Disney World to Disneyland: Our First Christmas Back--COMPLETE 1/13/09 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
What we didn't mention is that we tasted each other's wines and enjoyed both of them. Of course, we're not sure we've met a Red wine we didn't like. But knowing how much you enjoy a good Zin, we do keep a look-out for them.
After our wine tasting where we could have spent the entire day, we decided to check out Blue Sky Cellar next door (as seen in above pictures). Before this venue was turned into a sneak preview center of the upcoming changes to DCA, it had been showing a film of the Napa Valley region – a region very near and dear to our hearts having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years. In fact, the whole Pacific Wharf area is so nostalgic for us.
We’re very excited about the changes to DCA, but first we want to mention how much we were against DCA when we first heard about it. Along with others, we thought it was ridiculous to have a California-based theme park in California. Besides, I grew up there and how dare they take my parking lot and turn it into something fabulous. But after moving away from my home state of California, living in Florida for several years, and then moving back west to just 30 minutes from the California state line, I must say how much we love DCA. And the changes will only make it better.
Just like World Showcase gives us a feeling that we’re revisiting some of our travels to different parts of the world, DCA gives us that same feeling about the diverse regional experiences of California. So familiar with back packing, hiking, and camping in the Sierras, we feel like we’re back in the Sierras when we stroll through the Grand Californian and the Grizzly Peak area. Paradise Pier reminds us of Santa Cruz. And the Pacific Wharf area is like strolling through Monterey/Carmel again – places we frequented regularly – the theming is so realistic. Like one person said, what they need here is a seafood restaurant, although Pacific Wharf Café does offer clam chowder and a San Francisco Shrimp Louis. But I would think a Chinese restaurant would be a must. Living in the Bay Area taught us so many things about diverse cultures and the representative foods, and the Asian culture makes up a huge proportion of life in the Bay Area.
Anyway, back to the Preview Center. Besides exhibits showing future development, there was a movie depicting some of the new additions to DCA – familiar to Disney World guests. Besides theming some of the lame non-themed carnival rides in Paradise Pier by 2010 (more on that later when we report on Toy Story), there is going to be a new land called Cars with Test Track and Sci-Fi Dine Inn – WOO HOO! Unfortunately, this part of the renovation won’t be completed until 2012. Looks like we’re going to have to stick around until then.
After viewing this attraction, we were getting close to our PS at Tortilla Joe’s in Downtown Disney and the closer it got to nightfall, the colder it was becoming. Each day it would warm more, but the evenings and early mornings were cold with warm, sunny afternoons. This was when we were missing the warmth and humidity of Florida. We had become so accustomed to that and had forgotten how “cold” California could be. Or maybe the winters only feel cold to us now after living in Florida.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
We must have kept missing each other. BTW, your little cousins are so cute. We love kids at Disney and how fun to share the adventure together.
Thank you, this is the first time I have meet my cousin Christina's kids and the one on my lap Katarina got close to me the first time we lyed eyes on each other and she rode on my lap the almost the whole time I was there and I can feel that she a bit like me loving others and feeling for others. The younger one Mariska started to get warm up to me towards the end of our visit. I do miss them dearly and they live up in the bay area well north of it any ways.
Cars sounds very cool! That is really something to look forward to. That will be such a cute area. We really enjoyed DCA when we went. We had never been to CA before, so it was really great to see and learn more about CA. I'm looking forward to more updates!
There’s a lot to write about on this first day, so we may as well move on to part 3.
Before the trip we were talking about how we wanted to use our year’s end reward points. I really wanted Rich to have one of those cool Disneyland leather jackets, but when we were walking in Downtown Disney, we saw this couple with matching Disneyland sweatshirts and Rich thought they were so cute, wearing matching sweatshirts. So after our wine tasting we decided to pop into World of Disney before our 5 p.m. PS at Tortilla Joe’s to get sweatshirts. And then we wouldn’t have to return to our room to pick up jackets before dinner and the evening at Disneyland Park.
