National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! DISNEYLAND SECTION COMPLETED - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Beautiful shots of the castle! I still can't get over the lack of crowds.
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Oh my god Cheryl. I just read this whole portion of the trip and I have to say, your flight on Virgin, between the club lounge and the flight itself seemed like a vacation!!! Amazing! Yes, just how ALL travel should be right??
Sorry about all the mishaps in the begining and your sinus issues too.
I have to say, I visited DW lots when I was little with my family, hubs had never been. Fast forward to when hubs and I lived in So. Cali, we decide to drive to DL one day. I wasn't overly excited because I just didn't think it would have the TA-DA factor. But, in a way it did. I kept saying, wow, it's just the same, sort of, to my hubs. I was shocked as I hadn't really expected much. He liked it too and we had a great time and all..........then years later we go to DW, his first time. We came around the bend from under the railroad and hubs says "WOW" when he first saw Cinderella's castle! This is WAAYY diferent from DL. The castle makes all the difference. My fave will always be DW, but I think DL has a special something because it was "the first" of many great things Walt has left.
I am enjoying this TR very much, can't wait to hear more.
Are you sure you weren't on some sort of "Entry to the Park Before the Rest of the Guests Are Allowed In" VIP tour? I can't believe how empty it was!
It wasn't a VIP entrance, it was entrance only to Disneyland Resort guests, but even so... that's still a fair few people and we were told that the Grand Californian was full that weekend, so I was expecting a lot more crowds than that.
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Oh my god Cheryl. I just read this whole portion of the trip and I have to say, your flight on Virgin, between the club lounge and the flight itself seemed like a vacation!!! Amazing! Yes, just how ALL travel should be right??
Sorry about all the mishaps in the begining and your sinus issues too.
I have to say, I visited DW lots when I was little with my family, hubs had never been. Fast forward to when hubs and I lived in So. Cali, we decide to drive to DL one day. I wasn't overly excited because I just didn't think it would have the TA-DA factor. But, in a way it did. I kept saying, wow, it's just the same, sort of, to my hubs. I was shocked as I hadn't really expected much. He liked it too and we had a great time and all..........then years later we go to DW, his first time. We came around the bend from under the railroad and hubs says "WOW" when he first saw Cinderella's castle! This is WAAYY diferent from DL. The castle makes all the difference. My fave will always be DW, but I think DL has a special something because it was "the first" of many great things Walt has left.
I am enjoying this TR very much, can't wait to hear more.
Glad you're enjoying it - I know exactly what you mean, as I wasn't sure that Disneyland would have that TA-DA factor as you described it, but it certainly does.
Saturday 27 August – part three: how many rides in how long?
I knew where I wanted to head first, for the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, as we’d enjoyed it so much on our last visit. Amazingly, there was only a five minute wait and, in fact, we walked straight on. This was much longer than I remembered – and much louder as well. I don’t know if I was right under the speakers, but I don’t recall it being that loud before. I’m still enchanted by this, as I have such fond memories of the original Nemo submarines from when I was a kid.
When we came out of there, we headed to Fantasyland, noticing on the way that the Matterhorn didn’t seem to be doing much. Sure enough, we were told it was down for rehab and would be back up by Memorial Day weekend. They’re apparently replacing the track and ride vehicles. It’s no great loss to us, as there is no way that we are ever going to ride that again, after the experience we had last time.
Instead, we headed for another of my favourites, Alice in Wonderland, and walked on. This is such a fun and refreshing ride and one I wish they had in other parks.
Once we finished with that, we had a quick browse through the Mad Hatter and wandered around a bit of Fantasyland.
Then Mark said the magic words “if you want to go on Dumbo, then you can”! I didn’t need to be told twice and I was airborne on my flying elephant in under five minutes. Of course, you don’t get the view you currently do at Disney World, with the Fantasyland expansion, but it was still fun.
Next in line had to be Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and boy this is! It was a lot more jerky than I remembered, but still fun all the same.
It was time for a few photos...
We then headed on to Pinocchio’s Daring Journey and that was a walk-on as well. In fact, I think when we arrived, we were the only customers for the ride full stop at that time.
Are you keeping count? We entered the park around 7:40am and by now, 50 minutes later, we had completed five rides. This is how I like the parks!
We walked slowly through from Fantasyland into Frontierland, stopping to get various photos along the way.
That's a lot of riding in an hour--and I really like the photos from Dumbo as, to me, they really show off the landscaping.
Looking forward to the cell phone story!
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I don’t know if I was right under the speakers, but I don’t recall it being that loud before. I’m still enchanted by this, as I have such fond memories of the original Nemo submarines from when I was a kid. 
I didn’t need to be told twice and I was airborne on my flying elephant in under five minutes. Of course, you don’t get the view you currently do at Disney World, with the Fantasyland expansion, but it was still fun. 
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