It’s Always Sunny in California!..Eh?...L’il Bit! - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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From what you have shown, I believe that a trip to Disneyland requires a stay at the official Disney hotels and NOT one the others (especially the ones several blocks away.)
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From what you have shown, I believe that a trip to Disneyland requires a stay at the official Disney hotels and NOT one the others (especially the ones several blocks away.)
The ones across the street are very close, but there are only so many of those to choose from. I would want to be close!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katie
WOW that is far, was there a reason these hotels were chosen? While the tiny room seems weird my kids would've gone nuts!
I think they were just chosen because they are good neighbor hotels....and maybe because they had time to do it? Yeah I think Claire would like that too.
I don't have an update written yet for today, so I thought I would post a little news instead.
I will go off on as tanget first and confuse the heck out of all of you!
As you know, this current TR is about DL, but that I was only there due to a conference. Since then I have found some local conferences as well and attended. Just a few weeks ago I found one in Toledo and it was nice, but surely not as exciting.
I am currently working on a certification for my job. It's not required, but it is helpful to have. I started this process in Jan of 2013. You have 2 years to complete the requirements, when includes selling so much of a certain product, taking classes online and/or live seminars, which all give you so many points to use towards your certification. On top of that, you have to do 5 tours and 2 travel experiences (very specific requirements for that). It's very confusing, I know, but only certain things count for these requirements.
So far I have 1 travel and 1 tour under my belt, but have sold enough of the product(cruises). I found a seminar in the Detroit area and debated on going. It would be over an hour away, but in the end I signed up and attended it. It gave me the points I needed and it also covered 2 more of my tour credits.
So that still leaves me with 2 more tours to complete and 1 more travel experience. I had noticed when I signed up for the Detroit one, that they also were offering one in Orlando at the Dolphin in Aug. That got me thinking realy hard! While at the seminar I asked if the courses would be the same in Orlando, or if they would be different and count towards this certification. SCORE! Everything is different!
I threw this around in my head for the last week and a half. I had enough air points to fly down for free, I would just get a hotel, stay the night before and leave the day after. It shouldn't be too hard. Then something happened. The Villains Unleashed party was announced...and the date is Aug 23. Guess what day that seminar is? You guess it, Aug. 23. The Seminar is 7:30 AM till 5 PM. The party starts at 8 (though I hear you may be able to get in as early as 5). I do believe karma was in my favor.
I asked Skip about it on Monday and he was not thrilled (like I did't know that before asking), but he said I had to do what I have to do. ....so I signed up for the conference first, then I got my party ticket....and then I looked at a hotel stay. I was thinking I should try another place to check off my list. I thought about AS Sports. It is my least desirable place to every stay, but I could check it off and the price was decent. ....But you know how when you quote, it shows you the price of other resorts in the boxes next to it? Yeah, it was showing me CBR. And it wasn't that much more. I haven't stayed there yet, and so far I have only stayed at one moderate, .....so maybe I should get another one under my belt. LOL Yep, I booked CBR for the 2 nights!
I then booked my air, which was pretty high out of Detroit, but not too bad out of Columbus, so I will drive the 2 1/2 hours there in the morning and take an afternoon flight out. I don't arrive till 5:50 and my flight on Sunday leaves at 4:55, so not a lot of time there, but at least I get to go to the party and I already know a co-worker is going to it too, so I'll get to see her.
So I am now one step closer to getting this certification done! Now for the travel experience part....will I be able to get that in too before Jan!
You certainly hit that trip to Orlando just right. Sorry it is so short. Now hope you have the same kind of luck as you search for the "travel experience."
You certainly hit that trip to Orlando just right. Sorry it is so short. Now hope you have the same kind of luck as you search for the "travel experience."
I was so happy they worked out to be the same day. I never have that kind of luck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Congrats on the upcoming Disney trip!
Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Congrats on the new quick trip! I have been trying to figure a way to get there for that myself!
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I think by now, many of us were getting tired and acting a little silly while we waited.
Once everyone was on the right floor, we headed off to see some rooms.
I was obsessed with these pictures over the bed.
I just thought they were so pretty….and then I had a thought….I took similar pictures to these on my day at Venice Beach, so I decided I would see what I had and possibly make some for my home. And a few weeks ago I did just that.
This first one is blurry, but you get the idea…(that picture above them is the bridge at Pop Century ..now leading to AoA…that I took several years ago.)
And while I am on the topic of pictures, I also had this one made into canvas print as well.
Back to more room pictures.
This room had the pictures too, but just put up differently.
I believe this is another hallway picture….probably while I was waiting for another elevator.
As our tour was coming to an end we went by the arcade.
And took a peek at the 2 work out rooms.
And the arcade area once again…out that window you could see the pool.
Some of us wanted to see the pool; we could either go down the stairs or take an elevator down.
By this time most of us were feeling done for the day. But we still had one more place to go. I think when they make the schedule for these things they estimate how long people can handle it and then add an hour. LOL!
So the next stop is the Sheraton Anaheim.
I have it circled on the map, up towards the top.
As you can see, this one is fairly close, but still borderline walkable.
We had a few minutes to wait so we explored the area and used the restrooms.
They also had drinks and snacks waiting for us as well. I just never took a picture…
We started our tour and I believe our guide was the manager.
This guy was telling us all about the hotel and it was very nice, but there were some drawbacks for me, and Cass agreed too. They charge for wifi….and not just a flat rate, it’s per device…and I think it was like $9 or 10 per device per day. That just seemed outrageous to me and it would be a reason for me not to stay. They also had a parking fee, but most off site hotels in this are do, so that wasn’t a shocker.
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