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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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- Our Party: DH 36, Me 39, DD 16, DS 9, DD 3. We were also joined by my Mom 61, BIL 37, DNephew 14, DNeice 9. - Our Journey: Dec 30, 2007-Jan 1, 2008 Traveled to and from Disneyland from San Diego by family vehicle - Our Lodging: Anaheim Hilton via Priceline for the five of us. BIL, Mom, Niece and Nephew stayed at Best Western Stovall's Inn. - Our Special Plans: Have fun and ring in the new year!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Woke up this morning, anxious to leave, but check in wasn't until much later, so we finished last minute packing, going over checklists once and again. DH makes fun of my checklists, but he also figures whatever we forget, we can pick up when we get there. But that's not nearly so obsessive-compulsive or fun! Besides, I like marking off the little checkboxes in my Passporter! And highlighting them, color coded, of course!
Everything feels like slow motion, but we FINALLY get everyone ready, packed into the truck and on the road! A never-ending stop for gas, another stop for lunch….okay, just be patient, we’ll get there…I had to keep telling myself to be patient!
The room for BIL is in our name, so the plan is to check into his hotel and get his keys, check into our hotel and drop off our stuff, then meet up at Rainforest Cafe for an early dinner, give him his room keys and spend the evening shopping, then get back to the room for showers and an early bedtime. Tomorrow is going to be fun, but brutal. All day without a nap, we haven’t done it since the last time we were there for New Year’s, back in 2006.
When we check into BIL’s hotel, Stovall’s Best Western, I’m surprised that it’s actually not bad for a Best Western! We would definitely consider this place in the future if we couldn’t find a hotel. Plus the fact there is a military discount, made it even better. The rooms were average sized, clean, with microwave and fridge, coffee maker. There was a free continental breakfast, which was okay, filling up the 14-year-old, according to mom and BIL. Standard stuff, hard boiled eggs, cereals, fruit, coffee juice, etc. They walked to DtD from the motel, it is just down Disney Way.
Checking into the Anaheim Hilton is starting to feel like visiting an old friend’s house. Ahhhh. The rooms are large and clean, although the parking garage is a little weird, and you have to change elevators to get to it. We had a bit of a walk to our room, but were compensated by the view of DCA to the right, and the pool area down below. We are thinking the pool was heated, as there were always people in the pool, as well as the spas. We didn’t make it to the pool or spas this trip, as everyone was just over a cold. We had brought along cereal and milk in a small cooler, along with paper bowls and plastic spoons, so that we could do breakfast very, very quickly and get to DL before general opening. Starbucks in the lobby rounded out breakfast. Thank goodness DH gets up and gets ready faster than any of us, which makes him the designated Starbucks runner.
Once we were unpacked, off to DtD! DH decided to valet park, the parking lot was awfully full! It is almost 4pm, our designated meeting time for dinner. We put our name at RFC, and begin to wait…and wait….and wait. The kids and I shop around. DH forgot the baby’s jacket, somehow, after all my checklists, so we looked around for a jacket for her, the kids were weighing souvenir options, their pockets heavy with Christmas Disney Dollars.
So we get called for our table…and still no BIL. We are starting to get worried, and can’t get in touch with him. We started off with the Awesome Appetizer Adventure…YUM! Then mom and I split the BBQ beef wrap, but pooped out before we could even think of a Volcano! Add it to the list for the next trip! We LOVE the Volcano! I had a delicious blended adult beverage, which I noted had bananas in it after I had ordered it. Don’t know why, but bananas make me ill. I was worried after I had taken a sip and tasted banana that our trip would be ruined by me doubled over in abdominal pain. Luckily, it takes more than a sip, or maybe the alcohol saved me, either way, when I went to order a new drink without banana, our waitress graciously offered to have my drink remade, without banana! Two ears up for her and the barkeep! It was still delicious sans the banana, but it was better with it!
We leave RFC stuffed, and waddle out into DtD, when mom gets a call from BIL, FINALLY! My niece and nephew do not know they are going to Disneyland, yet. They think we are going to grandma’s house for New Year’s, to spend it with aunts, uncles and cousins. Well, they were going to spend it with an aunt, and uncle and cousins, so I guess technically BIL wasn’t fibbing…ahem.
We finally meet up with BIL and my niece and nephew and promptly start to spoil them rotten! We head to Lego store, then off to Build A Bear where we made some new friends, Anthony, Princess Kitty and Princess Cheetah. Welcome to the family!
