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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Trip: Disneyland/ Cali adventure 3 day Salute to Military & Family reunion in Oceanside.
Travelers
Me 24
Husband, James 28
Daughter, Sierra 7
Little brother, Jonathan 13
all reunion attendees went to DL on the 22nd. (15 people) only the above went back.
Friday (the 22nd) we left our house at 2:30 am to drive to the airport. Well, actually we drove to the park and fly place. As we are dropping off our car and waiting for the shuttle we notice cops surrounding the area and a police helicopter circling over head. We get to the airport and go and eat breakfast at Wendy's. By this time it was around 4am. At 5:30am they started boarding the plane. That plane ride went pretty fast. We had a 2 hour layover in Salt Lake City. We arrived in San Diego at around 12:30 and then had some drama with our car rental. We were able to finally leave the airport at around 2:30. Traffic was HORRIBLE to Oceanside. A 30 mile ride took almost 90 minutes. Shortly after we got there my sister in law and I had to drive back to the airport to pick up my little brother. Traffic was horrible to the airport and it took almost 2hrs to get there. We finally got back to her house around 8.
Saturday we got up at 5:30 to go to our first day of Disneyland. We had 15 people to get ready and we ended up leaving a little late. Then when we got there half of our group had to park elsewhere and they had to wait like 30 minutes for the tram to the park. I don't know what time it was by the time we finally got into the park but it seemed to take forever. First we got a fast pass for the Buzz Lightyear ride. That was pretty cute. Then we went on Space Mountain. Sierra was scared. But by the end of our trip she was begging to go back on it. After that we had lunch and then everyone else went on Autopia while Carady and I went and got fast passes for Indiana Jones. While we were waiting on those to be ripe we went on Pirates of the Carribbean and the train ride. After Indiana jones we went on the haunted mansion. I remembered that ride be better than it was. After that we went to toon town to take some pics. The park was VERY busy that day so by then everyone was tired and ready to go back to my sister in law & brother in laws house. On the way we stopped at a Chineese buffet. It was very good. We all crashed pretty early that night.
Sunday we hung around the house in the morning and then went to see the tanks on the base. They had a museum that had old tank and old military vehicles. After that we went to the beach to have a BBQ on the beach.
Monday almost everyone left on Monday. Except for us (and obviously my sister in law and brother in law who live there). We relaxed this day. It had been a long weekend.
Tuesday we left bright and early to go back to Disneyland and to check into our hotel that was down the street. We stayed at the super 8 that was 1/2 a mile away. We parked at the hotel and walked to the park. We made it to the park before they opened. That day we got a lot done. We bought Sierra an autograph/photo album. She got a lot of Autographs that day. The first ride we went on that day was Thunder Mountain. Shortly after going on that ride my flip flop broke... $20 later I had a pair of micky flip flops. Then we went to get a fast pass for space mountain. While we were waiting for our fast pass time we went on the matterhorn bobsleds, the teacups, the alice in the wonderland ride and it's a small world. We had lunch and then went on space mountain. After lunch we went over to Disney's California Adventure. First ride we went on was the tower of terror. This ride... hands down is the BEST ride there. Sierra loved it. You go up on an elevator and then drop 13 stories.... three times! It also has a cute story that goes along with it that makes it seem even more real. After that we went over to California Screamin but just our luck the ride breaks down 30 minutes into waiting to ride it. After that we went back to Disneyland. After we got back we got fast passes for Splash mountain. While we were waiting for that we went to the Pirates of the Carribbean ride. Then we went on the raft to Tom Sawyer Island. We didnt stay on there long. Then we went on the winnie the pooh ride. That was a cute ride and an easy way to kill time. Then we got in line to meet some winnie the pooh characters. Finally around 5pm we were able to ride Spash mountian. I sat in the front row. BIG MISTAKE. I got soaked. Not just a little soaked. So wet that over 2 hours later i was still soaked and had to search disneyland for clothes to buy (its hard to find pants/shorts at disneyland). After splash mountain we went to eat dinner in toon town. After that we got fast passes for space mountain and then watched the parade (while james, jonathan and Sierra were finding a spot to watch it i was searching for clothes). The parade was cute. After the parade we went on the Star tours ride and then space mountian before heading back to the hotel. By this time my feet were killing me and since I had new flip flops I had blisters all over my feet. My toes were litterly swallen. We watched the fireworks from the hotel.
