Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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05-30-2005, 01:40 AM
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#1
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Community Rank: Trekker 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Greenville, SC
Posts: 1,019
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Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 6/5!!! DCA!!
Okay Passporters here goes- my first trip report!! 
Cast:
Me(Robin)mother of one 3yr old dd
My friend Katherine mother of 2 dds age almost 3 and 7 mos.
Dates:
May 18- 21 Just in time to celebrate the big 50th!!!!! 
So, here's how this trip came to be- Back in Janurary my good friend Katherine (who knows what a Disney fan I am  ) was needing some time away and suggested a girls weekend. I was all for it, and then to my surprise Katherine suggested Disneyland!!!! Okay, where do I sign?!!!!
We started talking about dates and decided that May would be a good time to go so that we could enjoy the big 50th anniversary celebration. As luck would have it my parents were planning a two week visit out here (from SC), so I gave them a quick call to see how they'd feel if I escaped to DL for a few days while they were here. They were fine with it (as long as I wasn't taking dd with me lol!!!) Great, so that meant dd was all taken care of! (Katheine's dh had agreed to take time off from work so he could care for their dds, but my dh couldn't get any time off). Anyhoo, so childcare all worked out, we decided on our dates- Wed May 18- Sat May 21. We'd fly out of Oakland on Wed afternoon and return Saturday afternoon. I have an AP for DL, and Katherine's husband was able to get her 3 free one day tickets from work (great perk, huh?) Since Katherine only had park admission for 3 days, we decided to do the parks Wed, Thur, and Fri leaving Saturday for a character breakfast and Downtown Disney.
Katherine's dh travels a lot for work, and had some free nights at Marriot. So we decided to stay at the Marriot Fairfield Inn on Harbor Blvd within very close walking distance to the parks!(and it was free!!)
We got all of our planning done in a hurry and once I had made our PS (60 days out not 90 days like WDW) there was nothing more to do than wait! We were both so excited!! I had been to DL many times, but always with dh and dd. this was going to be so different!! No worrying about anybody but me!! Katherine had never been to DL (has been to WDW) so she was excited about just going there at all!!!
The months passed slowly by, and then finally it was time to go!!!!
Up next-
Saying goodbye to our dds and finally arriving at DL!!!!!! |
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05-30-2005, 07:01 AM
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#2
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New York
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,960
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!!
It sounds like this is going to be a fun trip report! Can't wait to hear more.
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05-30-2005, 07:21 AM
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#3
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RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!!
Great start Robin  More please  |
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05-30-2005, 09:50 AM
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#4
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Community Rank: Globetrotter 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: California
Posts: 3,878
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!!
"Come on everybody here we goooooo", more please!
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05-30-2005, 10:31 AM
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#5
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Batman's Gal/Mickey's Pal
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Owensboro, KY USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 95,254
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!!
Great start -- Can't wait for more!
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05-30-2005, 11:06 AM
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#6
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Posts: 27,691
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!!
Sounds like a great friends trip. More please.
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05-31-2005, 01:45 AM
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#7
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Greenville, SC
Posts: 1,019
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
Wednesday May 18th
Cast:
Me (Robin)
My friend Katherine
Plans for the day:
Arrival and Disneyland Park
Okay the day has arrived!! Time to go to Disneyland!! I pretty much had everything packed the night before, but I still woke up feeling a little bit anxious. As I mentioned in my last post this is a "mommy time" trip. Both Katherine and I felt we needed some adult time for ourselves. As much as I was looking forward to some "me time" I was still really sad about leaving dd for 3 nights. The longest I'd ever been away from her was one night, (also to go to DL!!! ) so I knew I was really going to miss her. I wasn't too worried about dd though. She was in full 'Grandma and Granpa are here!!' mode, so I didn't think she'd feel my absence that much.
Katherine was driving us to the airport and she picked me up at 11am for our 1:30 flight out of Oakland. I said my goodbyes to my mom and dad (dh was at work) and gave dd a big huge hug. I did tear up a little, but once we got on the road I started feeling excited again! 
We got to airport with no problem and had an uneventful flight. We flew JetBlue (my first time flying with them)and I was very pleased. The plane was comfortable and the service was very nice. Also the price was right!! We had arranged for SuperShuttle to pick us up at the airport and once we had our luggage we were on our way!!!!
We checked in to the Fairfield Inn at about 4pm and ran up to our room for a quick change of shoes. I must say, I was very pleased with our accomodations. The last few times I've been to DL we've stayed onsite, so I was a little bummed that I wasn't this time. But the Fairfield Inn is a Disneyland 'good neighbor' hotel, and there was a big Mickey Statue in the lobby! We got up to our room and there were Mickey prints hanging on the wall!! What a pleasant surprise! There were even Hidden Mickeys in the bedspread! (don't know they were intentional- it was a vine and berry print and "Mickey" was in the berries- but hey! I'll take it!)
Okay tennis shoes on and ready to go we headed out! It was a very easy walk from the hotel to the parks, and before we knew it were there!!!! Disneyland at last!! We walked through the gates and had to stop to get our picture made the "50" flower arrangement, and then we were on Main Street USA!!! I do love Main St!! 
