Going north, south, east and west - LAS VEGAS - COMPLETE - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I can't believe it's coming to an end, Chez!! I've truly enjoyed every leg of this journey. I've been to Vegas 3 times and it was nice to see it again through your photos.
Mark's steak looks Glad Mark managed to get alot of steak this trip. I'll bet he's excited to try some steak in Japan next month.
Sorry that this is coming to an end. It just doesn't seem possible that you did all of this in 16 days. I'd need a vacation afterwards. Ahhhh, but that's what work is for, right? More please.
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
I love your pictures of Hoover Dam, the water sure does look low right now.
We call it the "ring around the lake". All of the white that you see in Cheryl's pictures shows how far down the lake levels have fallen. Between a population boom (more water consumption) and a drought in Colorado (Western Rockies is the source for the CO River and the lake), we've fallen to alarming levels. So, keep good thoughts that Western CO gets lots of snow for the next 4-7 years to get levels up where they need to be.
Cheryl, I can't believe that you packed so much into such a short trip! You and Mark are amazing and I would do well to learn travel tips from you. But I bet you were tired when you got home!
I can't believe it's your last day . This has been an amazing trip, and your 2nd to last day was just incredible with the Grand Canyon, Le Cirque, and O. Wow! (I'm glad O was at 10:30 and not 1:30 ).
Saturday 1 November – part two: we’re delayed how long?
Once we were done, it was time to head over to the airport. Mark stopped off to get the luggage and I went outside to get a few more final photos of the resort.
Then we were set. The valet got the car for us and loaded it up for us and then we were off. We needed gas, so we headed south on the Strip, allowing me to get some photos on the way.
Finally I get a shot of it – typically just as we’re leaving Vegas!
Then we returned the car. A this airport, they have a huge rental car area off airport and then you catch a shuttle bus over to the airport itself. It’s not a bad system, but it was a bit of a pain and something worth keeping in mind or the future, as I always prefer airports with car rental places on site.
We were soon at the airport and found our that our flight was already two hours late, as it had been late leaving London. Great start. Hopefully that would be an end to the delays for the day.
We were quickly checked in, no problem with the weight of the cases, as we had a big baggage allowance here. As for security, line what line? There was literally no-one there. You have never seen such a quiet security area. Mind you, this is the international terminal and it does only have eight gates, which did surprise me. We were told by security that it’s the domestic terminal that’s the busy one and the one that has all the shops. Always the way.
We found our gate and took our seats for our couple of hours wait. Actually, it passed fairly quickly, as I was able to check my 600 (yes, you read that right!) e-mails at work. Most were quickly deleted, which is always a good start.
I also took a few photos, as the airport is close to Vegas and you have some great views of the Strip from there:
Then we were finally boarded. Honestly, this process was more painful than pulling tooth. They were so slow with it and we did wonder if they knew what they were doing. Usually, they call Upper Class and Premium Economy passengers at the same time, but not tonight, so all Premium Economy passengers were standing there, waiting to board, knowing that they should be called, but with no announcement, it was a mess and I was very glad when we finally did get the boarding call.
We didn’t leave until 7.15, more than half an hour later than our two hour delay time and things didn’t get much better once we took off, when we were told that they didn’t have enough staff to provide a full on board service for the flight. Fortunately, I guess that didn’t apply to Premium Economy, as I noticed no problems with the service we received, but having said that, from dinner onwards, I slept the whole way back until two hours before we landed, so I didn’t see that much of their service.
It’s probably just as well I didn’t wake up much earlier than two hours out from our destination, as I discovered that my iPod had lost all its charge and wasn’t working and, by then, it was too late to watch any movies, as they wouldn’t be finished by the time we landed.
The landing itself was fine and the weather wasn’t too bad, considering that we knew that they had had some snow at home while we’d been away, very unusual for this early in the winter season. We waited a while to get off, but when we did, we were straight through passport control and by the time we got to the baggage claim area, there were already bags going round on the carousel. Unheard of!
We got our bags quickly enough and it was straight out to meet our taxi driver for the half hour journey home, just over an hour after touching back down in the country, the fastest we’ve ever done that.
From there, it was a slow and steady return to reality, a million miles away from the magic of our amazing trip around the States, going north, south, east and west.
Today we walked 1.05 miles The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the 80’s The best thing today was lunch at Olives. The worst thing today was having to go home and end our wonderful trip. Today we tried Olives for lunch And the result was it’s a great place to eat.
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Your outlook doesn't sound promising ("delayed" is never a word i like to hear...).
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I'm a bit worried about what's next.
I've truly enjoyed every leg of this journey. I've been to Vegas 3 times and it was nice to see it again through your photos. 
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
Glad Mark managed to get alot of steak this trip. I'll bet he's excited to try some steak in Japan next month. 
ºOº ~*~ 
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Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
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