Backstage Magic Guinea Pigs - DLR and More! Apr 19-27, 2008 - REPORT COMPLETE!! 5/2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Let us all know what attraction you get a backstage look at in Disneyland. When we booked the DVC tour, we were told that Indiana Jones was being discussed for a backstage look. That would make me very, very happy.
I plan on posting a trip report on our personal website - I'll "hide" any info that might be spoilerish.
Slight change in plans - this coming Saturday, we're making a detour to the Petersen Automotive Museum for the "Art of Cars" (the Pixar movie) exhibit before heading over to Anaheim.
5 Days and counting! I got a call from an ABD Agent yesterday to see if I had any questions or concerns regarding the upcoming trip! Nice touch! I just said I'm ready to hit the ground and run! Will be blogging on our website in our MouseFanCafe area.
5 Days and counting! I got a call from an ABD Agent yesterday to see if I had any questions or concerns regarding the upcoming trip! Nice touch! I just said I'm ready to hit the ground and run! Will be blogging on our website in our MouseFanCafe area.
Jim? he's actually in trip operations. he oversees Backstage Magic and Spirit of America. he'll be popping in and out during this trip. heck of a nice guy.
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Quickie report - long day yesterday - 7am flight (stayed in Indy the night before). Strong headwinds delayed us a bit, but we got our luggage & rental car pretty quickly & were on the road by about 9:30 LA time.
Visited the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA (Wilshire & Fairfax) for the "Art of Cars (Pixar Movie)" exhibit - smaller than I expected - but the full size Mater & Lightning were pretty neat! The other exhibits were interesting as well - The Art of Lowriders --- an amazing amount of artistic skill & technical know-how goes into these cars! Spent about an hour and a half there total - a bit pricey ($10/adult & $8 parking), but worth doing once. Stopped at an In n Out Burger on the way back to the freeways - boy, did that taste good!!!
Traffic was pretty awful on the 101 & the 5 (Dodger game?) - took us over an hour to get to Anaheim. Got checked in at the Hojo without incident - Building 1, 5th floor - room 1506. Facing I-5 - a little noisy, but having the HVAC fan on all night evened it out to white noise level. Headed up Harbor to the Disney Outlet store - picked up a couple of things, then to Target for some grocery essentials - cereal & milk & snacks. Dropped our stuff at the hotel & were FINALLY ready to get to Disneyland!
Took us a little under 10 min to walk to the front gates from the park - a half-mile according to the pedometers. Got there about 3:30 - LONG LINES (15 min) to get into DL! THe parade was just arriving on Main street - so we cut thru the stores on the left (not quite as easy as at MK) and headed to Adventureland.
10 min wait for the Jungle Cruise - Alex was our skipper & was fun, but with so many boats out in the jungle, he had to cut things a little short. Over to a 20 min Pirates wait - they had what looked to be the entire queue area filled with both lines running. It kept moving pretty well, tho. What a wonderful ride - wish they'd spent a bit more at WDW on this attraction.
Over to Haunted Mansion for about a 15 min wait - the area after the stretching rooms was completely filled when we arrived - had plenty of time to look at the lightning portraits We saw the ghostly pianist in the attic - he's not at WDW, is he? Meandered over to Critter Country for a little smackerel - got the HUGE rice crispie treat - an a Cutie Tigger plush to share it with! Decided to visit with Pooh and his Many Adventures while we were back in the area - about a 5 min wait.
We were ready to call it an evening - it was a little after 6 (9 pm our body time). We thought about catching the train at the New Orleans station, but there was a large group waiting & we weren't sure if the parade would interefere, so we wound our way thru the crowds back onto Main street and back out to Harbor. I stopped at Quiznos for a sandwich for dinner & Scott swung by McD's. We ate dinner & relaxed a bit, before finally hitting the sack around 8 (11 our time). The fireworks woke me up around 9:30 - but otherwise I slept pretty soundly til about 4:30 (7:30) the next morning.
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Quickie report - long day yesterday - 7am flight (stayed in Indy the night before). Strong headwinds delayed us a bit, but we got our luggage & rental car pretty quickly & were on the road by about 9:30 LA time.
Visited the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA (Wilshire & Fairfax) for the "Art of Cars (Pixar Movie)" exhibit - smaller than I expected - but the full size Mater & Lightning were pretty neat! The other exhibits were interesting as well - The Art of Lowriders --- an amazing amount of artistic skill & technical know-how goes into these cars! Spent about an hour and a half there total - a bit pricey ($10/adult & $8 parking), but worth doing once. Stopped at an In n Out Burger on the way back to the freeways - boy, did that taste good!!!
Traffic was pretty awful on the 101 & the 5 (Dodger game?) - took us over an hour to get to Anaheim. Got checked in at the Hojo without incident - Building 1, 5th floor - room 1506. Facing I-5 - a little noisy, but having the HVAC fan on all night evened it out to white noise level. Headed up Harbor to the Disney Outlet store - picked up a couple of things, then to Target for some grocery essentials - cereal & milk & snacks. Dropped our stuff at the hotel & were FINALLY ready to get to Disneyland!
Took us a little under 10 min to walk to the front gates from the park - a half-mile according to the pedometers. Got there about 3:30 - LONG LINES (15 min) to get into DL! THe parade was just arriving on Main street - so we cut thru the stores on the left (not quite as easy as at MK) and headed to Adventureland.
