A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED - Page 2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Tuesday 8 September – part two: a Disney surprise in the terminal!
We then headed over to security checks at the airport, and all I can assume is either a) they’re not very efficient or b) they’ve had a specific tip-off, as it took forever. From start to finish, it was probably about 45 minutes, although the last 10 minutes was clearing immigration. They were certainly very interested in everyone’s carry-on luggage, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen such thorough checks on the X-ray machines before. All they cared about with individuals is that you were carrying your boarding passes – ours got checked about three or four times each.
Once we were done with that, we did the machine checks at US immigration, and eventually it spat out our receipts telling us we were good to go. I just had a few issues, as with my RSI (carpal tunnel), trying to get all my fingers down for an electronic fingerprint is quite painful, as my little finger doesn’t automatically sit right down any longer) and without my glasses, which you can’t wear for the system to take your photo, I’m blind as a bat. I couldn’t see if I was lined up right or not. Thank goodness Mark was there to help me!
When we got through the other side, we browsed a few shops, and found a few friends…
Mark ended up getting a selfie stick in one of the shops, although I warned him he wouldn’t be using it in a Disney park and I got a Canadian moose luggage strap, as now with four cases and two pieces of carry-on luggage, dealing with all of that was a bit of an ordeal. I had been putting my carry-on over the top of another case, but it was starting to bend the metalwork, so a luggage tag had to be the answer.
As there was so much to see on the way there, I think we only made it to our gates at 9:45am. Just as well we allowed plenty of time, given we’d set off around 8:00am.
When we got there, we were really surprised to see all this…
We started to board around 10:30am, and I can see why Southwest don’t fly out of here, as my goodness, they’d be far too quick for them! We left on time, but let’s just say I think boarding took the full 30 – 40 minutes allocated before our flight. Not what I’m used to…
We had a row of three to the two of us, as thankfully the plane wasn’t full. It was packed with kids, as we realised when it came to pre-boarding and literally most of the plane disappeared on board at that point. I guess, given the proximity to Disneyland, it wasn’t a huge surprise, and in fairness, they were all pretty well behaved, which makes a very pleasant change.
I got some photos while we were on the ground…
… then as we taxied…
… and finally I snagged a couple as we took off:
I had to be very quick, because as you could probably see from some of the photos, it was a pretty miserable day in Vancouver, with some very dark skies and rain forecast. I was glad to be escaping, and literally within about two or three minutes, we were above the clouds.
That's the best airport ever. How cool is that?! The character displays are awesome!
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Weren't those Disney displays awesome?! We couldn't believe it when we got there! And our DD was very happy to see Pluto got some fair time (she thinks Mickey is an attention hog )
Weren't those Disney displays awesome?! We couldn't believe it when we got there! And our DD was very happy to see Pluto got some fair time (she thinks Mickey is an attention hog )
So do I although I feel he takes the attention from my donkey boy.
Tuesday 8 September – part three: this sprawls as far as the eye can see!
A little while later after we left Vancouver, we did come out of clouds to find this below us:
Unfortunately at this point, I wasn’t on the map channel, so I can’t tell you where we were. Mark later pointed out to me how to find it, and after that I was at least able to identify where we were.
I suspect this is one of the mountains in Washington state (I think they have a few ), but again I’m not 100% sure. If anyone recognises one, please shout!
At about this point, we were served up with complimentary beverages, and snacks, which turned out to be these:
The steward let us try both, I think something to do with the fact that I’d been chatting to them before we’d boarded and we were now sort of friends. Anyway, they were both good, although I preferred the chocolate ones. I do wish though that airlines would explain what’s complimentary, as we had the same thing on Air Canada Rouge, and if you’re not familiar with the airline, you don’t know whether there is anything complimentary, as of course these days, a lot of that has now stopped.
Now this fascinated me…
It could be Washington, it could be Oregon. I don’t think we were that far into the flight that it was California, but I can’t say for sure. Again, any offers anyone?
At this point, I had found the map and we appeared to be on the eastern edge of Northern California and the western edge of Nevada…
Now we seem to be just north of Fresno.
Here we’re north of Los Angeles…
Soon we were into the sprawl that is Los Angeles, and it just goes on as far as the eye can see.
We could see the smog in the distance, but thankfully by the coast, which we were flying over, it wasn’t that bad, making it easier to get photos:
We noticed there were a lot of ships and tankers out to sea just off the coast:
I think that's Mt Rainier, although I don't see it from the air very often. We call that cloud the mother ship when it's hanging over the whole mountain top.
About This Page: 
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
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and I got a Canadian moose luggage strap, as now with four cases and two pieces of carry-on luggage, dealing with all of that was a bit of an ordeal. I had been putting my carry-on over the top of another case, but it was starting to bend the metalwork, so a luggage tag had to be the answer. 
Mark later pointed out to me how to find it, and after that I was at least able to identify where we were. 
If anyone recognises one, please shout! 
Again, any offers anyone? 
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