DrDolphin's Great California Adventure *COMPLETED* - Page 12 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Mmmm..a tasty burger that looked to be!
Glad they were able to quiet the cheerleaders down for you so you could get some rest. I keep picturing Will Farrell in his old cheerleader skit on SNL...
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Go Jeff Go Jeff Go Jeff!!!
We got up EARLY this morning – 600am early. I took a shower and got dressed in appropriate Jeff Gordon/Hendrick Motorsports attire (which is not showing in any photos cause it was COLD and the Mickey Jacket never came off ). Today we were saying goodbye to San Diego and heading north to the City of Angeles – with a detour at the California Speedway!!!
I repacked all my STUFF into my suitcases – trying to remember how I got it in all in there originally – just 3 days before (wow – that’s it? Three days?? But we’ve been so busy!!!). We loaded up, met Crystal and Doug in the hallway and headed down to the VanUV to load all our STUFF in the car. This was the first time we had ALL the suitcases – (I know Sarah/Em/I had 10 between the 3 of us – and Crystal and Doug had another 4 (?) - it took some doing but we got it all in there – with room to spare for a certain 5 year old too!!
The night before – on the way back from the Corvette Diner, we had discussed wanting more for breakfast than the Hampton Inn buffet. I had overheard the front desk manager tell someone there was a Denny’s down the road about 3 or 4 blocks – so Denny’s it was. We all had insanely large breakfasts (which - although I was STUFFED when we left – proved to be a good thing later) and then loaded back into the car for the hour plus drive to Fontana, CA for the race. Crystal’s hands on the steering wheel with Tony Stewart ORANGE nails!! Now that is a dedicated fan!
After Sarah and Crystal got us successfully into the parking lot – we loaded up with all the needs for the day and headed out in excited anticipation to see the race!!
We started the morning by picking up my race headset and Crystal bought the most AWESOME bling Tony Stewart hat – well it was soooo bling – I had to see if they had a Jeff Gordon one – and they did – and I bought it…. Got to the bling!!!
Sarah nearly had a personal run in with fame – literally - nearly running over Rusty Wallace – Mike’s favorite driver (before Rusty retired!)… so Sarah had to call and rub it in!!
We walked around and took photos of various driver’s haulers (like Kasey Kahne for a certain Kasey fan we all know and love). We even looked at NASCAR crocs (I knew I should have bought the Jeff ones when I saw them – have not found them since!) and the rest of the gang looked at the NASCAR build a bear too. Eventually – Sarah and I decided it was time to head up to our seats. We left Crystal and Doug scouting out Kevin Harvick gear (Doug’s new fave driver – ick!).
We made it up like 40,000 stairs (ok maybe not that many – but my knees were feeling it…) and took our seats. Not too much later – Doug and Crystal made the hike too!
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I liked these seats – since I had a WONDEFUL view down pit road!!! Jeff’s car in front of all the others on pit lane (I have a BUNCH of Jeff’s car on pit lane photos )
Then they had Driver introductions – more Jeff pictures! At least this time, the pole is not in the way! Jet’s during the National Anthem (see Sarah’s video)
Sarah gave you the run down (and video) of the pre-race stuff with Kevin Costner (that man should not be allowed to sing) and Sammy ( his singing!) and not too long after that they dropped the green flag to start the race!! Emilie had the right idea – Go Jeff!! Oh yeah – go Tony too!! (My first Youtube video!) YouTube - go jeff go jeff go tony too!
The beginning of the race was pretty interesting. It was the first race they were using unleaded gas… and engines were blowing (I think there were like 5 by the end of the day) but Martin Truex blew on lap 8!!!! By the end of the day – some of our Passporter’s favorite drivers were not having a good day. I thought of Melissa when Kasey blew up – and of Dawn when Junior blew up – not once – but twice in the same race. Kasey pushing the car back to the garage after the engine blew
The guys on the radio were just ripping on Jr – for being the only guy they knew of that could get interviewed for blowing up twice in the same race . I think Emilie was bored at like lap 20 and at times – she would listen to my radio while her mom and I talked as the cars did lap, after lap, after lap….I guess it was more like yelled to each other since it was so loud. Emilie with my race headset on listening to the drivers
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Some where like lap 138 – I finally succumb to my bladder and stomach… I needed a potty break and food. So I took my radio, hiked down the 40,000 stairs and ended up getting two hamburgers, a cup of lemonade and a coke (I think it was a coke for Sarah) – I headed back up to the seats.,… gym – shym…. I did my cardio/stairmaster that day!! I think Em and mom were good and hungry – because I don’t recall the burger lasting too long (sorry Doug – no hotdogs! They were sold out before I got there).
