An Animal Kingdom State of Being with Cam and Fam COMPLETED 9/18 - Page 72 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Let’s resume our Sunrise Safari. Next up were the hippos.
I love how this bird is totally not intimidated by the big ‘ole hippo.
We learned that these are female hippos and they rest their heads on each other bottoms, so that they can breathe easily while staying cool. Pretty smart!
Close of head to bottom
And the bravest bird to walk right on to the back of a hippo.
See he’s just standing there like the hippo doesn’t have big teeth.
Ultimately, the truck moved on and I stopped taking hippo pictures to take photos alligators, though not quite as many as I’m just not fond of alligators.
The truck moved ahead and we discovered this guy whose name I never wrote down (too busy taking pictures).
Beautiful creature! Seems he was posing.
After this we moved out onto the savannah where we saw the ankole cattle first with their huge, yet hollow, horns.
Then we spotted the Tommies, the cutest little gazelles.
Then we came in sight of this antlered creature, but once again I can’t remember his name as I didn’t have time to write it down.
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Yay!! We are to Sunrise Safari day!
I have to say a couple of things here, I hope you don't mind.
First of all, I have been wanting to meet Cam, Luke and Stefanie for a long time!
When the opportunity came for me to go to WDW in early June, I so hoped that we would get to meet one another!
When the early morning came for our Sunrise Safari, I think I was really more excited to meet the Matthew's family!!! Carly and I were out in the lounge early and discovered that there were STILL computer issues! But that wasn't going to spoil this day! :
Soon, here came Cam, Luke and Stefanie! As nervous as I was at first, the anxiety just melted away as soon as we hugged and started talking! It was just like I thought, Cam and I talked, and talked and talked! It was like we had known each other all of our lives!
When the time came for us to head to AK for our safari, we were all very excited!
The safari was truly amazing! And you will be able to tell that through Cam's photos! I highly recommend staying club level at AKL just for this experience! The amount of time our guide gave us to look at and take pictures of all of the animals was wonderful! Our guide was so knowledgable and very personable!
I don't want to say too much - as I am sure Cam will do a much better job of describing our experience! But, I will definitely be doing this safari again! I it!!!!!!
And as for the Matthew's family....well they were kind enough to spend the entire day with Carly and I! It was one of the best days I have ever experienced at WDW!
Cam, Luke and Stefanie!
Not entirely familiar with African wildlife but I think #1 Unidentified subject is an Eland and #2 is a Roebuck I could be entirely wrong but thats whats jumping into my head as I look at those pictures. By the way the US Dep. of Interior wants to know how did get a picture of the rare and endangered North American Tree Rat
Fantastic photos, Cam! The animal with the twisty horns is an eland and the one with the horns curved to the back is a sable antelope. Beautiful creatures! Oh, and the egrets help the hippos (and themselves) out by picking bugs off their backs, so they know the hippos won't hurt them.
Great photos Cam! I've never seen the hippos out of the water, so that was quite a treat! As for the Sunset Safari--if there were just two of us, that's what we'd be doing, but I'm not going to dish out the $$ for 3 people and I'm not going to ask Melissa to pay up front for something like that--she's never been to WDW before and I think its a bit much for a first time visit--there are so many other things. The $ for the Sunrise Safari is a maybe. I'll have to see how the summer goes!
Great photos Cam! I've never seen the hippos out of the water, so that was quite a treat! As for the Sunset Safari--if there were just two of us, that's what we'd be doing, but I'm not going to dish out the $$ for 3 people and I'm not going to ask Melissa to pay up front for something like that--she's never been to WDW before and I think its a bit much for a first time visit--there are so many other things. The $ for the Sunrise Safari is a maybe. I'll have to see how the summer goes!