A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure UPDATED 9/7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Pre-trip report – part thirteen: how many times are you going to tell us you’ve changed the time of the flight?
Monday 3 August
Well, remember I said that yesterday we’d both bought walking boots? I was quite happy with mine, but Mark wasn’t, as he was concerned that one would rub on his right foot. I can only assume his right is bigger than his left, as apparently there’s no issue with the left one. Well, he was told he could bring them back and exchange them within 28 days, provided he didn’t remove the tags, and provided he didn’t wear them outside. So, as of tonight, he’s wearing them in around the house. Fingers crossed they work for him!
Tuesday 4 August
Walking boot update – well, he’s still walking around the house in them. I put mine on for about five minutes, and decided they’d be absolutely fine, and removed the tags straightaway. No turning back for me then!
In the end, Mark lasted two hours in the boots, but apparently still isn’t sure about them. I did ask how many hours it would take for him to be sure about them, and got no response…
Wednesday 5 August
Between us, today we had four text messages and four emails from Virgin Atlantic, saying the time of our outbound flight to San Francisco had changed, by all of 10 minutes. However, it has now changed about an hour since we first booked it, so I suspect we’ll be arriving a lot earlier for the valet parking than we’d originally anticipating. I guess at some point, I’d better let them know…
I did a little more packing today. I’ve gathered up my medication, and some of the suntan lotion. Why only some? Well, heck I know Mark won’t need any over here before we go, unless there’s some massive heatwave before we go anyway, which I highly doubt! The only reason we’re taking any suntan lotion is for Disneyland, and the last time I checked the temperatures on the long term forecast a couple of days ago, it was still looking like high 80s or low 90s. I’m still leaving my factor 100 lotion out that Mari kindly brought over last summer, just in case we do have any warm temperatures here, as trust me, I can burn in just about any sunshine.
I also went through the first aid kit, and made sure we’ve got everything in there. Where we’re out of things, that then gives me enough time to order things in, and it’s also a useful exercise to check the expiration dates, as trust me, we’ve been caught out with those before now. We had most things, but we still need a few bits – some Aspirin, antiseptic cream and antiseptic wipes, so that’s not too bad.
The next thing on the list to do was to have a look for some long sleeved tops for Alaska, and a couple are now in the packing pile, ready to go. I also tried on my formal dress from our Med cruise last summer, and that’s fine, it fits. I then tried on my formal dress that I’d used for our last Alaskan cruise and for our cruise on the Fantasy for my 40th in December 2012. Since then, sadly I’ve put quite a bit of weight on, hence why I had to get a new formal dress last summer. Anyway, I thought I’d give it a go, and I can nearly fit back into it… not quite, but nearly. Maybe I’ll give it another go the weekend before we fly out and see if it’s coming with me or not. Don’t worry, if it does, the other dress will still be coming regardless, as I’d hate to be left without a formal dress.
Friday 7 August
Well, I now have the startings of my trip report, and my photo library for this trip… let me explain… before we go on any trip where I intend to write a trip report, I create a document for each day, then I also create a folder where I can upload the resized photos for the trip report, so that’s all ready to go.
I have to say I’m getting a lot more excited about this trip, and specifically the Disneyland portion – something to do with Deb Wills of All Ears Net fame having just arrived out there. It is so neat to see her photos and that made me go and have a look at the extended weather forecast on Accuweather (I love that feature!). It’s still showing hot and sunny for the whole time we’re there, and by hot, I mean high 80s or low 90s. Just as well that factor 100 sun cream is coming with me, as it sounds like I’m going to need it…
I also had a quick sneak peek at San Francisco, and that’s also saying sunny, but only temperatures in the high 60s. It still amazes me how temperatures can vary so much in one state, although given that some of your states are way bigger than some countries!
This evening, we went out to the cinema to see Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation. It’s funny you know, how things go. Most years, if we get to the cinema once or twice a year, we’re doing well. Well, a couple of months ago, we went to see Jurassic World while we were visiting Cardiff, and now we’re back there again. I know we’ve been to see other things as well this year, although I can’t place what now, which is typical. Before the year is out, we intend to see Spectre, the new James Bond movie, and the new Star Wars movie – I don’t know if that actually has a name or not yet. Anyway, when we went to get our dinner there, we were given two vouchers for two tickets for £12, valid until early September. Ok, maybe we’ll be returning before we fly out then…
Saturday 8 August:
We fly out three weeks today!
