Stepping into a new continent – a week in Hong Kong COMPLETED - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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I love the pictures of the Mickeys but I'm not sure what a couple of them stand for. Main Street seems almost deserted after being in Florida so many times. I like being able to see the differences in each Disney park.
Liz
Wow...getting caught up again! The Mickey train is awesome and could definitely handle traveling to Disney on that all the time. Your pics of the park so far are incredible. It's amazing how empty Main Street looked. Love all the Mickeys!!
I love the photos. HK DL is definitely on the list for our heritage tour with Serenity. What is the name on the last Mickey? I can't see it behind the rope.
I think it could be health - I'm sure there was one representing health and I can't see it in the other photos, so maybe that's it. Sorry we managed to cut off the name for you!
Monday 18 February – part three: heading into Mickey’s home
We then visited another addition for the New Year celebrations, Mickey’s House, which was really neat. It’s a shame that it’s not a year round attraction. There were some neat touches that you could recognise from Mickey’s House in Toontown in Disney World, but a lot of it was completely new and had some great visual touches. Perhaps it will lead the way to Hong Kong Disneyland getting its own full time Mickey’s House and a Toontown of its own one day?
When we came out, I spotted a cute sight that I just had to get a photo of:
This Pluto was so cute, I was so tempted to buy him, but I decided not to in the end, as I wasn’t sure I’d have space in the case to get him home. Essentially he’s a walking dog that yaps as well – so he’s a bit like your own real life Pluto. How neat is that?
We headed next into Adventureland. There are only four lands in total here, Main Street, Adventureland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and there aren’t many attractions in each of the land. There’s no Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad or Pirates of the Caribbean, although we did see some pirate themed merchandise in the shops. No Snow White or even It’s a Small World…. yet. It’s due arrive in the next couple of months. Anyway, Adventureland has Festival of the Lion King, Tarzan’s Treehouse, rafts that go over to it (it’s on an island, just like Tom Sawyer Island at Disney World), but the water that surrounds it is put to excellent use as the setting for the Jungle River Cruise – and that was where we headed next.
I am just marveling at all the amazing pictures you have taken. Thanks for bringing a bit of the world to someone who will probably never leave the continental US.
Mickey's House was so cute...can't beleive it is only a seasonal attraction. It is pretty interesting to see HK DisneyLand now which is early in it's "lifetime" and how many changes will take place over the years....
Can't wait to hear all about the amazing Jungle Crusie....
Monday 18 February – part four: the best Jungle Cruise in the world!
At the Jungle River Cruise, they have two lines here, one for English speakers and one for Chinese speakers and it works really well. We got a skipper who still did the same corny jokes, but the animatronics are so much better here, as you’d expect from a new attraction. It’s got the piranhas that were added to Disneyland for its 50th birthday and a few other surprised, including a great segment with the fire and water gods at the end.
We both came off and said immediately “we need to go on this again”. Not something we usually say about the Jungle River Cruise at the other parks. We resisted the temptation to go straight back on and instead it was off to Fantasyland.
Our first stop was Mickey’s Philharmagic, which is in a lovely setting.
It doesn’t seem to matter where you go in the world, the people are still the same. Case in point, move all the way to the end of the row. What is it people can’t get about that? There was a family that just plonked themselves down with no warning, so Mark suggested we just go past them. Easier said than done, the amount of time they took getting themselves settled. When they did, one woman still wasn’t out of the way enough and I fell over her feet and landed squarely on her. I’m sorry, if you didn’t stop midway down a row, that wouldn’t happen. Mark told me that she was very apologetic and so she should be. I just hope she learnt a lesson not to do that in the future. The show itself was exactly the same as you get in Disney World and seemed to go down very well with the audience.
When we came out, Mark suggested I got on Dumbo and, as it was only showing a 10 minute wait, off I went. I know this ride is lame, but I still enjoy it every time I do it. It’s fun to see Fantasyland of whichever Disney park from a higher perspective as you fly round in Dumbo.
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There is a reason the castle is so small - and I'll be going into that in the next few installments. 
How great you can put his shoes on 
And love the walking Pluto 
Can't wait to hear about Jungle Cruise 
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