Beware Disneyland: PassPorters Are on the Loose - *Updated 6/8/07* - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great start Dawn...I can't wait to read more. YOu guys crack me up!
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Robin Twitter name: @NKsDogwalker Find me on FB: robinkay6573@yahoo.com 38th Birthday with Mom, Dad and friends 2011 Next Trip: Cruise on Jewel of the Seas for Christmas 2012
So sorry about the lady next to you. In that case I might have gone to the bathroom just to get away from her. Not sure I could have been strong enough not to join her!
After getting everything in the car including ourselves, Karen got us out of the parking garage with ease. Now Karen was being a spectacular tour guide showing us the different movie landmarks as we were passing them. Having the shuttle bus driver from you know where on my last trip, I actually enjoyed this ride to Anaheim. Karen showed us the canal where the drag race in Grease took place, the building that was blown up in Independence Day and the portion of I-5 where the jump scene in Speed took place. It was in the car that Eileen first told me the story about the “tardy” voice, which became a standard on this trip. Lots of laughing took place about random things. I was filled in about the Holiday Inn Express experience and Evan at In and Out Burger. My cheeks were already hurting and I was only 20 minutes into my trip.
However, it could only get funnier from this point out. The excitement really began to build as we saw the signs for the DLR and the hotel areas. In all the excitement, Karen made the “honest” mistake of taking the left lanes that took us to the parking structure. Although it was an honest mistake, Eileen and I were not going to let Karen live it down. Well, in the midst of us giving her the “Loser” sign, Karen pulled a move that will go down in history in my honest opinion. Instead of going down the lane where it would put her in the seat of explanation, she quickly swerved to the left and went down the lane where Eileen was put in the explanation seat. I am in the backseat rolling in laughter. Eileen did a great job talking over our laughter and explaining, as only Eileen can do, the situation to the CM. I think he just wanted us out of his lane and hurriedly put a big hot pink piece of paper under the windshield that said EXIT, smiled, and waved us through. As we were leaving, I missed the other CM pointing us in the correct direction and giving us the dork look. We completed a circle and came back around and I made sure and directed Karen into the “RIGHT LANE” and we headed toward the Grand Californian.
Still laughing about the whole parking lot incident, we pull up to the booth to let them know we were checking in. The poor CM in training didn’t know what we were in for. Karen rolls down the window and calmly says to the CM that he needs to bring the trainer with him as he couldn’t handle us. The look on that poor CM’s face was priceless. As she was explaining to the CM that we were checking in, she was trying REALLY hard to turn down the volume of the radio and then realizing that she couldn’t turn the volume of Eileen and myself. Well, that made us laugh even harder. The snorting began if I remember correctly. The CM waves us through, and we pull up under the awning in front of the beautiful doors of GCH.
We somehow make it out the car and a very nice looking CM named Mike came up with a cart to help unload our baggage. We were still laughing over the whole parking lot and volume incident as Mike gets the big pieces of luggage out of the car. He asks about the plastic bags and I think all of us said, “Be careful with the alcohol!” He asks if we have already started drinking, which any innocent bystander would have thought the same thing. We walk through the doors of GCH still in giggles and huge smiles on our faces.
We stand in line and watch the people in front of us get waved down to get checked in. Mr. Jazz Hands was so excited to see the family in front of us. We notices Ms.Grumpy Gussy looking at us, walking away, coming back to a computer, looking at us with a grimace, and waving us over. Karen gives her name and the CM pulls up the reservation without hesitation and then I give my name and she pulls up my reservation. After clicking away on her computer and disappearing into the back room, she comes out and points out the rooms on the map. Karen questions how the rooms she picked out could be a DTD view and a theme park view. The infamous question of “Oh, you still want a theme park view room?” I almost went “Well, duh” but help my tongue. More clicking away and she got us a room that was still close according to her to Karen and her group. Karen takes care of her reservation without an issue. Now as I hand the CM my debit card I explained how it was going to be paid and that my TA (mom) had confirmed this. She kept stating that the whole amount of the room would have to be held on the credit card on file until we checked out. Ummmmm…no. After her checking with her “manager” (i.e. going into the back room for 2-3 minutes and then coming back out) and explained that this is the way it had to be. We cancel my check-in and I start trying to come up with a game plan.
In the meantime, Karen has a less than magical experience trying to get her AP renewed. Remember all that laughing and giggling we had when we entered GCH, all gone. If we would have been drinking, it would have been a total buzz kill. I run and check out the ATM and find out it is a Chase ATM so no charge for withdrawing money but they would only let me withdraw a certain amount in a day. Karen talks with another CM at Guest Services trying to see if there is a Chase bank in the area while Eileen and I plop down on the comfy seats and look online. We also log on to see if Eileen got any messages from Tina about when her and Janine were due in.
