Springtime Jaunt to Disneyland: Final Days and Final Thoughts: COMPLETE 6/11/08 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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Day 4, Part 1: No Nemo for Us?? It Really is MADNESS!
Day 4, Part 1: No Nemo for Us?? It Really is MADNESS!
We woke up bright and early to make sure we were in Disneyland right at opening. I was determined to ride the Nemo Subs this morning. Chuck grabbed some coffee at La Brea Bakery and water for me and we went to stand in the lines at the turnstiles as we were slowly let into the park. Funny, how last year I was watching the running of the guests and this year I was part of them. Once they let the rope drop, 99.99999% of the people headed straight for Nemo. Who knows where that other 0.00001% went in the park but there was probably no one else in any other land. OK, so it was a little bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.
We arrived at the entrance to the lines and were told by a CM that the Nemo subs were down for the time being and to check back in about 2 hours. We held on to the hope that they would be up and running after we finished with Toontown Morning Madness.
Now with about 45 minutes to spare before heading over to Toontown, we decided to take a ride on the Matterhorn and then another round of Buzz. We were successful in completing both rides. Now since I booked a package through my mom for this trip, we got coupons to be able to enter Toontown Morning Madness. Chuck and I rounded the corner by It’s a Small World and saw this humongous line. I’m guessing this is where those that didn’t get to ride Nemo came to wait. So, Chuck and I took our place in line and waited for them to open Toontown to those lucky enough to have these special coupons. Are you getting the impression that I wasn’t feeling all that special to have these coupons? At 10:00am exactly, they opened the gates and we proceeded to hand off our coupons to the CM and get a treasure hunt map in exchange. We were told that they would do the officially opening at 10:20am in front of City Hall.
Chuck and I wandered around checking out Toon Town. I told him I wanted to get some pictures once the official opening was over. He noticed that a lot of people were already gathering around City Hall and that we should grab some seats if we wanted decent seats. We actually lucked out (or so we thought) and got two seats at the second row of tables. Little did we know that people didn’t really car if you were sitting there. They proceeded to pull chairs from other tables and sit in front of us. These were not kids doing this, but adults. Chuck, who still must have had some built up frustration from the cranky CM, voiced his thoughts to me but loud enough for those around us to hear. He got a few looks but it sure didn’t make anyone move.
Finally, the Deputy Mayor came out and started the official opening of Toontown. It was a cute ceremony and I am glad that I got to see it once. We did get a free button saying we were honorary citizens of Toontown. Here are some of the pictures that I was able to grab over the people.
Next on the agenda was getting a ride on Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. This was actually a first time ride for me as well. It was only showing a 5 minute wait and it was practically a walk on. Most of the other guests were standing in line for pictures with the characters. Surprised that I wasn’t one of them, huh? Chuck really enjoyed the ride. It wasn’t one of my favorites, but I didn’t hate it. After our ride, we decided to take some pictures of Toontown as I wanted to do a scrapbook page on it. Pretty bad that I take pictures with scrapbook pages in mind, but you do what you gotta do.
After roaming around, we headed over to Mickey’s house to see if the Big Cheese was available for pictures. According to the CM, we just missed the huge line for him and were able to walk through his house without people rushing us and then waited no more than five minutes before we were escorted into a room with Mickey. So, here are some pictures through Mickey’s house and our picture with Mickey himself.
Now once we finished up with Mickey. I wanted to get some more pictures of some of the gags throughout Toontown and with some of the vehicles. I know this area is more geared toward the kids, but I the theming. Make sure to look at Chuck’s face in the Dog Pound. Priceless I tell ya!!
But, we could not waste anymore time in Toontown if we hoped to get a ride on Nemo before heading over to DCA. We made our way to the beginning of the line and the same CM that was standing there 2 hours previously was still there and telling us that Nemo was a no go. I told Chuck we would try again tonight. We made our way to Main Street and headed out under the train station. A train was just coming into the station, and I was able to wave to the engineer and grab a picture. I then had to grab a picture of the famous quote and a sideways picture of the train station and flowers.
Coming Up: Preferred Seating at Aladdin: Those Coupons Worked This Time!!
Great update, Dawn!! you weren't able to ride Nemo, but it sounds like you had a fun time in ToonTown! There are so many fun things to explore around there! Can't wait to hear more
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