A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED - Page 18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sorry the weather was just so darn hot. The cone hat Mark is wearing is really funny.
he loves his silly hats!
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The whole sizing issue seems to be a new trend for Disney. I found the same problem at WDW when trying to find the size I needed. It was a shame because I actually for once found some cute women's shirts but the sizes ran so small I could not find the size I would need. It was very frustrating.
I don't know why Disney are doing this. It's as if they think people are getting smaller, when in fact, we all know the reverse is sadly true - certainly for me...
I wonder if it's possible that some Asian park items wind up in other parks and on the west coast cruises. My 6'2" 250 lb son bought a size 4x jacket made in Japan from Amazon - didn't come close to fitting him. But it fits our 5'10" 160 lb son like a glove, he's a medium in American sizes.
Wednesday 9 September – part six: finally riding Radiator Spring Racers
Now it was finally time to make our way over to Radiator Springs Racers.
Of course, what do we find when we get there? The clock on the Fastpass return time was running about five minutes fast!
As we headed through the reasonably empty Fastpass lane, Karen was saying to us that this really is now a Fastpass only ride, as they let so many Fastpass holders through that it then constantly lengthens the line for regular riders. Given that a fair chunk of the line is in the open, there’s no way I could wait long on a day like this.
In total, I reckon it took us about 15 minutes, which was fine, and thankfully a lot of that was in the shade.
We were hoping to get this nice turquoise car, but sadly we didn’t, as it ended up in front of us. We ended up with a light blue instead…
I did try to get some photos as we went around, but I guess usually I must take them from the back seat, as it was quite hard from the front row, as the windshield kept getting in the way.
I do love this ride so much, and I’m glad we got to ride it at least once. I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that it makes an entire visit to Disneyland worthwhile, it’s so much fun.
Now our on-ride photo, which we got as part of our Photopass package wasn’t exactly great, shall we say? I was frantically trying to anchor down my hair and ensure my scrunchie stayed put, which is why I look so totally ridiculous.
Can I just ask how that woman in the front can be so darned cool when she’s wearing a hat? I mean come on, woman, you weren’t just the slightest bit worried it might disappear… not even a tiny bit? Maybe? Well, if not, you’re a lot more relaxed than me…
We went our separate ways at that point, as we needed to head over to Disneyland for our lunch booking. We made our way out of the California Adventure…
… stopping to get some Photopass shots done on the way…
… and then we walked the long distance between the parks…
For those who don’t know, literally the two park entrances are just across a plaza from each other. In the first shot, you can see the Disneyland park entrance and that was literally just after coming out of the California Adventure. It does make park hopping a lot simpler here than in Florida.
We also got to see a monorail fly past us as we made our way over…
FP is the only way I ride RSR - such a cool ride. Sometimes we will grab a snack or drink and sit behind Flo's and just watch the racers at night. Such fun!
It looks like you really enjoyed your ride on RSR! I can't wait to go on it in October! I really am hoping you got some relief from the heat during your lunch break!
Oh how I love RSR!!! I've worn hats on rides before - I put my large ponytail through the hole in the back and if I'm really worried, I put it in a bun. It's flown off before, but doesn't go anywhere due to the bun. I've got a lot of curly hair though so that helps....
Yeah, and the whole FP+ return thing is bad like that at WDW now too. It makes the standby lines for all rides go exponentially higher when in the past, if the ride didn't even have FP, the standby never got too bad. Pirates is an excellent example. It didn't have the paper FP 3 years ago, and the lines never got too long. 25 minutes was a super long line back then. Now? FP+ people get so much priority and the standby can be regularly 40 or more minutes. It's a bummer to all the rides that historically didn't have the original paper FP machines. Sorry to ramble, it just bothers me.
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I totally agree that RSR makes a trip to DLR worth it. I'm always a bit bummed when we get to a ride and find out the FP clock is running slower than our watches, but it would have been nice this day if you all had known the FP clock was running fast.
I found the article in Disney Parks Blog. It's going to be called Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters, and in the comments below the article, people say it is going to be similar to Winnie the Pooh in Tokyo, which sounds like a pretty cool ride.
FP is the only way I ride RSR - such a cool ride. Sometimes we will grab a snack or drink and sit behind Flo's and just watch the racers at night. Such fun!
I could never ride it any other way. The waits are just insane.
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The cone hat Mark is wearing is really funny. 
he loves his silly hats! 
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Pixie Dust
That's just crazy!
I mean come on, woman, you weren’t just the slightest bit worried it might disappear… not even a tiny bit? Maybe? 
Well, if not, you’re a lot more relaxed than me… 
The waits are just insane.
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