Forever Young: A Disneyland Trip 50 Years in the Making COMPLETED 1/16/16 - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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 am just getting caught up again, but oh, how I love that parade!!! We watched it on YouTube and while I know it isn't the same as watching it in person, we still loved it! Your pictures were great! What a fun ending to your day. I thought it was so perfect that you ran into Heather in New Orleans Square of all places!
This parade is just incredible. I'd watched it on YouTube before we left, and even though I knew what to expect, I was still awed.
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Originally Posted by Pris
That looks like sooooo much fun!
The whole party was a blast!
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Originally Posted by Roxie2006
The party looked like lots of fun. You have beautiful shots of the awesome parade. The entire night looked very Magical.
Hi there. I don't post usually, but wanted to let you know I truly enjoy hearing about your trips. I really like the red look for Snow White's Scare Adventure too. Just adds to that Halloween feel. Thanks for sharing!
What a great trip so far! I wish I could've seen Heather. I hadn't realized she was in town until you told me about it.
I'm so glad you had such a wonderful time this trip. I kept worrying the heat would mess up your plans! I love reading about all your excitement at finally being in Walt's park!
About the Halloween Party, I've only been once (with Melanie and Meri) and it was terribly crowded and not really fun for me because of the crowds. They have to be over-selling it because it felt more packed than the busiest summer day!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
What a great time the two of you had at MHP! You got to go on quite a few attractions, plenty of treats and meet up with a PP in Heather for the parade and fireworks! Great photos from the parade!
What setting do you use on your for these night photos of the parade and other ones as they came out so well?
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Hi there. I don't post usually, but wanted to let you know I truly enjoy hearing about your trips. I really like the red look for Snow White's Scare Adventure too. Just adds to that Halloween feel. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for reading! I thought the red was pretty cool later, but at first I was frustrated at how dark the shots were.
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Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
What a great trip so far! I wish I could've seen Heather. I hadn't realized she was in town until you told me about it.
I'm so glad you had such a wonderful time this trip. I kept worrying the heat would mess up your plans! I love reading about all your excitement at finally being in Walt's park!
About the Halloween Party, I've only been once (with Melanie and Meri) and it was terribly crowded and not really fun for me because of the crowds. They have to be over-selling it because it felt more packed than the busiest summer day!
The heat will eventually slow us down a bit, but we still managed to have loads of fun, and it didn't dampen my spirits a single bit. We definitely noticed the crowd because it had been so manageable during the day. I was determined to stay, and it helped that our plans weren't elaborate. We knew we wanted to trick or treat a little, ride HM with the NOB overlay, and see both the parade and fireworks. We managed that so it was a success.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
What a great time the two of you had at MHP! You got to go on quite a few attractions, plenty of treats and meet up with a PP in Heather for the parade and fireworks! Great photos from the parade!
What setting do you use on your for these night photos of the parade and other ones as they came out so well?
Since I didn't have a tripod, I used a pre-programmed setting on my camera for night scenes.
The party sounds like lots of fun. You got some great pictures of Paint the Night. I don't usually take time for parades while at WDW, and I agree that MSEP is not great. After seeing Paint the Night, I have some high expectations for any new parade. That was amazing.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Note: My Photobucket account is at 90% and I don't want to fork over more money to level up my storage available. I've tried deleted old photos and albums, but that oddly doesn't not decrease my storage percentage. So at least for this day of the trip, I'm going to try flickr and see how that goes. It's definitely been a learning experience for me as nothing works the same.
Thursday, October 8 – Memory Card Unavailable
Today was the reason for this trip, celebrating Luke’s 55th birthday at Walt’s original park. The night before we discussed when to set the alarms, my Orbit fitness band and Luke’s phone, to up and out in time for the opening at Disney’s California Adventure at 8:00 AM. Since we could walk there in less than 10 minutes, we decided we could be ready if we got up by 6:50. Then we were in dreamland. I woke up about 6:45 full of excitement as well as quite rested after the long day on Wednesday. Having two bathrooms meant we could both get ready at the same time. You might remember that we had purchased pumpkin spice beignets for our breakfast this morning. When we were each ready to eat, we popped a couple in the microwave and viola breakfast was ready. At a little before 8:00 we left the room to walk to the front entrance. For our first experience of both parks we had agreed to enter via the main entrances to absorb the experience. Don’t worry that cool private entrance from the Grand California will get its share of use as the trip goes forward. Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting much out of DCA other than Radiator Springs because of its outward resemblance to Hollywood Studios. I was soooo wrong! The moment we passed through the ticket gates, I knew this park was way cooler than Hollywood Studios with its wide walkways and classier feel.
