Forever Young: A Disneyland Trip 50 Years in the Making COMPLETED 1/16/16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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, October 10 -- Oh no, Radiator Springs Racers is DOWN!
I think four very early mornings in a row were beginning to wear on Luke and me just a bit. We got up as soon as the alarm went off, but we could seem to move with any speed in getting ready. I was texting back and forth with Tricia (triciadavids from here on the boards). Before our trip, Tricia and I had sent several private messages back and forth in hopes of meeting up. A little bit before our trip, Tricia let me know that they would be able to head south from their home a bit north of Anaheim. She let me know that they would be down late Friday night and staying through sometime on Sunday. The plan was to spend Saturday together as we’d have more time to spend together. Even though they had had a four hour trip down when it should have only been an hour and half, the Davids still beat us to the park. By the way the park for this majority of the day was Disney’s California Adventure. In our texting, I let them know that Luke was eager to ride Radiator Springs Racers first so that was where we agreed to meet up.
Luke and I entered DCA through the Grand Californian special entrance, which brought us in via Grizzly Peak and that much closer to Cars Land. As we neared Cars Land, Luke sped up to head to the FastPass machines, but I hadn’t heard him so I was confused as to why he was bypassing Cars Land. Then I heard someone yelling, “Cam,” turning to discover Tricia, Roger, and Katie flagging me down. As I got closer to them, Tricia also let me know that Radiator Springs Racers was down, and so FastPasses would not be available until it was up and running again. Luke and I hadn’t thought ahead to this situation, so there was no Plan B. Temporarily befuddled as to what to do, we clustered together and chatted, catching up on each other’s lives. Eventually, I remembered that we had discussed having breakfast at Flo’s V8 Café after our first RSR ride. So the adults decided we’d have breakfast first. Then as we were walking down the main drag in Radiator Springs with Tricia, Katie in the stroller, and me out front, Tricia noticed that the barricades for RSR were down and the line was actually moving. Great timing for us as the ride had just reopened. She asked what we should do, and I said, “Let’s ride.” The guys who were a bit behind us, yelled that we had passed the restaurant. We hollered back that the ride was working, and suddenly, the two fellows were right behind us.
Following the queue and the folks ahead of us, we found ourselves pretty much at the spot where the standby and FastPass queues merge. So glad we chose to postpone breakfast a little longer. I didn’t take any queue photos this time as we really just kept moving, and then I was also talking, and I had quite a few from our previous three rides. Our car this trip was a dark burgundy red and sped quite nicely through the canyon. When we got off, Luke and Roger stopped to get the photos added to the PhotoPass+ accounts.
Now we could have breakfast, and the exit to RSR dumps out very close to Flo’s V8 Café. I chose the American Breakfast, which came with bacon, scrambled eggs, potatoes, and a biscuit. Luke wanted to try something different, and got the Chicken Tamale Breakfast, which was a basic chicken tamale with addition of scrambled eggs, Salsa Verde, and Pico de Gallo. Both meals were very filling and delicious. Luke may have had to finish mine for me.
A cool light fixture made with tail pipes.
My breakfast
Luke's breakfast
One of the wall posters in the area where we ate.
After our tummies were sufficiently full, we made the decision to re-ride the DCA version of Tower of Terror. Actually, only Roger, Luke, and I would be riding as Katie was not in the mood today. Instead Tricia and Katie were going to play in a bug’s land until we were done. While in line, Roger shared with us some of the history of this Tower of Terror, and pointed out stuff in the queue that we might otherwise have missed. We did have a bit of a wait, but good conversation kept the time from dragging. By the way, we had expected it, but the park was so much busier today than when we’d been here back on Thursday. Eventually, an elevator was ready just for us, well, maybe for some other folks, too. So much fun dropping in at the Hollywood Hotel.
Row One meant no arms would blot me out in the ride photo. Or so you'd think.
I guess I no one to blame but myself for the arm in front of my face.
As we exited the ride, Roger pointed out to me several displays of early technology, e.g. typewriters, cameras, and radios. I would have totally missed this as I rushed headlong into the store if he hadn’t stopped me and drawn my attention to them. Really cool! While Luke waited in line to get our ride photo on the PhotoPass+ lanyard, I quickly browsed the store, hoping for something distinctive to California Adventure. But everything I liked, I could get at WDW, too.
From here our trio headed into a bug’s land to meet back up with Tricia and Katie. We all needed a bio break and I thought the theming for the outside of the restrooms was adorable.
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