Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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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.
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08-04-2005, 05:05 PM
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#1
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Dopey's biggest fan!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: China Spring, TX
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 26,975
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DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- COMPLETED 8/14 (2 updates)
DAY 3 PART 2 – Disney ---- West Coast style!!!
<font color="red">Those of you that are experienced Disneylanders will have to excuse my sometimes “in-depth” explanation of Disneyland!!!  Even though I have been there a few times, it was 11 years since my last trip . . . and I went into my report with the mindset that there are quite a few people on the boards who have never been at all . . . </font>
<font color="blue">Well . . . it was coming up on around 2:30pm-ish and we had seen all that we had intended on seeing in our very short time in the beautiful city of San Diego  , so after we had driven across the Coronado Bay Bridge, we made our way to Interstate 5 and headed north. We hit a little bit of road construction and congestion near Del Mar (they were working on the freeways AND the SD County Fair was going on at the Del Mar Fairgrounds/Racetrack!!!) but after that it was smooth sailing all the way to Anaheim. I was able to snag a picture of Angel Stadium . . . oh, excuse me . . . Angel Stadium of Anaheim, the official home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim  (Does anyone remember when they were just the plain old California Angels and they played at Anaheim Stadium? What’s up with the dumb name changes?) ANYWAY . . .
As we got into Anaheim and approached the area on I-5 that we would need to be getting off . . . we kind of got into a discussion about which exit it was that we had to take. I don’t know HOW many times I said the words “Disney Way”, but it never fazed Emilie. She just kept on staring out the window, like “Where ARE we?” She didn’t even get it when I took pictures out the window of the Tower of Terror!!! So we took our exit, and as we were Emilie saw an “Adopt-a-Highway” sign that was sponsored by Disneyland . . . she nonchalantly says “Hey, I saw a sign that said Disneyland on it. That’s funny.” STILL not getting the idea, that girl!!! Even when we stopped at the traffic light (or was it a stop sign?) at the top of the exit and we could see the Matterhorn right there to our left, did she get it? NO!!!  Truth be told, she didn’t REALLY get the idea until we went down Harbor Boulevard a bit further and she saw the sign over the walkway entrance right by the hotel we were staying at!!! Then it was “WE’RE AT DISNEYLAND!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! DISNEYLAND AND DISNEY CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE IN CALIFORNIA!!! MOM!!!” (What? You think she doesn’t know about EVERYTHING Disney?  ) It was even BETTER than the reaction she had when I surprised her with our girls only trip to WDW last January!!! (Wow . . . how am I going to top that in November? Any ideas? Anyone?)</font>
Tower of Terror from Interstate 5 (and taken while driving about 60 MPH!)
Matterhorn taken while waiting to turn left from our freeway exit!
Entrance plaza into the Disneyland Resort!!!
<font color="blue">We checked into our hotel, the Park Vue Inn, right around 4:30pm. We were in (the VERY tiny) room 109. We unloaded the car and, once we did, there wasn’t too much room to walk around the room . . . ESPECIALLY not with 4 people in there!!! The beds were SUPER hard . . . but you know what? I was at frickin’ Disneyland and I didn’t give a rip!!! 
  
We turned on the TV for a couple of minutes while we looked at the street map to get our bearings (so much has changed over the past few years!) and I brought out the Golden Mickey Ears!!! Emilie has always been interested in reading maps, and this trip, she got WAY into it. She became our little navigator </font>
 
Emilie and her Poppa (my dad) checking out the first map of the trip!
CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!!!
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08-04-2005, 05:09 PM
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#2
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Dopey's biggest fan!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: China Spring, TX
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 26,975
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST!!!!
<font color="blue">Once we figured out where were, we headed out walking down Harbor Blvd. to McDonald’s to grab a quick bite to eat then headed back and walked across the street to Disneyland property!!! </font>
The sign over the walkway that heads into the Disneyland transportation area and walkway into the parks and DTD!
A map of the Disneyland Resort --- the “Esplanade” that I will mention soon, is that area between the 2 parks
<font color="blue">We had our bags peeked through by DL security, then headed into the Esplanade. The first thing I noticed were the crowds that were lined up to get into Disneyland!!! INSANE!!! It WAS a Friday evening and all, but WOW!!! LONG lines!!! No lines to get into DCA though!!!</font>
Check out this bench!!! I WANT one (whenever I get my own house with a backyard, that is!!! :wink&#61514;
The lines at the turnstiles for DL
<font color="blue">I almost freaked out, I was so excited!!! But I managed to maintain my composure . . . I assure you, though, it was TOUGH!!! We made our way, slowly, through the Esplanade . . . .me, snapping photo after photo after photo . . . then we walked into the Downtown Disney District!!! </font>
World of Disney and part of La Brea Bakery (OMG . . . the bread in there!!!  )
Catal Restaurant, looking back to Build-A-Bear Workshop and Department 56 is to the right of the photo behind the 50th banner
DTD entrance to the Grand Californian Hotel
Outside of Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen
 
