Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
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If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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10-14-2005, 11:49 AM
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#1
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Philadelphia suburbs, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 5,262
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Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
First, I apologize if I post this in the wrong area. This is the Forum we discussed the Safari before I left, so that's why I'm posting here now.
We stayed in on the concierge level of GF the first week of October. I had booked us for the Concierge Safari for AK, a while back. It's $45/person for the tour and part of the money goes to an Animal Conservation fund (not sure how much). When I talked about it before, I promised a review, so here it is!
I wasn't sure what to expect when we went on the Concierge Safari. I definitely wanted to spend extra time at the safari, and since we weren't staying at ALK - this was our best option. But, going in, I didn't know if it would be worth the money. After taking the safari, in my opinion, it was worth every penny! 
There are 2 safaris offered per day, one at 10:00 and the other at 1:00. We took the morning safari. You take a different vehicle for the Concierge tour than the regular ride. It doesn't hold many, and I think they limit the tour to 14 guests. The tour lasts an hour. You start behind the scenes, and see some of the animal's nighttime homes before heading out past the Hippos. You see all of the animals you'd see on the ride, with tons of time to take photos, record them on your camcorder, or just watch out of binoculars (there were 2 pairs on the bus available for anyone to use). Not that you needed binoculars. We made several stops to the side of the road to just watch the animals. I swear they're so used to the people going by that they stop and pose to get their picture taken. Our tour guide, Steve, was extremely informative and was willing to answer all of our questions.
I developed (there were more, just didn't develop everything) over 85 photos from our day at AK - and I would bet that 2/3 of those photos came from our time on the Concierge Safari. If your goal is to have extended time in the safari, and really learn a lot of information about the animals and get a lot of pictures (or even just time watching), I would highly recommend the Concierge Safari to anyone staying in a Concierge level room at WDW. You just couldn't wipe the smile off my face the rest of the day!
Feel free to ask me any questions, I'll do my best to answer. And eventually, I'll post a TR where I'm sure I'll talk about it. |
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10-14-2005, 11:59 AM
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#2
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Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 36,592
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Re: Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
Thanks for posting. I think it is appropriate for this forum, as only resort guests staying in concierge can take the tour.
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10-14-2005, 12:24 PM
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#3
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RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
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Re: Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
Glad you had a great time  Thanks for the info  |
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10-14-2005, 02:42 PM
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#4
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Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ohio Football Hall Of Fame
Posts: 42,304
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Re: Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
Thanks for all the info!!! Sounds like you had an awesome time!!
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10-14-2005, 02:49 PM
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#5
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,386
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Re: Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
The concierge safari sounds wonderful and I learned something new as I had thought that you had to be staying concierge at AKL in order to be able to participate in this safari. It's nice to know that concierge guests staying at any of the WDW resorts can also take this tour.
Joy
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10-14-2005, 02:53 PM
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#6
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Community Rank: Adventurer 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: McLean Va
Posts: 715
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Re: Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
It a diffrent safari than the ones for AKL guests but sounds much nicer than the sunrise one in many ways (less screaming no holds barred kids!)
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10-14-2005, 03:22 PM
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#7
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Philadelphia suburbs, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 5,262
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Re: Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
Plannergirl . . . your safari didn't go that well?
There was one little girl on ours and she was so quiet, you never knew she was there! We adults where the ones up and about looking for good camera angles!
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10-14-2005, 03:28 PM
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#8
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Community Rank: Adventurer
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: McLean Va
Posts: 715
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Re: Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
We had ours the last week of October and perhaps doing it the morning after the AWESOME sunset safari (cant say enough about it!) makes it less "great" but honestly there were about 5 mostly 8-10 year old girls that were monsters to put it lightly. The AKL sunrise safari allows I think 45 ppl? You use the same safari trucks (2 of them for that many folks). These kids were so much into screaming and yelling that the guides kept trying to do the "lets be quiet so we don't scare the animals" game-no dice. Our wonderful meal at the school house was less wonderful by same said little girls screaming more and running around. Folks ate fast and split.
So sounds like this version of the safari ride would work better ;-)
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10-14-2005, 05:12 PM
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#9
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Philadelphia suburbs, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 5,262
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Re: Concierge Safari (not staying at ALK) - long
Plannergirl-
Sorry the Sunrise Safari didn't go well. The Sunset Safari sounds wonderful. I'm hoping that you're writing a trip report, so I can read more about it. Plus, let us know what you ended up wearing for the Sunset Safari . . . I remember you were trying to find the right outfit.
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