Karen came back and reported there were no Chase banks in CA and Eileen graciously offered to put the hold on her card and then we would jut pay our separate amounts at check out. I thanked her profusely but hoped that once Tina and Janine arrived, it would easily get straightened out. At this point, Karen had to be heading back to the airport to continue her “magical express” duties.
I admitted to Eileen that I was really hungry. So we headed over to White Water Snacks. She highly recommended the grilled cheese kids meal so she ordered hers with carrots and I went with the French fries. I paid for the meals and we went and found a seat. The chatting began at that point and our meals were delivered within a few minutes after we sat down. Since we ordered the same thing minus the side items, we just opened up a box and starting eating. I was in the middle of a conversation when I noticed Miss Eileen munching away on a couple of French fries. I started giggling and asked if she ordered carrots. Eileen just said she was testing the warm golden goodness of my fries and we switched our boxes. She told me the grilled cheese was good but oh my…I haven’t had a grilled cheese that good in years. We continued to eat and chat about all sorts of things from work to husbands to the upcoming trip. Eileen’s phone went off and it was Sharon!! She told her where we were and she was through the door within moments to screeches and hugs from the two of us.
We dispose of our trash and head back toward the lobby. We decide to check out the gift shop. We wander around the very small store for such a big hotel and I find a couple of things that I make a note of to come check out again. Eileen comes up and asks me if the girl at the register is a Passporter. The three of us thought it was Liz (EmpressLizBunny) and we were correct. She came over and said hi and we all introduced ourselves. We made our way into the lobby, got seated on those comfy couches, chatted, and waited for Karen, Tina and Janine to arrive.
Within about 10 minutes, I hear a “Hey girls!” from behind us and more screeches and hugs as Karen has returned triumphant with Janine and Tina. After talking for a few minutes, my roomies and I decided to try the whole checking in thing again. Karen had filled them in on what happened earlier. We are waved over by a much happier looking CM named Kristen. Before we even began, we explained what we wanted to do and she said “No problem!” She just asked that we keep my card on file for incidentals. Not a problem. I turned around and gave the group the thumbs up. Within 10 minutes, we were given our key cards and early entry passes. They told us to call after 3 to find out our room number. We asked her to verify if we were close to the other group and she said we were close to one another. Lots and lots of thank yous were given to Kristen for making our check-in a very smooth process with no more hiccups.
We headed back over to the group and made a game plan. We still had plenty of time to get some park time in and we were determined to get the most of our time together. I put my park bag together and stored the laptop with Tina and Janine’s luggage. Karen suggested that we head over to DCA, as she pulled out a spreadsheet. “Not that I have anything planned out….Monster’s Inc by 2:30, Tower of Tower, Muppets, and then the Aladdin show at 4:05.” I love ya Karen! Liz came down from her room bringing yummy little treats of cookies and chocolate covered strawberries for all of us from the concierge lounge.
We exchanged cell phone numbers and knew we’d meet up before Aladdin if nothing else. Karen, Eileen, and Sharon went to go get the AP fiasco handled and pick up Eileen’s ticket. Tina, Janine, Liz, and I headed into DCA via the special entrance at GCH.
Coming Up: Lots of “Butt Lift” Time and Pictures!!
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Great update, Dawn. I love hearing about the trip from everyone's perspective!
Glad round two of check-in went well.
Looks like you guys are having a blast, thus-far!
danielle
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the situation to the CM. I think he just wanted us out of his lane and hurriedly put a big hot pink piece of paper under the windshield that said EXIT, smiled, and waved us through. As we were leaving, I missed the other CM pointing us in the correct direction and giving us the dork look. We completed a circle and came back around and I made sure and directed Karen into the “RIGHT LANE” and we headed toward the Grand Californian. 
The CM waves us through, and we pull up under the awning in front of the beautiful doors of GCH. 
He asks if we have already started drinking, which any innocent bystander would have thought the same thing. 
We walk through the doors of GCH still in giggles and huge smiles on our faces. 
but help my tongue. More clicking away and she got us a room that was still close according to her to Karen and her group. Karen takes care of her reservation without an issue. Now as I hand the CM my debit card I explained how it was going to be paid and that my TA (mom) had confirmed this. She kept stating that the whole amount of the room would have to be held on the credit card on file until we checked out. Ummmmm…no. After her checking with her “manager” (i.e. going into the back room for 2-3 minutes and then coming back out) and explained that this is the way it had to be. We cancel my check-in and I start trying to come up with a game plan.
She told me the grilled cheese was good but oh my…I haven’t had a grilled cheese that good in years. 
We continued to eat and chat about all sorts of things from work to husbands to the upcoming trip. Eileen’s phone went off and it was Sharon!! 
She told her where we were and she was through the door within moments to screeches and hugs from the two of us.
Within 10 minutes, we were given our key cards and early entry passes. They told us to call after 3 to find out our room number. We asked her to verify if we were close to the other group and she said we were close to one another. Lots and lots of thank yous were given to Kristen for making our check-in a very smooth process with no more hiccups. 
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