A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED - Page 29 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What's on the list? Off the top of my head, I can think of things like the Finding Nemo subs, the Indiana Jones Adventure, the Matterhorn etc. I know I'm missing loads, but they're what comes to mind immediately.
In the California Adventure, Monsters Inc, Grizzly River Rapids and Cars Land, plus the coasters, if that's your thing - it's not ours. Oh and of course, there may be a Frozen show there by the time you visit....
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Originally Posted by chezp
Just thought of another - d'oh, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride of course!
Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm getting excited thinking about all the rides. Over course these will all go into spreadsheets and all other sorts of planning documents I'll come up with.
Anyways... love the photos with the BTMRR backdrop! I've seen them in a couple of TRs and find them hilarious.
Churros... at least they'll tide you over till you find something better or lunchtime.
Glad you were able to find something to tide you over for a bit! Nice that you were able to get a few photos of Hook as he passed by. The little girl holding his hand is so cute! I love the smile on the her face!
Great PP photos with the BTM backdrop!
I was so excited to finally ride Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, definitely a Disney classic and so cute. It will be a must do each time we visit. Churros for breakfast also sounds very Disney. I think the BTMMR was my favorite of the special backdrops.
You definitely needed the churros after hitting nothing for breakfast in DL! Some great photos and so sad I never got to experience Mr. Toad's in WDW, when it was there! My first regular trip (multi day and resort stay was in 2002). I think it was gone long before that...have specifics on this attraction? Great photos overall!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Glad you were able to find something to tide you over for a bit! Nice that you were able to get a few photos of Hook as he passed by. The little girl holding his hand is so cute! I love the smile on the her face!
That's a real magical moment right there, isn't it?
I was so excited to finally ride Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, definitely a Disney classic and so cute. It will be a must do each time we visit. Churros for breakfast also sounds very Disney. I think the BTMMR was my favorite of the special backdrops.
There were others I preferred... which we'll come to in due course.
You definitely needed the churros after hitting nothing for breakfast in DL! Some great photos and so sad I never got to experience Mr. Toad's in WDW, when it was there! My first regular trip (multi day and resort stay was in 2002). I think it was gone long before that...have specifics on this attraction? Great photos overall!
Yes, I believe it would've been gone by then - it made way for Winnie the Pooh and I don't remember now whether it was there for our honeymoon trip in 1999. Maybe? I could look it up, but where would be the fun in that?
Thursday 10 September – part four: what the heck this ride is all about?
We criss-crossed back into Fantasyland, as someone mentioned that he “might as well get it over and done with” and go on It’s A Small World.
However, when we got there, the line was insane, and just did not seem to be moving, so much as I love to torment Mark with this ride, I gave up. There was no point in standing in the heat, sapping our energy even more. As we left, I noticed there were at least 10 boats in line at the exit, so I suspect something had gone wrong somewhere.
We were lucky enough to catch the cute display from the clock though…
We headed next into Mickey’s Toontown, an area of the park we’ve never really explored on our previous visits. As Mark observed, it’s built outside the railroad tracks and therefore a bit hidden away. It’s a lot of fun, and full of visual gags…
We made our way into Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin, after everyone told us that we’d be fine on it. The wait was posted at five minutes, but I think it was probably closer to 10 minutes in total. The waiting area is bizarre, although there’s lot to see along the way. It winds round in different directions, and at some points, it’s also very dark, so I found it all a bit confusing.
Well, if I was confused by the line, I had seen nothing yet. My goodness, can anyone please tell me what the heck this ride is all about? I thought the Alice in Wonderland ride was a bit psychedelic, but it’s got nothing on this. Ok, so you spin around a bit, and everyone you were right, it was something I could cope with, although I would say it was a lot more than Toy Story Mania. The problem is you’re so busy spinning, you can’t really see the scenes you’re going through, and therefore you can’t take anything in. I know I probably saw the movie 20 years ago, but I was hoping I’d remember more of it. I’m glad I can say I’ve done it, but frankly, I don’t ever feel the need to do it again. It’s just far too way out for me…
We went over to the Gag Factory, and browsed inside the nice air conditioning. I’m guessing you’re now getting a feel for how all our days here were going…
Too bad Mark wasn't able to ride his favorite ride.
Toontown looks like a cute area. I thought I read something about it closing down but I may be wrong. I hope not because I would like to explore the area.
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Love your pictures at BTMMR, so cool. We have discovered the Disney does not seem to think that people eat breakfast any more unless they are doing tableservice. There is a huge lack of breakfast options other than pastries at WDW too. There used to be places where you get a "real" breakfast and they seem to have gone by the wayside. It is rather frustrating for those of us that like to get up early and get to the parks to do some stuff and then look for breakfast.
Again so sorry about the heat wave that you are stuck in. Just crazy how hot it was there.
Too bad IASW was having issues, I know Mark was just so upset that he could not ride it.
I sure hope you're able to get on Small World later. Just wouldn't be right without Mark getting on his favorite ride!
Toon Town is so cute - I just love it! While Roger Rabbit is a fun ride, I don't know what the point is either. I've never seen the movie! It's just all very weird and.... whatever!
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Tanya
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I love your pictures of Toontown! That will always have a special place in our hearts, if for no other reason that we were there on opening day. I have a framed Disney Dollar and ticket for the park from that day, marking the occassion. They made a really big deal out of it at the time, as it was the first new land at DL since it opened, I think?
Too bad Mark wasn't able to ride his favorite ride.
As you can imagine, he was heart broken... not!
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Toontown looks like a cute area. I thought I read something about it closing down but I may be wrong. I hope not because I would like to explore the area.
I don't remember reading anything about it closing down at Disneyland, but with Star Wars Land coming, who knows? I seem to recall it's being built somewhere near the back of the park, which is why the ranch is going, but I may be remembering wrong.