The Disneyland, San Diego, and Vegas, oh my! Trip Report - COMPLETED!! 2/18/11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
The Disneyland, San Diego, and Vegas, oh my! Trip Report - COMPLETED!! 2/18/11
OK, I’ve got to get started on this thing. If I don’t start now, I’ll never do it. Hopefully this will give me the push I need to finish it as well.
This trip came about as something else to do besides WDW. We’ve been there 8 times, and while we love it (it’s our relaxing vacation – which I’m sure frequent travelers there will understand) we wanted to try something new. Last year was the DCL cruise, so this year was going to be Disneyland. My DH has an aunt who lives outside LA (Duarte) that I’ve never met in our 16 years together, which means she’s never met the kids either. We decided to go for broke, and throw LA (and Disneyland), San Diego (the zoo, WAP, and LEGOland), and Vegas into the mix. When is the next time we’re going to get out there? Who knows, so try so see what we can now! I chose July 16th thru July 30th as our dates. That gave us basically two weeks. Would we survive two weeks together?
I won’t bore you all the minute planning details. Airfare was Southwest, connecting thru Vegas to Ontario, CA. Coming home, we’d be driving from LA to Vegas in a rental car, and then flying back from there. I had reserved a rental car from the 16th to the 27th, and then another one (for one day) on the 27th to drive out to Vegas. For some reason, if I kept the car on the same ressie and went out to Vegas with it, it increased the cost of the rental by $500. Whatever, I wasn’t going to play their silly games (Budget). Hotels were Howard Johnson at DL with the Mousesavers rate http://www.hojoanaheim.com/ , the Best Western Island Palms on Shelter Island in San Diego http://islandpalms.com/ and Excalibur in Vegas as it looked kid friendly http://www.excalibur.com/ . Now, when I booked, I had no idea it was Comic Con weekend in San Diego (comic books and tv shows) otherwise I would have tried to change around our dates. Oh well. That would explain why it was so hard to find a hotel room! I purchased tickets for some things before our trip. Got our DL tickets from Ares Travel http://www.arestravel.com/ DL was running a special promo, so I ended up getting 5 day tickets for the price of 3 days. It would have cost me more to get the 4 day tickets, which is what we were planning on, so I just went with the extra day (and savings). I got our Hoover Dam tickets online as well, and I think that was it. I debated on getting passes for Balboa Park and the zoo online, but ended up not doing it (would that be good or bad?). I did have a bunch of coupons that I got off a California tourism site for the zoo and WAP, so we had those. For LEGOland, the kids belong to Brickmaster, so Alexa had gotten a free day (free child ticket with purchased adult ticket) in the issue near her birthday. Of course, I put it away, and do you think I could find it before the trip? Nope, nada, no where to be found! Then, another issue came the week before we left, and that also had a free pass in it, so at least I had one! Needless to say, I put that one away into the PassPorter pocket for safe keeping! Oh, and I ordered tickets for KA in Vegas online. We wanted to see a show, and this seemed pretty kid friendly (we’ve done La Nouba twice) and better yet, it was The Summer of Cirque in Vegas, where we were able to get great seats for only $55! Score! http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ka/default.aspx I think that was it for the planning! Now, for the trip!
Day 1 – Friday July 16th, 2010 – Travel Day
It’s been hot here in CT this summer. I mean HOT. Couple of 100+ degree days, lots of 90s. It was actually going to be cooler in SoCal than here, so I was really looking forward to that. Extended forecast called for only mid 60s in San Diego, and mid 70s in LA. Then of course, there’s Vegas. 105-110 degrees. Great (not)! Our trip out to So Cal was uneventful. Airport here was pretty empty. We had lunch, and waited at our gate. Matt’s aunt called and said we could use her car while we were out in LA/San Diego, so I decided to cancel the rental and saved myself $350. I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for the ride. The kids has Matt’s laptop and Alexa’s iPod. We were greeted with Shamu, unfortunately he was going to Tampa Bay, and not to Vegas.
