Finding Walt: a DL TR: Update 2/23/12 - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 am so far behind, I don't even know where to start.
So sorry you had to take your trip being sick. Sounds like you did pretty well dealing with it.
I hate to see the carousel looking so bad. Glad you got to see Walt's grave.
DL & CA sounded great. All the pics are great. I can't wait to get back there with my girls.
All the food looked. & sounded great, other than. The steak fiasco. I am with you, a steakhouse chef should know what black & blue is.
I got up really early in order to make it to Disneyland in time for park opening. I did, but it was far more crowded than I expected. I knew, having seen what the crowds were like that I was going to have to tweak my plans. There was no way I'd be able to accomplish my opening day plans and visit all the rides that are different or don't exist at WDW. SO I decided that I'd just try to make sure I got all of those attractions in over a period of several days.
I finally got into the park and snapped a quick picture of the castle.
I headed towards my first goal of the day: The Matterhorn. It's a beautiful sight first thing in the morning.
The sun was just coming up over the mountain. It was still darkish when I made my way to the park.
I was one of the first people on the Matterhorn that day. I think that is because most locals, which I assume much of the crowd was, head directly for Space Mountain or Star Tours. The ride was a little damp, they had clearly been running it before opening to test it. It's a really cool ride. Yes, it's old and yes it is a little jerky, but man it was fun.
I headed into Fantasyland and the first thing I came upon was Alice in Wonderland. Hey, that's on the list! If I had been thinking straight I would have headed directly to one of the rides around the Storyland miniatures that build long lines because they are slow to load. However, I walked onto Alice and I loved it!
It was very difficult to take photos of this ride because it twists and turns very quickly.
I wish this had come out clearly:
Another one that is fuzzy:
Then I headed over to my favorite Disney ride when I was a child and I took a lot of photos of the outside of Toad Hall.
The much beloved ride vehicle
The loading area
The man himself
There are so many little tiny touches
And then before I knew it I was back on the ride of my youth.
And none of my photos came out.
I decided to hit Snow White next.
I had a wander around Sleeping Beauty Castle next because it was almost time for breakfast. The walk through wasn't open yet, so I put that on the list of things to do at a later point.
Sleeping Beauty Castle, while small, is actually beautiful, especially all decked out for Christmas.
There's a cute little bridge over to Snow White's Grotto:
It was just about 8am at this point so I headed over to The Plaza for breakfast and waited for the rest of the gang to arrive. I made small talk with the CM who was out front taking care of the walk up groups and stroller parking. She was amazed at how busy it was. People were just streaming in at this point and it was only 8am. (It had been a magical morning so I was actually at the park before 7am.) I was assured that the locals didn't usually arrive until 10:30 or 11am. That was not the case this week at all. She was also freezing, as it was unusually cold.
Up next: Character Breakfast at Disneyland is an unusual experience!
I love all of the pica you took. My face was of Snow White & the dwarfs off the side of the castle. It was always my favorite. I would run to look at it as soon as we got to the park. The Matterhorn is so much fun.
I loved the Matterhorn Bobsleds!! My kids thought it was too rough, but it was one of my favorites.
Great pictures of the castle. It does look very pretty with the Christmas decorations. I wonder why it was so crowded? Nonetheless, it sounds like you've gotten a lot done in the first hour!
Thank you, thank you for the Toad Hall photos! Oh, I wish I didn't have to wait until July to get there. The castle looks amazing draped with garland. I just DL's Fantasyland!
I think you accomplished a lot so far that morning. I sure do miss Mr. Toad at WDW. It was such a treat to see him again in California! I could ride it again and again and again....
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You got a lot accomplished this morning! Thanks for all of the great pictures, especially from Mr Toad's Wild Ride. That was one of my favorite rides as a child too, I was so sad to see it leave WDW. After seeing all of your beautiful pictures I need to start planning a trip to DL sometime in the future!
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I love the castle at Christmas. We are so going to have to get there for Christmas. 
It was such a treat to see him again in California! I could ride it again and again and again....
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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