Going north, south, east and west - LAS VEGAS - COMPLETE - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Just got around to reading your last two installments. I'm so sad this awesome trip comes to an end. I can't believe how much you saw and did in just 16 days!
It was fun journeying with you to these various locations. I'm using your NYC trip report as well as your suggestions for our NY trip in June. I, too, am sorry it is coming to a conclusion...of THIS trip....many more to come!
Oh....and you did have fun at DCA, right?
Keep us posted on Japan....wow, what a trip...I'm jealous.
Thank you for your awesome pix and wonderfully descriptive narration!!
Hugs....and I'll let you know 'bout NYC and the 'Hamptons'!
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The luck was really on our side with the weather on this trip. There were only a couple of times of the year that we could easily visit the various destinations we had in mind, without them being freezing or cooking. That theory didn’t work for us though, with the humidity we hit on our first day in New York and the 94 degree heat we had in Disneyland, both of which were unexpected for that time of the year. As a result, we probably did pack way too much, but with the weather forecasts for Chicago suggesting daytime highs in the 30’s and overnight lows of down to 10 degrees, I think we packed for what we thought we might encounter.
The heat was awful in Disneyland, but somehow it was nowhere near as bad as Florida. I guess part of that is to do with the lack of humidity, but also the sun can’t have been as strong as in Florida, as despite the heat, I showed no sign of burning, which was a pleasant change for me.
Flights:
We did really well with our flights this trip. After all the horror stories that I kept hearing about various American airlines, I was very pleased to see that Southwest are still as good as the last we flew with them and in fact, have further improved their boarding procedure to speed things up even more.
I had also heard nothing but good things about JetBlue from everyone and now I can add my voice to that praise. I couldn’t fault them on the two flights we took with them, although it was a great shame that my direct TV set wasn’t working on our second flight, as that sounded like a good invention and one I would’ve liked to have seen in action for myself.
Itinerary:
Everyone who asked where we were going on this trip, both before and during it, tended to react in a couple of ways. Usually, it involved disbelief and a gasp of shock or amazement. I can understand that, as it was a demanding itinerary and there were times that I did wonder if we had bitten off more than we could chew. For the most part, I think it did work. Yes, it was sometimes exhausting and there were some things I didn’t think of, like the two hour time difference between Chicago and Los Angeles, which didn’t really come into my mind in the planning stages. I also failed to think about how much the drive from LA to Vegas would take of Mark, as that left him struggling to stay awake for that first Cirque show we saw.
All in all though, it seemed to work, certainly the order of places we visited working and, leaving Vegas to last was a good idea, as we were able to enjoy more of the evenings, as I had hoped. Of course, we could have done with longer in all of our stops, but I felt we just about had enough time at each place. I think if anything, another day in Chicago and Vegas would’ve been really good to allow us to finish doing and seeing everything we wanted, but it gives us a reason to head back to both those places again one day. I don’t doubt that we will be back to visit all the places we saw again in the future.
I know I’ll be back at Walt Disney World for the Decade of Dreams tour and if things work out (and you just never knew the way things are with the economy right now), then we’ll be there again for Christmas 2009. As for the other stops, who knows? But then again, when we left Disneyland and Vegas in 2006, I never thought we’d be back just two years later, so you never know how things will work out.
The top ten highlights:
I thought it would be good to end with some of the highlight from our trip. It’s difficult to do this, but I thought it was worth trying and, as a result, I’ve pulled together a top ten of the things that stood out to me from our 16 days. I’ll go through them in reverse order:
10) Central Park
Finally, on my fourth visit to New York, I got to see Central Park and it was worth the wait. Yes, it was a lot of walking and Mark kept telling me that was what killed him the first day and what set the tone for the rest of the trip, but it was something I had wanted to do for so long. I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to visit it.
