The $16,000 "Free" Disney Trip **Updated 12/11** COMPLETE - Page 20 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 absolutely love Nightmare Before Christmas. The HM looks so !
No one should be ashamed of a little Buzz stamp eye candy...it's all about looking and not touching!
I am so loving the updates from your trip because i've never been there and its so nice to see what it looks like from the fan's perspective instead of TV where they always show you the same thing. I just wanted to say happy belated birthday...i'm super duper late but still wanted to say it The hotel looks great and such a great view too! I am loving the HM halloween edition there! It looks like it was amazing....What a great first day you guys were having! Love the haircut too! it looks so fab!
Cant wait for more...it sounds like so much fun so far!
We went to the ESPN Zone for lunch. We had sort of a long wait for a table, and then we were seated at the only table in the restaurant that didn’t have a good view of the 49ers game, which was one of the reasons we ate there. Karen and Alice made the best of it.
I had a salad and a buffalo chicken sandwich, which was good. The service was a bit slow, but I enjoyed the meal. After lunch, Kirsten and Alice did some shopping while Karen, Zack and I returned to the DLH.
We hit the pool, where we called Eileen and filled her in on the fun we’d been having. Then we hit the hot tub, which was hot. After a bit, we decided it was time to get in the pool. It was pretty cold, so I didn’t stay in there long.
After another quick dip in the hot tub, we all headed back to the room and got ready for our tour. We checked in at DCA and watched the Ichabod Crane part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad while we waited for our tour guide.
If you’d rather not hear the details of the Happiest Haunts Tour, skip down to the next post.
I didn’t really know much about this tour, but the little I’d heard about it sounded good. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed it! Our tour guide Rachel, came and introduced herself. She was a ghost hunter and we were going to help her. She had some equipment (that she didn’t really know how to use) and gave us headsets, so we could “hear” the ghosts.
She was quite the sight and she was really funny, but the part that cracked me up the most was the reaction of the other park guests, who had no idea what was going on. She led us over to the Tower of Terror. We had to walk like ghost hunters (kind of stooped over, with exaggerated tip-toe sneaky walk). That got quite a few stares from park guests. I assure you, our group made quite a sight.
Then she stopped to talk about ghosts and the TOT (she was a big fan of the Twilight Zone TV show and had heard about a lost episode).
Rachel, our Ghost Hunter
We got our own private library and saw the “lost episode” which Rachel was geeking out about. When it was time for the ride, Rachel needed to call her mom so she didn’t ride with us. When our elevator opened upon our return from the Twilight Zone, Ashley was waiting for us. She took over the tour and we had to put on our headsets (hmm… wonder why ). She also gave us these very cool light-up lanyards with keys on the end, which made it easy to tell who was part of the tour (and made a great souvenir).
Ashley led us over to the Monsters Inc. ride where she told us about the monsters there and how they used screams to power their city. She had us scream to help them out. So we all screamed. Suddenly, a kid started crying. At first I thought we’d scared him with our random screaming, but then I realized he’d gotten separated from his family. Someone from our tour hooked him up with a CM and we continued with Ashley.
We walked across the esplanade over to the entrance of DL where she pointed out the character pumpkins over the entrance (I took pictures later in the week, which I’ll post later). Then she took us in front of the train station and talked about all the pumpkins on Main Street.
Ashley, our Ghost
I managed to get a shot of Tink sprinkling the pixie dust on Mickey.
Unfortunately, the park was pretty crowded with people lining up for the parade, so we had to walk through the shops to get past them, so we didn’t really get a look at the giant Mickey pumpkin (again, pictures to come later in the TR).
We stopped in front of the castle and Ashley told us about her friend Maleficent, and how she’s misunderstood. She warned us that we’d be entering dangerous territory, filled with awful chil… goblins – Fantasyland.
She pointed out the Wicked Queen and told us she had a problem letting go. Then she warned us about taking apples. Then we went on Snow White’s Scary Adventure.
We were in Frontierland and she told us the origin of jack-o’-lanterns. I was mildly amused that park guests would see a large group of people standing around looking at something (our guide, but they didn’t know that), so then they’d all stare at the wall or whatever to try to see what we were looking at. OK, maybe more than mildly amused
Then Ashley spotted Rachel, our ghost hunter, and told us she was going to play a trick on her. She told us to go back with Rachel. We did (and Rachel was hysterical – standing around looking lost, wondering where we’d been ). We picked up the tour and Rachel took us over to Woody’s Holiday roundup and told us the story of the Headless Horseman. While she was telling us, Ashley snuck up from behind and scared Rachel away. Rachel ran away screaming (I could hear her long after I couldn’t see her anymore) so Ashley took over once again.
