Southern California. Will it be attached to the state once we're done with it? *Updated 7/9* COMPLETE - Page 18 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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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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I'm this tour!! We're going next February & I think we may need to take this one! Do you need reservations? Where do you get the tickets? How much are they? What time does the tour run? Is there a website?
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I see *MY* Rodeo Drive . . . and Mickey Mouse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Once back on the bus, we headed out of the Farmers Market parking lot . . . and past the CBS studio. Now, there was a fairly large line wrapped around outside of the studio . . . and evidently, they were all waiting for their chance to “Come on Down!” on the Price is Right!
We turned right on Fairfax and before too very long, we were on Melrose! The part of Melrose that we came to upon turning could pretty much be described as “MY Rodeo Drive”. Tattoo parlors, punk rock record shops, vintage and punk clothing stores . . . if I thought I could do some damage in the $15 store in Beverly Hills, then I would completely destroy on this section of Melrose!
There was major glare on the window, but that record store was one of the first places I saw when we turned. I think I could have found quite a few CDs to add to my collection in that store, based on the posters plastered on the windows!
Still travelling down Melrose, we passed Paramount Studios . . .
. . . then headed towards the freeway to head into downtown L.A.
We pretty much drove through all of downtown, passing:
Staples Center . . . or, as Pappy called it, “Kobe’s House”
U.S. Bank Tower . . . the tallest building on the West Coast AND the first building to be blown up in the movie Independence Day (you know, the scene where Vivica Fox tells her “co-worker” not to go downtown, but she goes to the roof of the building anyways and holds up the welcome sign for the aliens, then gets blown up? Yeah, it’s that one. )
We stopped for a short time to get out and take pictures of the Walt Disney Concert Hall . . . which is the home of the L.A. Philharmonic when they are NOT playing out at the Hollywood Bowl.
Next stop was Olvera Street, which is the oldest part of Los Angeles . . . actually, it is the “birthplace” of the city of L.A.
We were let off of the bus to shop, explore or, in my case, snack for about 30 minutes. I found a little churro shop tucked back in a little nook so HAD to stop in there. My Spanish came in handy in there, I tell you. “Dos churros, por favor!”
Our 30 minutes seemed to pass fairly quickly, so we got back on the bus and headed into Chinatown . . .
. . . then got back on the freeway to head back to Hollywood . . .
Before we knew it, we were parking outside of Jane’s House and that marked the end of the tour. When we got off of the bus, the people continuing on for the Stars’ Homes tour were directed to another bus, while we were told to hang tight and they were going to get us back to the Chinese Theater. As we stood there, we noticed this window . . . and I still laugh every time I see this pic. Am I the ONLY one who is curious about this class?!
There were a few blank stars on the Walk of Fame in this spot, and Emilie was dancing around on one . . . one of the tour company people looked at her and said “You know your name just might be on one of those someday!” So, Emilie has claimed her very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . . . now I just have to come up with the $20K and have to try and convince her to not have it right outside of the window that advertises POLE DANCING.
We were ushered onto a mini-bus a couple of minutes later and taken back to the Chinese Theater . . . once we arrived in that area, there were people everywhere. Traffic was flowing, so technically, the bus wasn’t really supposed to stop where it did to let us off and we noticed that there was a movie premiere for “Wild Hogs” being set up across the street at the El Capitan. So, we bailed off that bus REAL quick . . . I am not sure the guy really even stopped completely.
“Wild Hogs” movie premiere
We headed back to the parking garage (dodging the likes of Spiderman, Pinhead from “Hellraiser”, Batman . . . ) and made our way out to the Hilton to pick up our many, many, many pieces of luggage. We came across these on the way . . . which I thought was a good sign. No pun intended.
. . . then we passed an In-N-Out Burger. Which we never got to eat at. Which just means I have a priority on the list for my next trip out.
Once back at the Hilton, we pulled up to the valet and explained that we were there to pick up our luggage. They retrieved it and loaded it up quickly and we were off on our way down to Anaheim!
Traffic really wasn’t TOO bad (which I was rather surprised by, honestly) and before we knew it, we saw this sign . . .
COMING UP NEXT: Sarah goes nuts taking pictures of everything in the room . . . and dinner with friends!!!!
Sarah goes nuts taking pictures of everything in the room . . . and dinner with friends!!!!
