National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! DISNEYLAND SECTION COMPLETED - Page 18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Saturday 27 August – part five: you’re going over the pond to do what?
We quickly found Mari, Raleigh and their granddaughter Lauren, who they were looking after today, and we stood there chatting a while. I’d been texting Carrie and we’d agreed that they’d meet us there as well and see if they could get in with us. After a couple of missed calls between us, I finally got through to Carrie and she told me she was in the hub in a white hat. I asked her if she had a green top and told her to turn around and she’d see us!
We checked in and there was no problem whatsoever adding two people to our reservation. Good grief, you just can’t imagine that happening in Orlando, can you? We entered and you pay as you enter, which I think is a much easier way of doing things.
Then we had our “family” photo taken and, as it turned out to be the only photo we got of all of us together that day, we bought it.
We were seated and almost immediately, we were inundated with characters, starting with the best of the bunch, my donkey boy. I was delighted to see him here and got some nice quality time with him.
I couldn’t get over how many characters there were circulating here. There must’ve been at least a dozen doing the rounds. It was unbelievable and literally they were coming at you all the time. Amongst those we saw were Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Minnie, Chip, Dale, the Fairy Godmother, Max, Rafiki, Gideon, and Captain Hook.
Trying on Raleigh’s hat for size! And another character takes a liking to Raleigh’s hat!
Of those, by far the best interaction came from Captain Hook. Now he’s never a character I’ve gelled with, but we all had a ball with him. First, Mark kept saying Tick Tock to him, which of course went down very well.... not! Then he started to try and tell us something and this is where it just got hysterical. We got as far as “I go...” and then we couldn’t work out what he was doing. We were all really bad at charades. He was getting more and more frustrated, banging his head on the table at one point!
Eventually, he moved off and we thought he’d given up, then we noticed what he’d done. He’d got a serviette and a pen from another table and back he came, to write his message to us. He told us that he was going to go across the pond to get Wendy. Carrie’s next line was just perfect – “because she’s hot and you’ve got a thing for her?” Oh my goodness, Captain Hook was absolutely mortified at that suggestion and quickly tried to set the record straight. Finally we got it... Wendy was with Peter Pan, so if he got one, then he’d get the other. Ok....
It was worth every penny just for that interaction, which also included some hilarity with Tweedledum and Chip (at least I think that’s the way round it was) fighting for my affection... and some very funny X-rated moments with Tweedledee about how his bow tie was falling down, then he adjusted it and put it a bit lower and we told him it could be a bikini!
Apart from the wonderful interaction, the food was pretty good too. I was impressed by the fact that they had French toast – and very good it was too – and Mari told me to sample the omelettes as well, as they were “superb” in her words. I have to concur. They were excellent and I have to say some of the best I’ve ever had. This gets full marks from me and is something I’d definitely do again if we come back here.
Breakfast in the Park:
Food 9 8
Service N/A N/A
Atmosphere 10 10
Value for money 10 10
Average score: 9.50
By the way, just a word here, there’s no score for service, as there really isn’t any here. You pay on the way in – a very good idea – and then you just go up and get everything you want, including drinks, so there’s nothing for a server to do. Personally, I preferred that.
Finally, we headed out, after being in there for some time. Carrie and Patrick departed early, as they were going for a different breakfast, but I’m glad they could enjoy the fun with us.
Next: “if you didn’t enjoy it, I’m Mark from England!”
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What a great breakfast!! Can't believe how many characters. Sounds like you were all laughing too much to eat, so I was glad to hear you did have breakfast and that the offerings were delicious. That set up of pay on the way in is a great idea!
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That looked like a fun breakfast! When we were out there, I had to choose between the Plaza Inn or Goofy's at the DL hotel, and I chose Goofy's. It was good food, and fun, but not nearly as entertaining or character-full as yours was!! Mental note for next time.... plan on Plaza Inn!!!
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Saturday 27 August – part six: “if you didn’t enjoy it, I’m Mark from England!”
We wanted to go and hit some more rides, so we headed towards Adventureland, for Indiana Jones, but we found the Jungle Cruise on the way and opted for that. You could tell that it was much more crowded now, so we used the Guest Assistance Card to board and at first, we were the only ones on the boat. We did try and persuade our skipper to bypass the regular line, but sadly he wouldn’t...