9) The museums of Chicago
In this I include the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium. Usually we’re the sort of people who can go to museums and see them fairly thoroughly in a reasonably short period of time. Not here. The Field Museum on its own is easily a day and we could’ve spent much longer at the Adler Planetarium as well. Whenever we do get to go back, I’ll look forward to seeing the Oceanarium at the Shedd Aquarium as well as revisiting the other museums.
8) Visiting Disneyland while it was so quiet
This was a definite highlight, especially as our last visit had fallen on spring break and we had already seen that the parks really can’t cope with crowds. I’ve never seen Disney parks so quiet before and you could easily get spoiled by this. Being able to pick and choose what to ride with pretty much no wait for anything was something we really enjoyed. I think it helped us to appreciate these parks much more.
7) The view from the Rockefeller Centre
Having been up the Empire State Building in the past, I wasn’t expecting the views from the Rockefeller Centre to be much different, but my goodness, it was. From here, not only do you get to see the Empire State Building, but also Central Park and it’s probably only from up here that you can appreciate just how big that is. Many thanks to everyone on the boards why recommended this to us. It was something I’m very glad we did.
6) The architecture of Chicago
This was every bit as stunning as I had heard it was and seeing the buildings from both ground level and on top of the Sears Tower and John Hancock Centre is something that will stay with me for a long time. It’s a beautiful city and it’s nice to see how they’ve protected a lot of their past.
5) Our fountain view room at the Bellagio
This was just wonderful and a real highlight for both of us. We missed the fountains on our last trip and finally we got to see them and boy were they worth the wait! They were just mesmerising and I think it says something that we didn’t want to check our on our final day, as we just wanted to enjoy the fountains a bit longer.
4) The Deluxe Dining Plan
I know it was a lot of food, but I really enjoyed being on the Deluxe Dining Plan. It meant that everything was taken car of and I know that, with better planning, next time we can make even better use of it. Being able to use our snack credits at the Food and Wine Festival booths was also a definite bonus and I did enjoy the booths, even if they weren’t as inspiring as perhaps I’d hoped for.
3) The Halloween Parties at Walt Disney World and Disneyland
Although we didn’t seem to do a lot at either of them, we still had great fun and some times you don’t need to ride the rides to have fun. Getting the various characters and seeing the parades was worth the entrance money to us. It was interesting to be able to experience Halloween parties at both Disney parks.
2) Visiting the Grand Canyon
Although we had done this two years ago, I knew that we both came back and felt as if it just wasn’t as breathtaking as we had hoped for. That’s why we decoded to go for the combination plane, helicopter, boat and coach tour. It was a lot of money and we did agonise over whether it would be worth it, but decided in the end, that it would be and that this would be our Christmas present to each other. It was breathtaking and it really did allow us to see the full splendour of the Canyon that we just never got to experience before.
1) The people we met along the way
I know I say this every time, but the highlight of every vacation now is seeing old friends and meeting new ones and that was the same this time. We loved the fact that got to meet people on every leg of our tour, except for Vegas. It was so good to see everyone and figures crossed, we will be seeing some of you guys again either in May for Decade of Dreams or at Christmas.
Well, that’s it for this trip. Our next will see us travelling to Japan during which time we’ll visit Tokyo Disney, so keep an eye on the Globetrotting trip report forum for full details of that. And as for our next trip back to the States? Well, it’s hoped that we’ll be back for MouseFest, my birthday and Christmas and a special appearance at a PassPorter’s house in December, but that’s all for the future.
Next: coming soon in March sometime - our pre-trip report for our Japan trip!
Excellent wrap-up, Chez. It was really fun getting to spend time with you and Mark on two stops of your tour. You've also inspired me to take a trip to the Grand Canyon. As always, I really enjoyed your TR and can't wait to see you again in May!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Cheryl, I have so enjoyed reading along on your and Mark's adventures! Brilliant, as always! I have to say that you have convinced me that Thom and I need to stay at the Bellagio when we finally make it to Vegas!
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