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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Hi, My DH and sons (7 and 9) are considering a trip to La Brea tar pits (and museum) during our stay in Anaheim. How much time should we allocate? 1-2 hours? Do you recommend it? Thanks.
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I went there on a High School field trip back in the olden days ( I am almost as old as the tar pits)
It was very interesting & has some great things to see there. If your kids are interested in dinosaurs they will like it. I would plan for 2 hours so you can see the museum.
Ditto. I'd give yourself at least 2 hours for the kids to go through the museum and explore the ground. I'd also count on at least an hour each way for travel time, depending on day of the week and time of day you're on the road.
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Ditto. I'd give yourself at least 2 hours for the kids to go through the museum and explore the ground. I'd also count on at least an hour each way for travel time, depending on day of the week and time of day you're on the road.
My thoughts also as that's what we've got planned for next month as well.
The grounds themselves are free, but the Page Museum is $11/adult and $5/child (5-12) . . . the first Tuesday of each month, though, is FREE! Parking is $1.50 per 20 minutes (maximum of $9) on Monday through Friday, $7 flat on the weekend and holidays. If you bring your parking ticket in to the museum on weekdays, you can have it validated to get $2 off your parking fee. If you don't want to park in their lot, you can park along the streets around it but depending on what time of day you're there, that might be tough. You also can't park on Wilshire (even in the metered spots) during morning and evening rush hours or else they will tow you, so the lot makes better sense to me!
I have seen many reviews that say to allow about an hour for just the museum, not counting walking around the tar pits and Hancock Park outside.
Thanks everyone. We want to have a couple of "light" days in between our much longer days at Disneyland and Legoland. I think combining the La Brea Tar Pits (and museum) and then maybe driving over to see the Walk of Fame (stars and handprints) would be just perfect.
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Maybe it's just because we didn't have kids at the time, but DH and I weren't all that into the tar pits. I didn't care for the smell and it wasn't all that interesting to me. Although I could see how kids who like Dinosaurs might be interested. We spent a few hours there, but could have skipped it altogether. We much preferred checking out Malibu Creek State Park, but that's just us.
We were there in June and spent 3 hours. But we were taking our time and walking all over the park too.
I would think you could do the museum and the main tar pits in 2 hours. I thought it was interesting.
We wanted to do the Walk of Fame and the Chinese theatre area but we didn't do the research (thanks to husband for saying it wasn't necessary. But it was!) and went there on the day that was the premier of Cars 2 so we couldn't see or do much since so much of that area was blocked off.
If you are going that way, do all the research you can because you don't want to be in that area if there is a big movie premier going on. It was awful!
When I visited, Tut was next door at LACMA. Spent about 2 hours before my time to visit the pits. Just as a heads up, I did hear a couple of kids complaining because they thought they were going to see dinosaurs, not so much the woolly mammoth and sabre tooth tigers and such.
We went in March and DS 11 really wasn't all that into it. We were surprised since we thought he'd like it a lot more than he did. He probably found the actual tar pits to be interesting for about 10 minutes yet he loved walking down Hollywood Blvd which we were sure he'd be disappointed in.