Wednesday morning we woke up and checked out of the hotel. We were running a little late because we were so worn out from the day before. We went to Denny's for breakfast then made the big mistake of going to the lot that requires you to ride the tram. It takes forever to get to a parking spot in that lot and then forever to actually get to the park. I actually prefer the Pumbaa parking lot which is a short walk to the park and you dont have to go through a maze to get to a spot. It litterly took us 45minutes just to park. Wednesday is really a blurr. We went on a lot of the same rides... Did indiana jones again, space mountain, thunder mountian... headed over to Cali Adventure to do Tower of terror then we went on Cali Screamin. Sierra LOVED that ride. We got to ride quite a bit of rides that day. We left the park at around 5 beacuse we didnt want to eat dinner in the park and by this time we were ready to eat and get back on the road since we had an hour long drive to my inlaws. We ate dinner at the Kidd Buffet across the street from disney. It was pretty cheap... 7.99 per person... but I was not impressed. We wont go back there during future vists. We got to my sister in laws just before seven. We hang around with them and watched the movie Taken. That was actually a good movie.
Thursday we just relaxed and then headed to the airport around 1:30pm. We got there around 2:30 and we were supposed to fly out at 4:30 but our flight was delayed till 5:46. We had another lay over in SLC and of course that flight was delayed too. We got to Seatac at around 10:30 and then had to pick up our bags and wait for the shuttle to the park and fly place. On the way back to the park and fly place the driver tells us we arrived just in time because someone had stolen a car (from somewhere else) and there had been a police chase.. he got out on foot and the car ran into a pole. The police had the area surrounded trying to find the guy. We got home atound 1am.
Things I learned on the trip:
1. In the future we will eat all breakfasts at either the IHOP or the Denny's across the street (on Harbor BLVD) from Disney. This saved us a lot of money!
2. I liked our hotel and for $50 it was pretty close. It took us about 10 minutes to walk from there to the park. We got to park there for free so that saved us $12.
3. I will not go to the park in flip flops.
4. I hate spash mountian with a passion.
5. Pumbaa parking is by far the best place to park. It took us less than 10 minutes to park and about 10 minutes to walk to the park VS. mickey and friends took us 45 minutes to park plus tram time
We had an issue with very poor customer service in Toontown. We had eaten dinner at the little pizza place next to the hotdog place. After we were done eating my husband went to the hotdog place to get napkins because my seven year old had pizza face. They flat out REFUSED to give them to him. Looking back I wish we would have complained... because that is rediculous. The next day we noticed in DCA napkins were out for anyone to use.
I am sure there is more i missed... anyway here is a link to our photos from our trip
Thanks for sharing! We've learned, on Splash Mountain, to put the light people up front and heavy people in the back (when possible). This lifts the "nose" of the log and there is less splash. It doesn't always work, but it's a good process to attempt.
heather- thanks for the suggestion. We tried to put our 7 year old in front but they wouldn't let us. I think we should have put my little brother in front. Maybe next time i will wear a rain coat.
Oh no on the flip flops and Splash Mtn. We haven't ridden Splash Mtn. at DL in years - but want to rectify that on our next trip. Now I'm worried ...
Reading your report, I realized that the very first time I ever went to Disneyland, we went to celebrate my step dad just coming back from being overseas in the Army way back when. So we had our own military day.
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We haven't ridden Splash Mtn. at DL in years - but want to rectify that on our next trip. Now I'm worried ... 
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