As with Disneyland yesterday, our only plans involved what to do first. Because it was Luke’s birthday, he chose to head straight to Radiator Springs to first get a Racers FastPass. Then we would head back to the standby line for our first ride. We had maybe a 30 second wait until a FP machine opened. Oddly, Luke put in one of our tickets but nothing happened. We both stared at the machine in confused before it hit us that he was putting the ticket in the wrong way. Once he turned it over, we quickly had two FastPasses. The FP machines were just before we reached Radiator Springs itself, so now we walked quickly to the newest portion of this park, which formerly was a parking lot. Immediately, we were both in awe of how incredible the theming is for this land. We watched Cars prior to our trip on the suggestion of several PassPorters. Honestly, we felt totally immersed in Radiator Springs. Disney did this so right! It was hard not to stop at every single thing along the way to the back where the line begins for Radiator Springs Racers, and I did manage a few photos. But the goal was to get in line ASAP.
The fire station looks just like it should with the morning sun rising behind it.
Luigi and Guido are my favorite Cars characters, and I was so disappointed when the tire ride was shut down. After reading about it in Cheryl’s TR, I had just know I would love it.
We came around Flo’s V8 Diner and couldn’t see a line at all. We entered the queue and walked and walked and walked until we were within a few feet of the ride. All along the way I was taking photos of the cool queue. Within less than 10 minutes, we were boarding our car for our first ride on the Racers. I put my camera strap around my neck so that I could snap photos as we enjoyed the ride. From the quick view of these on my camera screen, many of these photos looked awesome. In the inside portion of the ride at the point where the tractor tipping is and the plow chasing down Lightning and Mater, the plow came right at my side of the car. Instinctively, I screamed, and screamed very loud. Totally surprised me! I love the outside race portion with its rolling small hills that reminded me of roads in Kentucky that make Dad would fly over making us girls lose our stomachs. So fun! So good! As we exited the ride, I decided to check my photos to see how the ones on the ride itself had turned out. When I changed the display to see these on the screen, what I saw was a terrifying message that the memory card was unavailable. Now I was positive that I had charged the battery overnight and even put it back in the camera this morning. While getting ready, I had also uploaded photos from the memory card to my camera. But again I was positive that I had returned it to my camera. When I tried to open the memory card door, it was stuck. With a little gentle playing with it, the door finally opened. When it did, I could clearly see that the memory card was properly pushed in to place. I guess the excitement to start our day had distracted me as I replaced. So it wasn’t actually missing just not where it needed to be to record my images.
I turned a very sad face to Luke as I was devastated that I did not have any of the great photos I was convinced I’d taken. By this time we had reached the end of the exit queue, and he had noticed the line was still low for the ride. His immediate suggestion was that we ride again in order for me to retake all my priceless photos. Of course, we’d both fallen in love with this ride, so just getting to ride again immediately was the best part. In fact, I can safely say this is my new favorite ride, just inching out Tower of Terror. So we entered the queue for ride two and my camera got another workout as we progressed through the queue, being stopped by the line a little further back than our first time. Enjoy my photo journey through the Radiator Springs Racers queue.
We think our wait was still only about 10 – 15 minutes, and then we were in line for a car. Our first car had been Lightning McQueen red, but this time our car was yellow Luke’s favorite color.
I put the camera strap back around my neck and hoped for the best as I snapped photos while racing through the canyon. Image the soundtrack to the movie playing (because it is) while you join us for our ride.
After a quick check to be sure real photos had been taken, I even managed a few photos this time of the exit queue. There would be plenty of photos for a Radiator Springs Racers scrapbook layout. Quite excitingly, we still had a third ride with our FastPasses for this day.
Wow! Radiator Springs Racers looks like an awesome ride!
I had the same issues with photobucket when I first started uploading my trip photos. I finally found out that even though PB is resizing your photos, the original photo size is counted as part of your storage. I ended up resizing my photos in Windows Photo Gallery before uploading to photobucket.
Looks like a fun ride and can't believe the photo and writing coverage you gave to Radiator Springs! Is this ride that good?
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Oh wow, you really did luck out, being able to ride Radiator Springs Racers twice in succession - normally we get to do it once and then the line is too long for it to do it again. I'm glad you loved it, but I wouldn't expect anything less - it's just so much fun, isn't it?
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Originally Posted by DMA
I had the same issues with photobucket when I first
started uploading my trip photos. I finally found out that even though PB is resizing your photos, the original photo size is counted as part of your storage. I ended up resizing my photos in Windows Photo Gallery before uploading to photobucket.
I was going to say exactly the same thing. I figured that must be the problem, as I've used 76% of my storage (I pay the $25 or whatever it is per year for storage, which I think is reasonable) and it's been at that level for literally years, as I only ever add the resized photos now to my account.
Glad you enjoyed Radiator Springs as much as we do!! That is my absolute favorite ride in DL!! Awesome photos as well and who can argue with riding a second time?!? to Luke!!!
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Last edited by Tara O'Hara; 11-09-2015 at 07:10 AM..
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I've not been on the boards for over a week, so I have a lot to catch up on! Sounds like you're having even more fun than you anticipated, which is GREAT! I'm not a big fan of parades, and disliked Spectro (I'd run out of the park rather than watch it!), but this new one looks very creative. The lights look almost too bright, though, did they hurt your eyes?
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.