Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - the Hawaii section THIS SECTION COMPLETED 1/13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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I all the pictures as I've been very curious to see all the details. Disney has done a wonderful job with the nighttime lighting. That summer roll didn't look so good. Sorry! Hope you all managed a good night's sleep after the day long travel.
Luke and I actually talked about Aulani last night over dinner. He got tickled at me as he asked whether I wanted to do DLR or Aulani first. My reply was to do them both in the same trip. He did like my logic of flying first to California, enjoying the parks for a few days, and then flying on to Hawaii. Now we just need to get my car paid off.
Well, if we get back to Aulani, I'm looking at combining it with Disneyland on the same trip, so that makes a lot of sense to me!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
The resort looks amazing!!!! Sorry your sushi was not good, what a bummer after all that traveling and lack of decent food on the flight! Can't imagine how exhausted you two must have been! Looking forward to lots more photos!
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The arrival was perhaps a bit overwhelming. We were greeted by one guy, who told us another guy, would see us into the lobby, which he did, to hand us over to a Cast Member whose name escapes me but she came from Anaheim, and she walked us through some of the theming behind the lobby, which I photographed…
Was her name Natasha? i so thats my friends daughter. She works check in I believe and I know that she grew up near Anaheim. She also was in the WDW college program and worked at CRT then.
Finally caught up here.
What a gorgeous airport...and resort. holy cow it's beautiful!
That is a really long day of traveling though, but so far it looks totally worth it!
Was her name Natasha? i so thats my friends daughter. She works check in I believe and I know that she grew up near Anaheim. She also was in the WDW college program and worked at CRT then.
I really don't remember her name. I know she told us that she'd worked at Disneyland and I think, if I remember right, she hadn't been at Aulani that long, if that helps?
Tuesday 5 November – part one: we’ve got plenty of time to make it to Pearl Harbor…
Considering we were dealing with jet lag again we didn’t do too badly today. I know I woke up and Mark told me it was 2:10am, then I went back to sleep until 3:30am. After that, I lay there, half sleeping until we got up at 5:00am, which wasn’t bad at all.
The view from our room
We got going and left the room about 6:30am, getting our first glimpse of the resort from the ground level in the daylight.
We headed over to the Ulu Café to fill up our mugs…
…. and then made our way over to the car park.
I haven’t seen any photos of the Aulani car park, so here are some, so you have an idea of what it’s like….
Thank goodness it’s free for Disney Vacation Club members!
We put the roof down, so we could experience the sensation…
… and headed out, and turned right, as that’s what the GPS told us to do, and it gave us some fantastic views of Aulani, with the rising sun highlighting it beautifully.
Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club
We quickly learnt that turning right as you come out of Aulani is basically a stupid idea, as there’s nowhere to go. All the roads end, although I’m sure one day there will be further development and no doubt they will then go somewhere…
We turned around, and headed out of the resort. By now, it was 6:50am, and we had loads of time, as our tour wasn’t until 8:00am…
When the GPS asked us if we wanted to find a quicker route to avoid the 31 minute delay we of course said However, I’d programmed it for Pearl Harbour, the place, rather than the actual attraction, as it wouldn’t recognise it either as a point of interest or a street name. What is it with all national parks run places? None of them are ever in the GPS system, which is irritating to say the least. As we drove along, seeing more of the island, and as Mark said, some of the not so nice bits of the island we both started to have a bad feeling about where it was taking us.
We were being asked to go on to US government sites, which didn’t seem right, so I thought I’d program it to take us to the airport, as we knew Pearl Harbour was near there. Eventually, after following that route for about five minutes, inspiration struck me (a bit late I know! ) and I programmed in USS, hoping to get the USS Arizona Memorial, but of course I didn’t. What it did give me was the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum, which is part of the complex, so we set that in, and off we went.
I realised quite early on that there was no way we’d make the 8:00am tour. It was something like 7:40am by now, and the GPS was telling us that it would take over 20 minutes to do 12 miles. Frustrating huh? Well, it was right, as we kept hitting traffic at just about every set of lights we came to. Mark did his best, but I’d resigned myself to not getting there until after 8:00am, and so it turned out to be.
I think we arrived literally about 8:02am, and then found parking. The first lot was already full, but there were plenty of spaces in the second, which wasn’t that far away.
Aulani is huge! You're right, though, it does seem to fit better with the landscape than the other big resort. With traffic as bad as it is I can see why people just go to a resort and stay there! Are there tours you can take from Aulani to visit Pearl Harbor or other sites, or does everyone seem to have a car?
Our GPS seems to have a mind of its own sometimes too and it is so frustrating when it makes it harder than it should. Crazy traffic! My great grandfather was at Pearl Harbor and I wasn't able to go when we were there. I am looking forward to your report.
You're morning started out very peaceful!
I remember now why it's recommended to stay in Honolulu for a few nights before exploring elsewhere. Traffic. I guess it's a large city, just like anywhere else.
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Aulani is huge! You're right, though, it does seem to fit better with the landscape than the other big resort. With traffic as bad as it is I can see why people just go to a resort and stay there! Are there tours you can take from Aulani to visit Pearl Harbor or other sites, or does everyone seem to have a car?
The tours we saw advertised in the Daily Iwa (it's their version of a Personal Navigator from the cruises ) were for the ranch on the other side of O'ahu or shopping. I didn't see a single excursion to Pearl Harbor. I assume that people either drive (the car park was reasonably full) or maybe they rent a car for the day if they want to go somewhere special, as I know there was a car rental desk at the resort. Obviously we didn't explore that option any further, as we already had one. As far as I know, none of the main tour operators collect from Aulani. It's one of apparently only about eight or nine resorts in O'ahu not in Waikiki, so the pick-ups are naturally concentrated in Waikiki.
Our GPS seems to have a mind of its own sometimes too and it is so frustrating when it makes it harder than it should. Crazy traffic! My great grandfather was at Pearl Harbor and I wasn't able to go when we were there. I am looking forward to your report.
Oh what a shame. Hopefully I can do a good job of reporting on it for you.
You're morning started out very peaceful!
I remember now why it's recommended to stay in Honolulu for a few nights before exploring elsewhere. Traffic. I guess it's a large city, just like anywhere else.
Good point. I am seriously thinking of maybe spending our first night there if and when (I keep going between the two - I want it to be "when" but you just never know, so sometimes I use "if" instead... ) we get back there, so we can explore Waikiki and Honolulu without having to travel from Aulani...
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all the pictures as I've been very curious to see all the details. Disney has done a wonderful job with the nighttime lighting. 
That summer roll didn't look so good. Sorry! Hope you all managed a good night's sleep after the day long travel. 
we didn’t do too badly today. I know I woke up and Mark told me it was 2:10am, then I went back to sleep until 3:30am. After that, I lay there, half sleeping until we got up at 5:00am, which wasn’t bad at all. 
All the roads end, although I’m sure one day there will be further development and no doubt they will then go somewhere… 
we of course said 
) and I programmed in USS, hoping to get the USS Arizona Memorial, but of course I didn’t. What it did give me was the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum, which is part of the complex, so we set that in, and off we went. 
) were for the ranch on the other side of O'ahu or shopping. I didn't see a single excursion to Pearl Harbor. I assume that people either drive (the car park was reasonably full) or maybe they rent a car for the day if they want to go somewhere special, as I know there was a car rental desk at the resort. Obviously we didn't explore that option any further, as we already had one. As far as I know, none of the main tour operators collect from Aulani. It's one of apparently only about eight or nine resorts in O'ahu not in Waikiki, so the pick-ups are naturally concentrated in Waikiki.
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