National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! DISNEYLAND SECTION COMPLETED - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It took me two days, but I'm all caught up and you have re-ignited my excitement for our upcoming trip, and you aren't even visiting the park we're going to.
I'm sorry the lunch at Ariel's was disappointing. It certainly sounds overpriced, and I don't normally say that about Disney.
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Wow, that was a pricey lunch. And you were only drinking water?! No $50 bottle of wine added in there? sorry parts were so disappointing. At least the fish was good.
$110 for two adults for LUNCH????? Excuse me??? That is HIGHWAY robbery. WOW.
seriously! That's not the most expensive character meal we've had - there was one at Disneyland Paris that was a lot pricier than that, about $150 for a character buffet, so keep in mind that actually WDW can be cheap sometimes, compared to the other parks!
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Wow, that was a pricey lunch. And you were only drinking water?! No $50 bottle of wine added in there? sorry parts were so disappointing. At least the fish was good.
Not as far as I remember : I seem to recall Mark had a beer, he had something alcoholic, but it was just the one, not a whole bottle, as I didn't have anything....
Sunday 28 August – part six: you can’t sleep yet! :
When we were done, we headed back out into the heat, stopping on the bridge across to Paradise Pier to watch the fountains, which were timed to coincide with a show on the nearby stage. Although fun to see them, it wasn’t nearly as spectacular as last night.
:
We got some more Photopass pics:
We walked out of the park, noticing that the Grizzly River Run still wasn’t running. It hadn’t been running when we came in this morning, but we were surprised to see that it was still down. They had guys working on it and asked the Cast Members at the entrance and, sure enough, it was not exactly planned downtime, shall we say....
We stopped for a last look in one of the shop....
Then it was back to the Grand Californian...
... where we were going to meet Jeannie. We literally sat down and she must’ve seen us, as we walked in, she came straight over to us and we started chatting right away. She is so lovely and, despite the fact that she had done more than enough for me, already getting my scrapbook stuff delivered to her, she had also brought us various presents, which was so sweet of her.
Poor old Mark really was feeling the effects of the heat and I think nearly fell asleep at one point, before I suggested going back out, as I really wanted to see the Disneyland Hotel and what they had been doing to it since we last stayed there in 2006.
We walked through Downtown Disney, stopping off at some shops along the way. There are a lot of the same names that you’re now starting to see in Walt Disney World, like RideMakerz and D-Street. It’s a shame to see it all becoming homogenous.
I thought it was neat to have a trader with my name!
Still, there are a few little hidden gems. I especially liked the Disney Vault, which had some very cool stuff in there.
OH goodness---it looks like I'll be reworking the food budget for my DL trip. I know that we're mostly going to do CS meals, but we're planning a few sit downs and if lunch at Ariel's was $110 for two--ouch!
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I imagine lots of people were upset the GRR was still not working, especially with all the heat! The sun and blue sky sure makes for nice photos though!
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Even though the distances are less in CA, it seems you almost do more continuous walking than at WDW because you don't stop to take a bus, boat or monorail to go back to the hotel or shopping or another park. The heat must have been getting to you, but it's true the blue, blue skies make for beautiful photos.
Finally all caught up. Lunch looked delicious, but too bad about the poor service and the princesses who wouldn't get too far into character. Paradise Pier looks like a really fun part of the park though. And those candy apples in the window look too beautiful to eat!
Yay! I actually made it into someone's trip report!
It was sooo great to meet you and Mark. It really feels like I know both of you from all your prior trip reports! It certainly was hot hot hot that day! Poor Mark looked like he wanted to take a nap on that couch in the lobby, didn't he? I was pretty happy sitting in that a/c as well!
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Sorry to hear the heat was getting to you, and I agree about the homogeneity throughout the Disney parks. It is a little disconcerting that you can't get as much park specific stuff anymore.
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sorry parts were so disappointing. At least the fish was good.
PassPorter Guide Author
seriously! That's not the most expensive character meal we've had - there was one at Disneyland Paris that was a lot pricier than that, about $150 for a character buffet, so keep in mind that actually WDW can be cheap sometimes, compared to the other parks! 
: I seem to recall Mark had a beer, he had something alcoholic, but it was just the one, not a whole bottle, as I didn't have anything....
: 
Tricia
Did you happen to notice if the Build-a-bear shop is still at Downtown Disney? I had a blast there in 2005!
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