DrDolphin's Great California Adventure *COMPLETED* - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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DrDolphin's Great California Adventure *COMPLETED*
Since you can't change the title of the post to show updates, I had to pick a title that would carry well. I have no creativity... so it is what it is.
I also figured that if I do not start this Pre-TR NOW while I have time and am in town, I won't get it started.... so Here you go -
I’m going to California – again? AKA – The Passporter Girls San Diego/NASCAR/US/DL (is there anything we missed) trip!
Cast – Me – DrDolphin (36) Previous trips to DL – 1 (32 times to WDW)
11 other Passporters and associated DH and DD…. Sarah & Emilie; Crystal and DH Doug; Tina; Dawn; Janine; Sharon; Eileen; Karen; Liz; Robin and Cindy
Dates – For Sarah, Emilie and I – Feb 23 – Mar 5; For Crystal and Doug – Feb 23 – Mar 4
Where – San Diego – Feb 23 & 24
Los Angeles – Feb 25 – 27
Disneyland – Feb 27 – March 5
Why?? Well – it started out with someone else thinking about a girls DL trip. I saw a post on the boards from Tina last March that she, Amy (Iamgrumpy) and Robin (RobinKay6573) were considering a trip to DL in February or March 2007 and Tina asked who was up for the challenge. I started considering it, but was not totally sold on the idea. I saw Crystal say she wanted to come to – and she did not think that her DH Doug would not want to come as well and that Doug could be our “bag man” following in Bill’s WDW footstep (Doug trained with Bill during the May 2005 girls WDW trip). That planted a bug… I met Crystal and Doug when they came down to Daytona last year for the Daytona 500, and I PMed her about possibly adding a weekend before the DL trip to go to the NASCAR race at the California Speedway... Crystal is a Tony Stewart fan and I am a Jeff Gordon fan – so we should have a great time watching those two boys battle it out in the second NASCAR race of the year.
Knowing that Sarah (Dopeygirl) is a lover of DL, I PMed her to see if she could swing the trip west as my roomie. She told me we’d have a repeat of the rooming arrangements from our March 2006 trip with her DD Emilie and I figured I was up for that. We weren’t sure she could swing it at first – but a free Southwest ticket happened to appear in my inbox from all my travels, as well as a couple of free hotel rooms in Los Angles (more details on that later) and I think she was sold (now all she had to do was convince her DH ). We booked hotel rooms in Rancho Cucamonga (I love that name) and Crystal reserved our race tickets.
At some point – I think right after Chezp’s trip report about her trip to SoCal, the topic of San Diego came up. None of us was really interested in the Busch race on Saturday – so what would we do?? We canceled hotel reservations and changed our travel plans accordingly.
We looked at various hotel options in SD - quickly ruled out the Del Coronado (no way....$$$) and I ended up finding a Hampton Inn in San Diego - about a mile from the airport for $100.00 a night and booked two rooms under my name. We decided we wanted to take a harbor cruise and go to the San Diego zoo before heading north for the race. I have only been to San Diego once before - when I was there in Dec 2005 for a conference for work - and other than Sea World - didn't get to see much of the town.
Next – challenges and hurdles… And lots more details
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Hotel Del IS very pricey, but so beautiful...still, I would go for the less expensive option, too! San Diego is beautiful, hopefully you have a chance to go exploring. Don't miss Old Town or Seaport Harbor, if you can help it. the Zoo, and I can spend HOURS wandering around all of the cultural stuff at Balboa Park. Sounds like you guys are going to have a fabulous time!
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Saturday, October 9, 2014 - Kaitlyn and I before the Happy Haunted 5K at ESPN Wide World of Sports
Terri- I'm glad you've started this Trip Report already. You guys are going to have soo much fun, and we get to share it!! Thank you! So many of you are going at once, is this a really quiet time to visit DL? (I have a vested interest, my DSIL and I are springing a surprise trip on our kids 2/23-2/26.)
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Originally Posted by Caldercup
Zoiks, .... seems Terri got the jump on the rest of us, ladies!!
Woo hoo! I'm looking forward to THIS!
Eileen
Only because she had NOTHING to do on Sunday and decided she better start while she was in town with Internet access. The true test will be if I actually FINISH the report!!! We are talking 11 days here (not counting the Key West stuff before the trip!). It will be good practice foe teh 14 days of the Med Cruise trip and the 16 days of the PC Cruise trip!!
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DrDolphin's Great California Adventure *COMPLETED*
). We booked hotel rooms in Rancho Cucamonga (I love that name) and Crystal reserved our race tickets. 
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the Zoo, and I can spend HOURS wandering around all of the cultural stuff at Balboa Park. Sounds like you guys are going to have a fabulous time! 
So many of you are going at once, is this a really quiet time to visit DL? (I have a vested interest, my DSIL and I are springing a surprise trip on our kids 2/23-2/26.)
I'm looking forward to THIS!
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