National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! PRE-TRIP AND DURING TRIP REPORT COMPLETED - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I have to be honest that does worry me a little bit, but then again, I’m never happy unless I have something to worry about.
From one worry wart to another, I completely understand, but doesn't it usually all work out in the end? We had breakfast at the Plaza Inn when we went to Disneyland before our Tahiti honeymoon in 2004. At that time it was Pooh and Friends and the place was empty! I just couldn't believe it. We basically had the characters all to ourselves, and I couldn't imagine it ever being like that at Disney World.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Finally all caught up - what an adventure you have planned. So much time and effort went into this. I'm exhausted and I'm not even going - nor did I do the planning. You must be getting so excited because just a few more days to go. I must admit I'm jealous and only slightly miffed. I'd love to do a west coast adventure - but when are you planning an east coast one. There is lots of PP on this side of the US and we'd love to have you.
If you're getting a GAC, just fyi on the DCA side, it's now after you enter the park and immediately on the left. On the DL side, I believe it's still at City Hall on Main Street on your left.
Finally all caught up - what an adventure you have planned. So much time and effort went into this. I'm exhausted and I'm not even going - nor did I do the planning. You must be getting so excited because just a few more days to go. I must admit I'm jealous and only slightly miffed. I'd love to do a west coast adventure - but when are you planning an east coast one. There is lots of PP on this side of the US and we'd love to have you.
One day, one day... in fairness, we have seen a fair bit of the east coast already - Savannah, Charleston, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Boston....
You're going to have so much fun, Chez! Just one question: do you have a day or two of relaxing planned when you get back home? You just might need it!
Congrats on the tickets - that's so kind of your friend! As for the restaurants, I honestly never would have thought to check into whether they were open or not - I honestly would have just assumed they would be!
__________________
Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
You're going to have so much fun, Chez! Just one question: do you have a day or two of relaxing planned when you get back home? You just might need it!
: we arrive back 8am on Sunday morning and then it's back into work on Monday morning...
Now here, I have to say that what I love about these boards and what keeps me coming here is how wonderfully friendly everyone here is. Earlier on in this pre-trip report, you may have seen something from lsugirlinutah, otherwise known as Patricia, saying that she lived near to where we’d be staying one of the nights and that maybe we could meet up. A couple of private messages later and I had suddenly learnt all about the Sundance Resort, Sundance Resort - Home owned by Robert Redford. She told that the drive up there, which would take about 20 minutes from where we were staying, was amazing and would offer a very different side to Utah. I was immediately sold and checked out the website, discovering you could book online, so I grabbed a table for the three of us. I can’t wait!
But better was to come... I cannot believe how this pre-trip report has panned out, with two additional meets now in place! It was only yesterday that I mentioned about our time in Chicago at the end of our trip, at which point Heather (ilovedisney247) announced that she’d be in the city at the same time as us. I couldn’t believe our luck. We’ve been to and fro and have made arrangements to meet up. I can’t wait to see her again.
Well, we’re just a couple of days out now and I think we’ve bought everything we’re going to need. We’ve also packed a lot of things, although as predicted, packing has been a complete nightmare. I have done the “dress in layers” tactic to see how many layers I could get on under my new lightweight coat and it worked well and I didn’t feel too much like the Michelin man. By the way, if that’s a British reference, have a look at the images on Google and you’ll soon see what I mean!
We’ve gone with a combination of clothes, including jeans and crops, and for the tops, I’ve gone with vest tops, as it’s certainly going to be hot in Disneyland and may still be for some of the national parks, as they’re showing high 90s, low 100s for the start of September T-shirts for in the middle days, like maybe Seattle and Chicago and perhaps at sea days on the boat, and long-sleeved tops for the cold days, like Alaska (mid 50s during the day) and the nights at Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. That’s been the biggest surprise. For early September, they’re showing a very pleasant daytime temperature in the 70s, but at night, we’re looking at mid to high 30s, which will be a bit of a shock to the system!
Having said that, it’s rather worrying how everything has fitted quite neatly into three cases, which is what I was aiming to fly out with. There’s a fourth one inside one of those, ready for the Southwest flight and then the flight home, when we don’t get any luggage charges, so if we feel the need to purchase one or two books about the national parks, then we can...
Talking of national parks, I got the shock of my life last night when I did my regular updating of Accuweather’s 15 day forecast. I’m using the forecast for 15 days out as my guide for the rest of our trip, if that makes sense. I nearly died when I put in “Old Faithful” and I spotted the snow sign! seriously, they are forecasting, at this stage anyway, snow for the night of 31 August – snow in August, how freaky is that? I know that it can snow early, but that is something I was really hoping not to see this early in the year...
I wanted to finish off this instalment with a few facts and figures about our trip:
Length of trip: 23 days Countries visited: 2 (USA and Canada) States/provinces visited: 10 (California, British Columbia, Alaska, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois) States/provinces visited that will be new to us this trip: 7 (British Columbia, Alaska, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado) Number of flights: 5 (2 international, one there and one back, 3 internal, 1 from Los Angeles to Vancouver, 1 from Seattle to Bozeman and 1 from Denver to Chicago) Miles to be driven: 1,869 (141 miles, Vancouver to Seattle and 1,728 miles during the national park leg of our trip) National parks visited: 5 (Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, Arches)
About This Page: 
We had breakfast at the Plaza Inn when we went to Disneyland before our Tahiti honeymoon in 2004. At that time it was Pooh and Friends and the place was empty! 
I just couldn't believe it. We basically had the characters all to ourselves, and I couldn't imagine it ever being like that at Disney World.
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Holly: 
PassPorter Guide Author
And 
you will have to plan a visit over here soon...
: we arrive back 8am on Sunday morning and then it's back into work on Monday morning...
I couldn’t believe our luck. We’ve been to and fro and have made arrangements to meet up. I can’t wait to see her again. 
I have done the “dress in layers” tactic to see how many layers I could get on under my new lightweight coat and it worked well and I didn’t feel too much like the Michelin man. By the way, if that’s a British reference, have a look at the images on Google and you’ll soon see what I mean! 
T-shirts for in the middle days, like maybe Seattle and Chicago and perhaps at sea days on the boat, and long-sleeved tops for the cold days, like Alaska (mid 50s during the day) and the nights at Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. That’s been the biggest surprise. For early September, they’re showing a very pleasant daytime temperature in the 70s, but at night, we’re looking at mid to high 30s, which will be a bit of a shock to the system! 
I know that it can snow early, but that is something I was really hoping not to see this early in the year... 
Linear Mode
