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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi gang! I was wondering if you could give me some info on a possible trip to San Diego...If you have been there or are from that area: Is it easy or at all possible to stay in or near SD and making a day trip to Disneyland? Also, do you have a couple of hotel recommendations for a family of 9? We would be getting 3 rooms, unless you think there are house rentals that are worth looking into?
Don't really know alot about this area, so any tips would be very helpful
We were there this summer. I will be doing San Diego in my trip report after I finish up with DL. The link is in my sig.
That said, San Diego is about a 2 hour drive from Disneyland, give or take. I don't know that I'd want to do that all in one day (back and forth) as I'm assuming you're going to hit rush hour traffic at least one way. I guess it could be done, but would make for a very long day.
As for hotels, we stayed on Shelter Island at The Inn at Palms (a Best Western) so we weren't near downtown (couldn't really get anything downtown as Comic Con was going on when we were there). The hotel was very nice. It was a very short drive to the downtown area from there (less than 15 minutes).
We took a trip to San Diego with extended family (7 of us) last summer. We loved, loved, loved San Diego!!!! We did stay downtown, at the Westin Gaslamp District. We stayed using a Starwood employee discount -it can be pricey otherwise, and the daily charge for valet parking was $36 (ouch!!!). However, the location was very nice and we found we could walk and/or take public transportation to most of the places we wanted to see. We only rented a car one day -the day we went to Legoland and the Wild Animal Park. Here are my best SD tips and thoughts, in no particular order. Look into the Go San Diego card if you are going to be there more than a few days. We got this and saved a bit of $$. We also experienced some things that we might not have choosen otherwise. Old Town Trolley was a fun, comprehensive tour of the city. We also caught a ballgame at Petco Park -fun and affordable! Plan on going to the Wild Animal Park later in the day and staying until closing. We did this (arriving about 3:30 after spending the morning at Legoland) and found it almost deserted! We didn't pay extra for the special tours but I might consider it next time as we saw one of the tour trucks and the giraffes were literally sticking their heads inside the truck. A harbor tour is a must IMO -you get a great view of the city and I got some great photos. Also, we tried a Seven Caves Kayak tour in La Jolla and found it to be very fun and affordable. Feel free to ask any other questions you have. We were there for 8 days (and never ventured to DLR) and we did a bunch of things -too many to mention in one post.
Yes, you can do the day trip to DL (I did), but you'll most likely miss the fireworks because of the long drive. If possible, I'd try to spend the night in the area.
I drive from San Diego to DL almost every Saturday with my DD's. I leave around 930 and arrive at 11. We go to DL first to get FP for SM :-). We head to CA around 2. At about 430 we head back to the car for dinner ( we pack a picnic). We are back in the park at 6. The parks are so close together it really is not a problem to go back and forth easily. We stay until 11 or so. I am home by 1230. Yes it is a long day but I really do not mind it. I rarely hit any type of bad traffic. During the summer we would go twice a week on Tues and Fri. I would leave closer to 10 am these days and did not have traffic problems, maybe the occasional slow down for 5 mins or so but nothing awful. When we moved here last May we stayed at the La Quinta in Old Town and loved it. Walkig distance to Old town and the trolley. This way you could hop on to go downtown if you wanted. You can even take the trolley to the border. We are very new to the area but have some favs already Our Must sees; The Zoo, The Wild Animal Park, Cabrillo Nat'l monument, particularly the tide pools,Coronado Island is a great place to walk around and check out the Coronado Hotel. The Harbor, Old Town
You can get very reasonable hotels around DL on Priceline or Hotwire. Two yearts ago I was out in LA for my DD's equestrian finals and couldn't get a flight back using air miles until the Monday after final ended so I went to Anaheim on my own. I stayed in a Hilton Suites (looked like an old Embassy Suites) for around $50.00/night. If you had a place in SD and wanted to spend a full day at DL, you could keep the SD lodging and just do one night not far from the park.
I have not rented a house/condo in SD but I have in many other places because as a family of 5, we would need two rooms in a hotel. I have used VRBO.com and Cyberrentals.com with good luck.
We drove from San Diego to Anaheim and did a day at DLR before taking the red eye home. But I don't think I would have wanted to drive back to San Diego. And we'd already "done" DLR and DCA the weekend before, so the pressure was off.
There are so many affordable "good neighbor" hotels within walking distance of the DLR gate that I'd spend a night in Anaheim.
The San Diego Zoo was amazing. We didn't do the Animal Park -- it was "next on our list" but we only had a couple of days. If you haven't been to Sea World in Orlando, the one in SD is quite nice. Legoland was amazing -- not so much for the rides as for the models and "stuff" built with little plastic bricks. DD took a Mindstorms class which she enjoyed.
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Carolyn
Last edited by Carousel96; 09-20-2010 at 03:06 PM..
Also, most airlines will let you fly into an area airport as a "roundtrip" so you could fly into San Diego and out of Orange County or LAX. We actually did LA and San Fransisco as a round trip.
Orange county is a really nice airport-a little bigger than Manchester of Providence. LAX is another story.
Orange county is a really nice airport-a little bigger than Manchester of Providence. LAX is another story.
Orange County was our first choice last Feb, but the options for flights on ff miles were lousy. We had much more choice out of LAX. I was dreading it.
Not my first choice airport to fly through, but we managed to get out (even in the rain) and back in a week later without trouble.
Thanks for all the great tips and info gang! Right now i'm waiting on my sis and mom to make a decision on this. They don't like to think about or plan things ahead of time. And as usual i'm trying to convince them to get this done now as April isn't that far away!!
For large families such as Griffin, total of 9, you might want to consider a house. For a family of 9 a three bedroom house can rent for $300.00 a day.
One example is this link, which according to the map when you open the link, is at/next to Old Town.
What an ideal location. Across the freeway to Sea World and Belmont Park and only 5 miles to the San Diego Zoo and another couple more to downtown San Diego full of attractions, cruises, etc.
Legoland and DLR are straightr up I-5. The Wild Animal Park up I-15.
Other similiar houses for 9 people are also across the freeway in south Mission Beach.
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