The flight was was fine, other than the severe turbulence we hit about 30 minutes into the flight. I really thought we were going to break apart it was that bad (and seemed to come out of nowhere). Lots of white knuckles. Other than the kids asking every 15 minutes how much longer we made it to Vegas on time and without any other issues. We grabbed dinner (Sbarros) and waited for our Ontario plane, which was just a few minutes late. Another uneventful flight (albeit short – less than 40 minutes in the air). Alexa slept the entire way. She wasn’t feeling good, and by now her body was telling her it was past her bedtime. Once she woke up, she felt much better.
Matt’s aunt picked us up at the airport, and our luggage wouldn’t fit into her car (we have two large hard sided cases which I’m going to have to replace one of them because they both don’t fit into any rental car anymore unless it’s a minivan or large SUV). Matt brought one into the front seat with him, and somehow we managed the drive to her house. There was more family waiting there for us when we arrived (Matt’s parents had flown in a couple days before, and his other aunt who lived nearby (who I’ve also never met)) was there with her son, and lots of food. By now, my body was telling me it was 1 AM and I was ready for bed. Got the kids to sleep, had some food, and then went to sleep myself.
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.
Can't wait to read all about it Marnie. I'm bummed because I was actually in San Diego for ComicCon with Zack! I would've loved to see you again, especially since meeting you in person was the reason I started to post on Passporter. Next time you fly West of the Rockies, I'm there!
__________________
Karen, aka Zack's Mom - Lover of all Things Disney and the San Francisco Giants!
WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Can't wait to read all about it Marnie. I'm bummed because I was actually in San Diego for ComicCon with Zack! I would've loved to see you again, especially since meeting you in person was the reason I started to post on Passporter. Next time you fly West of the Rockies, I'm there!
Drat Karen! We did drive down there one night after dinner in Little Italy. Can you say crowded (I can't imagine what it must have been like during the day)! Sorry we missed you and Zack! I think the last time we saw you was either 2004 or 2005!
Yeah ... you're doing a trip report. I have been looking for one. I could not remember when you were doing your trip and thought it might have been in August. I have always enjoyed your trip reports.
__________________
Aug,1978- LBV;Apr,1987-Disneyland;March,1993-offsite;Jan,1997-offsite;Aug,1999- CBR;Sept,2000- ASMo;Aug,2001- ASSP;Aug,2002- ASMU/AKL;Jan & July 2003-POR;June,December 2004- PC;January 2005- ASMU; Aug 2005-PC;Dec 2005-AKL;Jan 2006-CBR ; July/Aug-Saratoga springs; Dec. PC;April 2007- Disneyland;Aug 2007-Disneyland & So Cal;Dec 2007-POFQ; Aug2008-POFQ & Nov 2008 PC,Y&B May 2009 ASmu, June 2009 PC ; Nov 2009 WL & POFQ;Jan 2010 BW & WL; June 2010 POFQ ; Aug 2010 Poly ;Oct 2010 WL; Jan 2011 PC
I'm so glad you're doing a trip report Marnie, I've been looking forward to reading all about your trip. Sorry for the rough start with the turbulent flight - boy would I have loved to have seen some photos of that luggage and you all in the car together!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Can't wait to hear about this trip - especially since I leave for Disneyland in 2 weeks!!! I totally understand the luggage dilemma with small cars. Been there, done that! Looking forward to more!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
I'm so looking forward to this TR! We plan to do Disneyland & San Diego in about 6 years or so. DH would actually want to go at this time so he could attend Comin Con and my aunt lives in San Diego.
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.
About This Page: 
I purchased tickets for some things before our trip. Got our DL tickets from Ares Travel 
Then, another issue came the week before we left, and that also had a free pass in it, so at least I had one! Needless to say, I put that one away into the PassPorter pocket for safe keeping! Oh, and I ordered tickets for KA in Vegas online. We wanted to see a show, and this seemed pretty kid friendly (we’ve done La Nouba twice) and better yet, it was The Summer of Cirque in Vegas, where we were able to get great seats for only $55! Score! 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
We did drive down there one night after dinner in Little Italy. Can you say crowded (I can't imagine what it must have been like during the day)! Sorry we missed you and Zack! I think the last time we saw you was either 2004 or 2005! 
Waiting to eat with Goofy - DLR May 2010
PassPorter Guide Author
Our 3 princesses LOVE the RED SOX!!!!
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Linear Mode
