A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Sounds great! Looking forward to hearing all about it, and seeing your pics. I watched the Travel Channel special on Tokyo Disney and it looks so neat - several attractions I'd love to have here at WDW. Can't believe you'll soon be leaving!
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I love the title of yout TR....what a beautiful tribute to your 10 year anniversary, and what a amazing trip you have planned to celebrate. So since you are going in March you should catch the tail end of the 25th annivesary and some Cherry Blossoms along the way as well?
You are 100% right - we will catch the end of the 25th celebrations at Tokyo Disney and yes, it's prime cherry blossom season too.
So, fast forward to the end of January. We’re almost set, but not quite, with a few things still to purchase. I had one mad day when I was on study leave and, before heading out to the library to do some reading for my course, I went online and purchased just about everything else I had left to pay for. In one go, I got:
· A night’s stay at the Sheraton in Tokyo Disney, as it turned out this would be much cheaper than trying to stay the night somewhere in Tokyo when we got back from Hiroshima and at least we wouldn’t have to navigate the trains in the morning rush hour, which I knew would be a complete nightmare.
· A day trip to Mount Fuji and Hakone, with return by Shinkansen.
· An evening tour of Tokyo, which would take us out to Roppongi Hills and Obaida, so we’d get to see those areas.
We were now pretty much set and, after watching the exchange rate improve (finally! ) I also got some more Japanese Yen ordered for us, as I wanted to take as much with us as we could. Everywhere I kept reading that Japan is still pretty much a cash based society and I didn’t want to get stuck at any point with credit cards being refused. I also kept reading that travellers cheques are not easy to change out there. I can tell you, it was quite a challenge working out how best to sort out the money, when credit cards and travellers cheques are usually your fallback position.
Picking up the cash was quite an experience! We booked it through Travelex, but had to go to one of their bases and I picked Ashford, as it’s about 20 miles from here. It was a truck stop for lorries and there must’ve been about 30 or 40 there. Let’s just say that the first item on the list of facilities there was adult entertainment, although I hasten to add that we saw no evidence of that anywhere. It was straightforward enough to change the money, although it took a while, as it was three different orders. A Czech lorry driver was waiting there to change just 50 Euros and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw 1,000 and 2,000 Yen notes. As Mark said, it was the highlight of his day – he kept grinning at all this money and asking where we were going!
The 1,000 Yen note – back and front
The 2,000 Yen note – back and front
The 5,000 Yen note – back and front
It was at about this time that I had the most amazing package arrive. When I went to pick it up, I had no idea what it was – it was a huge box and I wasn’t expecting anything. I looked at the details of the sender and it had come from the Japanese Shop in the UK. Good grief, I never even realised there was such a thing! Because it was based in the UK, I instantly figured it had to be a present from someone in the UK, but when I got it home, I was in for a shock. It took me a while to find the card that explained who sent it, but when I did, it was from Wendy (wendyismyname)! I couldn’t believe it. The package contained a notebook, sake kit and a tea set. I was so taken aback and I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried my eyes out and had to compose myself before I rang her to thank her. It just bought home to me how close we were to my once in a lifetime trip.
In truth, unlike other vacations, I was stopping myself thinking about how close we were getting to this trip, as every time I did, I just found myself filling up. It’s enough of a dream to go to Walt Disney World, but heck, when this is something you’ve waited so long for, to think that you’re actually going to do it almost becomes overwhelming, in the nicest possible way.
So, just a couple of final things before we headed out needed to be arranged. One was the airport hotel for the night we flew out. I’d had my eye on the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Heathrow for some time, as we’re Holiday Inn loyalty members and this place looked amazing, with a full size swimming pool, spa and sauna. Perfect, but sadly the prices weren’t – at least not at first. I didn’t give up though and that’s the message here – never give up, as you just never know when you may get a good price. That happened about six weeks before we were due to leave, when I found a concierge room, complete with free snacks, free alcoholic drinks, free breakfast and a few other free extras, along with the 15 nights parking we needed and for just £140. An ordinary room with the parking had been £190 the last time I’d checked, so that was a great deal and the perfect way to start our vacation!
And as for a perfect way of ending it? How about Tokyo Disney? That was the last thing I was planning on doing while were in Japan, as I believe in leaving the best until last and I had to leave booking the tickets until last as well. Tokyo Disney does things very differently to the other parks. For starters, you can only book tickets at two months out, which was quite a novelty to me. Then, there was the issue over which parks you’re going to on your first two days. It’s the only park in the world that insists you make a decision in advance and stick to it, as there’s no park hopping on day one or day two. I went for the traditional Disneyland Park on day one, followed by Tokyo DisneySea on day two. After that, we’d be free to hop between both parks on our final day at the parks.
Okay, so I must admit, I teared up again just thinking about our conversation!!
I am so happy for you and Mark to be doing this trip, this year! And I hope you come back hooked on sake. Although, I still say they'd make adorable little planters with tiny grass growing out of them!!
What a great buy you got on the room at the airport...definitely starting this trip is style. It is such a strange concept that the Toyko Disney has with the tickets....I mean we plan ahead for Disney but we always know we can change our minds. What a beautiful gift from Wendy... Can't wait to hear the final plans.
Wow! Cheryl as usual you have put so much time and effort into planning your trip, how could it be anything but great!
Some questions I have - what's the travel time from UK to Japan (hours that is)?
What type of weather are you to expect? I know it's cherry blossom time but what about temps? Will you be able to go with just light jackets or is there a chance it will be colder?
Will you have your laptop with you? Any chance of some "love" reports?
I know how hard it is to focus right now with the trip just a few days away. When DH and I did the DCL eastbound repo trip last year through the Panama Canal it was all I could do to make it through a work day. And, as we get close to the next awesome DCL trip in 2010 (Northern European Cities) it was be even harder. I'll look to you for expert advise on seeing London and some of the other cities you have already visited.
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Wow, Cheryl....this certainly sounds like a wonderful trip-of-a-lifetime! I am so thrilled you are doing a TR becuase I will lots of wonderful descriptions and photos to vicariously live through it!
I hope you and Mark have a most fabulous time.
danielle
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Way to go Miss Wendy! And Cheryl your excitement is coming thru - even I'm getting a little teary eyed about your wonderful once in a lifetime trip.
I'm going to be away from computer for the most part from Friday-Sunday so I wanted to wish you and Mark very safe journeys and enjoy! I'll be counting the days till I can read all about it.
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šOš ~*~
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Claytrgtshooter (Minnie Lor's Hubbie)
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It was straightforward enough to change the money, although it took a while, as it was three different orders. A Czech lorry driver was waiting there to change just 50 Euros and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw 1,000 and 2,000 Yen notes. As Mark said, it was the highlight of his day – he kept grinning at all this money and asking where we were going! 
for safe travels and the most magical trip ever!
šOš ~*~ 
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