Since BIL and his kids missed dinner, they were on the lookout for somewhere to eat without a huge wait. Of all the places, the kids wanted pretzel dogs from Wetzel’s Pretzels. At least my BIL got off cheaper than we did with dinner.
Seven-thirty, and it was time to head back to the hotel, shopping bags in hand, and get ready for our day in Disneyland. It took very little cajoling to get the kids back to the hotel and march them through their baths and showers and into bed. We snuggled down into our comfy beds and fell asleep despite the excitement and anticipation.
Only to be woken up about 9:30-ish to the loud booms from the fireworks echoing from Disneyland! After we realized what it was, we went back to sleep when it was done. In retrospect, we should have gotten up to look at them, since it was the only fireworks during our visit, but the beds and the blankets wouldn’t let us up!
(I apologize for no pictures for this day, my camera was acting up and all the pictures from DtD were corrupted. New batteries fixed that, so there are pictures yet to come!)
The alarm goes off at 6 am, and I reach over and give it a fumbling slap until it quiets down. (Did I mention I’m not a morning person?) Then the phone promptly rings, it’s our wake-up call. I momentarily get the urge to flush the phone down the toilet, until a small voice in my barely conscious head, not unlike Jiminy Cricket, reminds me that we are going to Disneyland today! It’s here! It’s finally here! The last day of 2007, and we’re going to Disneyland! I spring Tigger-like from bed and start rousing the troops! This is no time to rest! Sleepy eyes fight to wake, then start dressing and talking excitedly about what they want to do today.
He Who Dresses Fastest heads downstairs for his morning Dr. Pepper and our coffee and chocolate milks from Starbucks. When he returns, the children are dressed and eating breakfast cereal.
Once the life-giving caffeine enters my system, I start feeling more human and before we know it, we are ready, leaving the housekeeping tip envelope out and headed downstairs!! I take another moment to remind the kids, yet again, to pace themselves. I remind them that we will not be coming back to the hotel for our customary nap, and that it is going to be a very long day. We will all be tired at some point, and we plan to rest and relax at points during the day, so that we’ll last to midnight!
It’s early for the ART shuttle, so we decide to take a cab. We careen down Harbor Blvd, walk through the brisk morning air towards the esplanade, and pass through the security checks, to wait in the longest line we have EVER seen at Disneyland!! I knew it was an early entry day, but we’d never seen the non-EE line quite so long before opening! Must be a holiday/vacation time!
We take photos while waiting, noting the holiday decorations, and soaking up the magic and the music. The sight of the railroad station sends my heart fluttering with excitement! This is no ordinary trip, you see…this is the first time our youngest is to experience Disneyland all decorated for the holidays, since she was too small to remember last time. Last year, we missed our annual trip, DH and I couldn’t get three days off together all of December, and I was scheduled to work New Year's Day! She was barely one when she last saw the Park all dressed up for the holidays, and doesn’t remember the Christmas Parade, a favorite of mine since childhood. She doesn’t remember the “snow” on Main Street or the special holiday goodies awaiting her inside. It’s like a layer of magic over the magic during the Holidays.
Our little princess has brought her Halloween costume, complete with “glass slippers” and tiara so that she will be properly attired when she meets her ‘La (Cinderella) today and the other Princesses.
The gates soon open and the line very quickly shifts inside of the park, a few at a time. We pass the gates, the chiming of the readers like a welcoming bird song. That, or I’ve been away way too long! LOL. Immediately, DH heads off to Nemo with the oldest two, while the baby and I stop for a stroller. We usually bring our own umbrella stroller, but thought we’d skip it this one trip and use the free Disney Visa rental, instead. We won’t be making that mistake, again!
We headed out onto Main Street, and spot that Castle at the end of Main Street. It is so beautiful! They did such a wonderful job decorating it!
The early morning spurred us on as we met the rest of the family at Nemo. 1 ½ hour wait! Yikes! Plan B! Off to Fantasyland!
We start off the day with a spin on the teacups, twice! One lump or two? Then we head off to find a magic feather and join the flying elephants!
Mom calls, they are in the park. (Niece and nephew figured out they were going to Disneyland this morning when they took the ART shuttle to the parks!) We meet up with them for Space Ranger training, and Fastpasses for Space Mountain, but the line is short, so they just get in line. Mom and I take the baby and mosey to the Hub for a real cup of coffee and to share possibly the best oatmeal cookie we have ever had. We snap a few pictures of our princess in front of the castle.
