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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We slept in a bit on Saturday, as we had a late night on Friday. We got up and headed over to Disneyland. We rode Big Thunder Mountain, then finally gave in to the craving we'd been having for the whole trip and got a churro! Then we walked over the Haunted Mansion and rode it again. It is DH's favorite ride, and I lost track of how many times we rode it on this trip!
We had a very relaxed morning. We were getting hungry, so headed to Naples for lunch. We had enjoyed our dinner so much on the first night, so we decided to go back again. The pepperoni they use is the best we've ever had!
After lunch, we headed over to DCA. We got FPs for Soarin', then rode California Screamin' and did some shopping in the Paradise Pier area. DH wanted to try a margarita from the stand near Cocina Cucamonga, so he did that and we did the Boudin Bakery tour. I so wanted to buy a loaf of Mickey head bread, but since we were leaving the next day, I didn't because I wasn't sure I could get it home in one piece.
After that, it was time to ride Soarin' so we headed back in that direction and rode. I love that ride so much.
After Soarin',we went back to Disneyland. We grabbed FPS for Indiana Jones, rode Jungle Cruise, then spent some time shopping in the New Orleans Square area. I was happy I finally found a pair of black Mickey Fit Flops in my size. Every time I've tried to find them online, they've been out of stock in my size. And, using our APs, I got a discount! We then headed to a little pin shop and bought some Tron Mickey pins for our boys. We were early for our 7pm ADR at Blue Bayou (it was shortly after 6pm and it was crowded). We asked if we might be seated early and the hostess said it might be 30 minutes. We decided to go ahead and wait in the lobby area.
About 5 minutes later, a CM calmly asked everyone to leave the waiting area and move down the "street" out of the New Orleans Square area because the fire alarm in the restaurant was going off. About this time, we noticed the strobing lights and heard the alarm. Everyone had to evacuate the area, including chefs, wait staff, Club 33 guests and staff, gift shop CMs, the artists doing caricatures on the street -- everyone! We followed the Blue Bayou waitstaff, figuring that when we saw them go back to the restaurant, we'd know we could go back too.
After about 20 minutes or so, they started letting everyone back in the area. I felt really bad for the folks who had already been seated and started their meals. I never realized that the entrance to Club 33 was right there next to Blue Bayou. In the confusion of the big crowd, I almost accidentally turned into that door, thinking it was Blue Bayou. Then I saw stairs and realized it wasn't the right entrance, so I backed off. I didn't realize until later that it was Club 33, and was wishing I had "accidentally" found my way up the stairs just to get a glimpse inside!
Upon our return to the Blue Bayou waiting area, the CMs were trying to sort out who had already been seated before and who was still supposed to be waiting. We overheard one of the waitstaff say to someone that they were going to have to clear all the tables and start cooking all the food over again. This is when DH and I looked at each other and quickly agreed that dinner at Blue Bayou was not in the cards that night. It was disappointing because we'd been wanting to try it since we first rode Pirates in DLR last September.
We finally decided to head back to DCA and try dinner at Wine Country Trattoria. On our way, though, we ran into the new Mickey's Soundsational Parade, which I had been wanting to see.
We had done the WoC dinner package at Wine Country Trattoria on our last visit and we weren't overly impressed with the food. But we decided it was worth another try. I had lasagna and DH had spaghetti bolognese. It was decent. Not great, but not terrible. But the service was quite slow.
After dinner, we headed back over to ElecTRONica again. We had so much fun the night before, we couldn't resist a return visit. We stayed until park closing at 10:00 and had an absolute blast (again).
Entrance to Flynn's Arcade
DH playing Tron in Flynn's Arcade
Then back to Disneyland to ride Indiana Jones with our FPs and Splash Mountain. As we finished Splash Mountain, the CM asked if we just wanted to stay on and ride again becaues there was no line. We gladly said yes (I was in the front, with DH behind me), but the couple who had ridden in the back got out. Yikes! All of the weight was in the front of the log now, and we got WET!
I decided I'd had enough rides, so we went to Downtown Disney and stopped for one last drink at Uva Bar. I got a Chocolatini, which was so, so yummy. It tasted like chocolate milk!
It was a relaxing and fun last day!!
Up next: One last tour of the universe and the trip home.
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Another great day! Sorry about missing Blue Bayou! That must have been quite the scene!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Wow, sorry about the business with the fire alarm, but apart from that, it sounds like a great day.
It was crazy that it happened, but in typical Disney fashion, everything was very orderly and calm. I was extremely impressed with the way they handled it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
It sounds like you guys had a great time on this trip! I can't wait to hear about your last day!
It was a great trip. It was so relaxing and full of good food!
Sunday, June 12th was our last day. Disneyland had Magic Morning Hours, so they opened at 7 a.m. Despite our escapades of the night before, we got up early to be there at rope drop to ride Star Tours one more time.
Unfortunately, that chocolatini put me over the edge the night before. I was NOT feeling good at all when we woke up. I was ok as long as I was still, but even walking made me sick to my stomach. I think we missed rope drop by a few minutes, but we made it there just after 7:00 and it wasn't too crowded. We walked straight to Star Tours, but I felt horrible. I told DH he'd have to ride alone. It took him about 30 minutes to get in and finish the ride. He managed to see the only remaining segment of the ride we hadn't seen, so I was glad he got to ride it again.
We had planned to have breakfast at La Brea Bakery Cafe, but it wasn't open yet when we left the park around 7:40. So, we headed over to Storytellers Cafe instead. We were worried we wouldn't be able to get in since breakfast there is character dining. But since it was early, they were able to get us a table right away. I choked down some eggs and bacon and tried to smile and make nice for the characters, but I was still feeling pretty green around the gills.
