Oh the Places We Go, The People We See Updated 11/03/2013 - Page 24 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Some of us lagged behind a bit before heading to the bus and took a few more pictures.
We passed by the certified Hair braiders. Now really, how do we know they are certified? LOL.
We got on our bus, which was like a big van. 2 seats on one side and 1 on the other. Since we had such a big group, we took up the majority of our bus. We also got the Disney CM in our bus as well. I can’t for the life of me remember her name nor our bus drivers name, but both were very nice.
We learned that our bus driver had a secret and it would be shared with us at the end of the tour. Now I know I am going to forget to mention it later, so I will spill the beans now. This was our drivers first day on the job. He had recently retired from another occupation completely different than this one and we were his first bus load. I will tell you when we found that out, I was STUNNED! He did an amazing job and was very knowledgeable too. He did a FANTASTIC job!
Off we went. We drove around the city a bit on our way to Ardastra Gardens. He pointed out a few places, and honestly, I don’t remember any of the details anymore.
The famous sign I see in so many other Trip Reports. I just had to get my own version.
This is a Government Building. I can’t think of the official name right now, but I have seen it a few times.
There was damage throughout the city too. Some from the hurricane and some from storms of the past.
We then arrived at Ardastra Gardens. Our bus driver did tell us that they were not in the best shape right now because of the hurricane. Most of the flowers had blown off during the storm, and though it would still be nice, it wasn’t at its full glory right now.
Right as we walked in we saw the Lemurs, or as Claire calls them , the “King Julians”. They were a huge hit for her and we ended up going back to look at them after a bit.
And this was one of the main reasons I picked this excursion.
Parrots! Ok, they might be technically called Macaws, but they will always be parrots to me.
The water was so nasty looking. I am not sure if this is normal or a leftover from the hurricane.
Claire and I had separated from the family while we looked around, but the place isn’t too big and we easily found them after a bit.
HELLO!
Yes, this guy said that to us and it scared the crud out of me at first. Then we both laughed.
I'm so bummed. My work has Flicker block with the firewall so I can't see your amazing photos. I might actually have to log in at home to read your report and see the photos - something I just never have time to do.
I'm so bummed. My work has Flicker block with the firewall so I can't see your amazing photos. I might actually have to log in at home to read your report and see the photos - something I just never have time to do.
UGH! I am surprised they have flickr blocked, that one usually isn't one that gets blocked.
I just hate the new photobucket so much. I do have some my pictures their loaded already and using it for those, and I get so frustrated each time. I did give it a try to load more, but it would load randomly and mix my order up and that annoys me to no end. Plus the fact that to copy links is such an issue there now. Not easy like it used to be. What gets me is they keep positng on facebook how great the new site is and then they have tons of responses of people telling them how awful it is. No one is renewing their pro account either. I see it going under in the next year if they don't make some drastic changes back to the old format. By then it may be too late though.
They were having a budgie feeding, so we all decided to check that out. We had to wait for the OK to walk in and then we got apples to feed the birds with. The birds would come right to you and eat, but you weren’t supposed to let them eat the skin. We had to throw those in a bucket and then we could get new apples. We had a lot of fun here.
Pete was the bird man. They loved him!
This was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it, though Abby didn’t want the birds to touch her. She was more into watching them eat. Even Alexis was squeamish at times about them touching her too.
I thought this was a cool shot.
Claire and I ended up being some of the last ones in there. As people left, they kept handing off apples to Claire and she decided she was done, so she handed them off to me. I finally just took them to the lady as I wanted out too. It was fun to do, but I didn’t want to spend my whole day in here with the birds when there were other things to look at as well. And the Flamingo show was going to start after a bit, so I wanted to scope out the rest of the area before that.
We spotted Flamingos running freely and we had to check those out. Warning, between Geoff and I, we took about 40 zillion Flamingo pictures.
Some of these Flamingoes had a bit of an issue with each other. It was funny to see them yell at each other. It just made me think of 2 women having a fight, with lots of nasty words and head bobbing going on.
I'm finally caught up again! Claire looks so sweet and gentle with the birds. Abby looks like she didn't trust them at all! "Certified Hair Braiders"??
I'm finally caught up again! Claire looks so sweet and gentle with the birds. Abby looks like she didn't trust them at all! "Certified Hair Braiders"??
Abby did not trus them. LOL
I am loving your new signature picture. I need to get over and read your latest TR.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Great pictures from the gardens! It looks like a lot of fun to feed those birds.
It was fun. I was glad we did it and gave Claire a new experience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
What fun to feed the birds! It looks like Claire did great with it.
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