The Life of a VIP - Adventures By Disney Backstage Magic - Page 27 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
So I'm going to keep consistent: This just gets better & better & better!
I got teary-eyed reading about the Partners statue and the Roy & Minnie statue too!! Of course it doesn't take much these days - darn pregnancy hormones!
Holy memorbilia batman!! Lots of great stuff. I was particularly intrigued by this one:
The little doombuggy with Mickey, Goofy and the hitchhiking ghost is awesome!!!!!
Absolutely love all the legends handprints, that's such a treat to see. This tour is just over the top.
__________________
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
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Ballston Lake, NY
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 46,162
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 94
Likes (Received): 241
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 139
Pixie Dust (Given): 3
Pixie Dust (Received): 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
At the Magic Kingdom in WDW, the Partners statue faces the Roy & Minnie statue. There, Walt is saying to Mickey, “It’s time for you to join Roy and Minnie.”
This made me cry!!!
This part of the tour was awesome!!! Loved all the pictures!!!
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.
Just catching up sharon
what a fantastic trip you are having - I am so jealous
what great pics
congrats on all of your purchases
hurry back with more please
OK, so I pulled out some of the stuff I bought at Imagineering and took a photo. I didn't include any of the pins since they're going to be gifts for people who may be reading.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsteiny23
Okay...2 posts to catch up on. Okay...the Imagineering tour. I think I may have said this once or twice before but WOW!! What an amazing tour! I love the Mickey and mops that will be hanging off of the Dream, very cool! And hey...you saw them being built. Oh...Mickey's of Glendale...a shoppers heaven! How did you manage to keep it just $50 over your gift card. I'm always of the mindset when I have a gift card in hand that really no matter what I spend I can always tell Craig "yeah, but I saved (fill-in-the-blank)!" He doesn't always buy it.
Wow again for the Studios tour!! Love the Picture of Mickey drawing himself into the future. Way Cool! Okay, why is the guy touching the actual Steamboat Willie script with his oily hands!! Love the 3 paw prints And love me some sweet potatoe fries too!! I am absolutely loving this TR and seriously thinking of planning this one with the boys. I assume they do something similar for families too??
Dawn, we share the same shopping philosophy. And I love % off sales, because the more you spend, the more you save! There weren't any kids on this tour, but I'm pretty sure it's exactly the same with kids.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disney_duke
Holy memorbilia batman!! Lots of great stuff. I was particularly intrigued by this one:
The little doombuggy with Mickey, Goofy and the hitchhiking ghost is awesome!!!!!
Absolutely love all the legends handprints, that's such a treat to see. This tour is just over the top.
I actually have one of those!
Quote:
Originally Posted by TinkerBelz
Could that street sign have been for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"?
It's been a long time since I've seen WFRR, but I think I remember seeing it in there. But it was there before then. It was an older movie. I want to say The Reluctant Dragon, but I'm not 100% sure.
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
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.
I've got the next update ready, so I'm going to go ahead and post it right now.
Standard disclaimer: This is a detailed TR with many spoilers. If you don’t want to know all the details, stop reading. Also, there are some things listed on the itinerary and some things not listed on the itinerary. For things not listed, I will post an additional spoiler warning, in case you want to read about it but not spoil all the little surprises.
Day Six, Part Three Upgrade! Woot!
After our bus ride (I guess it took about an hour and a half? I don’t remember, really), we were pulling into our home for the next three nights, the Grand Californian. There was a special counter for us to check in since there were so many of us. We didn’t really need to check in, just get our packet and room keys and put a credit card on the room if we needed to.
Once I’d gotten checked in, I headed up to my room. I really love the Grand Californian. I took a few quick pictures of the room.
Then I went out to the balcony to check out my view. I noticed that there were ABD’ers all around me! And they were all popping out to check out their views and saying hello to each other.
Here’s a photo Heather took of me!
This was a nice location because I got to watch the monorail go by!
When I went back inside, I discovered that my luggage had been delivered while I was out on the balcony. I hadn’t even heard the CM! Actually, only one of my two bags had been delivered, but the one I wanted had arrived. I changed into warmer clothes for an evening in the park and then headed down to meet the group. We didn’t have a lot of time to really freshen up, again, thanks to us being behind time all day.
Once the group had gathered in the lobby, we all walked through Downtown Disney over to the Disneyland Hotel.
Now, the Backstage Magic itinerary says that dinner is at Hook’s Pointe, but we were informed that our group would be dining at Steakhouse 55 instead. I was happy with that news because I’d heard wonderful things about Steakhouse 55 and it was on my list of places to try. Also, Steakhouse 55 is almost what would be considered a signature dining experience.
Before we headed in for dinner, though, they had a little reception set up for us with some snacks and a wine tasting.
Then we went into the dining room. I loved that there were old pictures all over the place.
Our group had one of the dining rooms almost all to ourselves. I started with a Caesar salad with olive tapenade crouton that was very good.
I ordered the steak (there was a choice of free range chicken, broiled salmon or NY strip) and I ordered it medium-well (don’t judge me ). Well, it came out well done.
I assume there was a problem because they had to prepare so many dishes all at once. I say this because of Steakhouse 55’s excellent reputation and in my opinion, a steakhouse’s reputation is based on two things – their cuts of meat and knowing how to prepare them to a diner’s taste. I actually don’t mind steak cooked well-done that much, so I just ate it, but I wouldn’t mind a do-over at Steakhouse 55.
