Feelin’ Groovy: A Cam and Luke TR Completed 7/31 - Page 52 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
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.
Sounds like such a nice last morning at MK although I was sorry that you didn't get to ride SM one more time. I love the Main Street railroad! So sad that your trip report is coming to an end The first mystery photo is located I think near the entrance into Adventureland? The second one is under the Main Street Railroad.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
So sad to see your trip coming to an end...but another is just on the horizon...
Last MK day...
We're just 69 days away from our fall trip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Those coasters are very neat - I think I may have to keep an eye out for those.
Great photos from the train. I don't remember the last time we did that. Hmmm.... now there's an idea for September....
The coasters make me smile every time I use one. I didn't have Luke's photos of the train until I started working on the trip report. Now I'm thinking I might need to add two pages tour scrapbook.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wheezie
You always find the niftiest things for your home. I love those coasters!
Sorry to see your trip is coming to an end, but lucky you-you'll be there again before you know it!
Is Luke back to normal yet? I hope so.
I love Disney kitchen goodies as they are practical and fun.
Luke is not yet back to normal as even today he is has passed a bunch of fragments and one largish piece. Hopefully, the stone will be completely gone by Monday when we return to the doctor.
Love the coasters!!! My DD would abscond with the Pluto one, though.
Sounds like a good day so far!
I bet she would. Pluto does look adorable on it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Sounds like such a nice last morning at MK although I was sorry that you didn't get to ride SM one more time. I love the Main Street railroad! So sad that your trip report is coming to an end The first mystery photo is located I think near the entrance into Adventureland? The second one is under the Main Street Railroad.
You got both photo's locations correct!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SharonK0527
Cute coasters! So sorry to see your trip coming to an end Luckily we don't have long to wait until we get to follow along on your next trip!
I'm thinking that I need to start the next PTR soon after finishing this TR. I get to make FP+ for our three days before the Vaughn's arrive late next week.
NEXT: A Margarita and Expedition Everest (make a great combination according to Luke)
Day 10 Tuesday, May 17, 2016 Part 1
As we began our trek to the bus stop, the skies began to look like rain. We even heard thunder once we arrived at Animal Kingdom. Before starting on attractions at AK, we browsed through River Depot and Outfitters looking for an Animal Kingdom reusable bag. No luck! I had meant to pick one up on our way out of the park on our last day here, but had totally forgotten. Now I couldn’t really remember where I had seen the bag either. So we moved on to Expedition Everest, though I stopped us temporarily as the Siamang Apes were out today and playing. Most of the time they were frolicking where I couldn’t get photos, but I still managed a few.
Unfortunately, by the time we made it back in Asia to Expedition Everest, it was down due to thunder. So what to do? I backed up to my favorite ice cream truck, the Anandapur Bus, to get a soft serve chocolate waffle cone. Luke wasn’t currently in the mood for ice cream, which is a very rare thing for him, so instead he got a Durbar Margarita at Thirsty River. We found a little shelter from the sprinkles and enjoyed our treats. As I enjoyed by waffle cone, I realized I was actually standing in one of the entrances to River of Light. A cast member was also in this area and filled us in on the weather and a talked a little about RoL. The weather was supposed to be clearing soon, so hopefully, Luke would get to ride EE, but nothing she told was new about RoL. And just as Luke finished his drink EE opened back up. Just a note about his margarita. He allowed me a sip and it was one very strong margarita. He set off for the single rider line, and I entered the gift shop. I slowly walked around the shop, finding a long sleeve EE t-shirt that I liked though I wasn’t planning on purchasing it. When I thought it was probably about time for Luke’s ride to be over I moved over near the exits and the TV screens. I had on a ball cap, and when I entered the store, I placed my sunglasses on to the cap. Forgetting this fact, I yanked the hat off to stow in my back, and in the process dropped my sunglasses. Of course, a train had just returned and lots of folks were stomping through. I frantically looked for them, but to no avail. A CM was in the area so I asked if she had seen them. She really did treat me rather oddly. I stepped forward and at that moment she said rather gruffly, “They’re behind you.” And then walked off in a snit. I kept thinking what did I do to her. Luke returned shortly after my glass debacle, and then I realized what the CM might have been thinking. I was holding Luke margarita glass as he still had some ice in it. I’m sure she thought I was drunk and that is how I lost my sunglasses. Not sure that she should have been rude one way or the other. For Luke’s part, he said the margarita made this his best ride on EE ever. I showed him several things I’d discovered in the shop, including a short sleeve graphic t-shirt with Everest patches that had made me think of him. He liked it so we bought that before exiting.