So, like I said, traffic was pretty good and we made fairly good time to the Disneyland Resort. We took our exit and made our way to the entrance for the Disneyland Hotel, which would be our home for the next 5 nights!
Mickey greets cars as they enter the valet area of the DLH!
We pulled up to the valet and the bellmen started to unload our bags. This is when I tried to wake Miss Emilie up from her VERY hard slumber. Now, it was necessary that I do this only because she was way in the back seat of the Van-UV where I couldn’t really reach to carry her out, plus there were a few things we needed to put in her backpack real quick or else they would have been valeted with the car . . . along with HER, if she didn’t wake up and get out of the car. Well, she was asleep so soundly that when I “woke” her, she had the great grandmother of all meltdowns right there at the entrance of the Disneyland Hotel. It . . . was . . . NASTY. It took her a few minutes to calm down, but in that time, the bellmen finished unloading our luggage, Crystal had the car valeted and she and Doug headed in to check in. After taking a couple of pictures of the entrance . . .
Mural just inside the entrance doors
. . . I got my cell phone out and called Mike at home to see if maybe talking to him would get Emilie to keep calm. Seems it worked as she sat in a chair in the lobby and talked to him the whole time Terri and I checked in, and was chipper and pleasant once we were done and heading to the room. (I swear, that kid can turn it on and off just like *THAT*. )
We were given a room in the Bonita Tower, and told that we needed to stop by Bell Services just outside the entrance to pick up a “package”. Neither of us was expecting anything, so we were very curious to see what was there. We gathered up the things we had carried in with us and headed that way. When we arrived, Terri told the CM that we were told we had a package and she reached behind her and grabbed a pretty fruit basket (with tasty See’s Candies in it, so I knew it was partly from Karen! ) from Eileen and Karen, inviting us to the ‘Rita party prior to dinner. We noticed that there was an identical one there for Crystal as well . . .
So, anyways, we wandered back through the lobby and out towards the Bonita Tower. This is when I felt this huge wave of excitement, almost like I didn’t TRULY realize where I was until that very moment. Holy CANNOLI! I was back at Disneyland!!!
It was a quick walk back past Croc’s Bits and Bites and Hook’s Pointe and the Sierra tower, and we arrived at the Bonita tower. We headed up to our room (with our expert elevator button pusher hitting our floor’s button) and found it very quickly. We walked in, called Bell Services to bring our bags (which they VERY promptly did) and I commenced to going crazy with the camera.
Who me?! NAH!!!
Our view:
The rest of the Disneyland hotel
Grand Californian Hotel
DISNEYLAND!!!
Our room:
Entertainment center/dresser/mini-fridge hutch
Headboard
“Magic Lamp” faucet
Mickey hand sconce in the bathroom
Sneezy on the vanity over the tissue dispenser
Tink wallpaper border . . . the “pixie dust” trails her all around the rest of the room on the border and GLOWS IN THE DARK!!!!
**** I should add real quick, at this point . . . when I got home and started showing Mike all the pics from the trip (and then again when I showed my parents when they came for a visit recently) when it came to the pictures of the room, they all looked at me as if I had grown 4 heads and said "You took pictures of . . . the BEDSPREAD?! What is WRONG with you?!" Come on, give me a break.. I take pictures of EVERYTHING. ****
We did a bit of unpacking, relaxing and giggling over the fact the there is a sign on the sliding door that says, in basic terms, keep your door shut or else you’ll have birds in your room. Only they put it as something like “Our birds are very friendly and will drop in for a visit.”
Before long, it was nearing 6:30 and we were due over at the Grand Californian for pre-dinner drinks with the whole group of Girls Trippers!!! So, we headed on out!
We walked from the DLH through Downtown Disney and to the DTD entrance into the GCH . . . then we walked into the elevators and headed up to the floor where we would find the group . . . and then we walked. And we walked. And we walked some more. FINALLY we found the room . . . and Karen was SO not kidding when she told Terri that their room was in the north 40! We knew we had to have been getting close when we were able to follow the noise.
We knocked on the door and waited a couple of seconds. Then there was Eileen! And Robin, and Sharon, and Karen . . . it wasn’t too very long before EVERYONE was there. 13 people in the room at one point! There was an awful lot of talking and laughing . . . and Crystal was the only one to take advantage of the offer of extra salt on the rim for making her fruit basket into a hat.