Dessert was a very tasty apple tart.
During dinner, one of my fellow Adventurers handed out custom made M&Ms to everyone.
She was at my table and she cracked me up with her story of these. She said she got some strange looks when she went through security with 44 little plastic bags. She wanted to bring a little scale with her to make sure everyone got the same amount but figured that would be pushing her luck.
After dinner, we paused for a bathroom break and I got a couple of pics of the mosaic on the floor of the hotel.
As much as I love the Grand Californian, I have a total soft spot in my heart for the DLH. It’s just so very Disney. And I loved that Walt had a hand in it, too.
Once everyone was ready to go, the group walked over to Disneyland. They gathered us up in front of the gate. We were told a bunch of cool things. This could possibly be a spoiler, depending on how spoiler-sensitive you are. If you want to skip the non-ABD itinerary spoilers, you might want to skip to the next post. I don’t think it’s a big deal, and in fact it will probably help with your planning.
First, they handed out our 4-day park hoppers. They just had a stack and handed them out. I got Goofy! It would be our responsibility to keep track of them from that point on. Jaime was constantly reminding us before we left, “no tickie, no Mickey.” They also had one FP for each of us to use that evening.
Also, they were opening a special turnstile just for our use, so we wouldn’t have to wait in line with the unwashed masses to get into the park. And for anyone that wanted to, they were taking us to the Haunted Mansion. And then, if anybody wanted to ride the Finding Nemo Subs, they would take us over there. Score! That’s a non-FP attraction, and it would’ve been very difficult to ride that on our own because of the long lines.
So the group headed over to the Haunted Mansion.
They cleared the place out for us. Literally. There wasn’t another soul in the mansion besides our group (and the 999 happy haunts, of course). I have a couple of photos that the guides took.
Of course I didn’t know about this picture, and I cracked up when I saw it on the Photopass CD. Our guides were hams and I it!
I wasn’t about to pass up on the Nemo subs, so I joined the group riding that. Not everyone wanted to do that, but we still had a big group and no, that isn’t foreshadowing.
After a few minutes we were able to go right to the front of the line.
I’d say there were about 38 of us on the sub. All adults. I suppose the subs aren’t built to handle that many adults, so we were scraping the bottom of the lagoon – before we even “dove” – we must really be heavy. The CM stopped the sub and told whomever was on the other end of the radio that we hit really hard and bounced up out of the water. The response? A bored, almost exasperated, “just keep going!!” I could practically see him rolling his eyes on the other end of the radio. But I have to admit, this made me a little nervous. I’m not claustrophobic at all, but I started thinking about us getting stuck out in the middle of the lagoon, underwater. It was too cold for a swim.
Luckily, we proceeded without bottoming out, and everyone had a good laugh about it after the fact.
SPOILER WARNING! Skip to next post to avoid mini spoiler. After the ride, our guides handed out that day’s pin.
We were told we’d be meeting in the lobby of the GC at 7:00 to head into Disneyland for our breakfast at Club 33.
It was almost park closing time (11:00). I had a FP, I was in Tomorrowland, so what should I do? Space Mountain, naturally. A group of us made the same choice and walked over. I was glad to have the FP, since there was a 45-minute standby, even though it was almost park closing. We waited about 10 minutes with our FPs and then we were riding! Whoo! I love the Disneyland version of Space Mountain. So much fun!
After that, I called it a night. The park would be closing in 6 minutes, so some of the group went to ride Buzz Lightyear since there was no wait. Because I stink at Buzz, particularly the DL version, I skipped it.
I strolled through DTD, just enjoying the sights (I probably should’ve taken some photos, since I have so few to share ). SPOILER WARNING! Skip to next post to avoid mini spoiler. Back at the room I discovered that the guides had made photo postcards of some of our group photos and put them in an envelope and slipped them under the door.
I unpacked and got ready for bed. I set a wakeup call for 6 am, just in case, because Club 33 was a do-not-miss moment. Besides, Disneyland still has the original “up and at ‘em” Mickey wakeup call, which I love! The next day was a biggie – Club 33 and a tour of Walt’s apartment above the firehouse among other things. Lights out!
Up Next: The best day so far!
Sorry about the short posts, but I wanted to play it safe in case some people are trying to avoid some spoilers.
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
OMG! Shaun Cassidy works at Disney? Shaun Cassidy? Hardy Boy, Singer, brother to David? THAT Shaun Cassidy? What ever does he do for Disney???
Er. Um. Great update. Can't wait to read when you get to Disneyland (my home away from home!).
So I guess you know who Shaun Cassidy is? I don't think he works for Disney. I think he has a production company and the offices are at the Walt Disney Studios.
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
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: 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
but WOW!! What an amazing tour! I love the Mickey and mops that will be hanging off of the Dream, very cool! 
Oh...Mickey's of Glendale...a shoppers heaven! How did you manage to keep it just $50 over your gift card. I'm always of the mindset when I have a gift card in hand that really no matter what I spend I can always tell Craig "yeah, but I saved (fill-in-the-blank)!" He doesn't always buy it. 
And love me some sweet potatoe fries too!! I am absolutely loving this TR and seriously thinking of planning this one with the boys. I assume they do something similar for families too??
There weren't any kids on this tour, but I'm pretty sure it's exactly the same with kids.
It was too cold for a swim. 
Linear Mode
