Southern California. Will it be attached to the state once we're done with it? *Updated 7/9* COMPLETE - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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After stuffing myself silly the previous night, I pretty much slept like a log all night. So, needless to say, when that 6am wakeup call came, I had just the tiniest bit of a “UGH! NO!” moment. But, out of bed I rolled, got myself ready, got Emilie up and around and ready as well (easier than I thought it would be, considering how much of a grouch she can be if she doesn’t get enough sleep) and once Terri was ready to go, we headed up to the executive level for some breakfast.
While eating, we noticed that it had rained a tiny bit that morning, but the weather reports were good for the rest of the day! We all ate our cereal/bagels/fruit/yogurt then headed back to our rooms to finish packing up our bags, since we were checking out that morning. That done, we called bell services to come pick up our luggage to be stored for the day, then checked out. Crystal and Doug had the valet retrieve the car and once they returned with it, we loaded up for the quick drive down Cahuenga (Crystal learned a new word or two on the trip. “Cahuenga” was one. I love the way she says it too. “Ca-WANG-uh” ) to Hollywood and Highland where we would be parking for our Grand Tour of Los Angeles.
We had decided on the Grand Tour based on Cheryl (chezp)’s great experience with it when she and Mark took their CA trip. They seemed to have enjoyed it immensely and being that none of us had ever really seen the whole of Los Angeles, we were all really keen on the tour!
It really was a quick drive down and we were to the parking garage under Hollywood and Highland in no time. We headed in and parked, then headed down the escalators to the ground level. When we came out, we realized that we were in the lobby of the Kodak Theater (where the Oscars had taken place just a day and a half prior), so we snapped a few photos . . .
. . . then as we came out we took even more, as we were directly across the street (Hollywood Blvd.) from the El Capitan Theater . . .
. . . and the home of Jimmy Kimmel Live . . .
. . . and only in L.A. will you find a Build-a-Bear dressed as Marilyn Monroe, you know.
Grauman’s Chinese Theater would be the pickup point for our tour, so we headed just a few more feet down the Boulevard.
We headed, first, to the tour booth to check in, then had plenty of time afterwards to examine the many sets of foot and hand prints in front of the theater as well as some of the stars on the Blvd. ( I swear, I took a TON of pictures just out here ALONE. I have included just a small portion of some of the pics I took! )
At about 9:30am, a really small trolley-like shuttle bus showed up to pick us up. All we were told is “This is yours. Get on.” So we were all kind of perplexed as to if this was what we’d be spending the next 5-6 hours on (and we sure hoped not! Those seats were pretty much uncomfy!) but, alas, it was only the shuttle used to take us from the Chinese Theater down Hollywood Blvd. to “Jane’s House” which was where the tour would originate from.
Once at Jane’s House, we were directed towards our tour BUS and met our driver David (aka “Pappy”) who just happened to be Cheryl and Mark’s tour guide, I believe! He was certainly a very knowledgeable guide though, I tell you!
Anyhoo . . . besides the 5 of us, there were only another 9 folks on board, so we had a rather small group for such a large bus. But there was a bathroom on the bus and the seats were quite comfy, so all was well!
We headed out from Jane’s House, and made our way towards our first stop of the day, the Hollywood Bowl.
The Hollywood Bowl has been the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic during the summer months since the Bowl opened in 1922. Among the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Bowl and LA Philharmonic are Diane Disney Miller and Jay Rasulo (Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts). And even though I have seen many photos of the place, I never realized just how large the seating area is! Capacity is just under 18,000 but the seating area sure did look huge . . . even moreso when we were told that if we wanted to get a great shot of the Hollywood sign, we could hike up to the third level of bench seating and have a clear shot with the Bowl in it as well. My legs reverted back to the “I don’t wanna go anymore” stage that they were at when we went to the race, and about halfway up, I had to start forcing myself further up.
Once up there though, the view of the sign was fantastic!
Once through with our tour of the Hollywood Bowl, we headed back down Highland Blvd. and turned onto Hollywood Blvd. (the famous intersection of Hollywood & Highland) . . .
We passed by the Kodak Theater . . .
. . . past the Chinese Theater and the Hollywood and Highland complex (where a great live music venue, the Knitting Factory, is)
We traveled through Hollywood, West Hollywood, along Sunset Boulevard . . . past Guitar Center and it’s “Rock Walk”, which is a much smaller version of the concrete slabs of handprints in front of the Chinese Theater --- only this is all hand prints of great musicians or creators of certain guitars (Leo Fender, Les Paul, Ernie Ball) or instruments (Armand Zildjian – cymbals, Henry Steinway - piano). Ace Frehley, Eric Clapton, Elvis Presley, Eddie Van Halen, Dick Dale, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne and Brian Wilson are just a tiny few of the inductees there.
The plaques and handprints are all under the awning and we were on a moving bus . . . this is about as good a shot as I could get!
On down Sunset Blvd. we passed the Chateau Marmont . . .
. . . and quite a few famous comedy clubs and music venues . . .
