Thanks to the PCRU, We Get to Go to DLR Too! **COMPLETE 8/21/2010** - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Just catching up again, Danielle! It sounds like you're enjoying yourselves, but ACK! what a horrifying situation at Storytellers. Glad you were able to go somewhere where they were more careful about safe meals for Izzy. Sorry to see this coming to an end!
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
The restaurants at the Grand Cali just did not represent themselves well for you and that is just too bad. They should be ashamed!!! I am very glad you had a great second meal at Steakhouse 55, yum. Izzy always seems so happy in all the pictures and she seemed to have let the Storytellers mess roll off her back nicely, she is a cutie!!! I am sad this trip is coming to an end, great TR.
Southwest Airlines: It has been quite some time since I have flown coast to coast and I was surprised with how quick the flight seemed to feel. It helped that there was no turbulence and no delays!
Grand Californian: The hotel is beautiful in a rustic, woodsy way and definitely of scale to the size of DLR. The concierge staff was lovely, very kind and accommodating. Our room had a great view of the mountains of DL and watching the fireworks from our balcony was a special treat. Walking to the parks and Downtown Disney was priceless!
Disneyland Park: We loved exploring DL; I think the theming is wonderful with so many lovely nooks and crannies filled with Disney magic! It was great fun to try out the rides unique to DLR as well as make some comparisons to those shared at WDW. Fantasmic and the fireworks were definitely highlights for us! There is a lovely quaintness to DLR.
California Adventure: I had heard a lot of mixed reviews about DCA but we really enjoyed it. Sure, it is a park in transition but there are some wonderful rides and attractions. We especially loved walking through Blue Sky Cellar and the Animation Academy. Aladdin is a family favorite and I hope it sticks around for awhile longer. The only real disappointment for me was World of Color; though I am hopeful that once they get organized, we will give it another try and I will enjoy it more.
The Restaurants: There are definitely less to choose from on sight though I felt like the options were more healthful than WDW. We had some really lovely meals and two not so lovely meals. I give high marks to Carnation Café, Café Orleans, Club 33 and Steakhouse 55. Napa Rose and Storytellers….I am jaded by the poor service in terms of the handling of Izzy’s food allergies…hopefully that was a rare occurrence for those establishments. In terms of availability of allergy friendly food? WDW has this one hands down…I give DLR a solid “C”…average but nothing above.
I think our overall sentiment was something along the lines of this….DLR has less to work with but whatever they have; they take it to a higher level than WDW. The rides, shows, and attractions were superior to many of their counterparts at WDW and the compact size makes it totally manageable. Of course, WDW has the super size and exceptional variety (as well as the food allergy TLC). The bottom line….each resort has wonderful attributes and I am thrilled we have been able to experience both!
That being said, we are jumping on a plane to WDW in about two hours from now and we are purchasing a premium pass. It is a heck of a lot of money but I have promised my son a trip back to DLR for the D23 expo and I am hoping if a good discount comes out, we can sneak in one other trip out west before then! J
Thanks for coming along on our west coast adventure!
danielle
__________________
~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
Great Trip Report Danielle!!! Sorry you had another bad service experience but at least they tried to make up for it with the gift card to a great restaurant. Sure sounds like you accomplished a lot on this trip. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with us. Looking forward to your next TR!
Just got caught up on your travels... I can't believe how much you get done each day! I think those two bad experiences at the restaurants are just frightening. Clearly, they need to do a lot more training of their staff. I've never seen anything close to this in your WDW reports, so it obviously can be done right.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Great finish Danielle! Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us! I share a lot of the same sentiments as you for our first trip out there! I hope you're having another magical time at WDW and can't wait to hear all about it!
Thanks for sahring your trip with us. I'm sorry about the service problems you had. You wouldn't think that it was so had to get Izzy's food order right.
Liz
Thanks for sharing your DLR experiences! I loved hearing your compare and contrast of DLR and WDW. It's really making me want to get to California - and I just may get my wish if my work scheduled trip goes through! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one! Enjoy your new WDW trip - so lucky!!!
__________________
A Fairy Godmother wannabe -
Look what a little Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo can do!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Danielle, thank you so much for sharing your trip to DLR with us. It sounds like you had a wonderful family vacation, despite those two meals. I'm so sorry to hear that Storytellers & Napa Rose weren't more careful with Izzy's Food Allergies to allow your family the kind of experience you deserved. Glad to hear that Steakhouse 55 was accomodating and gave your family 2 wonderful meals though. It sounds like you're going to have a wonderful time in WDW.
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: 
Cassie
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Glad you were able to go somewhere where they were more careful about safe meals for Izzy. Sorry to see this coming to an end!
Waiting to eat with Goofy - DLR May 2010
. Hope you have a wonderful time at WDW! 
Linear Mode
