A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 32 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wonderful updates! I love the pictures at night. Really a beautiful city. I think that it's interesting that they have so many replicas of famous monuments like the Eifle Tower and Statue of Liberty.
Have a great trip to WDW!
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I'm all caught up - just in time for your DoD break! It sounds like a fantastic trip so far. How funny you happened to find a Disney Store! And that tour really sounded great. Glad you were able to enjoy some of the scenery before the weather got too bad. See you at DoD!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Cool, you found junior red clones!
Have you ever been to Edinburgh? I have similar pix of Grey Friars Bobby - if I remember right, the little dog waited years at his master's grave sight after the man died and now there is a statue in his honour.
Cheryl, I've finally gotten caught up. More wonderful updates. So cool you got to find the Disney Store and what wonderful decor it has to it. Your night tour looked fabulous despite the pouring rain. Glad to hear you were able to get in a traditional meal in. Have fun on DoD Trip. Looking foward to more Thanks for sharing your trip.
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Thanks for the TR and all of the great pix. I have really enjoyed reading and touring with you. Looking forward to reading more when you get back from DOD. Have a great trip.
Cheryl, I have some pix to post for you of what the Cherry Blossoms look like on the ground. We left around 10:00am our time here with our car covered in them and tons of them all over the front yard. I took them when we got home a little while ago from getting my SIL from college. There are some on the trees in our front yard, and some leading up to our front door, some by our car, and some tracked inside our house when wet.
Thursday 2 April – part one: finally an elusive sighting
Last night, we decided to set the wake up call to check that we knew how it worked, as we had a couple of important things to be up for over the next two days. My goodness, did it wok! I thought the world was ending when it went off at 7.30, it was that loud and piercing. There’s no danger of ever sleeping through that. :
Despite the fact that we had set the wake up call, we had a leisurely start to the day. We were going to have breakfast upstairs to at the Blue Gardenia restaurant on the 40th floor. It’s an expensive luxury at 2,700¥ (about £19) each, but as Mark said, that’s no worse than we had paid at the hotel at Heathrow just before we flew out and my goodness, you do get value for money here.
There was everything you’d expect and more. As well as fruit, cereal, breads, cold meats and cheeses, there was a full hot food section, including hot vegetables, such as cauliflower and broccoli, and a Japanese section, including miso soup and pickles. On that section, I tried the fresh fish. I have no idea what it was, but it was very good.
It was such a treat to sit there eating and enjoying the lovely view. We deliberately asked to be seated in an area away from our usual view from our window, as they first offered us a table with a very similar view to the one we’d already seen plenty of and I wanted to see something else. As breakfast progressed and we had various course, I would go around the restaurant with the camera and take shots of the views. From here, it seemed like Tokyo sprawled forever. You could see the Imperial Palace and it’s park clearly in front of us with Ginza behind. Sadly, we still couldn’t see Mount Fuji, which was a shame, but at least we would get to see it closer up tomorrow on our day trip.
The Imperial Palace
Blue Gardenia:
Food 8½ 8½
Service 7½ 9
Atmosphere 9 7
Value for money 7 7
Average score: 7.94
Full, we returned to the room, where we got some photos of each other in front of the view that we had of the city. It was then that Mark noticed that we could finally see Mount Fuji and he was right. Suddenly it had put in an appearance for us, so at long last we could say that we had seen it from our room.
Mark brushes up on his Japanese – yeah right!
With that achievement under our belts, we set out. I had been debating what to do today and asked Mark and he opted for the day trip out to Nikko. It was the push I needed. I would have quite happily not bothered to do this, but I think I would’ve got home and regretted that decision, so I was glad he went with that option.
We headed for the subway station and today worked out how to buy single fares. It’s fairly straightforward, as there are English signs telling you how much it costs to get to each station, along with a map in Japanese. It was 190¥ to Asakusa (just over £1.20), much cheaper than the Tube would be in London.
Once there, the next challenge was getting out train tickets for Nikko. I had printed off a lot of information from websites before we left, so I knew what ticket machines I was looking for and found them and the English version for them, but I couldn’t see how to get the discounted passes that included access to the shrines there. Mark suggested asking in the ticket office and I asked at two different offices, trying out my Japanese, which seemed to work, but it was only on the second attempt that we got the message that we wanted the Tobu sightseeing centre that was just down the road. My goodness, this was all so well signposted. They told us every few metres how much further it was and then we got in there, in perfect English, the girl got us the discounted tickets and explained that perhaps an update would be a better idea. The second I saw the train times I agreed. The slow train was about to leave and would get to Nikko at 1.35, whereas the express train was due to leave in 10 minutes and would get us there by 12.50. I was happy to pay the extra 1,100¥ (just under £9) for the privilege of getting there quicker, especially as we were pretty late leaving.
That sorted, we headed for the north entrance to the station, showed our tickets, got them stamped and then it was up to the platform, where the train was already waiting. Everyone was patiently lined up by the car they would be getting in, while the cleaners finished their work on board. This isn’t something I’ve seen anywhere else, neither the cleaning or the patient waiting in line. As soon as the cleaners were done, the signal was given and everyone boarded. We had allocated seats and quickly found our numbers 127 and 128 in car number one. My instant impression was my goodness, these seats are huge! In fact, I think they were bigger than what we got in Premium Economy! We had foot rests and trays and immediately Mark stretched out to enjoy the room, as you can see!
back!! Hope you had a great time at DoD! Looking forward to reading the rest of your report! I just read your column for the Passporter newsletter - and wonderful job
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Enjoying Tokyo DisneySea with my Buzz & Woody...
I know'd I made a good choice! DVC - Saratoga Springs Resort
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Guess where we were headed??
Thanks for sharing your trip.
: 
Suddenly it had put in an appearance for us, so at long last we could say that we had seen it from our room. 
In fact, I think they were bigger than what we got in Premium Economy! We had foot rests and trays and immediately Mark stretched out to enjoy the room, as you can see! 
back!! Hope you had a great time at DoD! Looking forward to reading the rest of your report! I just read your column for the Passporter newsletter - and wonderful job 
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