. . . and then into Beverly Hills
As we drove down Rodeo Drive, there was just a bit of sensory overload on my part. I wanted to take a picture of just about every storefront but it just wasn’t going to happen. At one point, we pulled over to the side of the road and Pappy told us that we were going to take about 30 minutes’ break so we could all get out and go shopping. Uhhhhhhhh . . . yeah. And WHO’S gonna pay for THAT?! I was seriously picturing some Julia Roberts/Pretty Woman moments going on for quite a few of us!
No one was interested in getting off at that point . . . although once we got moving again, I kind of regretted that decision as there was a store just around the corner that had GREAT looking (and some designer stuff) for $15 and under. I could have probably done a bit of damage to the ol’ plastic in that store. So maybe it was a good thing that we just moved right along.
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Our next destination was the famous George C. Page Museum . . . aka, the La Brea Tar Pits. We stopped for a few minutes and were allowed to get off of the bus to take photos and look through the fence at the pits.
Next up, thankfully . . . because I was almost STARVING . . . was lunch! We turned onto . . .
. . . and came to the L.A. Farmers Market, which is EASILY one of my favorite places in L.A. now. It is full of cool little food booths and shops and . . . pretty much any type of pastry, nut, dessert item, ethnic food that you could want. It’s also attached to a mall (The Grove) that has such stores as Bath and Body Works, Sur la Table, Children’s Place. We were given an hour to do with whatever we wanted within the Market, but the #1 priority was to EAT. Terri and I had decided beforehand, based on an episode of $40-a-Day I believe it was, that we were going to try Loteria. You want to talk about unique and GOOD Mexican food? Well, this place HAS it. Oh . . . there is NO WAY I am going to L.A. from now on and not trying to get to the Market for lunch at Loteria now. It was SO good.
Emilie didn’t eat a bite of her lunch but that was OK . . . because I did eat a bite of hers. Like, all of the bites. 2 lunches I ate that day. But it was SO GOOD . . .
Once we were done with our low-cost, incredibly tasty lunch we decided to poke around the shops and see what there was to see in the time we had left. We headed back to the Mr. Marcel Gourmet Market and looked around . . . this is where I fell in love. With FIJI Water.
Now, I know that bottled water is just that . . . water. But there is something about that square shaped bottle of artesian water from Fiji. I don’t know what it is exactly. It just tastes different to me (it does have a higher silica content, you know, which makes it “smoother”) . . . and I like the square bottle . . . but I do not like the fact that a 6 pack of the liter bottles costs upwards of about $12-13.
I have found that I am drinking more water though now that I have started buying Fiji at home . . . I just wish they sold it in a “water cooler” type bottle!
Anyhoo . . . after grabbing a bottle of Fiji we headed to Sticker Planet where I was able to pick up a whole bunch of L.A. specific scrapbook stickers as well as quite a few Disney ones I had never seen before . . . $42 later . . .
Yes, I said I spent $42 on stickers. It happens. To me, a lot, actually.
Our lunch hour was quickly coming to a close so we decided to head back and get some ice cream (and some pastries for some of us . . . ) then back to the bus we went for the rest of the tour.
COMING UP NEXT: I see *MY* Rodeo Drive . . . and Mickey Mouse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sarah, I'm so glad you're enjoying the tour - and how cool that you got Pappy as your guide, he's just so knowledgable and so much fun as well. I can't wait to hear about the rest of your tour!
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I remember the hike up the stairs at the Hollywood Bowl - wow -- and that when you followed and I asked where Crystal was - you said "she said to take a couple for her"...
At Citywalk - I am surprised you didn't mention my oh so graceful attempt at chair dancing and the end result.... now that I look back - it was funny - in a slow motion, don't hit your head on the concrete - saved by a nice security guy kind of way!!
I'm loving all these photos and videos! "Don't shoot the monkey!" Boy, US sure has changed since I was there last...umm ...when I was younger than Em in 1983.
Fantastic updates, Sarah! And the pictures and videos are terrific. The tour sounds great. I may have to do that on my next trip to L.A. (whenever that might be).
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
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But, out of bed I rolled, got myself ready, got Emilie up and around and ready as well (easier than I thought it would be, considering how much of a grouch she can be if she doesn’t get enough sleep) and once Terri was ready to go, we headed up to the executive level for some breakfast.
) to Hollywood and Highland where we would be parking for our Grand Tour of Los Angeles. 
)
Capacity is just under 18,000 but the seating area sure did look huge . . . even moreso when we were told that if we wanted to get a great shot of the Hollywood sign, we could hike up to the third level of bench seating and have a clear shot with the Bowl in it as well. My legs reverted back to the “I don’t wanna go anymore” stage that they were at when we went to the race, and about halfway up, I had to start forcing myself further up. 
Uhhhhhhhh . . . yeah. And WHO’S gonna pay for THAT?! I was seriously picturing some Julia Roberts/Pretty Woman moments going on for quite a few of us! 
I could have probably done a bit of damage to the ol’ plastic in that store. So maybe it was a good thing that we just moved right along. 
. . . was lunch! We turned onto . . . 
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