Just Mom and Me at Disneyland - *Updated with Final Thoughts 2/26 * - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Just Mom and me at Disneyland Day 2
Cast of Characters
Me---I’m the mom, certified Disney Nut
Jack---My nine year old son, baby of the family, lover of legos, collector of stains, drinker of coffee
Janice---My good friend since the first grade
Jenny---My cousin and good friend
We slept well and all the way until 7:00am, which, if you knew my son, would be a surprise. I’ve never known him to sleep past 6 his entire life. I hopped in the shower, we had a leisurely breakfast, Jack watched cartoons for a while (yep, we were visiting again!) until it was time for us to head out to return the rental car and make our way to Legoland. We loaded our luggage into Janice’s car and followed her to the hotel where the car was turned in, and we still made it into the parking lot 15 minutes or so before opening time. My cousin Jenny was waiting in the first row of the parking lot. We hopped out, moved our stuff to her car and then we took a few photos while Janice purchased her ticket. I had ordered ours from Costco on line, and Jenny already had her ticket as well.
Even though the sky looks quite blue in the photos, it was seriously smoky this morning, and I was wondering if we ought to even be outside all day. Oh well. We picked a line, and perused the map to decide where to start. Jack’s priorities were the Volvo Driving School and the gift shop. But, Mom, it’s the biggest Lego store in North America. Since I didn’t feel like carrying around a giant Lego set all day (or paying for a locker), I assured him that we’d shop towards the end of the day. His birthday money was burning a hole in his pocket, and I’d promised him a Lego set as his good report card reward.
We decided to head off in the direction of the Driving School, stopping at each open attraction on the way. We rode a tiny safari jeep ride, a dinosaur-themed roller coaster (think a tame Barnstormer), the fairy tale boat ride, a self-powered pedaled coaster type ride (it was fun, and a great view), and Jack did the Kid Power Tower. Finally we made it to the Driving School, and Jack received his first Legoland driver’s license. He received a second one a few minutes later.
Needless to say, crowds were non-existent. Jack is a seasoned Disney-goer, and was just not prepared for no lines at all. He was simply amazed. After Jack had his fill with the cars, we travelled through the Adventurer’s Club (which is nothing like the one at Pleasure Island:grin, which was full of fun surprises! We noticed a show was starting soon, which was based on firefighting. It had acrobats and a “wet zone” where you might get sprayed by the fire hose or doused by a bucket of water. We chose the “not wet zone” so Jack hopped down to the front row, in the hopes that he’d get soaked. The best part of the show was the singing. The theme song went like this, “Put the wet stuff on the hot stuff.” Now Jack did not see why that was so funny to a trio of aging ladies, but we could not stop laughing. Umm… the whole thing was a bit corny.
Now it was lunch time, and we were hungry. A quick consultation of the guide map, and we settled on the food court type place right in the area. Jack had a kid’s meal with a hot dog, Jenny and I had the salad bar, and Janice had a Philly Cheese steak. It was a yummy lunch enjoyed by all, and we were soon on our way. We noticed about this time that the smoke seemed to clear. Yay!
Time to carry on, and next up were the motor boats that weren’t on a track. Does anyone remember the motor boats at Disneyland? I loved that ride when I was a kid! Next up was the new area of Pirate Shores which was a couple of rides and a small water park. The only line we had all day was the one for the log ride here. The log ride was, well, for very small children. I believe my rear end was scraping bottom. I was afraid they’d have to escort me off when we became stuck in the ride. I held my breath until it was over.
It was around this time that Jack developed a splitting headache, I believe from the smoke. I had him rest a bit, drink a bottle of water, and swallow some ibuprofen. Then we decided to try the other ride in this “land”. It was a boat ride where you squirted other pirate ships. It looked fun. Well, it was fun if you were in a swimsuit and like being squirted directly in the face. It required a stop at the restroom for drying off. We should have caught a clue when we sat down and the seats had about an inch of water on them.
It was time to head to the medieval-themed castle area. The Brick or Treat trail was here. Jack got a hand stamp and a bag and proceeded down the trail to little houses where he could trick or treat. He got lots of candy, trading cards, gift certificates for treats at local restaurants, an apple, stickers and tattoos, bookmarks, and best of all a limited edition Lego brick that you could only get there! All included with your regular admission ticket (if you were 12 or under, of course, Darn!).
We had a snack of Granny’s Apple Fries, and yum! They were lightly breaded deep fried apple pieces with whipped cream for dipping. The whole thing was dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Then it was off to a castle-themed play area where we met none other than the famous Harry Potter and Hagrid (made of Legos,, of course). Next was the Dragon roller coaster which had lots and lots of detail and many Lego scenes, but no photographs allowed. The coaster was relatively tame, although not as gentle as the dinosaur one we rode in the morning.
