An Animal Kingdom State of Being with Cam and Fam COMPLETED 9/18 - Page 74 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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More amazing pictures!!! But seeing the picture of the alligators got me thinking about what they do with the alligators at night. Do they leave them outside?
Cam - what beautiful pictures! You are a great photographer!
so much! I'm getting better all the time, and even surprise myself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lexiemom
More beautiful pictures! The first 'unnamed' animal looks like he was modeling just for you!
I thought the same thing. When I stood up to begin taking photos of him, he simply turned around and looked my way. So
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luvsun
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!
Meeting you and Carly was one of the most magical moments of our entire trip! Now I just wished we lived closer so we could spend more than a day together every year. And there is still so much excitement to get to this day!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
More geat pix. You really have an eye for photography.
I have found that animals and people are some of my favorite subjects. Luke prefers inanimate objects, like buildings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeL
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
The first is an Eland. I remembered as soon as I saw your post. I usually know these and I think that's why I was worried I'd forget. But when I reread my notes, I just had ???? for him. He was beautiful! North American Tree Rat as a renaming reminds me of my Daddy used to tell us to watch out for those Streamlined Kitties with the Fluid Drive (skunks).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
Wow, Cam, those are just beautiful pictures! You really have outdone yourself! So many of them are frame-worthy and look professionally done!
I am actually going to frame several of them. I'm really proud of how some of these turned out and there are still more to come.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sc507
Gorgeous pictures again! I am really looking forward to your scrapbook pages of the safari.
I'm really proud of the scrapbook pages for the safari. I'll post the whole book when I get it done. My goal is to finish by the end of next week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Now that's a good friend - someone who lets her girlfriend rest her head on her butt!
GREAT PICTURES, Cam!
Sounds like the best kind of girlfriend!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
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.
Laurie, I knew if I asked you would probably know. I had also wondered though I didn't think to ask our guide, which is weird because I'm sure I asked more questions than the other folks on the safari, about the birds that were with the hippos. Ann and I really chatted quite a bit with Erich. I remember asking one of the CMs at AKL back in 2003 about the birds that were friendly with the ankole cattle. He said something very similar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
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!
I don't remember ever seeing one of the hippos up and out of the water. This one was actually late to the party and came walking up and then stopped at the water. The safari is a bit pricey and I'd hate to force that upon a newcomer. As you say they are so many other things to do and see. I kind of messed up our budget with the safari as I had told Luke it was already charged to the credit card in December, but it was not. We have managed to take care of it, but that was almost $200 we hadn't planned on in June. I'll know better next time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
More great pictures Cam! Love the hippos!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
You got some great shots of the animals. You'd never be able to get that on the regular safari ride.
I've gotten some very good regular safari ride pictures, but nothing like these.
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Now the sunrise safari continues with the wildebeest, beautiful creatures, though they seemed reluctant to pose this morning. I was able to only get two fair pictures of them.
It seems I managed to only get their back and less attractive side.
Then our truck journeyed on further into the savannah to discover the elephants. I the elephants! They are just so majestic! And the baby has been so fun to watch grow up!
I wait until his ears fanned out to take this one.
Having breakfast!
Baby getting a drink! Too cute!
Female elephants have an interesting relationship. The aunt takes care of the young ones while Mom does her own stuff.
I thought it was neat how this elephant was drinking from over the wall.
Precious!
One of my favorite photos: Baby Elephant in Motion!
Then I took one picture of something other than an animal, the baobab tree.
Early we had passed the area of the savannah where giraffes are sighted, but there was not a single one around. Our guide held out hope that we would see some further down the road. Thank goodness for me, his hope was not in vain because we finally spotted some giraffes.
Erich told us that in addition to the reticulated giraffes and new type had recently been added to Animal Kingdom, the Masai. Here is one!
You can tell the spots are a little different as well as the mane.
Now that is just precious! I officially both types of giraffes.
Too quickly for me, the giraffe all walked back and away from the truck, so we moved on, arriving soon at the largest hidden Mickey, Flamingo Island. We were told that quite a few of the flamingoes were nesting at the time.
One of the nests is visible in this photo.
Up Next: The Sunrise Finale with White Rhinos, Big Cats, and Warthogs
Fantastic photos! I am thinking some of your giraffe and elephant photos need to be framed! I foresee some gorgeous scrapbooking layouts in your future!
Great pictures Cam! Love the elephants and the giraffes!
Me, too!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lexiemom
Fantastic photos! I am thinking some of your giraffe and elephant photos need to be framed! I foresee some gorgeous scrapbooking layouts in your future!
The pages for both did turn out really well! And I'm planning to frame a few of them, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HollyH
Loving this safari! Can't wait to see if the male lion was up and about.
Hopefully, I'll be able to update tomorrow so you'll know.
Wonderful shots! Especially love the baby elephant skipping along. Elephant social life is so moving-- I, too, love the way the female adults and older siblings all look after the little ones.
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so much! I'm getting better all the time, and even surprise myself. 
But that wasn't going to spoil this day! 
: 
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! 
Our guide was so knowledgable and very personable! 
it!!!!!!
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