She told us all about miners and the origin of tommyknockers, and then we went through the exit and got to ride BTMRR. We went over to New Orleans Square and Ashley talked about pirates and a fortune teller. Then mid-story, Rachel sneaked up behind her. She realized that Ashley was a ghost (gasp!) and kind of geeked out, and then Ashley ran away.
Rachel told us a story about the ghosts of the HM and Club 999. The ghosts are able to wander around the park, but if they don’t return to the Mansion by 8:00, they’ll lose their spot. It was almost 8:00 then, so I guess that’s why Ashley ran off. Then she took us over to the Haunted Mansion, where she was sure we’d find ghosts.
We all got to ride, and the coolest thing was that Ashley was standing at the beginning of the ride (I guess she made it back in time). I wish I’d known she was going to be in there so I could’ve taken a photo, because it was a really cool moment.
After HMH, we gathered around with Rachel, and then she gave us candy apples (so much for that warning from Ashley ). A family of random park guests, seeing Rachel handing out candy apples, decided to just join in the group. Because Disney’s always just giving out stuff for free to people. I told them we were part of a tour, so they left. Well, one determined boy did not. I guess his family didn’t care that he wasn’t with them. He was really persistent (and I guess since he happened to have a light-up necklace on, he figured he was due an apple). He got all the way up to Rachel, who told him “sorry buddy” (but she did say it nicely).
That was the end of the tour. It was silly and fun, and I really enjoyed it a lot. Karen got a fantastic photo of Rachel and Zack. Karen and Zack enjoyed the tour as much as I did, and we decided that Zack would be perfect for the ghost hunter role.
With the tour over, we were back to our quest. We decided to take the Disneyland RR. I really like the train ride, and the Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas are so cool. I even managed to get a decent photo.
We got off the train at Main Street and stepped in to check out the First 50 Magical Years. It’s a history of Disneyland park, with photos, models and other stuff. I really enjoyed this exhibit and got some photos.
Disneyland as it looked on opening day
This is Space Mountain
Then we met up with Alice and Kirsten and watched the fireworks. Remember Dreams Come True is really a spectacular fireworks show. I could watch it every night! This time I decided to concentrate on watching, so I don’t have any photos.
We still had our Indy FPs, so we walked over there. Unfortunately the ride was down. So we walked across the park to Tomorrowland. We picked up Buzz FPs (even though we knew we probably wouldn’t need them) and went on Space Mountain. We waited about 20 minutes, but it was totally worth it!
When we returned to BLAB, the standby was only 5 minutes, so we walked right on without needing to use our FPs. I was happy that my score improved. I didn’t take a picture, but I scored about 140,000, which is the highest I’ve ever gotten on the DL version.
Karen wanted to do some shopping and I was getting a little tired, so we decided to call it a night. I was sure we’d accomplished our 25 attraction goal (and after counting them up, we did manage 25 attractions, plus the fireworks and the tour).
Before we exited the park, though, there was one more thing on the agenda. Instead of taking the monorail, we walked to Main Street for some Market House cocoa. We walked through the World of Disney store, where I took note of some things I’d like, but neither of us made any purchases.
We returned to the room and went to bed. The park wasn’t opening until 10 the following morning, so we didn’t need to set a wakeup call.
Up Next: “Hey, I know you!!”
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
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HM with all the Jack stuff ~ AWESOME! Can't wait for more!!!
!
The hotel looks great and such a great view too! I am loving the HM halloween edition there! It looks like it was amazing....What a great first day you guys were having! Love the haircut too! it looks so fab! 
I assure you, our group made quite a sight.
). She also gave us these very cool light-up lanyards with keys on the end, which made it easy to tell who was part of the tour (and made a great souvenir).
She warned us that we’d be entering dangerous territory, filled with awful chil… goblins – Fantasyland. 
). A family of random park guests, seeing Rachel handing out candy apples, decided to just join in the group. 
Because Disney’s always just giving out stuff for free to people. 
So we walked across the park to Tomorrowland. We picked up Buzz FPs (even though we knew we probably wouldn’t need them) and went on Space Mountain. We waited about 20 minutes, but it was totally worth it!
We walked through the World of Disney store, where I took note of some things I’d like, but neither of us made any purchases.
Sammi
PassPorter Guide Author
It's a shame we didn't have time to do it, as it sounds like we'd have enjoyed it. 
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