National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! DISNEYLAND SECTION COMPLETED - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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At this time of night, there was no wait and we were seen immediately. We were given a room on the first floor that was actually very close to the lobby, which I was impressed with. We were also handed our Fastpasses, good for two uses in the park, which I think is a very nice touch. The guy told us that the hotel is pretty full, but the parks aren’t that busy. Interesting, as Disneyland itself is open from 8:00am to midnight at the moment, which says pretty full to me, with the California Adventure open from 10:00am to 10:00pm.
We walked over to our room, which was fine, until we had to pull the suitcases on the thick carpet. When will Disney ever learn about this and make the carpets a bit thinner? My arms really ached by the time we got there and we didn’t have far to go.
As soon as we pushed open the door, we were impressed with what we saw. Not only was the villa huge, but the theming was wonderful too. I immediately fell in love with it and it found its way straight away to third place in my favourite Disney Vacation Club resorts, after our beloved Beach Club Villas and Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas. This is way better than Bay Lake Tower, with much better quality furnishings and much more room. Why can’t we have more like this at Walt Disney World?
I wandered round getting loads of photos for potential future use in PassPorter’s Disney Vacation Club Guide (may as well get the plug in somewhere... ) and there were plenty of wow moments on the way round.
The kitchen... look at the knives in one of the drawers!
The living area... complete with pull-down bed underneath the TV...
The first bathroom – very nice...
Then the second, main bathroom with an amazing shower! I want one of these at home!
The main bedroom... look how lovely and big it is!
And perhaps best of all, the view outside, with the California Adventure behind us.
I will be honest here, I was very glad that the park closed at 10:00pm, because all we could hear when we first arrived was people screaming on the various rides. I wonder whether 10:00pm is the latest it can stay open, as I can imagine much later than that and people staying here would probably complain...
This was also a new surprise to find.
We sorted out a few bits from the suitcases and I did a quick update on the boards, before heading for bed.
The weather today was wet and dull when we left London, with temperatures in the high 60s and warm and in the low 80s when we arrived in Los Angeles. The best thing today was flying Upper Class. The worst thing today was the nightmare with the ATM first thing and how long it took to get through immigration at LAX.
[b]The funniest thing today was Today we tried staying in a one-bedroom villa at the Grand Californian And the result was we were very impressed with the theming of it and the size. The most magical moment today was seeing the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom as we arrived at Disneyland.
The villa looks amazing! So much more spacious than most of the WDW ones. I love the murphy bed hiding under the TV. Is that instead of a fold-out sofa or in addition? Now I'm really looking forward to my stay there. Hope the studios are as nice!
I love the backsplash in the kitchen! A pull out sofa bed and a bed under the tv? Very cool! If they can do that, then they could do the same type of things in the one bedrooms of all the DVC resorts to make them sleep 5.
Sorry about the delays at LAX. I've been lucky the few times I've flown in/out there, as I never had a long wait. But I still avoid it when I can! Love your room at VGC!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Wow is right! The room is beautiful! We own points at GCV, so will certainly need to get there one of these days! I do love the bed under the TV (as well as the chairs that turn into an extra bed at AKV). We only have four in our family but our kids are too old to share a bed (1 boy, 1 girl). So that's a nice option when we can still do a one-bedroom.
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That is an amazing villa!! Love the little touches. And the decor is beautiful!
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Tanya
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The 1 bedroom villa is gorgeous! I hope the studios are as nice (I'll let you know when I get back in December.) Sorry that you had such a rough time through LAX. I'm flying out of there in December--I'm going to try to fly into John Wayne, but I'm not sure if my finances will cooperate yet--it's much cheaper to fly into LAX.
The villa looks amazing! So much more spacious than most of the WDW ones. I love the murphy bed hiding under the TV. Is that instead of a fold-out sofa or in addition? Now I'm really looking forward to my stay there. Hope the studios are as nice!
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We were also handed our Fastpasses, good for two uses in the park, which I think is a very nice touch. The guy told us that the hotel is pretty full, but the parks aren’t that busy. Interesting, as Disneyland itself is open from 8:00am to midnight at the moment, which says pretty full to me, with the California Adventure open from 10:00am to 10:00pm. 
) and there were plenty of wow moments on the way round. 
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