The Holi-Canoli! Whirlwind Trip That Wasn't Supposed to Be - Page 37 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We made our way to the Maharajah Jungle Trek, picked up a map and went searching for some Tigers, Giant Bats and Lovely Birds.
We came across this “little” fellow sunning on a rock.
I’m a sucker for any type of waterfall.
We walked on and went to see the bats. Bats are fascinating creatures. They were so big and pretty active. I started videoing the bats and one started....er.....relieving himself. Great to get on film, huh? I won’t tell you what he did next. Um, gross.
It is so beautiful through here. The decor is fantastic.
We came upon the tigers who were napping.
This one cracked me up!
We continued our journey in search of the Lovely Birds.
We found them! We spotted many “Birds of the Royal Forest.”
It’s very pretty on the trek.
Our bird would love a birdhouse like one of these.
We left the royal forest. I love the setting of this bench.
After our animal adventure, it was time for a little snack. None of us had eaten breakfast. I got a Mickey bar.
Ahhh ice cream for breakfast...my fav Your pics from AK are AMAZING!!!! I just them!!! Victoria on the 2nd EE pic ! It reminds me of my TT pic where I was "sleeping"...DH didn't get it~which made it even funnier for me! Can't wait to hear what's for lunch!
We enjoyed our ice cream breakfast and finished that up and were headed to see Flights of Wonder which we had never seen before. All of a sudden, I started walking very quickly because I saw something I had never seen before. Michael and Victoria thought I was crazy. Who did I spot? Devine!! She was stunning! Once Michael and Victoria caught up with me and I explained who she was, we watched her for a very long time. I videoed her, too. She is very talented.
I know I have a lot of pictures of her, but I had never really seen what she looked like before. Perhaps others haven’t either.
We pulled ourselves away from the divine Devine and went to Flights of Wonder.
It was a very cute show. We are huge bird fans and really enjoy anything having to do with birds.
We left the show and saw that Flik was down a trail signing autographs. We hadn’t seen him since we were at DLR several years ago. We stood in line, and I took a few pictures. Devine was still hanging around.
The Tree of Life is breathtaking to me.
Sometime earlier in the day, we got our picture made in front of it. Since I’m not really sure when, I’ll post it now. (Along with Baby Simba.)
Flik was so cute. He loved Victoria’s picture and happily signed it and posed with us.
We said goodbye to Flik and decided to go to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We had only done this once previously and that was many years ago. Plus, we know that Jiminy Cricket can be found here. There was no line for the train, and we were quickly on the trails.
We hurried inside and saw Jiminy. Victoria was beyond herself! He is her favorite character, and we had never met him before. She couldn’t wait to see him. We made sure to get a picture of just the two of them together. Of course, he had already signed the picture she drew of him when the wonderful CM took her book backstage, but Victoria showed it to him anyway.
One of my favorite things here is the Sounds of the Rainforest. Victoria caught me taking a picture of them as we listened.
That’s all we really wanted to do here. Rafiki and Pocohontas were there, but we had seen them already. So, we left.
We were ready for a safari and headed to Kilimanjaro Safaris. Once again, we didn’t have a wait. How nice! Our tour bus showed up quickly enough, and we were off!
There were a ton of hippos and crocs out.
I this little guy just sitting there. Isn’t he cute?
It looked like the flamingos were napping.
The lions were definitely napping. This was not one of the best safaris we’d been on, but it was still fun just the same.
After our safari, our stomachs were rumbling, as they should be. We hadn’t really had breakfast, and it was now almost 1 p.m.! Where had the time gone? We needed to eat. As we were walking, I took this picture of the Tree of Life.
We went to Yak & Yeti. None of us had eaten here before, and my DH really does love me because he is not a very big fan of Asian food, but we went anyway.
Michael perused the menu as we waited to be seated. We did not have ADRs here.
We only waited 10 minutes or so and were seated. I egg rolls, so I ordered the Pork Egg Rolls for an appetizer.
Michael got Chicken Fried Rice which is the only thing he ever gets at Asian restaurants.
Victoria and I shared the Stir-Fried Beef & Broccoli with fried rice and a side order of jasmine rice. I need to learn how to make jasmine rice. It was heavenly!
Victoria and I really enjoyed Yak & Yeti and would eat here again. Michael could care less.
UP NEXT: Too much time has lapsed since we rode EE!
What an awesome day at AK!!! Oh my....and seeing DeVine....I am really going to try harder to find her next trip...she is so fascinating to me! Love all of your AK pictures!! How special are Victoria's autographed drawings. What a keepsake!