Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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03-03-2006, 02:52 AM
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#31
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 13,146
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Our Adventure Begins
Great start Dawn [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img].
Karen
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03-03-2006, 10:12 AM
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#32
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Posts: 13,817
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Our Adventure Begins
Great start! More please!
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03-03-2006, 11:22 AM
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#33
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Eileeeeeeen!™
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 28,861
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Our Adventure Begins
I was totally cracking up at your instinctive reaction to return the hand gesture... [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] ... and I loved the driver story.
However, I have to disagree with Karen -- I've seen some pretty scary driving in SanFran, but that could've just been because my crazy sister was doing the driving.
Can't wait for more, Dawn. I'm glomming up every word since I'll be doing the same trip in less than two weeks!
Eileen
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03-05-2006, 08:08 AM
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#34
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Community Rank: Globetrotter 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: NC
Posts: 3,536
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Our Adventure Begins
Great start!!!
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03-08-2006, 12:23 AM
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#35
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Dopey's biggest fan!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: China Spring, TX
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 26,975
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Our Adventure Begins
Great start [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] . . .
I can NOT believe you flipped that dude off!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img] (<insert oozing sarcasm here>  [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img]
Your room looked great!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]
Now come on and get on Disneyland property already!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] |
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03-08-2006, 04:33 PM
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#36
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Living Seas wannabe
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 31,940
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Our Adventure Begins
Great Start Dawn!!! I can't wait to read more about your first impressions of DL!!!
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03-09-2006, 08:00 PM
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#37
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Louisville, KY
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 18,767
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
[b]Doing a little shopping, a little eating, and a little drinking in DTD.
<font color="navy">Let’s see…where were we? Ahhh yes…Chuck and I are waiting for Judy and Allan to meet us outside. They arrive and we decide to walk instead of trying to catch one of the Anaheim resort buses. We take note of the 7-11 after we cross the street and decided we would stop there on our way back to get some drinks and munchies for the room. As we are walking along, I see some of the other hotels we looked at and some that were recommended. I really like the look of the Candy Cane Inn and will probably book that hotel the next time we make our way out west.
The walk as a whole is not too bad. It consists of two long blocks and then you turn into the area where they unload the buses and make your way to the security check. Once you get through security, you walk into a HUGE courtyard area where if you turn one direction, you go into Disneyland and if you go the other direction, you enter DCA. If you continue your way straight through you hit DTD. The courtyard area was full of people coming and going. I point out that we would have to go to the ticket booths in the morning to redeem our vouchers for tickets. We hit the DTD area by 4:20pm and have an hour before we have to check in for our PS.</font>
Courtyard looking toward DCA
Entrance into DTD
<font color="navy">We walk around and take in the ambiance and before I know it, we reach the doors to World of Disney. You can hear the angels sing and call my name as I walk through. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] The place isn’t as huge as the WoD in Florida but still a pretty good size. We all separate and start wandering. I see a couple items that were going to be “must haves” but I withhold buying anything until after dinner. Judy is finding a lot to buy, and I am having fun just watching her getting into the Disney experience. We waste the hour and head over to Tortilla Jo’s and check in. They tell me it’ll be about 5-10 minutes.
Before we know it, we are seated at a table and Tom takes our drink orders. As a group, we decide that a pitcher of Margaritas is the way to begin. They fill our table with chips and salsa. We start munching away and I think all four of us have the same reaction. That salsa is kickin’!! It doesn’t hit you when you first eat it but it gets you about 30 seconds later. Thank goodness our pitcher arrives within a few minutes along with water. After going over the menu, we all order. Allan goes with some ribs, Judy goes with the tamales and steak fajita, and Chuck and I both go with a burrito, steak for him and chicken for me. Chuck takes the duty on of pouring our first glasses and we have a toast to celebrate our first full day and our trip in general. Our meals arrive pretty quickly. I am AMAZED at the size of the meals. Back home, we have a Mexican restaurant called La Bamba. They advertise that they have burritos as big as your head. They are pretty big but when I look at the burrito that is placed in front of me, I know I sounded like Ray’s father on “Everybody Loves Raymond” as I said “Holy crap!”. Do I take a picture of this monstrosity? No. I wish I would have. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]
Everyone is drinking, eating and having a merry time. We end up ordering a second pitcher of margaritas as the first one went down really easy. I am getting full pretty quickly and I look down at this burrito and just sigh. I ate maybe a ¼ of this thing. I look across the table at Chuck and he has cleaned his plate. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img] I look at Allan and Judy’s plates and they too have done quite well. OK…apparently my appetite wasn’t much but I pass on taking it back with me to the hotel as we were going shopping. We finish up the margaritas, and Chuck and Judy fight over the check. I love watching them bicker back and forth as they are so much alike. They do not look alike at all but you know that they are mother and son. Chuck wins the battle. I have no idea what the meal cost because Chuck refused to share with me the total. I’ll put it to you this way, we had 2 pitchers of margaritas @ $33.00 each. I have an idea that it was quite expensive.
