It’s Always Sunny in California!..Eh?...L’il Bit! - Page 31 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Do you really want to use a restroom in an area infested with bugs????
Doesn’t a giant band aid just give you the heevy jeevies?
On to our next destination.
Monsters U!
I took a few pictures of the Tea Party area.
And then we headed to Monsters Inc. …. Ok, I thought this was just like the Laugh Floor at WDW and was surprised when Cass told me it was a ride! How have I not heard of this before? I guess I probably have and it just didn’t stick in my brain.
The indoor queue here was really themed well.
I have a confession to make! I have never seen all of Mosters Inc. I have seen Monsters U though. I have seen Monster’s Inc. on TV, but just never sat through the whole thing….really only watching bits and pieces of it…..but I do have a good idea of what it is about, but I guess I better actually watch the whole thing someday.
While in line, Cass filled me in on some of the story, and with the small bit of knowledge I have from watching pieces, I could understand a bit more of it now.
The line moved quickly and it didn’t take too long before we were ready to load in our car.
I took several pictures while on the ride, but many turned out super blurry. Here are the ones that were somewhat decent.
We leave for Palm Springs in a week and plan to drive to Anaheim for (sadly) a 1 day trip to DL/DCA. Having never been, I know it's not enough time, but we're guests of another mother/daughter, so I can't push the envelope too much LOL! Any suggestions for a good neighbor hotel nearby if I can somehow talk her into staying a night?
If you can only do one long day, then that's what you'll have. It'll still be better than nothing.
If your friend agrees to spend the night then book a room on Priceline.com. Any room. You'll maximize your Park time. If you need help with Priceline look on biddingfortravel.com.
I regularly stay in Anaheim area hotels for $40 per night on Priceline. The last one was the Hyatt Orange County. Any overnight is an extra day in the parks!
As the ride ended, we were stopped right before the unloading area and I snapped this picture.
She then looked at me and something along the lines of “I forgot to smile”. And I laughed, I wasn’t sure if it was coincidence or if it was really interacting with us.
She then started making comments about other people in the car, so definitely interactive, which was pretty cool.
Back into the night we went, and I took more pictures as we walked.
One thing that was weird, was it got dark early. Now in Feb, yes it does get dark early, but it really seemed weird to me that it got dark early in such nice weather. Most of the time when we go to Florida, it’s right around the time change…and I guess a few weeks makes a difference too.
Off we headed to Carsland once again. We decided to check out the single rider line for Radiator springs as we wanted to ride it in the dark. It was longer than we had hoped it would be, but we decided we would chance it.
We seemed to be at a standstill for quite some time and now our ADR time was fast approaching. We decided to see if we could change it, well I tried on my phone and it was taking forever to work and it wouldn’t let me move it that way. I tried googling the direct number, but couldn’t find that. I think I called dining as well, and they couldn’t help me either. We just decided that we would show up late and hope for the best.
We inched our way along.
We finally got into a line up for our cars. There goes Cass!
Now I should’ve been in the car in front of her, but for some reason they didn’t let anyone in that car, so I guess there must’ve been something wrong with it, but I did get in the next set.
And off I go!
At one point you go in one direction or the other on the ride. I had always gone into the paint room and thought that was what was in the other room too. This was the only time I went the other direction and lo and behold…it was different. It was a tire changing room. I was excited to see it…and didn’t take any pictures. LOL
I got off the ride and did a super-fast walk out the exit. I didn’t even stop to look at my photo. Cass was waiting for me and wondered where I have been since she thought I was in the car in front of her. I told her for some reason we weren’t allowed on it so I had to wait. And then we did the fast walk. A SUPER Fast Walk. It was our ADR time now, so we were officially late.
We walked so fast that our legs were killing us. At times Cass was in the lead and then I would take over the lead for a bit, but neither of us were ever too far behind the other. I have no idea when, but at some point I took this picture.
It was like we were in a race and our life depended on fast walking. I was surprised but instead of my thighs burning, my calves were. I put every drop of energy I had in that walk! As we approached DLH I started to slow down, I just couldn’t go as fast anymore. Cass passed me and asked if she should slow down…..and I was like “NO…go on…..get there….I’ll make it….win it for me!!! “ LOL! She arrived before me, but I wasn’t too far behind and we checked in and had no issues. I think we were about 15-20 minutes late? I don’t remember now for sure, but they didn’t seem to care, which was good.
And it wasn’t long at all and we were seated.
It seems like there was a special menu we could order off of too this night, though I could be wrong. I am pretty sure there was though and we got a prix fixe meal.
We started out with bread!
Cass had ordered soup and we just busted out laughing when we saw how big the bowl was.
So we took a goofy picture.
I got the Shrimp Cocktail.
And we both got the steak, but I can’t remember which kind it was???? Perhaps Filet Mignon.
The potato casserole with it was heavenly!!!! We both wished the helping was bigger.
I believe we had a couple of dessert choices and I was just so full that I really didn’t want one, but it came with the meal so I ordered the same that Cass had, which I think was described as a mousse cake. I am not a big fan of chocolate cake normally, but I usually like Disney’s and I figured if it had some sort of mousse filling with it, it would be ok to nibble on. This is what we got.
It was basically a chocolate shell filled with mousse. This made me happy and yes I ate the whole darn thing, however, this is not what Cass thought it would be (nor I for that matter) and she wasn’t too thrilled with it.
This meal was darn good! I am so glad we went here. It was expensive, but with the prix fixe meal we got, it wasn’t too bad for what we got…..and we had vouchers, so those covered our meals.
We rolled ourselves out and wobbled back towards the GC once again. Of course I took pictures along the way.
The long way to our room
I believe we did go to DTD for a little bit and shopped at World of Disney. I know at some point Cass bought the same sweatshirt that I had bought, but not sure if this was the night or not.
We did finally go to sleep, but of course we laughed and talked first. It was like one big slumber party this week, but we did eventually go to sleep.
A little update from the real world! This weekend is really busy and I might not get an update done again till Sunday or Monday. I wanted to update you all on my conference trip for Aug. As some of you may or may not know, but the Diagon Alley opening date at Universal Studios was announced this week...finally. I had been debating on going to Universal since this trip was in the starting stages. I even contacted someone about making it more about business than pleasure, and it wasn't going to work out. WELL......When they announced the official opening date I just had to go. I knew it would be open by then, but this really made me want to go more. So I made a reservation for the night of Aug. 24 at Royal Pacific, changed my flight to leave in the afternoon of the 25, rented a car for the whole stay as it was cheaper that way than doing it for just 1 day, and ordered my ticket. It's going to be a very busy weekend, but it will be a lot of fun and I can't wait to check out Diagon Alley!
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