National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney Wonder! VANCOUVER SECTION 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sunday 28 August – part nine: welcome to Canada and Vancouver!
As the time approached for our flight, with no plane in sight, we realised that we wouldn’t be on time, no matter what the sign said.... I will credit them that they did do very well and it wasn’t long before we were boarding after the plane got in, but there was no way we could make that time up and we were about half an hour late leaving.
I think Mark was very pleased with the emergency exit seats that we got. They certainly had plenty of legroom.
As we took off and headed up the coast, we were treated to the most beautiful sunset going. It was just stunning.
I had bought a mozzarella roll from La Brea Bakery at the airport, so I tucked into that once we were airborne and offered Mark a bit as well, as he was admiring it so much. It was excellent. I have to say that Ariel’s Grotto certainly filled us up, as it was 8:00pm before I started to get hungry, having sat down for lunch at 11:30am.
The entertainment system on board was quite something. It was working as we took off, which I’ve never seen before. I opted to watch the Lincoln Lawyer again, as I had enjoyed it so much on the flight on the way out. I ended up finishing off watching the film as we came into land, which was a very surreal experience.
We taxied to our gate and were quickly off the plane, something to do with only having 94 people on board, I guess. The crew had told me that earlier.
My immediate impression of Vancouver International Airport was that it was a stunning airport. I’m guessing it’s very new and the architecture was quite something, with huge, high ceilings, giving a real sense of space.
As it was 10:15pm, nearly everything below us was closed, with the exception of Starbucks Coffee.
We headed for immigration and this time we barely had a wait, no more than five minutes, which was such a pleasant change after LAX. A nice conversation later and a new stamp from a country we’d never visited before and we were through to baggage claim. One suitcase was already doing the rounds when we got there and the other two followed very soon afterwards.
We headed for the exit through customs and, although there was a long line, that moved very quickly and we were out in a couple of minutes.
Everything was very well signposted (LAX, are you listening? ) and we soon found our way to the taxis and with no wait, we were soon off. It had taken us about half an hour from landing to getting in the taxi. Very impressive.
The taxi ride to the Pan Pacific was really interesting and, to be honest, like nothing I’ve ever taken from an airport into a city before. : Usually you’re heading out along freeways and there’s not much to see, until you hit the urban sprawl. Here, we ended up going down what I would call ordinary residential roads, albeit they had two lanes going each way, with beautiful houses and lots of greenery on either side. Let’s just say that these are the types of huge houses you’d expect to see outside of a city in the States and some of the places were massive. I was amazed and a couple of times I had to pinch myself to remind myself that I was in a city. In fact, had it not been for the fact that we’d passed the “Welcome to Vancouver” sign on the way, I would’ve wondered if we were somewhere else altogether...
Finally we came into what I would say is more like a traditional city, although it took some time. The small scale shops gradually got bigger and then we were crossing water and you could see the heart of the city looming up in front of you, in the shape of skyscrapers. Many were obviously apartment buildings and not the type of place I’d like to live. : Give me those big houses on the way to the airport any day!
We were soon approaching the Pan Pacific and it looked like it was right in the middle of the hotel district. I was immediately impressed as soon as we arrived and we paid our taxi fare of $35 and headed inside.
We were told by the bellman to go up two escalators to get to the lobby, which starts to give you a scale of the place. With the camera packed in the rucksack, I only got limited photos, figuring I’d make up for that in the morning, when I would be less tired...
We were quickly checked in and assigned our room number on the ninth floor. It was a city view, as I hadn’t been able to justify the additional charge for a harbour view. I was too tired to even care about the view outside and suddenly very glad that I had already got all the photos off the camera at the airport earlier. In a touch of amazing service, as we got to the room, we rounded the corner to be greeted by one of our suitcases Next to them was a bellman, waiting for us.
I was very impressed with the size of the room and asked him if it was standard, but he told us it was hard to say, as they’re all differently shaped, which is interesting.
A few photos of the room later and we were in bed, exhausted from trailing the suitcases around. As a footnote, whoever thought that thick carpets were a good idea at Vancouver International Airport has never had to drag one around in their lives...
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures into the 100s in Los Angeles and still warm when we arrived in Vancouver. The best thing today was taking a ride down Main Street in a vintage vehicle and having it all to myself. The worst thing today was the heat and how exhausted we were by the end of the day. The funniest thing today was “losers!” Today we tried touring the DVC preview centre And the result was we loved the model rooms from Aulani. The most magical moment today was meeting Jeannie and spending a couple of hours with her.
What a nice, easy flight and arrival into Vancouver! I sure wish all flights had the entertainment available from takeoff to landing. The hotel room looks so nice and spacious.
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Love that legroom on the plane! The hotel room looks really spacious and comfy!
Yeah, I don't know what it is about LAX. A few years back they announced they were going to spend a ridiculously huge amount of money to upgrade...the giant LAX sign at the entrance! Seriously, does anyone in government have a brain?! I can't remember if they went forward with it, but there was such a huge uproar! I wish someone had thought to spend that money to upgrade the interiors where people can really see a difference!
Now I want to fly to Vancouver just to check out the airport!
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Holy legroom, batman! Gosh, I love the exit row. Haven't been there in awhile. But it sure is nice for us tall people. Aside from running a little late, the flight sounded very nice and easy - even the entrance to Canada! What a great hotel!
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Your hotel looks really great! Glad to hear the flight and cab ride went so smoothly. I have to admit, I was a little sad that you didn't get any photos of those pretty big houses outside of Vancouver...
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The crew had told me that earlier. 
I’m guessing it’s very new and the architecture was quite something, with huge, high ceilings, giving a real sense of space. 
) and we soon found our way to the taxis and with no wait, we were soon off. It had taken us about half an hour from landing to getting in the taxi. Very impressive. 
: Usually you’re heading out along freeways and there’s not much to see, until you hit the urban sprawl. Here, we ended up going down what I would call ordinary residential roads, albeit they had two lanes going each way, with beautiful houses and lots of greenery on either side. Let’s just say that these are the types of huge houses you’d expect to see outside of a city in the States and some of the places were massive. I was amazed and a couple of times I had to pinch myself to remind myself that I was in a city. In fact, had it not been for the fact that we’d passed the “Welcome to Vancouver” sign on the way, I would’ve wondered if we were somewhere else altogether... 
I'm with you, it was strange driving to and from the airport and not really getting on any highways! 
More please! 
puctures of the sunset. more please
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