The Good, The Bad and The Buggy - Nov 2011 TR - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Oh I can see all your photos now! The roses were beautiful! How annoying about the ice machine. Although at SSR I was on the second floor and constantly had to go down to the first floor for ice as well. What is with the DVC resorts not having ice machines? I guess they figure there are a lot of 1/2 bdr villas that make their own ice maybe?
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Great first day Coop! Chuck is the sweetest hubby in the world, making all us ladies over here on PP J.E.A.L.O.U.S! So happy for you Coop! I think your quite a lady too, so it makes me very happy that Chuck knows what a lucky guy he is and treats my Coop right!
I have a feeling I know what is coming....I saw the FB pics. AHHHHH!!!!!
See? There was plenty of room for Sparks with Duffy! I think he totally would have shared his soda too.
The roses were easy(sort of) it was the sneaking off to order,and pay without Coop knowing.Most of my suprizes lately have been duds,so this one was really cool.
PIRATE!
I couldn't see the photos in your first post, but whatever you did with your most recent post is working and I can see them all.
What a great view of the EWP btw! Off to a good start, can't wait for more.
I'm trying different ways to upload them. I don't understand - I can only upload 5 pics but I've seen TR's with many more than that. I might try photobucket for the next post. Keep your fingers crossed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by southerngirl1014
Oh I can see all your photos now! The roses were beautiful! How annoying about the ice machine. Although at SSR I was on the second floor and constantly had to go down to the first floor for ice as well. What is with the DVC resorts not having ice machines? I guess they figure there are a lot of 1/2 bdr villas that make their own ice maybe?
The ice thing was VERY annoying! I thought about buying those re-useable plastic ice cubes and throwing them in the freezer. Maybe next year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
I can see the pics now! And I still say, that Chuck's a keeper! What a sweet surprise to begin your trip!
He is a keeper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
Yea! Pictures! Lovely roses--what a nice surprise!
I'm trying with the pics. bear with me - I'm new.
Quote:
Originally Posted by valegirl5292
Great start, how romantic the roses were beautiful. Can't wait to read more.
Thanks. He is a hopeless romantic. And I love it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lexiemom
All caught up! I haven't been to Boma since 2006...I WILL be going there my next trip. The roses you got are so beautiful. Chuck!
We LOVE Boma! You definitely need to go back!
Quote:
Originally Posted by elbodans
oh what beautiful roses! and what an amazing view of the water parade! nice!!!
It was a great view (when we could use our balcony to see it - more on that in a later post)
Quote:
Originally Posted by rosanna
Can't wait to here about the WAT...but I fear for the future of your new camera~
No worries. WAT is coming up next!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OneLittleSpark
Great first day Coop! Chuck is the sweetest hubby in the world, making all us ladies over here on PP J.E.A.L.O.U.S! So happy for you Coop! I think your quite a lady too, so it makes me very happy that Chuck knows what a lucky guy he is and treats my Coop right!
I have a feeling I know what is coming....I saw the FB pics. AHHHHH!!!!!
See? There was plenty of room for Sparks with Duffy! I think he totally would have shared his soda too.
Can't wait to hear more!
Awww gee SparklyToes, you! Yeah, saw the FB pics? Now understand the meaning of the title? And yes - Duffy would have shared! He had to pick up a friend while he was down there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jovigirlnj
All caught up!! Beautiful roses!! I love the Food pics - I am getting hungry.. Can't wait to hear more!
Warning - there's plenty more food pics coming up! I got better about taking them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChukkerB
The roses were easy(sort of) it was the sneaking off to order,and pay without Coop knowing.Most of my suprizes lately have been duds,so this one was really cool.
PIRATE!
You do pull off quite a few sneaks! The paying part is another story. ???? I mean - I see the bills! Yep - you sure got me! And I love you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DawnK
Now I see them!! The water parade is one of my favorites. Love the roses!!!
The water parade was LOUD. It was cute but man, I thought it was a pool party or something.
11/4/11 - Friday - SPOILER ALERT - Wild Africa Trek in DETAIL. If you don’t want to know - skip this post!
I got up before the alarm again. Early, early, early though - 5:30. We had our WAT today at 8 am. There were EMH at AK from 8-9 am today too. We had asked concierge at BLT what would be the best way to get to AK before park hours and didn’t get a lot of help. Basically, they just told us where to catch the bus. If we were waiting for the regular bus times and if there weren’t EMH that day - we would have been late!