We settle the bill and head back out into DTD. We head over to the Lego store as Chuck cannot go past one without stopping in. He loves Legos but being the mean person I am, I refuse to let him buy any. We then head back to World of Disney as Judy is itching to spend money and frankly so was I. I find an Eeyore beanie that is just adorable (Please see pictures below). My plan on this trip is to not buy a whole lot, just a few items that specifically say Disneyland on them. As I am looking through all the clothes, I see a baseball jersey that screams “BUY ME!!!” Does it have Disneyland anywhere on it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] Do I buy it??? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]
I only buy those two things as I want to savor my souvenir spending money and get exactly what I want. Chuck and I find Judy and her arms are overflowing with stuff. She explains what item is for what person and then what is for her. I do not know what the final bill was but she came out of there with three huge bags. We decide to head back to the hotel at this point as the time difference is catching up with us. It might only be 8:30pm in CA but our bodies were telling us it was 11:30pm and we had been up real early.
On our way back, we stop at the 7-11 and pick up some goodies. We haul those purchases as well as our bags from DTD back across the intersection and make it to the Portofino without any issues. We say good night in the elevator and set a meeting time for 8:15am for the next day. After Chuck and I take showers, we both pass out while watching the Olympics.</font>
Coming up: How do the in-laws react at a character meal and do Chuck and I get our tickets into the parks? |
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03-09-2006, 08:20 PM
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#38
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Community Rank: Globetrotter
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: NC
Posts: 3,536
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
Great update!!!
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03-09-2006, 09:34 PM
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#39
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Community Rank: Traveler 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: CA
Posts: 294
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
Yeah-an update! I'm enjoying your report. Tortilla Jo's sounds yummy-we'll have to try it next month when we go down to DL.
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03-09-2006, 10:10 PM
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#40
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Posts: 27,691
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
Fun! I love reading this [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]
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03-10-2006, 01:56 AM
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#41
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PassPorter Message Board Manager
 PassPorter Guide Author
Community Rank: Legend VIP 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 190,285
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
What a great evening you guys had in Downtown Disney! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] I love that Eeyore - he's one of my favourites in my collection, he's so cute! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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03-10-2006, 06:49 AM
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#42
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RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
Great update Dawn [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] What a great dinner [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]
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03-10-2006, 09:46 AM
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#43
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Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ohio Football Hall Of Fame
Posts: 42,304
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
Greaqt update Dawn!! I'm so glad you are able to get on the boards again!! Sounds like your dinner was quite good! Can't wait for more!!
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03-10-2006, 11:47 AM
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#44
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Community Rank: Jetsetter 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: San Mateo, CA
Posts: 2,490
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
What! You wouldn't let Chuck buy anything at the Lego Store? You guys need to come out again, and Zack and Chuck can go to the Lego Store while we split one of those $33 pitchers of margaritas. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Love your report of the first night, but I can't wait for you to get into Disneyland already!
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03-10-2006, 11:55 AM
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#45
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Louisville, KY
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 18,767
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Re: Heading West to the \"Original\": Day 1, Part 2: Eating, Drinking, Shopping in DTD
[ QUOTE ]
Love your report of the first night, but I can't wait for you to get into Disneyland already!
[/ QUOTE ]
It's coming...it's coming...[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] Not being able to post for a week threw me off. I should have another update by tomorrow morning with part of Day 2 when we have hit DL!!!
P.S. That's a deal about Chuck and Zack hitting the Lego store and we go off to enjoy some margaritas!!!
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