After breakfast, we headed back to the room to pack up for the trip home. Our town car picked us up at 10:00 a.m. We had reserved a car, but an Escalade came to pick us up. I actually wonder if the driver thought that DH and I were mad at each other. We rode in silence almost the entire way. I was trying so hard not to throw up! I was just trying to stare straight ahead at the horizon to keep from getting sick.
LAX was not quite as big of a zoo as the last time we flew out of there, but we still had to stand in a long line to check our bags. Some of the Contintental electronic check-in kiosks weren't working at all, and some couldn't check bags. Then this woman with 2 HUGE suitcases got up there to check in. Her bag was overweight, so she was trying to move things between suitcases. I kid you not, she opened her huge suitcase right there on the floor and started unpacking it. All the while, of course, she's blocking one of the kiosks that actually works and is able to check bags. As DH and I inched forward in the line, we continued to watch her. She blocked that kiosk with her stuff all over the floor of the airport for 30 minutes! I can't believe the Continental employees didn't say anything to her. Very frustrating. Thankfully, we had left ourselves plenty of time.
We finally got checked in and through security (DH had to go through the naked body scanner). Once we got to the gate, he went and found me some Pepto Bismol. That totally saved the day, and I started feeling better almost immediately. Our flight home was uneventful, and we arrived home around 6 p.m. Houston time. I sure hate losing those 2 hours on a flight from the west coast! We headed to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner and called it a night.
Concluding thoughts: We spent 5 nights at Disneyland. It was a very relaxing trip, and I enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to kill ourselves to see everything we wanted. Next time, I think one less day would be fine.
Staying on concierge level was very nice, and we were able to take advantage of the concierge lounge quite a bit. It was very expensive, but thankfully our AP discount took away some of the pain. And, for DH's 40th birthday, it was absolutely worth it!
We cannot wait to take the kids for another visit! We hope to be able to go back before ElecTRONica ends. We also are eagerly awaiting the opening of Cars land at DCA. It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.
So sorry you weren't feeling well on your last morning and what a nightmare with the luggage at LAX. I guess that's a good warning to us to allow plenty of time when we get there to deal with that.
Thanks for sharing your trip with us - I've really enjoyed reading all about it.
So sorry you weren't feeling well on your last morning and what a nightmare with the luggage at LAX. I guess that's a good warning to us to allow plenty of time when we get there to deal with that.
Thanks for sharing your trip with us - I've really enjoyed reading all about it.
Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful time on your trip.
The crazy luggage lady at the airport just didn't seem to have a clue that she was holding up a huge line of people. One Continental employee did say something to her and her response was, "But I'm going to a wedding!" DH muttered to me, "Where is the wedding? On the moon?" I've neverbeen accused of packing lightly, but I can't imagine where she was going that she needed that much stuff!
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I just read your whole trip report and it made me really excited for my upcoming trip! Sounds like you and your DH had a wonderful trip to celebrate his birthday. Sorry you were not feeling well on your last day. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!
I just read your whole trip report and it made me really excited for my upcoming trip! Sounds like you and your DH had a wonderful trip to celebrate his birthday. Sorry you were not feeling well on your last day. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!
Thank you for reading! I hope you have an equally wonderful time celebrating YOUR birthday there! And I love the Pooh photo in your signature. I've seen it several times while browsing the boards and it is sooooo cute!!
Enjoyed reading your report, it wasn't until I read about the fire alarm that I realized we were there at the same time. We were at Cafe Orleans and had eaten part of our meal when they had us evacuate. They told us if we came back that we would get new food, that they would be clearing all the tables once they were given the all clear. I had eaten half my sandwich and told my boyfriend to grab the other half (he had a salad) and for my son to take his sandwich, he didn't and regretted it later. We waited outside the restaurant and he finished the sandwich, slowly people were leaving, so after awhile we went onto the next ride. I felt bad about not paying for the meal, but we didn't have our complete meal and I wasn't sure if they would remember who had already been seated, served and who had been waiting to be seated. Sorry you weren't feeling well on your last day, but the rest of your trip sounded wonderful.
Enjoyed reading your report, it wasn't until I read about the fire alarm that I realized we were there at the same time. We were at Cafe Orleans and had eaten part of our meal when they had us evacuate. They told us if we came back that we would get new food, that they would be clearing all the tables once they were given the all clear. I had eaten half my sandwich and told my boyfriend to grab the other half (he had a salad) and for my son to take his sandwich, he didn't and regretted it later. We waited outside the restaurant and he finished the sandwich, slowly people were leaving, so after awhile we went onto the next ride. I felt bad about not paying for the meal, but we didn't have our complete meal and I wasn't sure if they would remember who had already been seated, served and who had been waiting to be seated. Sorry you weren't feeling well on your last day, but the rest of your trip sounded wonderful.
How funny that we were there at the same time! It was a bit crazy with the fire alarm, and I'm curious what caused it to go off. I never heard anything about an actual fire! Glad you thought to grab the rest of your sandwich -- I probably would have been so flustered that I'm not sure I would have thought about it.
Thanks for reading! I hope you had a great trip as well!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shnewell
Thank you for reading! I hope you have an equally wonderful time celebrating YOUR birthday there! And I love the Pooh photo in your signature. I've seen it several times while browsing the boards and it is sooooo cute!!
Thank you! And Pooh has a Mickey friend who is equally as cute
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Disneyland had Magic Morning Hours, so they opened at 7 a.m. Despite our escapades of the night before, we got up early to be there at rope drop to ride Star Tours one more time.
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