Now that Luke was back from the mountains, we walked through Maharajah Jungle Trek, hoping once again to see the tiger. First, we visited with the fruit bats.
Then we walked over to the tiger area. We barely saw him. In fact when I took the following photos, I had no idea whether the camera was capturing the tiger or not. I was quite excited when I uploaded these to computer and there in the shade was a curled up tiger.
I love the flags in this area of Asia, but have seldom taken a photo. I’m glad I did this year as Scrap Your Trip had a matching paper this year that ordered and used with the Maharajah Jungle Trek layout.
We checked out a few more animals and birds before leaving the trail. A CM told me as I took the photo of the large bird walking right by my feet that it was the world’s largest pigeon.
Back outside the trail, I asked Luke to stop by the entrance for a couple more photos for scrapbooking purposes.
From here we traveled to a new continent, entering Africa because the safari was one more must do before ending this trip. Kilimanjaro Safaris showed a 20 minute standby wait, but really it was a walk on as we never had to stop until the yellow line right before our truck arrived. We have not ridden standby in many, many trips and totally forgotten so much about that part of the queue. I only managed one photo though as the line was moving, and I did want to slow us or anyone else down.
This may have been our best safari of the entire trip, and we were so glad we made time for one more ride. From the start the bongo and okapi were out and visible.
I only managed a butt shot of the rhino, but I had gotten a good look at this front side, even though it wasn’t possible to take the shot with the truck moving.
The hippos and Nile crocodiles were lazing in the heat while this one scary bird seem to stare down everyone on our truck.
Then we were driving into the savanna and there were GIRAFFES.
I’m still not sure the wild dogs doing anything other than nap the day away, all of them in one cluster under the rock.
As we turned and moved further in to the savanna, there were more giraffes. The driver even stopped a bit and I got some good shots.
Initially, I wasn’t getting good shots of the elephants and then one came out to pose.
I turned just in time to catch the mandrill face forward, too.
The white rhino were in a group napping in the trees, so my photo blurred when I focused on the trees instead of them.
Finally, we had arrived at Pride Rock where the lion was sleeping. Oh well, I really did get very lucky last May when he was up and about on one of safaris. As we came around the back of the rock, we discovered a female asleep by him.
The ostriches and zebras were fairly active, and soon after the safaris was complete.
As we made our way out of Africa, we noticed a CM on stilts in the walkway heading toward Festival of the Lion King who was entertaining a baby. The whole exchange was so sweet, and like good paparazzi, I snapped a few photos.
We stopped for the restrooms and drinks at Pizzafari, and then browsed through Island Mercantile, where I finally found the Animal Kingdom reusable bag. Score!
Now it was time for a bit of rest, so we headed out of the park for a bus to the lodge. More thunder returned, and the rain started lightly as our bus headed toward home. The rain was stronger by the time we go to our bus stop. In our room, I heard Luke say, “Oh, my.” I came to look out the sliding glass door to see a downpour with very limited visibility. A half hour later the sun was back out.
NEXT: Morimoto Asia
A great time in the AK! That's funny, when Luke had just had his margarita that this was his best ride on EE! Maybe it helped! That was quite odd how the CM acted, when you were looking for your glasses! Great photos from KS!
I am really looking forward to your next update and experience at Morimoto!
__________________
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!
Last edited by SuperDave; 07-24-2016 at 07:41 PM..
Funny how it appears you either have two updates, one with pictures, one without, or my phone is being weird, which is possible. Too funny about the margarita! She still shouldn't have been snippy though.
Funny how it appears you either have two updates, one with pictures, one without, or my phone is being weird, which is possible. Too funny about the margarita! She still shouldn't have been snippy though.