We sort of wound our way downhill at this point right down a path of Lego busts of famous people.
And on to Miniland, which was incredible. Miniland is miniature Lego built cities. We saw the Vegas strip, NYC, Washington D.C., Philadelphia (which was decorated for Halloween with mini Jack-o-lanterns, toilet-papered trees, and people in costume. The detail was just amazing. It really must be seen to be believed. Jack piloted a miniature Lego boat into a dock (like the little jungle cruise boats at DLH and in Adventureland at WDW). Big fun for a buck!
At this point we back-tracked to the Bionicle section where there three rides; a jet-ski type thing that Jack rode, a teacup style spinning thing that Jack and Janice rode, and finally a roller coaster that looked really cool from the ground, but when we got to the front of the line, totally freaked me out. The drop was nearly straight down. And it looked like it went fast. Ah, well, it’s Legoland, it should be mild. Then the ride attendant let us know that nothing was allowed on the ride. No purses, no cameras, no nothing. He quickly relieved us of our stuff, and had us seated before I could protest. I just closed my eyes and survived. It actually wasn’t that bad, but I don’t think I’d want to go again.:grin: Jack was feeling pretty studly, though. He rode in the front.
We were fairly well done at this point and had done most of what we’d planned to do (except one of the 3-D movies), so we headed to the Coast Cruise which was a boat ride around where we had facts about the park, saw some more incredible Lego structures, and just relaxed a bit.
And finally, to Jack’s favorite part of any theme park. THE GIFT SHOP!! After much perusing, Jack chose a gigantic set that would build a semi truck and a Ferrari. The semi truck could not only haul the Ferrari, but it could double as a shop for maintenance and repairs. It had something like 600 million pieces and cost half a paycheck, but my son was happy, in heaven, so to speak. He also parted with some of his birthday money and purchased a smaller set. I picked up a magnet for our fridge’s collection, a key chain for my grandma’s collection (It’s true, my grandma collects Lego key chains), and our Lego Advent calendar for this year. Yay, no more scouring our hometown for that thing!
We were in need of a little refreshment at this point and Janice and I chose soft serve ice cream over fresh sliced strawberries, and Jack had a cone. Then it was bathroom breaks for all, and on to our next stop---Disneyland!!! Now, my turn for heaven!
We bid goodbye to Janice (who had to head home to prepare for work the next day:sad:, and were soon on the way to Anaheim.
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Legoland looks like so much fun!! We're going to Anaheim in February. Do you think DS, who is 15, and DH, who is about the same age , would enjoy it or would they feel too old? The sculptures look so ! Can't wait to hear what happens next!
While I think they might find the rides a bit tame, and there's lots of stuff aimed at the preschool and toddler set, the theming is really incredible, and I could have spent hours looking at Miniland (we spent at least an hour there anyway). So, I think it's cool, especially if your son liked (or still likes) Legos. I think it's a perfectly nice place to spend the day.
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Legoland does look like fun! I can't imagine putting together one of those big sets. All I ever managed to make were skyscrapers (or, to normal people, giant rectangles ). Can't wait to hear about Disneyland!!
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Thanks for the "brain worm."
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Pixie Dust
But, Mom, it’s the biggest Lego store in North America. Since I didn’t feel like carrying around a giant Lego set all day (or paying for a locker), I assured him that we’d shop towards the end of the day. His birthday money was burning a hole in his pocket, and I’d promised him a Lego set as his good report card reward.
, which was full of fun surprises! We noticed a show was starting soon, which was based on firefighting. It had acrobats and a “wet zone” where you might get sprayed by the fire hose or doused by a bucket of water. We chose the “not wet zone” so Jack hopped down to the front row, in the hopes that he’d get soaked. The best part of the show was the singing. The theme song went like this, “Put the wet stuff on the hot stuff.” Now Jack did not see why that was so funny to a trio of aging ladies, but we could not stop laughing. Umm…
the whole thing was a bit corny.
Then it was off to a castle-themed play area where we met none other than the famous Harry Potter and Hagrid (made of Legos,, of course). Next was the Dragon roller coaster which had lots and lots of detail and many Lego scenes, but no photographs allowed. The coaster was relatively tame, although not as gentle as the dinosaur one we rode in the morning.
And it looked like it went fast. Ah, well, it’s Legoland, it should be mild. Then the ride attendant let us know that nothing was allowed on the ride. No purses, no cameras, no nothing. He quickly relieved us of our stuff, and had us seated before I could protest. I just closed my eyes and survived. It actually wasn’t that bad, but I don’t think I’d want to go again.:grin: Jack was feeling pretty studly, though. He rode in the front. 
PassPorter Guide Author
Bring on Disneyland 
! Can't wait to hear what happens next!
for your help on Legoland. I'll have them check out the website! That place is cool!
). Can't wait to hear about Disneyland!!
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