A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Monday 30 March – part one: what is that woman doing?!
When I woke up, I was greeted by the very bizarre sight of the woman in front of us, who had more legroom, as she was in the first row of Premium Economy, doing her exercises, with her feet above her head. It was quite a sight, I can tell you. I thought I’d seen it wrong, but I had to put my glasses on just to check and yes, that’s what she was doing.
The rest of the flight was spending listening to music on the in-flight entertainment system and dozing. The breakfast they served wasn’t bad, with a full English breakfast for Mark and a mushroom omelette for me. I can tell you that I needed that, as I was starving by the time it came out. Again, it felt like the food took ages to come out, but it was good when it arrived.
An interesting thing happened as we neared Japan. Some of the excitement that I had been feeling began to disappear and be replaced by dread. What if I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would? What if I couldn’t make myself understood? I knew it was irrational, but that’s how I started to feel, the closer we got. As we began to fly over Japan though, the excitement took over once again, as I caught a glimpse of the country I had wanted to visit for so long. It looked like a nice sunny day and the scenery seemed very similar to home, with lots of greenery below us and coastline, as of course Japan is an island, just like the UK.
As we came into land at Narita International Airport, I was surprised by how little development there was around the airport. The amount of farmland around here was amazing to me. What perhaps amazed me even more was that once we were on the ground, everything was in English. We could’ve been at any airport in the world. I know that English is the international language of aviation, but to see the airport name in English and not Japanese wasn’t what I had expected.
We headed off the plane and very soon saw lots of Japanese writing, with both Hiragana characters (Japanese words) and Katakana characters (foreign words imported into the Japanese language) and suddenly, it did feel as if we were in Japan after all. We also saw businessmen greeting each other and bowing profusely and I mean profusely! It was really nice to see. It’s a level of respect that sadly much of the world just doesn’t have today.
We headed straight for immigration and were amazed to find a fairly long line there for foreign visitors. It seemed that we weren’t the only ones coming into Japan today. From the numbers there. We figured at least one other plane had let people off recently. The sign said that we would have a 15 minute wait, but it was actually about five minutes and then we were straight through, after giving our fingerprints and having our photo taken, with the automated system telling us what we had to do in English the whole way through.
We headed downstairs to get out luggage and saw it already going round on the carousel, which wasn’t bad going. I decided to go and check out the toilets there, looking forward to trying out the high technology Japanese toilets, but alas, it was not to be. These were just the same as the ones we’ve got at home. Shame.
We headed off through customs, watching a guy get stopped ahead of us and have his suitcases emptied out in front of him. We had no such problems, as the girl just gave our customs forms a quick glance and let us through.
Then it was out into the main area and Mark immediately spotted the Friendly Airport Limousine Bus stand that I had told him we would be going with. 6000¥ later (bout £40) and we had our tickets in our hands and headed outside to wait for our bus, which would be another 25 minutes. In that time, about four buses came and went, all of them were on time. You shouldn’t expect anything else from Japan, but it was still an eye opener for us, as we just weren’t used to that. Our bus turned up and our bags were quickly loaded and off we went.
Our bus – and yes, this information was then displayed in English!
Almost as soon as we set off, Mark noticed that the Japanese drive on the same side of the road as we do, which neither of us had realised before. You see, we’re not the only ones in the world!
I knew that Narita International Airport was some way outside Tokyo, but I didn’t realise how far out. When I saw the sign that said Tokyo was 60km way, I got the idea. At first, we saw fields and that wasn’t what I expected at all. Soon we got into the office areas and then the industrial areas and this was what I had thought we’d see. The city seemed to sprawl forever, but we were pleasantly surprised at how little traffic we saw until we got right into the heart of Tokyo.
Tokyo Disney!
It took us about an hour to get into Tokyo and, on the way, we got some views of the city. Finally, I saw places that I had been reading about for so long. It was hard to believe that we were finally here.
The American Embassy in Tokyo A filling station – look at their pumps!
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Great update Cheryl! It sounds like you had a good travel experience! Can't wait to see the rest of your photos . . . is that a giant Gumby in one of the skyline photos above? 13th from the bottom with the bridge in it? See Gumby in the background?
I know what you mean about dread. I feel like that every time I plan something really big - what if it doesn't live up to my expectations? I think that's a common feeling for us big-time planners as we put so much time and effort into our trips...
Yes, Narita is way out. I love how you can see Tokyo Disney though as you past on thru on your way to the city .
Loving your report!!!
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Enjoying Tokyo DisneySea with my Buzz & Woody...
I know'd I made a good choice! DVC - Saratoga Springs Resort
Love the gas pump. You really have to look hard to find them but I found it once you pointed it out. Cheryl, i can't believe that you didn't get a picture of the lady on the plane doing her morning routine with her legs above her head.
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
What a strange sight to wake up too...but glad that the rest of the trip was pleasant and that your feelings of dread past quickly and changed to excitement. Sounded like everything was smooth sailing at the airport...what amazing pictures of the trip into the city. Can't wait to hear more...
I have to admit that the image of that woman doing her exercises in front of you gave me a fit of giggles. I love all your photos, as usual! Can't wait for more!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
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Cathy
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Liz 
PassPorter Guide Author
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How funny to wake up to that!!!
I think that's a common feeling for us big-time planners 
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Claytrgtshooter (Minnie Lor's Hubbie)
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Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
I love all your photos, as usual! Can't wait for more!
ANGIE
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