It’s Always Sunny in California!..Eh?...L’il Bit! - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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I'm a "diet coke in the morning" girl too! I don't drink coffee or tea, so diet coke is my morning caffeine... LOL.
I don't drink those either, but at home I drink caffeine free diet. But it's still my morning drink!
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Originally Posted by chezp
Those are some of my favourite flowers too - and I remember saying the same thing before about that gift shop!
They are so pretty!
The gift shop was fabulous, but really it had limited hours.
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Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
More beautiful pictures of the grounds. I love Bird of Paradise flowers!
It is a very pretty and fun resort!
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Originally Posted by MayraLR
My boys would love this! It looks amazing!
I bet they would!
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Originally Posted by Big Baloo
Considering what a fan of swimming she is, I'm surprised Claire hasn't already talked you into taking her to Disneyland, specifically to swim in that pool! Heck, I'd go on that waterslide and I don't even LIKE pools!
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Originally Posted by lfredsbo
me too
I don't think Claire has actually seen many of my pictures yet. We often read TR's later after I am done writing (we still never read all of our 2012 one together. LOL). I have told her about it, but I didn't give her a lot of details. Skip has said he wants to go next year, so hopefully all works out and we can make it out there as a family. I want to stay at DLH too, at least part of the time.
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Originally Posted by FanOfMickey
Love all the resort pics and pics of the flowers I too was amazed how small Sleeping Beauty castle was, even after being told. I actually laughed the first time I saw it, but by the end of the day I came to love it as much as Cinderellas
I think I expected it to be so much smaller that I was pleasantly surprised by the size. Which was a good thing!
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We finally were ready and made our way through DTD to the parks and bag check. We were on a mission to get to CA as fast as we could for early entry. My suggestion to you is to get there fairly early!!!! We did a speed walk so there are no pictures from our walk. These are the crowds that met us.
Another tip…when you get through bag check do not enter the closest lines. Those were extremely long. We made our way to the other end and the lines were not too bad at all. And then Cass spotted a line with only a couple of people in it. At first we weren’t sure if it was a real line or not…as why would no one be in it? But we lined it up with a turn style and sure enough it was a line so we went into that one.
A CM started walking through the line with some sort of scanner and when she scanned my ticket she said I needed a picture. I wasn’t sure what this was. Cass then told me that they are now taking a picture of each person to match it with the ticket, so if your ticket scans and doesn’t show your picture they know you are not using your own ticket. We also had to sign our tickets. I signed mine, but later found out I was supposed to print my name. It wasn’t a big issue for most, but when someone tells me to sign something I write my signature. At a later point, one CM told me I had to pull out my license because she couldn’t read my signature and I was supposed to print my name. She was the only one who made a big deal over it; no one else ever said a word.
Cass had her picture taken the day before so now we were both good to go. Soon they started letting us into the park a bit earlier than opening and we handed our ticket then to the person running the turn style for her to scan it to allow us in.
My first look at California Adventure in the day time.
We quickly made our way towards Carsland to the next rope. The advice given to both Cass and I were to stay wide and right. When you go to Radiator Springs it will funnel all down to the right and those on the right tend to get in faster.
I took this picture and got a nice photobomb. Seriously I have no idea how this lady got in there as she was on the other side of the roped off area.
We were on the right side and just about the 2nd row back from the rope. While we stood there I took a few pictures.
Here they come!!!!!!!!
That gas hose was going to be the new “rope” to take us back to Carsland.
They had to untangle it a bit.
And we are waiting!!!!
And waiting!
That lady in front of us was not even going to Carsland…..when we were let in, she veered off to some other ride.
This is a good sign…the welcome committee is here!
And then they slowly walked us back towards Carsland. At one point we saw the people who used the Grand Californian entrance walking in too, but we were several steps ahead of that group. As we walked, some people started pushing their way in front of us. It was really ridiculous how families are pushing their way through people with kids and then getting separated and trying to get the rest to cut in front of everyone else. We kept walking fast and yes we tried not to let people in front of us if possible. At one point part of a family got between Cass and me. So after being frustrated with them and they were trying to get together I just walked around the guy as best I could and caught up with Cass and now his family was together. At one point some pushy ladies stepped on my feet to get by and I really thought if they needed to be that far ahead that they were stepping on people’s feet….then let them!
As we approached the ride the fire truck came out (sorry I can’t think of what his Cars character name is) and he basically made it clear to all those on the left that you had to go right and it got a bit more crowded then. All in all we didn’t get too far behind though.