First on our agenda was getting a Fastpass for the new Buzz ride- Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. Fast passes in hand we headed for Fantasyland. Katherine was itching to ride It's A Small World so we made that our first attraction! There was very little waiting- the crowds really didn't seem that bad. After IASW we wanted to do Peter Pan's Flight. One of mine and Katherine's very favorites. I think we waited about 30 minutes for Peter. It was so great as always!!! So relaxing and fun! I really wanted to ride Dumbo next, but the line was looking really long and it was almost time for our Buzz ride. Decided to save Dumbo for Friday morning as we planned on getting there right at park opening.
After a quick stop for some waters we walked on over to Tommorowland for Buzz. I was so excited about riding this brand new attraction and it did not disappoint!!! It was lots of fun and it is really cool how you can pull the guns out and hold them in your hand for better aiming. Still I only scored 30,000. But Katherine only scored 10,000. Ha Ha!! Another really cool thing about the DL version of Buzz is that after you get off the ride you can find your picture on a computer screen and e mail it home!!! The really uncool thing about it is that neither mine nor Katherine's photo made their intended recipients.  As far as I could see there was nowhere to actually buy the photo, but I figured 'no big deal I'll have it on my computer when I get home'. But no such luck. Oh well, maybe they'll have the bugs worked out before our next trip.
We were starting to get hungry after Buzz, so I suggested that we go grab some fastpasses for Indiana Jones and then find some dinner. Katherine really wanted french fries so we got our fastpasses and then went down to the Hungry Bear restaurant. Well, they were closed. Then we tried the counter service place in New Orleans square and they weere closed. Huh? It was only 7:00. Right at dinner hour. Finally we found a CM who told us that since the park was closing at 9 that most of the restaurants also closed early. He directed us to the Plaza Inn where we had some really yummy fried chicken and mashed potatos.  Didn' satisfy Katherine's craving for fries, but it was a really good meal. We took our time eating and chatting and since the restaurant was relatively quiet we took the opportunity to call home to check on our families. Just as I expected everything at home was fine and dd really hadn't noticed that Mommy was gone.
With full tummies we headed over to Adventureland for Indy!!! This is such a great ride!!! Katherine isn't too mcuh for thrill rides, but I kept telling her there was nothing to worry about. The queue area was making her nervous esspecially when she saw the Warning sign about no heart problems, no motion sickness etc. I kept trying to reassure her, but when we got in our jeeps (before the ride had started at all) she asked me why I was holding on so tight to the safety bar?!  I hadn't even realized I was!! The right started and of course, Katheine loved it and was glad I'd dragged her on it. As soon as we exited Indy it was time to find our viewing spot for Remember...Dreams Come True Fireworks Spectacular.
We really hadn't given ourselves enough time, but we managed to find a decent spot to watch. All I can say about Remember is WOW!!! I was literally standing there for much of the show with my mouth hanging open!  It was really that great. But there was one girl standing beside me who made not one, but two calls on her cell phone during the show. And they weren't urgent calls or anything. She was just chatting away! 
Of course Main St was an absolute mob scene after the fireworks, but we somehow managed to make it into the Emporium. I was really wanting some gold Mickey ears. Well, they apparantly were out of them (even though the CM I spoke to wasn't all that convincing  ) Oh well- just have to wait 'till tomorrow!
We made it out of the park and back to hotel. (Why does the walk back to the room at night always seem so much longer than the walk to the park in the morning lol!!) We pretty much crashed as soon as we got back. But what a fun day it had been!!!
Up next:
A full day at DCA!!! |
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05-31-2005, 10:23 AM
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#8
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New York
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,960
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
Sounds like a fun day! Sorry about all the restaurants being closed so early ( ) and the cellphone chatter, but at least you didn't let it spoil your fun! Can't wait to read more! |
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05-31-2005, 02:18 PM
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#9
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Louisville, KY
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 18,767
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
Great report so far!! More please!!
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05-31-2005, 08:24 PM
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#10
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Greenville, SC
Posts: 1,019
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
Just wanted to let y'all know that I'm still trying to figure out how to get my pics in the trip report.
Hopefully, I can get the hang of it!
Thanks for reading! |
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05-31-2005, 08:39 PM
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#11
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Posts: 27,691
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
Great update, Robin. OMG, I love that fried chicken dinner at the Plaza Inn |
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05-31-2005, 09:34 PM
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#12
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: central Iowa
Posts: 11,837
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
Thanks for sharing! It's helping me get pumped up for our trip next winter -- (isn't it Feb. yet?)
I haven't figured out photo's yet either
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06-01-2005, 06:39 AM
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#13
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RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
What a great first day More please |
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06-01-2005, 04:04 PM
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#14
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Near Seattle, WA
Posts: 1,183
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
It's great you got some Friend Time without DD! Hope they work out that Buzz email bug before we get there on the 11th~!
Wonderful start! Can't wait for more!
Tina
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06-03-2005, 10:39 AM
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#15
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Community Rank: Globetrotter
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: California
Posts: 3,878
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Re: Mommies go to Disneyland!! Updated 5/30 Day 1!
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for sharing! It's helping me get pumped up for our trip next winter -- (isn't it Feb. yet?)
I haven't figured out photo's yet either
[/ QUOTE ]
We are also planning a trip for Feb 06.
Your TR is great so far, waiting for more.
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