Well, today I was going to share some (hopefully wonderful) photos of Cliveden, a National Trust property, which we were due to visit with an old family friend of ours, Maureen. She bought us life membership to National Trust many years ago, and now we try and use it as much as we can. Sadly she decided yesterday that she wasn’t feeling up to it, as she’s had a flood in the house, and now another in the garage, and is completely exhausted. Hopefully, we’ll go later in the year instead… so no photos of the place, but hopefully you can get an idea of what it would have looked like from the link to the National Trust site…
Instead, we went into town shopping, and Mark got some more bits and pieces for Alaska, mainly long sleeved tops, and sweatshirts, along with a couple of books. It’s rare for him to spend more than me on a shopping spree, but then again, given I shop much more regularly, it’s not a problem.
I have to say I was very jealous to read all the updates from Deb Wills and Linda from Disneyland. They’re out there, I guess, for the D23 expo next weekend, and as I read them, I couldn’t help but wish we were there now. Oh well, one month today, we will be! The bit that fascinated me the most were the comments about the 60th anniversary photos. Deb shared ones that you could do with Grizzly Peak, the Haunted Mansion, and Soarin’. I had no idea these existed, and to be honest, I couldn’t find out much more than that, but they sound fun, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for those during our visit…
Sunday 9 August
I happened to be on the Disneyland website for various reasons this morning, and noticed that they were advertising Mickey’s Halloween Party, which we have been to before at Disneyland. I figured we’d be out of luck with the dates, but I thought I’d at least check. Well, it turns out my initial reaction was spot on, as the party only starts on 25 September, but at least it was worth looking.
As I was on the site, I took the opportunity to double check the park hours and the evening entertainment, i.e. Paint the Night, the fireworks and World of Color, and they all remain the same. I somehow doubt they’ll change, given how late in the day they were released, at least compared to Walt Disney World anyway. I suspect that’s why you see so many changes to park hours there, as presumably Disney refine the crowd predictions as they get nearer and nearer to the actual days, if that makes sense?
I had a look on the Disneyland site for the diamond photo opportunities that I’d seen mentioned yesterday, but I couldn’t find anything, so I had a look on Google, and quickly discovered that it’s part of Photopass, which makes sense. That reminded me that I was going to pre-purchase the Photopass, and heck if it includes the diamond photo opportunities, then that makes it even more worthwhile. It’s $69.95 if you purchase it at least 14 days before your trip. If you pay after that, the price goes up $30, so it’s a hefty saving. We normally get our money’s worth out of Photopass, and I’m sure that will be the case this time as well.
I will confess to later on in the day playing some California songs very loudly in recognition of the fact that in three weeks’ time we’ll be in San Francisco Most notably they included California Gurls by Katy Perry, and California Soul by Marlene Shaw (first heard in the Lincoln Lawyer, which I saw on two plane trips on our 2011 trip, which took in our first Alaskan cruise and a visit to Disneyland. Talk about déjà vu!
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Well, he was told he could bring them back and exchange them within 28 days, provided he didn’t remove the tags, and provided he didn’t wear them outside. So, as of tonight, he’s wearing them in around the house. Fingers crossed they work for him! 
We had most things, but we still need a few bits – some Aspirin, antiseptic cream and antiseptic wipes, so that’s not too bad. 
I also tried on my formal dress from our Med cruise last summer, and that’s fine, it fits. I then tried on my formal dress that I’d used for our last Alaskan cruise and for our cruise on the Fantasy for my 40th in December 2012. Since then, sadly I’ve put quite a bit of weight on, hence why I had to get a new formal dress last summer. Anyway, I thought I’d give it a go, and I can nearly fit back into it… not quite, but nearly. 
Most notably they included California Gurls by Katy Perry, and California Soul by Marlene Shaw (first heard in the Lincoln Lawyer, which I saw on two plane trips on our 2011 trip, which took in our first Alaskan cruise and a visit to Disneyland. Talk about déjà vu! 
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