We didn’t see any of those cool leather jackets, but we saw plenty of Disneyland sweatshirts—they seemed to be quite popular. We found the white one that we saw the couple wearing but only had the right size for Rich. Besides, they must have been made for men because the sleeves were too long for me. We browsed around for a sweatshirt for me, but I couldn’t find one I liked as much. We both really wanted a sweatshirt with a zipper and hood. But then suddenly I saw it—a red Minnie Mouse sweatshirt with ragged trim—it appeared out of nowhere, as if somebody had put it down just for me.
At the checkout counter we saw a Disneyland calendar for 2009 and snapped that up, also. We put on our toasty-warm sweatshirts and headed for Tortilla Joe’s. On a previous trip, we had eaten at the quick-serve Taqueria, but this would be the first time we would eat at the sit down restaurant.
We noticed right away that the restaurant was decorated festively as the Christmas tree greeted us in the foyer.
We were seated at a booth and our fabulous server appeared immediately to introduce himself, and to start our tasty meal with chips and salsa. He was delightfully warm, funny, and, of course, quite knowledgeable about his native cuisine and he gave us excellent service. If we hadn’t just had wine, we might have ordered a pitcher of Margaritas or the tequila sampler. Instead, we ordered sodas.
We love to order beer or wine flights to sample a variety of alcohol we haven’t yet tasted. And while I have my favorite vodka (Ketel One), I don’t really know the differences in tequila and would love to try the sampler on a future trip. On a side note, Rich had the Scotch Sampler when we were having lunch with famous Passporters Bob & Larry (of the “B&L Dining Experience”) at Rose & Crown at WDW—another memorable meal.
We booked this restaurant for Saturday night because the menu on AllEars mentioned that on Friday and Saturday nights (only) there was “Latin Prime Rib.” We didn’t see it on the menu and asked our server about it. He mentioned that it wasn’t that popular so they only served it on holidays. I guess two days after Christmas didn’t count. No matter. We got a taste of their fabulous beef in our entrées. We ordered the following:
Rich: Combination plate of Chicken Enchilada with salsa roja and Shredded Beef Tamale with salsa verde
Kathy: Sizzling Fajitas with roasted peppers and onions, served with vegetarian black beans and Mexican red rice
I ordered beef fajitas, but when our server asked if I wanted corn or flour tortillas and he mentioned the corn tortillas were handmade, I said I wanted those and then said, “If I have corn tortillas, I’ll have chicken fajitas because I like that combination better” and he suggested, “How about both—beef and chicken?” So I ordered the combo. I ended up eating just one tortilla because the huge portion of meat was so amazingly flavorful (especially the steak), and I didn’t want to fill up on tortillas. I shared some of my chicken and steak with Rich, the portion was so large.
So in spite of not having Latin-spiced prime rib on the menu, the steak was what I would imagine that to be anyway—some of the best steak I’ve ever had—marbled, spiced, and tender. And the peppers - wowsa - I now see what the hoopla is about peppers. And since I’m writing this in the wee hours of the morning and Rich is asleep, we’ll have to wait to see if he has anything else to add about his meal.
Sneak Preview: I had been tempted to order a tamale, as Rich did, but when I saw my appetizer at Napa Rose the next night, I was glad I waited.
Next: Do we really need a parade on a “park filled to capacity” night?
And while I have my favorite vodka (Ketel One), I don’t really know the differences in tequila and would love to try the sampler on a future trip. On a side note, Rich had the Scotch Sampler when we were having lunch with famous Passporters Bob & Larry (of the “B&L Dining Experience”) at Rose & Crown at WDW—another memorable meal.
Your meal sounds just wonderful!
The thing I remember about the fine al fresco meal we shared at Rose & Crown and Rich's Scotch Sampler, was that the scent of the scotches reached me just before I saw the server appear holding the tray. I am not a scotch drinker, but they smelled great!
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
At Disney World I can visit Japan. Please check-out my web site for wheelchair travel, 
But after moving away from my home state of California, living in Florida for several years, and then moving back west to just 30 minutes from the California state line, I must say how much we love DCA. And the changes will only make it better.
Or maybe the winters only feel cold to us now after living in Florida.
Linear Mode