10 min wait for the Jungle Cruise - Alex was our skipper & was fun, but with so many boats out in the jungle, he had to cut things a little short. Over to a 20 min Pirates wait - they had what looked to be the entire queue area filled with both lines running. It kept moving pretty well, tho. What a wonderful ride - wish they'd spent a bit more at WDW on this attraction.
Over to Haunted Mansion for about a 15 min wait - the area after the stretching rooms was completely filled when we arrived - had plenty of time to look at the lightning portraits We saw the ghostly pianist in the attic - he's not at WDW, is he? Meandered over to Critter Country for a little smackerel - got the HUGE rice crispie treat - an a Cutie Tigger plush to share it with! Decided to visit with Pooh and his Many Adventures while we were back in the area - about a 5 min wait.
We were ready to call it an evening - it was a little after 6 (9 pm our body time). We thought about catching the train at the New Orleans station, but there was a large group waiting & we weren't sure if the parade would interefere, so we wound our way thru the crowds back onto Main street and back out to Harbor. I stopped at Quiznos for a sandwich for dinner & Scott swung by McD's. We ate dinner & relaxed a bit, before finally hitting the sack around 8 (11 our time). The fireworks woke me up around 9:30 - but otherwise I slept pretty soundly til about 4:30 (7:30) the next morning.
Woke u about 4:30 am (still on Eastern time = 7:30a) Took our time getting ready – I dressed for the temps – jeans, long sleeved t-shirt, denim shirt & fleece vest. We were heading out of the room about 6:15 for a 7am Early Entry morning.
First to arrive at security gate about 6:25 – they let us thru about 5 min later. First at gate 15 (middle set of gates, right side) – chatted a bit with the CM’s as they got ready. They let us thru just before 7 – CM’s waving the guests over around the Matterhorn to Nemo … they stopped us - at the beginning of the Nemo queue and a CM led us thru the ENTIRE queue - walking backwards all the way! We got on the first sub of the day – front seats on the right side.
This attraction is just amazing – the clouds had cleared, so the sun shone thru the lagoon waters & it was gorgeous! Once Nemo & Friends show up – wow…. the Nemo attraction in Epcot is a pale imitation. About 7:40, we joined a 5 min line for the Matterhorn – left side of the mountain, which I’m not sure we’d ever ridden before. 7:50 over to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride = walkon, then a quick stop at the Mad Hatter to get a new visor for me, as I’d forgotten mine at home.
We joined a short line for Alice about 5 til 8, then I took a turn on the Teacups around 8:05…. There was barely a line, and a couple of empty teacups! We finally ran into a queue at Peter Pan – 20 minutes. Pinnochio was basically a walk on after that.
We left Fantasyland for Frontierland, taking the back way around by Big Thunder Ranch – very quiet back there! BTMRR had about a 5-10 min line, with 1 side running – was a bit chilly this morning! We walked across the hub to Tomorrowland – already an hour line for Nemo, but only a 5 min wait for Buzz at 9:05. We headed back around thru Fantasyland to Toontown – Cartoon Spin was basically a walk on – surprised this area wasn’t more busy! I took a snack break, picking up a pickle while Scott took photos around the Toontown area.
We just missed the train at the Toontown station at 10 – decided to make the Grand Circle Tour to survey the park & see what looked busy & what didn’t. On our way over to Adventureland, we browsed thru the Frontier Mercantile, then caught the entire Tiki Room preshow – the Hawaii film as well as the tiki god intros – shared a Dole Whip while we waited.
We checked in about 10 min early for our 11:30 Blue Bayou reservation – the lobby was quite full, but we got a waterside seat I ordered a Monte Cristo (of course!) and Scott got the prime rib. I saved ¾ of my sandwiches for later, as we had a cookie boat for dessert – yum! Definitely a splurge meal for us (both money and calorie-wise) but sooo worth it!
We decided to head back to the room to take a break & put up the leftovers. Because we booked thru the Walt Disney Travel Co (via Dream Come True Vacations) – we had a voucher for a free backpack – so we headed to the far side of DTD to the WDTC offices, then all the way back thru the esplanade & down Harbor Blvd back to the Hojo – it was about a mile and a half walk total – needless to say, we were ready for a nap by that time! It was about 1:20 when we got back At least I was – Scott downloaded his pix & surfed the net while I snoozed for about an hour or so.
We wanted to try to get in a couple of DCA attractions before the Pixar Play parade at 5:15 – so headed back out to the parks about 10 til 3. Scott picked up a birthday button for me (only 3 months late….) and we headed over to Mike & Sully to the rescue. This park was BUSY! Must’ve been a lot of people using the SoCal 2Fer ticket – spent yesterday at DL and today at DCA. The queue at Monsters Inc was right around 30 min at 3:20 – tho it kept moving nicely. It had warmed up enough for me to shed the fleece vest & untuck/button my denim shirt… tho the wind was still a bit cool.
Headed over to the Wharf area a little after 4 – took the Mission Tortilla tour – apparently they aren’t giving out the tortilla stacks to the birthday folk anymore – but we did get a YoaMD dream – we stopped to chat with the demo chef & she gave both of us a bag of cinnamon crisps – yum!
I was getting thirsty & was going to try a TropiCool drink from the margarita stand – but a long line served by only 1 CM wasn’t worth waiting in. We headed over to the Midway area instead & got a soda from one of the stands – Scott looked for a hat.
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