It was a very fun ride and the skipper played off us a bit, saying at the end that if you didn’t enjoy it, his name was “Mark from England.” At least he seemed to have a huge amount of enthusiasm for it, whereas all too often, sadly you feel as if they’re going through the motions. Not this guy... :
Then it was off to the Indiana Jones Adventure, where the Guest Assistance Card took us in through the exit, which was a bit surreal. Just as we got there, Mark opted not to ride, so the rest of us piled on. I have to say I think he probably made the right decision, as it was a lot more jerky than I remembered it. I still enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but there was no way I’d be going back for seconds...
We emerged and Pirates was decided as our next stop. Here, too we entered through the exit and off we went. However, about halfway round, we hit a boat jam and were stuck in the big battle scene, which is quite early on in the ride, for some time, before we finally moved on.
As we came out of there, the heat really was overpowering. I was starting to feel very tired, so I suggested to Mark that perhaps we should start to wander back towards the Grand Californian for some downtime in our room. He agreed and we all set off through the shops of Main Street, enjoying the air conditioning in there.
I was able to get a 12 x 12 scrapbooking pack and it’s just as well I grabbed it in the Emporium, as there was nothing like it when we got to World of Disney, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
We headed out through Town Square...
... and back towards Downtown Disney.
Then it was into World of Disney, where we managed to find a few bits of pieces. We each got a T-shirt and I found a Christmas decoration, along with a small Remy as a Christmas present and a new pair of sunglasses. Mari very kindly gave me a 20% off coupon, which gave us a nice saving so very much for that.
Shopping done, we headed for the room, as the guys wanted to see what it was like.
I think it’s fair to say that they were as impressed as we had been the night before. We sat there chatting for a while, but it was clear that Lauren, quite rightly for a 10-year-old was bored of grown-up talk, so they headed back to the parks, while we decided to have some downtime. I made a conscious decision to try not to sleep, as I wanted to make sure that I could sleep tonight, so instead I spent my time editing up the photos, writing the trip report and catching up online. After many frustrating near misses, I finally managed to get the BBC iPlayer, which had been fooled into thinking we were in the UK, thanks to some clever software, to startdownloading the episode of Doctor Who that had just aired at home.
We headed back into the parks around 3:30 pm, using the Grand Californian’s private entrance into the parks. This is a park I really love here. I love this perk in every park they have it and it’s something I wish you had, say if you were staying at the Beach Club. How cool would it be to have your own private entrance into Epcot than only resort guests staying at that resort could use?
I thought we were going the right way for the Wine Country Trattoria, but we stopped at the nearby DVC booth to check and the guy there was so pleasant. He chatted away to us, wishing Mark a and told us all about the preview centre here, with models of the rooms at Aulani. He’d just come back from there and told us how amazing the resort was. He really sold it to me there and then. I have to go see it some day.
We were going the right way, so we carried on walking through, getting some photos of this part of the park. I think this is my favourite, as I just love the theming of it and the way it’s overlooked by the Grand Californian, which seems to fit in perfectly.
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I was delighted to see him here and got some nice quality time with him. 
I was impressed by the fact that they had French toast – and very good it was too – and Mari told me to sample the omelettes as well, as they were “superb” in her words. I have to concur. They were excellent and I have to say some of the best I’ve ever had. This gets full marks from me and is something I’d definitely do again if we come back here. 
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Just as we got there, Mark opted not to ride, so the rest of us piled on. I have to say I think he probably made the right decision, as it was a lot more jerky than I remembered it. I still enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but there was no way I’d be going back for seconds... 
very much for that. 
was bored of grown-up talk, so they headed back to the parks, while we decided to have some downtime. I made a conscious decision to try not to sleep, as I wanted to make sure that I could sleep tonight, so instead I spent my time editing up the photos, writing the trip report and catching up online. After many frustrating near misses, I finally managed to get the BBC iPlayer, which had been fooled into thinking we were in the UK, thanks to some clever software, to startdownloading the episode of Doctor Who that had just aired at home. 
and told us all about the preview centre here, with models of the rooms at Aulani. He’d just come back from there and told us how amazing the resort was. He really sold it to me there and then. I have to go see it some day. 
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