Our own California Adventure - Pre Trip **Updated 3/21/11** - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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You must be there by now, how's it going? Not sure if you were going to update this while on your trip or after you get back?? I'm thrilled to hear how it's going!
DS was visiting his DGM over the long weekend so we put in some overtime with the planning while he was gone. DH finally got hold of DFiL to make sure it was an ok time to go visit. We already have the flights and DLR part booked so really either way, we're going to CA. DFiL said no problems with those dates and is going to try and get the time off work. Last time we visited he had to work half the day or more most of the days we were there.
Lompoc, CA is where DFiL lives. There's a huge military base there but the town itself is pretty small. The last trip we made we stayed in what was easily the worst hotel I've ever stayed in. The staff was horrible. One night we had to listen to people outside on the walkway of the second floor throwing beer bottles over the railing. We actually checked out early and paid for a different hotel for the last night. I just couldn't take it anymore and didn't care if it cost us an extra $100. Totally worth it IMHO.
So this time I've really been researching different hotels in the area. For a small town there's a lot of hotels here. We finally decided on the Holiday Inn Express. The rooms look nice and the reviews are generally around 4 stars. You also get breakfast every morning - cereal, bagels, donuts, eggs, fruit, coffee, etc. It sounds like a decent hotel breakfast area. We figure it'll save us buying breakfast every morning. There's also a grocery store right across the street so we can easily stock up on water and snacks for the week. All the rooms have microwaves and refrigerators.
Looks like all that's left to book is the rental car and transportation from DL to LAX. I'll wait a while to do the rental car. Mousesavers has lots of discount codes for rental cars but they all expire before our dates. I'm hoping as we get closer they'll have more discount codes.
Now the transportation back to LAX from DL is a whole different situation. I'm trying to figure all that out. I've heard good things about Supershuttle and their prices seem pretty reasonable but I'm still not sure what's the best way to go about it.
I just booked our supershuttle from LAX to anahiem hotel & return. I found a discount code for 15% off of reservation on their website supershuttle.com code is QWEST. saves a few bucks at least.
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Christina -
WDW Feb 21 - 28, 2009
WDW May 2009
Disneyland Feb 2010
Disneyland May 2010
Disneyland May 2011
I just booked our supershuttle from LAX to anahiem hotel & return. I found a discount code for 15% off of reservation on their website supershuttle.com code is QWEST. saves a few bucks at least.
Can anyone use that discount? I used it in a mock reservation, and it said something about Qwest National Account. What is Qwest anyway? I see that you get a bigger discount if you use them round trip (15%) I entered it as a one way and got 10%. We're heading to San Diego first by Amtrak, so we'd be getting a o/w to the train station in Anaheim, then returning to Anaheim and needing transportation to our hotel, so I may have to call them for a quote, since it's kind of an odd one...thanks for the info though!!
I called Supershuttle, and they consider them 2 separate reservations, if we used them. Also, on their website, it doesn't show the option of booking from Amtrak to hotel, it just shows from the airport, so I'm not sure it would work? Anyway, I called Yellow cab and it's a very similar price, so we would probably just go with them, since they are always there anyway...
Can anyone use that discount? I used it in a mock reservation, and it said something about Qwest National Account. What is Qwest anyway? I see that you get a bigger discount if you use them round trip (15%) I entered it as a one way and got 10%. We're heading to San Diego first by Amtrak, so we'd be getting a o/w to the train station in Anaheim, then returning to Anaheim and needing transportation to our hotel, so I may have to call them for a quote, since it's kind of an odd one...thanks for the info though!!
Are you the one who is going to be staying in Old Town when you get to San Diego? I have been helping someone who is doing just that, San Diego then DLR, but due to 'old age' (hahaha) my memory bank is not doing very good.
We changed from Old Town to the Glorietta Bay in Coronado, it sounded really nice, and it's a block from Coronado Beach, and it includes free continental breakfast! We have a 1 bedroom suite, I think it will suit us just fine...relaxation before Disney! Thanks for asking!
Hi everybody! I'm obviously super late getting back over here. It only took me about a month. But you all know how it goes. Life and all that stuff. We had a fantastic time. I'm finally getting around to starting my TR. I'm actually going to put the first part in the globetrotting section since it's not at DL. I'll post a link to it here when I'm done.
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