We meet up with the crew to check out the reindeers, since animals are a favorite of my niece, a future veterinarian. I love the Reindeer Roundup area. No time to decorate cookies today, we are off to Big Thunder Mountain for fastpasses! When we get there, we figure we’ll measure the baby, just for the heck of it. I don’t think she’s tall enough, but she LOVES her roller coasters! She always rides Gadget’s coaster in Toon Town, and wishes she could do the one in DCA with the loop. Imagine our surprise when she measures up with an inch to spare!
We decide to check in on Cap’n Jack and Davey Jones and head for POTC. The line appears daunting at first, but after observing for a minute, it was constantly moving, and quickly. POTC is possibly my favorite attraction. It was a special moment, being there with my family, including a rare trip with my BIL and his kids. They don’t get to go very often, and I was thoroughly enjoying seeing the park with their new eye to everything. I had a Hallmark moment on the boat. Yes, I am a sap.
A quick trip around the ROA later on the Mark Twain and it’s time for BTMRR!! This is my DS and mom’s favorite, and we can all ride this time! I’m a little nervous as we head up the ramp about how our princess will do. Daddy holds on to her for dear life during the ride and she squeals with delight throughout! We are leaving the attraction and I ask her how it was and she yells, “that was SO great, let’s do it again!!” So much for my worrying.
We get a rumbly in our tumbly, so we decide to head over to Rancho del Zocalo for a late lunch. BIL and the kids eat at totally different times than my brood, so they are off to the Temple of Doom and parts uncharted!
We have a nice relaxing meal outside, taking in the sights and sounds. We usually have the tres leches cake, but the flan was calling us this time. YUM! Every time we go to RdZ, I say I’m going to have something different. I miss the BBQ they had when they first opened, and I’ve tried the enchiladas and carne asada. But I always come back to the tostada salad. It is so stinkin’ good! The toddler meals are new this trip and are the coolest idea! It’s still more than our toddler eats, but it beats the heck out of chicken strips or nuggets!
I’m a little amazed that the day is passing rather quickly, and our group is still going. I have to say my troop made me proud this trip! We only had the beginning of a minor meltdown that was quickly quelled with a power nap in the stroller by our DS.
We hop a quick ride on the train to head over to IASW. I love the holiday themed version and it is one of the baby’s favorite rides, so I could hardly wait to ride the holiday version with her!
The line was a little gruesome, but moved rather quickly, so within about 30 minutes we were floating along. We missed the peppermint smell, but watching DD’s eyes light up as she tried to sing along was priceless. Christmas carols are a new thing for her this year!
We had planned to wander into Toontown next, but it was seriously overpopulated with tourists, so we changed plans and headed to the Princess Faire. All the princesses, all the time! There was a show on, so they headed down the stairs to watch Snow White enchant the little visitors. On the way down, I was stopped by a Cast Member who asked if the Cinderella going down the stairs before me was mine. I answered affirmatively, and he asked me who her favorite princess was. Um, Cinderella? He asked who her next favorite was, and I told him it was all Cindy, all the time for her, but our oldest was a big fan of Aurora. He wrote out something on a ticket and handed it to me and told me to wait by the mirror in five minutes. We had an invitation to an exclusive meeting with Cinderella and Aurora! How exciting!!
We anxiously awaited and were shortly escorted behind the wall to a curtain where we waited for audience with royalty!
We entered a chamber area complete with royal "servants" and were presented to the Princesses! It took a minute for it all to register with our littlest one that she was really talking to "her 'La." They fawned over her and posed for several photos, then posed with our oldest daughter for photos, all the while dear brother was pretending to bang his head against the stone wall. Too much girlie stuff in one dose for him. Boys!
__________________
Priscilla
Disney. Because being a grown-up is over-rated...
Last edited by Cinderella_68; 02-06-2008 at 10:36 PM..
Reason: photo added
I've just finished reading your first & second entries, and really enjoyed them. My brother and I couldn't fit in a volcano either after our main meal at the Rainforest Cafe, which was really disappointing, as: a) We hadn't had one EVER, and had been looking forward to it; and, b) We never got back to the Cafe to have one before it was time for us to head back to Oz, so have had to put it on the list for next time, which will probably be a three year wait at the earliest!
That long line to get into Disneyland park on Dec. 31 was amazing! And I thought it was crowded when we were there in early December!
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They walked to DtD from the motel, it is just down Disney Way.
New batteries fixed that, so there are pictures yet to come!)
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Pixie Dust
Sounds like a great first day!!
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