You’re Driving Straight Through? No Thanks…I’ll Stay Home - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Nice start to your trip and a great view from your room! Seems you are enjoying Rockefeller Center so far.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Just found your trip report! Don't you just love the window displays! We rarely get to NYC even though we are only a train ride away. This year, I'm going to make a point of getting there during the Christmas season. The crowds don't look too bad, were they?
Nice start to your trip and a great view from your room! Seems you are enjoying Rockefeller Center so far.
Rockefeller is such a fun area.
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Originally Posted by patclairesmom
Just found your trip report! Don't you just love the window displays! We rarely get to NYC even though we are only a train ride away. This year, I'm going to make a point of getting there during the Christmas season. The crowds don't look too bad, were they?
Glad you found it. I was actually emailing you from the airport when I was leaving for this trip!
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Originally Posted by pamcarey
Oh wow, I love the Saks window display!!
It was great!
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Originally Posted by chezp
Oh wow, what an awesome window display!
Yes! I had no clue that was the theme this year either. I loved it.
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Originally Posted by Cam22
That is a beautiful window display!
It really was and well done!
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Originally Posted by purplegal
What a great window display.
I was so excited and they played Disney music too. I actually noticed the music before we got to the windows.
Claire, Alexis and Abby all made it there earlier than I did since they were with other family members.
Soon I was getting text messages with pictures.
We all arrived and shopped around a bit. We were going to have a tour of NBC Studios today. Gail and I did this tour about 25 -30 years ago and it was a lot of fun and we still have memories from it. Now we would make new memories with our kids!
We stopped off to get pictures…pretending our family members were part of the Today Show.
As we were walking around, a NBC employee came to ask us if we would like to see The Late Show with Seth Myers. They had 4 tickets left. I texted Rob to see if he wanted to go. I would be somewhat interested, but it would mean missing our dinner reservation. In reality, we had all wanted to go see Jimmy Fallon and we searched for tickets, only to find out he was not having any shows for the rest of that week. We had been researching this option since the day I decided to come and knew how the ticket lottery worked….but unfortunately it was not meant to be.
Rob came back and said he really didn’t care, and neither did I and we decided to skip seeing Seth over our dinner reservation.
Finally it was time to line up for the tour. Sadly, Amanda wasn’t feeling very well and she ended up walking off to find a bathroom in case she was sick. Amanda ended up having issues the whole trip and I felt bad for her.
No pictures are allowed on the tour. We did have to go through security and finally we were off!
I can’t remember the order or even everything we did, but it was fun!
We got to go to the set of Saturday Night Live…this is one thing Gail and I remember from out last tour. They had actually been rehearsing that time and we were all excited.
It’s amazing how small the stage is and even the audience area. It seems so much bigger on TV. We went to the set of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Again, it seems much bigger on TV.
We went to the set of NBC’s Nightly News with Lester Holt….again….super small room. There were basically 3 areas and they were only steps from each other…it all is based on camera angles.
The hallways were neat too with a lot of pictures. Our guide told us that we had been the last group of the day to see Jimmy Fallon’s set as the later ones do a different tour since typically he starts getting ready to tape his show then. I asked where they go instead and he said now they usually go to Megan Kelly’s set. I said…Thank God I’m not on that tour. And my family laughed but the page looked at me oddly. We informed him we just do not like her and refuse to watch her show. He kind of laughed then and said that wasn’t the first time he has heard that.
Now came the fun part…..we got to do our own production of a Tonight Show episode! This is different than the tour we did those 30 some years ago. Back then we were taken to a news room and shown how things work. I was picked then to be part of the weather in front of the green screen….because I had a green coat on….And I was basically just a head which Gail thought was hilarious.
So this time around we each got a part. Gail, Abby and Claire were “the band”. Rob and I were camera operators. Mom and Aunt Mary were the audience. We got Alexis suckered into being the host and Geoff was the Guest. There were others on our tour who did other things as well.
Alexis did a fabulous job….even though she chomped on gum the whole time. LOL!!! She was not shy at all. Geoff as the guest was hilarious. He really went off on his own and I think they ended up telling him to wrap it up as he was talking so much. It was great fun!
We checked in and had to wait a little bit so we all tried to load the video we had been sent from NBC. It took a while and reception wasn’t great, but we finally got it so we could watch.
We were seated and explained that the meals were served family style and each plate would feed 2-4 people. We all decided on things we wanted and ordered a bunch!
Nice tine with the NBC tour and quite a nice meal at Tony's. Many Italian eateries serve family style and the good thing about that is plenty of leftovers to take home!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Nice tine with the NBC tour and quite a nice meal at Tony's. Many Italian eateries serve family style and the good thing about that is plenty of leftovers to take home!
An Addition! to this as I did the NBC tour many years ago when I was in grade school. I think the highlight was the in depth part of the tour at Radio City Music Hall and not NBC. Although, that was good as well. Just learning about the various shows there, The Rockettes and Christmas Show was amazing! I've actually seen the Christmas Tree Lighting in Rock Center. I think it was on the day I saw this tour. I was probably in 8th or 9th grade at the time.