As it neared 8:00, we all started to head out, as we had a PS at Tortilla Jo’s for dinner. When we got there, Cindy was there waiting for us and Tina went in and checked us all in. It was only a short wait and we were called in to our table for 14.
Robin, Karen and Dawn clear down at the other end of the table!
I forget our server’s name, but he was awful patient with us considering the size of our group and the fact that we were all very talkative and what-not! We all ordered our drinks and they came fairly quickly . . . Crystal’s had one of the fatttest straws I have ever seen in it. (I mean, I have seen fat straws before but they usually had that powdered candy inside of it. ) My first thought was, "WOW! Drinking out of a straw like that will get you messed up REAL quick."
Eventually, we all decided on what we were going to eat and put in our orders . . . the food was SO good. Not as good as Old Town Mexican Café in San Diego. But pretty darn good! Tortilla Jo’s is definitely on the list for dinner for next summer’s DL trip with the whole family. I have my dad and my DH interested in it, so that’s the important part!
Miss Emilie kept Miss Sharon and Miss Eileen on their toes playing a game of “I Spy” (“I Spy something brown” “I spy something brown and yellow” “I spy something brown again” ) and felt so bad because she didn’t want to talk to me or play “I Spy” with me. I mean, why would you want to socialize with your mother when there are all these other new people around to talk to ?! Honestly.
At some point during dinner, Eileen and Emilie were conversing and the phrase “Talk to the left hand, cause you ain’t right” came up. Eileen told Emilie to tell me that and . . . well . . . she did. And with just the right amount of attitude too. It caught me so off guard (and then she repeated it again with equally as much attitude) that eventually, I was laughing so hard I was crying in my Carnitas. The picture that Terri posted in her report just doesn’t do it enough justice. I don’t even know WHY it was so funny . . . I just know that it WAS.
All too soon, though, our dinners were done and it was time to settle the bill. That done we all headed out into Downtown Disney and said our good nights. Robin headed off on her date, a group headed off to ESPN Zone and Terri, Emilie and I headed back to the hotel. After the meltdown earlier that evening, I was not about to let Emilie stay up ANY longer if I was expecting to get her up bright and early to hit the parks!
Once back in the room, I got Emilie off to bed then uploaded the pictures of the day to Terri’s computer . . . then it was lights out. Terri fell asleep reading a book I brought along on the trip (“101 Things You Didn’t Know About Disneyland”) and I wasn’t far behind. But before I fell asleep, I noticed the glowing from hear the ceiling. I thought it was just my eyes trying to adjust to the dark from having had the lights on, but once I put my glasses on, I quickly realized that it was the pixie dust on the wallpaper border that was glowing! I took my glasses off and started to fall asleep, then a few seconds later heard Crystal’s unmistakable laugh outside as they were headed back from the Lost Bar. I giggled then fell asleep with a grin on my face.
COMING UP NEXT: “For your safety and the safety of those around you, we ask that you please WALK to your next destination.”
Great updates Sarah - and so many great memories, both of the tour and the Disneyland Hotel. I did exactly the same as you and went mad taking photos of the room, there are just so many wonderful Disney touches in it!
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What a wonderful thing to wake up to - a Sarah DL TR update!!! Sometimes 5am cat disagreements (we don't fight here... we disagree) have a silver lining!!!
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this tour!! We're going next February & I think we may need to take this one! Do you need reservations? Where do you get the tickets? How much are they? What time does the tour run? Is there a website? 
Tattoo parlors, punk rock record shops, vintage and punk clothing stores . . . if I thought I could do some damage in the $15 store in Beverly Hills, then I would completely destroy on this section of Melrose! 
When we got off of the bus, the people continuing on for the Stars’ Homes tour were directed to another bus, while we were told to hang tight and they were going to get us back to the Chinese Theater. As we stood there, we noticed this window . . . and I still laugh every time I see this pic. Am I the ONLY one who is curious about this class?! 
and we noticed that there was a movie premiere for “Wild Hogs” being set up across the street at the El Capitan. So, we bailed off that bus REAL quick . . . I am not sure the guy really even stopped completely. 
) and made our way out to the Hilton to pick up our many, many, many pieces of luggage. 
I have my dad and my DH interested in it, so that’s the important part! 
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