House of Blues and Rainforest Café
Monorail pulling into the DTD station
<font color="blue">We mainly just wandered and looked around, but I did happen to pop into WOD for a couple of minutes. It is small (compared to WDW's), and BOY was it CROWDED!!! I found a couple of pins I liked so I bought those and we wandered some more. We played a while in the Lego store, went into Build-A-Bear but it was TOO crowded and we spent a bit of time in Department 56 looking at all the AWESOME snow villages and figurines. If I had lots of money, I tell you, I would have bought a TON in that store!!! The coolest were the London and NYC “villages” all dressed and lit up for Christmas . . . VERY tempting!
Feeling a little “shopped out”, we headed out of DTD and back into the Esplanade. We saw that they were displaying Herbie the Love Bug out there (“Herbie Fully Loaded” was opening the following weekend, I believe) so we popped over there to see him . . . Emilie and my dad “posed” somewhat for a pic with Herbie.
Then it was back to the hotel for a swim!!! Well . . . for Emilie anyway!!! She floated around (with her Nemo arm floaties on) for about 30 minutes of so then got out saying she was “C-c-c-c-c-old!” </font>
  
Check out the concentration on that little face!!!
<font color="blue">So we went inside so she could take her bath and play hide and seek. Yes, I said hide and seek . . . and in that tiny room, there SURE weren’t too many places to hide!!! We headed up to the breakfast terrace about 9:30 to watch the fireworks (ah, the benefits of staying RIGHT there near the parks!) then retired to the room for the night. While we were watching the news, we heard that just about 3pm that afternoon an LA County Sheriff’s Deputy was shot and killed as a result of gang activity ---- so sad He was just 35, had 2 kids and had just remarried 3 weeks earlier. I just don’t understand some people!!!
We were all pretty much passed out by about 11:30pm . . . we had a BIG day coming up ahead of us!!! </font>
COMING UP NEXT: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy”
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08-04-2005, 05:27 PM
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#3
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Community Rank: Trekker 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Near Seattle, WA
Posts: 1,183
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
Sarah:
Oh my goodness!
This just keeps getting better and better! 
I love the pics of Emilie swimming and trying so hard!
So sad to hear about the sheriff being killed!  I know what you mean about not understanding people sometimes!
Hope to read more soon!
We've got to get those WDW folks over here!!! 
Tina  |
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08-04-2005, 05:57 PM
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#4
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PassPorter and WDW Addict
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Texas
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 12,489
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
Oh Sarah I love all the photos! I haven't been to Disneyland in so long it was good to see all the changes! Emilie looked just precious in her floaties! More please!
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08-04-2005, 06:10 PM
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#5
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But why is the rum gone?
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Needville, Texas
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 12,286
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
Love the pics Sarah! Emilie is so cute!!
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08-04-2005, 06:36 PM
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#6
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Louisville, KY
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 18,767
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
Another great update Sarah!! Emilie is just so cute! I love that red dress she is in. I can't wait for your next installment! Seeing all of your wonderful pictures just makes me even more excited for my trip in February.
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08-05-2005, 09:20 AM
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#7
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: NC
Posts: 12,270
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
[ QUOTE ]
DTD entrance to the Grand Californian Hotel
[/ QUOTE ]
Totally got distracted by this picture... (thinking of Dina ~ Happymommy's TR) "LOOKADAT!!!!" See the kid's hat? 
I am loving your TR Sarah!! DH and I have to get to DL soon! You are inspiring me!!
I can't believe that butthead that wouldn't listen to you about your stroller!! You shoulda picked up your nametag and held it in his face!! What a stinker! 
I can't wait for more!! |
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08-05-2005, 10:06 AM
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#8
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New York
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,960
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
Great updates, Sarah! I can't believe how rude that guy was! All the detail in your TR is making me so excited for my upcoming trip! More, please! |
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08-05-2005, 01:26 PM
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#9
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But why is the rum gone?
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Needville, Texas
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 12,286
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
How rude of that guy to take your stroller and argue with you!!! Other than that you sound like you are having a great time.
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08-05-2005, 01:35 PM
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#10
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Posts: 1,410
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
I'm lovin' your day at Disneyland! I feel like I am right there with you! Having never been to DL...I appreciate all of the detail! Lookin' forward to more!  |
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08-05-2005, 02:38 PM
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#11
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Dopey's biggest fan!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: China Spring, TX
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 26,975
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
[ QUOTE ]
Totally got distracted by this picture...
[/ QUOTE ]
I kind of figured you would be, Melissa . . . After I posted it, I noticed the hat again . . . and that I had used the word "Frickin'" too!!!
What the frick . . .
<font color="blue">Oh . . . about the stroller guy . . . that WAS the only nasty person (beside the dummies who walked in front of my Castle/Partners photos) that I encountered in 2 1/2 days at DL!!! Glad it happened earlier in the first day so I could enjoy the rest of my time there!!! </font> |
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08-05-2005, 02:55 PM
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#12
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Louisville, KY
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 18,767
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
What a wonderful update!! Other than the run in with the nasty man who had your stroller, it sounds like the day has gone along wonderfully! More please!
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08-05-2005, 04:01 PM
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#13
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Near Seattle, WA
Posts: 1,183
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
Go Sarah!~ Go Sarah!~ 
Nice job!
So sorry about the rudeness!!!
Tina |
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08-04-2005, 08:16 PM
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#14
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Community Rank: Jetsetter 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,022
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
Wow, Sarah. What great pictures. I have never been to DL and am enjoying your TR so much. Emilie is such a cutie. can't wait to read more.
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08-04-2005, 08:36 PM
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#15
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Batman's Gal/Mickey's Pal
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Owensboro, KY USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 95,254
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Re: DopeyGirl goes to Disneyland!!! THREAD 2 --- Day 3 Part 2 -- UPDATED 8/4!!!
Thanks Sarah for all the details. I have NEVER been to Disneyland. Hopefully, we will get there some day, but it's looking like 2006 or 2007 before that happens. Your pictures are terrific and Emilie is such a doll!
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