The tour was a bit different then and more on Radio City for the time of year. Got a lot of info on the tree and XMas decorations as well in Rock Center. It's a good tour. Been many years and time to do it again. I'm only 50 minutes by train from CT. Just a matter of doing it.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Nice tine with the NBC tour and quite a nice meal at Tony's. Many Italian eateries serve family style and the good thing about that is plenty of leftovers to take home!
Tony's was so good! I am not sure who in my family found out about this place, but it was a winner. I couldn't believe how much food we had!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
The NBC tour sounded like so much fun. Your dinner definitely seems too good to pass up for Seth Myers, though that could have been neat, too.
The tour was really fun!
Yes, I am glad we went to dinner. It was one of the best we had.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
An Addition! to this as I did the NBC tour many years ago when I was in grade school. I think the highlight was the in depth part of the tour at Radio City Music Hall and not NBC. Although, that was good as well. Just learning about the various shows there, The Rockettes and Christmas Show was amazing! I've actually seen the Christmas Tree Lighting in Rock Center. I think it was on the day I saw this tour. I was probably in 8th or 9th grade at the time.
The tour was a bit different then and more on Radio City for the time of year. Got a lot of info on the tree and XMas decorations as well in Rock Center. It's a good tour. Been many years and time to do it again. I'm only 50 minutes by train from CT. Just a matter of doing it.
Now that sounds like a pretty cool tour.
I just went to Washington DC with Claire for her class trip (because the school is so small they go every other year, so she did it this year in 7th grade). It was my first time there and we had so many great tours and such a great guide.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
The tour sounds like a lot of fun.
We had so much fun with the tour. As I get older I get more sentimental and I am really glad to share these experiences with Claire.
Just signing on Jenn! Loved seeing all your pictures of Rockefeller Center and the sights of NYC! There is something special about NYC around the holiday time that sets the mood for Christmas! Glad you all enjoyed the NBC tour and your dinner.
It sounds like you had fun on the NBC tour! I did that tour about 6-7 years ago and really enjoyed it! There was no Voice chair in the store back then.
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Just signing on Jenn! Loved seeing all your pictures of Rockefeller Center and the sights of NYC! There is something special about NYC around the holiday time that sets the mood for Christmas! Glad you all enjoyed the NBC tour and your dinner.
Yay! Glad you made it!
The holidays really are beautiful there. It really gets us ready in the Christmas mood. I wish I could afford to go yearly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
It sounds like you had fun on the NBC tour! I did that tour about 6-7 years ago and really enjoyed it! There was no Voice chair in the store back then.
It was so much fun. Well there were also a bunch of pictures of Matt hanging on the walls in there...I bet those are gone now too.
It was crowded as all heck. We did stop and bought a few souvenirs and got some drinks and snacks and then found our seats….which were WAY up top. They were scary. Very steep and they were on a slant. And the seats were tiny. Amanda totally freaked out. I was not happy either, but I figured I could make it…at least for a while…as long as I never had to move. Amanda left. She couldn’t take it. She texted us later and said she talked to someone and told them that the seats were too scary and she was having an attack and they said they could find her a seat on the lower level and they did and she said it was wonderful.
And then the show started……I had heard mixed reviews of it, where some really love it and others weren’t impressed. We loved it! It is a little different than the movie and the show on the Fantasy (and what was formerly at Disneyland), but it was great!
It was well worth the time sitting in the horror seats!
At intermission, Abby had to use the bathroom and we all carefully let her and Gail out while we hung on for our lives. Hahahaha.
After the show, we slowly made our way out with the masses and then decided to get some pictures.
It was our turn finally but others kept trying to jump in, so I was firm and let them know that we were waiting first. I think people were startled that I did that, but honestly we could be here all night if we didn’t take action.
Someone took our picture and in return I took theirs.
We headed back to the hotel and got back into comfy clothes. We had one more thing on our list tonight….going to see the parade balloons.
Last trip, we headed out on Wednesday night late and were able to go up and down and see them and it was pretty cool. Last time it was Geoff, Claire, Amanda and I. This time, Amanda was still not feeling great, so she skipped out, but Gail decided to come.
I believe we took a subway over to the area and then walked several blocks. When we arrived the streets were blocked and they had police monitoring it. Why??? Ugh! We saw people going through, assuming they must live down the street. After watching some people I tried to walk right with them….but got caught. LOL. Darn it! I said I wanted to get over to Central Park West, but they informed me that the whole road was closed. Darn it!
Well we tried. We are not sure why they now don’t allow people to go up and down like they have in the past. We just took pictures from afar.
Gail thought this was a Ghost Busters building. I couldn’t tell.
Gail asked if we were walking the whole way back and we laughed and said no…it’s like 40 some blocks from where we were. Oh yeah….we don’t want to do that. We said we would get a taxi….plus it was really getting cold out now.
So we kept walking and were not seeing any taxis. Geoff decided to stop in a store as they needed more toilet paper in their room. They had asked several times now but they were not refilling it, so he thought he might as well just get some in case they never do.
We really didn’t see an easy way to get a taxi and since we now were pretty close, we just kept walking. Finally we were back at the Marriott and just laughed at how we had just walked over 40 blocks after midnight in very cold weather.
Geoff posed with his newly purchase toilet paper and of course we were all laughing.