It’s Always Sunny in California!..Eh?...L’il Bit! - Page 28 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I believe this area was being prepped for a party.
I love these trees….remember, its February here!!!
Some rooms had a little patio.
It must’ve been a cooler day as I noticed I am wearing a sweatshirt.
That’s our guide in black with her hair up. I thought she just radiated “classy”. She seemed like one of those people who would be in jeans and a t-shirt and still make it look good.
Another pool!
A few last pictures.
As we came to an end of our tour we were each offered a tangerine drink, so I grabbed one. It was decent, but seemed to have an aftertaste to me. Cass then says to me “I thought you didn’t like tea?” and I told her I don’t. And she says “Well that’s tea you’re drinking”. UGH, it instantly tasted yucky after that. LOL. It was OK, but once she told me it was tea, I knew the funny off taste I tasted was the tea part of it and I couldn’t finish it.
We had to wait a few minutes for the rest of the group to be done before we headed off to the next destination.
In case you were wondering where the Annabella is located in terms of distance to the parks, I have circled it on this map.
Once everyone was done with the tour we loaded back on the bus and headed to the Courtyard.
In case you want to know where the courtyard is, I have circled it on this map.
As you can see, this really is not that close in terms of walking to the parks. For me personally, I would not want to stay this far away.
Construction was going on next door.
I believe it was here, that while walking in, Cass whispered to me “So and so looks like she is wearing a diaper”. OK, how do you not totally crack up laughing at that? So I take a peek really quickly and reply “L’il bit”. Cass just totally cracked up at my reply. Of course through the rest of the trip she would say “l’il bit” whenever she had the chance. I guess I never realized it, but I say l’il bit quite a bit. HAH!
The Lobby was very nice. As you may remember, I stayed at a Courtyard the night before my flight out to California and the lobby was very similar to this, though I never took pictures. Courtyards have been remodeling their hotels to this new look.
Again, we had some waiting around before we got started, so I took pictures.
Very nice! Was that a safe or a microwave in the closet of the bathroom? DH and I have a bet about this! (I say it's a safe, because c'mon, who would put a microwave, on a high shelf, in a bathroom?)
That's funny about the tangerine drink! I don't like tea either, but I recently tried some orange tea which I didn't think was too bad. Interesting to see the maps. At stayed at one of the hotels right across from the main gate back in 1990, but I have no clue which hotel at this point.
Very nice! Was that a safe or a microwave in the closet of the bathroom? DH and I have a bet about this! (I say it's a safe, because c'mon, who would put a microwave, on a high shelf, in a bathroom?)
Gosh, I went and looked and I want to say a safe. I don't remember anyone talking about of microwave in a closet so it has to be!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Thanks for sharing the maps to show locations!
Funny, we usually stay at Courtyards (when we aren't in Disney that is ), and they do mostly all look the same!
I like Marriott brands. Usually they are reliable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
That's funny about the tangerine drink! I don't like tea either, but I recently tried some orange tea which I didn't think was too bad. Interesting to see the maps. At stayed at one of the hotels right across from the main gate back in 1990, but I have no clue which hotel at this point.
I noticed a few walked out to the pool area, so I did too.
Back into the lobby to wait. I love this picture and I am actually thinking of making it bigger to put on my wall at my house.
On to the room tours.
After we toured a few rooms we headed back to the lobby to wait for the rest. I was talking and one of the head guys of the Courtyard asked me if I was from Michigan. I said, no, Ohio, and he said he was from Ohio too and he recognized my “accent”. I laughed, as I am told this often. I told him I never really think I have one, and one of the girls in our group said she had noticed I had a l’il bit of one too. Of course, I think she was from Texas, so I noticed hers as well. LOL.
As we waited, I took a few more lobby pictures.
Back on the bus we went to our next destination, The Hampton Inn and Suites. Again, I circled where this is located and it is further away. I personally would not want to stay this far from the parks.
We all gathered around in the lobby. We had been making good time and were a bit early, but they soon got tour guides ready for us.
We had some head lady as our guide. Let’s just say she needed some make up tips. I looked at her and I swear it was the scariest thing I ever saw. Way too much eye liner and lip liner. I thought it was just me, but Cass said the same thing and she said she saw others looking at her strangely too.
Our first stop, the workout room.
Business center.
The patio.
With pool behind it.
I think we had to go down this hallway to get to the pool.
The pool.
This room is off the lobby, but closed off during the day. They have breakfast here.
We toured a lot of rooms here and most were pretty much the same. This one had a small closet sized area that had a small bed with a TV for kids. It was really kind of weird to me, but the lady sang its praises.
The room number signs were cute.
I believe this was a suite.
This seemed to take forever here. It was a nice place, but just too far away for my tastes and I didn’t like how pushy the makeup lady was. The cookies were a highlight though!
On again we went to the next stop, The Marriott Suites!
Here it is on the map….way at the bottom.
We all piled into the lobby. It was huge! This place really is nice, but again, not very close. This was in the lobby and really pretty.
We had arrived at the Marriot VERY early and they were not ready for us at all. We did a lot of waiting around and I walked around and took pictures.
Fruity water must be the big thing in this area.
I am not sure if you can tell by the picture, but this had water running down the sides and the lights changed on it.
The restaurant.
I am not a patient person and I was getting antsy. We really did wait quite a while before they were ready for us, but eventually they did and they gave us each a little Marriott bag. I think it might have had a pad of paper in it too, but really it was too small of a bag to use at the grocery store. (It was like the ones you use to bag your own stuff, but a much smaller version)
We headed up and again, we were in smaller groups, but not everyone can fit in one elevator, so I waited at the top.
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