Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Was the window floor to ceiling, or did you actually have to heave. Your leg up and over a windowsill?! I’m trying to picture this, and just can’t. Sounds a bit odd...
No it was floor to ceiling, so once it was up, you just walked out - well Ok, you had to crouch to get out, but you (sort of!) get the idea...
That village is so beautiful and I love the pictures of the seaside. That is so odd, having to go through a window to get to the balcony. I was picturing a regular windo that you had to climb out of.
Liz
I love the tea lounge as so beautiful, themed and comfy! I could definitely deal with that and a good place for an afternoon nap! Very odd with the balcony setup and the window. Always funny with these things that you aren't familiar with as they always seem easy to open, but closing them is completely different! Nice going with Mark to rectify the situation!
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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!
That village is so beautiful and I love the pictures of the seaside. That is so odd, having to go through a window to get to the balcony. I was picturing a regular windo that you had to climb out of.
Liz
Thankfully not - I don't think I'd have tried that!
I love the tea lounge as so beautiful, themed and comfy! I could definitely deal with that and a good place for an afternoon nap!
I'm not sure that's the done thing!
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Very odd with the balcony setup and the window. Always funny with these things that you aren't familiar with as they always seem easy to open, but closing them is completely different! Nice going with Mark to rectify the situation!
… and over to the Donkey Sanctuary. We managed to find a space in the disabled parking area and headed into the visitor reception, where my mobility scooter was once again waiting for me. We meant to get a photo yesterday, but it never happened, so to give you an idea of what I looked like on it, here you go…
We headed down into the Main Barn yard and there was a talk going on, so it was absolutely packed. Some of it was what we’d heard yesterday, with the average lifespan of a donkey given for the UK, but if I remember right, while it’s 32 here, it’s something horrendous like six years in Egypt. That really appalled me.
We also learnt that donkeys are the only animals that can stop giving birth if they feel threatened and can go somewhere they feel is safer. What a wonderful thing to be able to do and what a shame more animals with predators can’t do that, as then they’d be a lot safer too…
There was a wonderful bit where the guy was explaining that they sometimes get new arrivals, if a donkey arrives and is pregnant, but that’s it. If they get a male who hasn’t been dealt with, shall we say, they deal with it. The way he put it was “he goes in for a chat with the vet and then comes out all sorted” and he said he’d leave it to the parents to explain that one to the kids. The adults were all laughing and the kids were all turning round and were like “what?” I bet there were some interesting conversations to be had!
My beautiful adopted Bonnie
We were about to head out after that talk, when we got talking to Ross, another of the volunteers, and she wanted to know what I’d done. She’d fallen in the mud at the Donkey Sanctuary and had sprained her knee and stretched her Achilles
When we’d finished chatting to her, we headed up to see the minis. I was surprised to see so many people around, so figured there must be donkeys and I was sort of right. The guy from yesterday who’d been emptying out the waste water was in there. The donkeys were being very inquisitive, but when he came to leave, he opened the gate into the field. That was it – Vijay was right there and wanted to be let out and was quite determined about it. The guy had to push him away. I guess he’s desperate for grass, hence his performance yesterday with the crowd around, as he was trying to poke his head through to get at a tiny clump of grass.
He looks so sad, doesn’t he… even for a donkey…
Then this happened… he wandered over to people again and put his backside there and demanded a back rub!
Or maybe it was Mark the donkey whisperer…
Thankfully there was no repeat of the scene in the main bard yard earlier, when Bonnie did the same thing, then promptly let rip shall we say, nearly showering a kid with donkey dung. It was quite entertaining and it just goes to show, you always have to be wary of them.
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Those minis are so cute!
So interesting they can stop labor if needed! Wow! I know some women who’d have liked to do that when they realized it was no picnic!
Red scooters must be the universal color. I think that's the color most of the ones from off-site I see at WDW too! Except the gray ones WDW rents out, of course.
That Vijay! So funny. And for Bonnie - well they are still wild animals aren't they?! Even if they're in this sort of environment, they're not trained to use a litter box. When you gotta go, you gotta go!
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Tanya
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Red scooters must be the universal color. I think that's the color most of the ones from off-site I see at WDW too! Except the gray ones WDW rents out, of course.
I definitely prefer red to grey!
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That Vijay! So funny. And for Bonnie - well they are still wild animals aren't they?! Even if they're in this sort of environment, they're not trained to use a litter box. When you gotta go, you gotta go!
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