A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a stunning view of the sunrise from your hotel! The buffet at breakfast looked very appetizing but sorry you had such a bad server. I'm enjoying your pictures of your morning drive to downtown San Francisco as I've never been there. Those hills are world famous but I would not want to encounter them daily either!
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I definitely wouldn't want to drive Lombard St, but Mark looks like he's enjoying it! It's so odd to see a city that still has telephone poles and wires all over. So many cities have buried them now.
I'm with you on the thoughts of living on Lombard Street! It's great that you got out so early and saw the city with light traffic. Also, wonderful that it wasn't foggy that early in the morning for the views.
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Oh those hills! They seem so dangerous when you first see them, but then I guess you just get used to them. Being from Wisconsin though, my first thought is always - that's really scary in the winter with the snow..... oh wait! Great morning drive so far!
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Just catching up--
Beautiful pictures of the sunrise, and that traffic didn't look like fun. Maybe your waiter got caught up in it, was late for work, got taken to task for it, was late opening the doors and then was in a snit by the time you got to meet him? Or maybe he was just a jerk.
Those views of Alcatraz and the hills of San Francisco sure do tell a story, don't they?
Glad you felt up to posting today. Hope your trip to the US was smooth.
What a stunning view of the sunrise from your hotel! The buffet at breakfast looked very appetizing but sorry you had such a bad server. I'm enjoying your pictures of your morning drive to downtown San Francisco as I've never been there. Those hills are world famous but I would not want to encounter them daily either!
Glad you're enjoying them - San Francisco is a great city and definitely worth a visit.
Oh those hills! They seem so dangerous when you first see them, but then I guess you just get used to them. Being from Wisconsin though, my first thought is always - that's really scary in the winter with the snow..... oh wait! Great morning drive so far!
Yes, I can't imagine that's much of a problem for them....
Just catching up--
Beautiful pictures of the sunrise, and that traffic didn't look like fun. Maybe your waiter got caught up in it, was late for work, got taken to task for it, was late opening the doors and then was in a snit by the time you got to meet him? Or maybe he was just a jerk.
Maybe it was the former or maybe the latter...
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Those views of Alcatraz and the hills of San Francisco sure do tell a story, don't they?
They certainly do.
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Glad you felt up to posting today. Hope your trip to the US was smooth.
It went pretty well.... I've updated in the other thread....
Sunday 30 August – part three: what a wonderful view
Then we made our way over to Ghiradelli Square, and found parking right outside it. Even better, there were no charges until 9:00am, although a local did tell us to make sure we were back before then. That’s fine, as we had no intention of staying that long.
We went for a wander through Ghiradelli Square…
I don’t remember this being here before…
There was a lot of work going on. I think there’s a new restaurant opening here soon, although we both thought it also looked like perhaps they were converting a building to flats here. I can imagine that you’d pay a fortune to live here.
We made our way down to the waterfront….
… and what a wonderful view greeted us when we got there. It was one of those lovely picture perfect days, and although Mark was all done up in a long sleeved top, I was fine in a short sleeved top. I reckon it was perhaps low 60s at this time.
We saw these guys out in the water, then later saw people cycling, so we think it must’ve been a triathlon. Rather them than me!
Once we were done with photos, we made our way back towards Ghiradelli Square…
Mark making his way back up the hill… literally!
… and headed into the company’s ice cream parlour, which was open, although their chocolate shop wasn’t, which seemed a bit odd. I have to say the ice cream parlour was very neat, as you could learn in here about how chocolate is made…
We then got a couple of boxes of Ghiradelli, one for my work colleagues, and as it was a two for $20, one for us. Obviously they’re nowhere near as good as Cadbury’s but beggars can’t be choosers!
We set off again, out through the hills…
… and made our way over to the Golden Gate Bridge, with some wonderful views of it on the way…
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I'm enjoying your pictures of your morning drive to downtown San Francisco as I've never been there. Those hills are world famous but I would not want to encounter them daily either!
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Pixie Dust
It's great that you got out so early and saw the city with light traffic. Also, wonderful that it wasn't foggy that early in the morning for the views.
Great morning drive so far! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Yes, I can't imagine that's much of a problem for them....
but beggars can’t be choosers! 
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