A CM led us into the queue so there was no running through it to get to the front. This part was orderly.
See the ladies following the CM? They are the ones who were stepping on the feet to get up front. I guess they achieved their goal.
As we walked through we could see some empty cars going by. How exciting!!!!
I tried to snap pictures as we walked through, but we were going at a pretty good pace.
I'd heard about the veer right method of getting there. Stepping on people's feet is not a good idea! I don't like how pushy people seem to get their way sometimes. I can't wait to see the next segment!
Oh wow, how annoying to have all those pushy people. We never did that, as we were always in before opening as resort guests and we'd be in line for Fastpasses before the crowds were let in. It looks like you were pretty near the front though....
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Radiator Springs Racers looks so great! All of the annoying, pushy people would drive me crazy!
It is such a fun ride, but yeah it did drive me nuts
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Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
I'd heard about the veer right method of getting there. Stepping on people's feet is not a good idea! I don't like how pushy people seem to get their way sometimes. I can't wait to see the next segment!
It was crazy. These people are supposed to be adults and this is how they act!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh wow, how annoying to have all those pushy people. We never did that, as we were always in before opening as resort guests and we'd be in line for Fastpasses before the crowds were let in. It looks like you were pretty near the front though....
It was super annoying. I was told the fp's were not available during early entry, so we had to go ride right then and there or wait later...and those fp lines got LONG!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Looks like you guys were pretty close to the front despite the pushy people
And by the way......the fire trucks name is Red......
Thanks I knew someone would know!
And yes, we were still very close to the front
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Originally Posted by chezp
D'oh - I was trying to remember that one as well!
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Originally Posted by lfredsbo
It helps when you are married to a firefighter
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Originally Posted by chezp
That definitely would help!
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Originally Posted by mommapants
well that seemed very well organized. Disney sure does know what they are doing - wish the herd of people were not so pushy though.
I am so glad they walked us back because I can't imagine how people would act if it was a free for all.
I believe Cass and I ended up being within the first 20 in line.
We didn’t make it in the first set of cars, but we did make the first car of the 2nd set.
And we’re off!
We go out just a little ways and then stop again for a seatbelt check.
I took a picture of Cass then! She always has cool poses on rides. Half the time I look like I am hanging on for dear life.
The ride starts out slow with a leisurely drive around the outside.
Once we went inside it was much harder to get pictures. I should’ve brought my other lens which works better in dark areas, but I will confess right now….. I let that lens sit in the room the whole trip and never once put it on.
Someone went tractor tipping.
This part always made me laugh when the green jeep would call the van “hippy”. (Yes I will admit I am terrible with the car character names). It was so funny because the way he said it sounded just like my oldest daughter Paige’s dad. He would call people that and said it in the same tone.
Time for a new paint job.
Time for the big race.
We then race another car and go outside on some bunny hills and turns. This is so much fun. Better than test track, but with a similar feeling. We laughed and giggled and our hair whipped all over.
I believe we won the race, though I am not positive, but it was so much fun. I am not sure what these things are sticking out of the walls. I assume some car part. Again I have only seen Cars 2 at the movies and only bits and pieces of the original Cars movie. Claire likes it, but not super into it, so we don’t own the movies.
We get stopped here and then the cars take turns going to the unloading area.
We go to get off and I gracefully trip! Yep, I had my bag looped around my foot so it would be safe in the car, but when getting out it becomes quite hazardous. Plus I have big elephant feet on top of that. Ok, I have issues getting off rides…I’ll admit it. My feet always tend to trip over something. Well my wonderful new friend was so worried about me that she burst out laughing! Which of course makes me laugh and then I have a harder time getting out of the dang car! And of course it then led to Cass reminding me all the time to be careful when I got off rides, always followed by a laugh!
We then went to look at our picture. I look like a big goof. I am blurring out Cass because she hates her picture taken. (and she looks a bit goofy here too )
I look like I am peeling my skin off my face! LOL. I was really trying to pull my hair out of my mouth.
We then exited the ride. That is such an awesome ride and I think one of my Disney favorites now.
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me too 
I too was amazed how small Sleeping Beauty castle was, even after being told. I actually laughed the first time I saw it, but by the end of the day I came to love it as much as Cinderellas 
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We never did that, as we were always in before opening as resort guests and we'd be in line for Fastpasses before the crowds were let in. It looks like you were pretty near the front though....
Holly: 
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