Celebrating the holidays and hogmanay COMPLETED 2/25 - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Better to be wet from the rain than from a tapir greeting!
We were at a zoo when my son was around 4. A volunteer asked him if he knew the closest relative to the rock hired, and he said elephant. My DH and I looked at each other and shook our heads, thinking certainly it would be a Guinea pig or rat or something. Imagine our shock when we learned he was right!!
Better to be wet from the rain than from a tapir greeting!
True!
Quote:
We were at a zoo when my son was around 4. A volunteer asked him if he knew the closest relative to the rock hired, and he said elephant. My DH and I looked at each other and shook our heads, thinking certainly it would be a Guinea pig or rat or something. Imagine our shock when we learned he was right!!
Saturday 27 December – part four: those lions look hungry…
We made our way over to Oakfield House, which is where George Mottershead’s dream had started all those years ago, when he bought this property, with the intention of creating a zoo here, and it had been the drama series of that dream that had brought us here today, so it seemed fitting to see this place.
Chester Zoo also had some lanterns, although these weren’t on the same scale as Longleat.
They also had a neat photographic exhibition of the history of the zoo here:
Here we also found some red pandas up a tree, but with the rain, they were almost impossible to photograph.
There was also a Japanese garden here..
We made our way over to the lions, who were eagerly pacing up and down. We figured that lunch must be served soon, although we couldn’t find any details of feeding times online, so we have no idea whether that suspicion was right or not.
By now, we were all a bit cold and wet, and were starting to feel in need of something to eat and drink, so we headed into June’s pavilion, named after George’s daughter who’d only been four when the family had moved here. My parents got me the book of her life to read for Christmas, and I read a few pages last night, and found it fascinating, especially as it differs quite a bit in some respects from the TV drama.
Anyway, we got a hot chocolate each…
… and my mum fed us on flapjack bites and other delicious treats – mums are good for that sort of thing.
We went to use the restrooms here, and I thought they were brilliantly themed!
Our next stop was the tiger enclosure, where I got some great shots of these beautiful animals:
My parents were just as taken with this miniature snowman, although sadly a couple of minutes after this photo was taken, he was no more. We suspect some misery knocked his head off.
I think a bit of snow always enhances the beauty of a Japanese garden. Something about the red of the bridge and the white snow.
Love the pictures you got of the lions and tigers! It looks like they were right in front of you! How far was it? Since I know the wonders of your zoom lense!
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I think a bit of snow always enhances the beauty of a Japanese garden. Something about the red of the bridge and the white snow.
Love the pictures you got of the lions and tigers! It looks like they were right in front of you! How far was it? Since I know the wonders of your zoom lense!
The close-up shots of their faces were on the maximum 50 times zoom. I was especially pleased with the one of the tiger, given he/she was moving at the time, but I just lucked out and couldn't believe the shot I got!
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