – part eight: new arrivals out on the savannah
We headed back towards Orlando and I snagged only a few photos on the way, as it was still raining, which made photographing very difficult. I know it wasn’t easy driving conditions for Mark.
We had programmed the GPS to take us to a Bath and Body Works store. All I knew is that it was the one closest to our route when I checked it on the website, so we got quite a shock when it took us out towards downtown Orlando.
We found it eventually, near the Orlando Executive Airport, although the GPS took us into it the weirdest way, where we had to turn left off the main road, then go right, right again and back on the main road the other way, rather than just taking a left corner into the mall itself.
I went in, and dropped a large chunk of change (and I mean large! ) on hand sanitisers, and shower gels, and I was done.
Of course, the GPS found a really quick route way back to the toll road! We passed by downtown Orlando. It was nice to see the buildings here, as we don’t usually come this way, and it looked like a nice downtown area…
… and then were soon on the I4, and hitting traffic.
Soon we were back in the World…
… although worryingly, we passed a guy as I took this photo, and he was driving, and had his camera phone out to capture this! I wouldn’t mind, but he had a passenger…
We made our way over to Animal Kingdom Lodge…
… and I headed inside to check in…
It was all going really well, with the Annual Passes and MemoryMaker loaded on to our MagicBands, then it came to our room. Ours wasn’t ready. Well, I’m sorry, but given it was now 3:50pm, I wasn’t going to have that. All DVC rooms should be ready by 4:00pm, and the last time this happened to us, we ended up waiting until about 4:30pm, so I didn’t want to risk that. I just wanted to get into a room and chill, to be honest. Jess, who was from Brisbane, Australia, did find us another room, 5118, which was a bit of a hike along the trail, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it could’ve been at Kidani.
We headed inside, and I got all the photos of the room…
… then we headed out on the massive balcony….
As we were right next to one of the walkways with viewing areas, we literally had a magnificent view across the whole savannah.
There were some Ankole cattle waiting for me…
… and also an scimitar horned oryx…
… and I also spotted an African spoonbill.
I do love the wildlife spotting guides they have in the rooms!
Soon it was feeding time…
… and that brought giraffes…
… and these very cute guys that I don’t ever recall seeing here before – they’re Somali wild ass. Aren’t they lovely? They’re just like donkeys! Ok, with striped legs admittedly… .
I think these are Northern ground hornbills – well they look like the picture in the wildlife spotting guide anyway!
The grey crowned cranes also arrived…
… followed by what I think were the Thomson’s gazelles – again they seem to match the picture…
Next: an unpleasant shock for the veggie at Shula’s…
Lovely to see you back at AKV one of my very favourite resorts although we prefer Kidani to Jambo. I think we were spoiled on our first DVC trip with the huge rooms at Kidani.
Really good to see your timing we want to do the same the day we leave the Dream and visit KSC. I was hoping to be back at VGF for check-in as we want to o Narcooses that night.
You must have been feeling pretty exhausted though with that buy day after an early start.
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no I can't imagine that - it just freaks me out too much! 
We passed by downtown Orlando. It was nice to see the buildings here, as we don’t usually come this way, and it looked like a nice downtown area… 
All DVC rooms should be ready by 4:00pm, and the last time this happened to us, we ended up waiting until about 4:30pm, so I didn’t want to risk that. I just wanted to get into a room and chill, to be honest. Jess, who was from Brisbane, Australia, did find us another room, 5118, which was a bit of a hike along the trail, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it could’ve been at Kidani. 
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