Not too much later – Crystal bugged out for a bit – and Doug took a nap. Now explain to me – HOW can you sleep at a NASCAR race?? Doug SWEARS he was awake and just in deep thought… yeah right. Doug dreaming that Kevin Harvick would win! Keep Dreaming Doug!
Toward the end of the race –we had the red flag – everything stopped (poor Emilie just wanted to know if they were done yet….) Red Flag stops the race
and after all was said and done – well I think this photo says it all – Jeff was #2 – and I was VERY happy with that!!! Jeff finishes in Second!!!
Sarah posted the video of me explaining who finished where to Emilie
- YouTube - Auto Club 500 - 2/25/07 -- part 6
After we were all done, we hiked back down the 40,000 stairs with all the throngs of other people, I turned in my radio (I think listening to the radio guys is half the fun!) and hiked back to the Van – where we SAT for like 45 minutes trying to get out of the parking lot. Once we finally got moving – it was like another hour or so before we pulled up to the Hilton Universal City. Arriving at the Hilton Universal City
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I went in to check us in – since I figured it would take awhile for a couple of reasons – 1. We were using reward points for the stay (read here – FREE ) and 2. Since I am a diamond member, even though I did not pay for an executive level room – I should have been upgraded. Well – we had the trainee… he checked us in – and I NICELY (I swear I was nice) reminded him that I should have an upgrade. PROBLEM – no 2 queen rooms left on the executive floor…. But he could give us a room, high in the tower and put exec floor access on our keys. Ok – well that works. Right as he went to assign the room – his manager comes over, looks at my reservation and says “no – put them here, it has a much better view” so – so I now want to RUN up to the room….
We got in the elevator (Crystal and Doug had already checked in by now), Emilie took care of pushing buttons and Crystal and Doug had coordinated bag arrival with the bellman… so we entered our room – and Sarah was SO funny – “Holy ____, This is the nicest hotel room I’ve ever been in!!!”. She was SO cute!!! We threw open the curtains (ok I did – Sarah’s not a fan of heights – did I mention we were on the 18th floor?) and had a great view out the window (which I did not take photos of until the next morning).
Here are some pictures of the room after all the STUFF arrived –
After getting all settled in – we went up to Crystal and Doug’s room (we had to scope out the Exec Lounge don’tcha know) and listen to the fine elevator music in the elevator lobby (Sarah was fascinated) before we all loaded up on the free Citywalk shuttle and headed to dinner at Bubba Gumps.
Seems like Crystal and I are starting a tradition – NASCAR races and Bubba Gumps!!! It was just a bit more than a year before I had met her and Doug in Daytona at Bubba Gumps the day of the Daytona 500….
Crystal and Doug had some fun drinks (can’t remember what though) and then we ordered shrimp to start plus I had a bucket of boat trash for dinner… OMG – too much food!!! Crystal enjoying her adult beverage Boiled Shrimp Boat Trash
After dinner – we walked around Citywalk a little bit – I think we even bought popcorn at Popcornopolis (very good caramel corn BTW) before heading back to the room to CRASH for the night!!!
Ah yes . . . I forgot about the elevator music while you wait!
Also, I believe that this was picture #2 of me eating something in your report. I don't think that was the last time though. So, this report is full of pics of me munching and Crystal drinking.
And you got a shot of the $6 bottle of Fiji water! (I wish I could find some Fiji water up here . . . I kinda liked it. It was plain ol' water but it was kind of fancy. )
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). Today we were saying goodbye to San Diego and heading north to the City of Angeles – with a detour at the California Speedway!!! 
the bling!!!
) and 2. Since I am a diamond member, even though I did not pay for an executive level room – I should have been upgraded. Well – we had the trainee… he checked us in – and I NICELY (I swear I was nice) reminded him that I should have an upgrade. PROBLEM – no 2 queen rooms left on the executive floor…. But he could give us a room, high in the tower and put exec floor access on our keys. Ok – well that works. Right as he went to assign the room – his manager comes over, looks at my reservation and says “no – put them here, it has a much better view” 
so – so I now want to RUN up to the room….
More please 
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