Anyhow - we got on the bus at about 7:20 and we were the last couple to show up for our group. We signed our lives away . . er -waivers and proceeded through the turnstiles! I just love the Tree of Life esp in a nearly desolate park! They weighed us (Chuck was worried about this) and gave us our vests and earpieces. (They had to get me the next size up vest because I’m a bit chesty) Now remember, Chuck got me that special camera so I wouldn’t have to bring my good camera on the trek? Well, I was trying to put the wrist strap on it prior to our leaving the hotel but I couldn’t get it though that little hole on the side. I fought with that thing for a while and just gave up because I didn’t want to be late. I figured that I could just keep it in my pocket. No! They told us that if it couldn’t be strapped onto us, we couldn’t bring it. So Chuck and I both were going to leave them in the lockers. When they asked if people had cameras - everyone showed theirs and got them strapped to them. But I told them that we had some cameras but didn’t have the wrist strap. They asked if it had a place for the strap and I said sure. They said to bring them up and they would fix it so we could take them and sure enough, while we were suiting up, they put straps on both of our cameras and them strapped them to us. We also got water bottles (they wrote our names on the bottom with a Sharpie) and filled those and strapped those on too with a caribiner. Next up were the trial bridges and they weren’t bad. They weren’t high and not very long. Just enough to get a feel of it and get “approved” by the guides. I did tell the guides that I was scared of heights and bridges and they assured me that they would help me. We then had some jungle juice and did our introductions. We had a group of 8. One was a family of 4 - 2 parents and a DD and DSiL, and 2 sisters and us. Our guides, Maria and Jason, were great- very knowledgeable and funny.
We proceeded to the Pagani Forest Trail and started off.
Maria was first to take pictures, while Jason did the speaking. I liked how it wasn’t a steady hike for 3 hours. They hike (walk) and then stop to talk about what you are seeing and picture opportunities. We got back behind the hippos and the CM was feeding them so she “clipped on” to a harness and joined our little tour for a bit and told us all about the hippos.
Then we had to do the bridges. Oye! I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. They have you bungee clipped onto a line and they don’t let someone on the bridge until the first one is almost done. I got about ¾ away across the bridge and it started to feel kind of bouncy. I had a feeling that Chuck was behind me bouncing away. Nope - it was all me. After doing the first one - the second bridge is longer! Well - there’s no turning back now.
Amber and D (the sisters of the group) were encouraging me all the way! Thanks ladies! We got across the second bridge and I felt on top of the world! I felt like I could do anything. I wanted to do it all again! WOW! Who is this person?
We then got to the crocs and clipped our bungee onto the special bar and went out onto the ledge.
It was just misting and sprinkling a bit but not a soaking rain. Then we hiked a little bit more and got to our “safari jeep” It was a roomy jeep with plenty of bench seating and they even had binoculars you could use. We didn’t need them too much because the animals were out on the savannah that day! We saw giraffes, and gazelles, and an ostrich, and so many others that I can’t even remember their names. I remember that Maria’s favs were the Thompson gazelles and we saw plenty of them. We also saw Jubali! He was very active and running all around. All the elephants were out that morning.
We then got to the boma (the building on the savannah) for our breakfast and bathrooms! I was expecting an outhouse facility but should have known - this is Disney. The bathrooms were as good as you would find in a hotel! But since there were 5 girls and 3 guys - they said it was ok if we used either restroom that was available. Instead of forming a line at the ladies.
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Chuck!
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So happy for you Coop! I think your quite a lady too, so it makes me very happy that Chuck knows what a lucky guy he is and treats my Coop right! 
"Sparky"(My first trip.)
Katie's graduation
They told us that if it couldn’t be strapped onto us, we couldn’t bring it. So Chuck and I both were going to leave them in the lockers. When they asked if people had cameras - everyone showed theirs and got them strapped to them. But I told them that we had some cameras but didn’t have the wrist strap. They asked if it had a place for the strap and I said sure. They said to bring them up and they would fix it so we could take them and sure enough, while we were suiting up, they put straps on both of our cameras and them strapped them to us. 
We also got water bottles (they wrote our names on the bottom with a Sharpie) and filled those and strapped those on too with a caribiner. Next up were the trial bridges and they weren’t bad. They weren’t high and not very long. Just enough to get a feel of it and get “approved” by the guides. I did tell the guides that I was scared of heights and bridges and they assured me that they would help me. We then had some jungle juice and did our introductions. We had a group of 8. One was a family of 4 - 2 parents and a DD and DSiL, and 2 sisters and us. Our guides, Maria and Jason, were great- very knowledgeable and funny. 
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