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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a wonderful TR! I love the pictures of TokyoDisney at night. Wow! I'm sorry to see this TR end. I have loved every minute of it. I'm looking forward to your last thoughts.
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Sorry for the mix-up with the shuttle tickets but what great service that they came and gave you a refund as soon as they figured it out. Glad that the flight was smooth and that you had some good movies to watch to pass the time. I agree 7 Pounds was a good movie but that ending...
Loved the morning shots of the parks waking up...I cannot imagine what it must have been like having to say goodbye to what you both had fallen in love with over the past couple of weeks, but you will make it back again I am sure (and maybe with a bunch of PP friends along for the ride )
I am looking forward to reading your final thoughts on this amazing trip...
Ok, before the final thoughts - finally, I've had time to sort out a few piccies that were asked for:
Firstly, the fridge magnet collection generally:
And a shot of some of the Japan ones we bought back:
And finally, a shot of one of my Tokyo Disney T-shirts, with MiraCosta Minnie, appropriately enough. I could've sworn I had a photo of me in the other T-shirt, but sadly, I can't find that anywhere...
So how did my own Decade of Dreams tour pan out? Did it live up to my expectations? Very resoundingly
I must admit that, as we arrived, I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy it and whether it would live up to my high expectations, but it did and gradually, over the next 12 days, I came to love it. It helped that I already knew that I loved many aspects of Japanese culture and, in particular, shopping was a delight with so many wonderful choices and styles that I had admired for so long.
The Japanese have to be one of the most polite and helpful people that I’ve ever come across. Everywhere we went, they would go out of their way to help us, even if they couldn’t speak a word of English.
On that subject was it worth learning Japanese? Definitely. Although I didn’t use it nearly as much as I thought I would, it still came in very handy on some instances, particularly in Kyoto, where people seemed to speak a lot less English. Even understanding announcements on trains or even hearing conversations, it certainly helped to make me feel more at home.
Watching the Japanese at work and at play was fascinating to me. To see how they were so similar when at work and then so different outside of that environment was amazing.
It was also fascinating to see how little Japan seems to have been affected by the recession, even though everything we kept hearing prior to our trip, and while we were out there, suggested that it’s been the worst affected country and has been in recession for many years. Well, if that’s true, it’s certainly not obvious at all from what we saw.
I knew that Japan had a reputation as an expensive country and sure, I knew that there would be some restaurants that were expensive, but I didn’t expect it to be such a battle to find one that was reasonably priced. I don’t like being reduced to fast food restaurants, but that’s what we found ourselves doing, just to keep within budget and, although we came away within budget, I would have liked some more meals out, but that wasn’t to be.
Sadly, another reason we couldn’t eat out more was the lack of places that took credit cards. Again, it was something that I did read about before we left home, but somehow I wasn’t expecting it to be as widespread as it is out there. You somehow think that Japan, being a technological nation, will work on credit, but it doesn’t.
In hindsight, I also wish that we had booked a few more guided tours, particularly in Kyoto, which wasn’t as simple to get around, as I had thought it would be. Some full day trips would also have had the added bonus of having lunch included, as the meals we did get on our trips were excellent and exactly what I wanted, in terms of being traditional Japanese meals.
Towards the end of the vacation, it’s certainly true that things were getting a lot better and it was getting easier to find those famous Bento boxes, but those early days in Tokyo were a struggle.
One thing that wasn’t a struggle were the high speed Shinkansen trains. My goodness, those things do run just as efficiently as people say. To se so many of them in stations at any one time was something I wasn’t expecting. The closest we’ve got to that at home is the Eurostar and to see two together is rare enough, so to see them pull into stations one after another was quite something. I think those are something that I’ll never get sick of riding and I hope I get the chance to do it again one day. It was such a pleasant experience.
On the subject of transport, the Tokyo subway was very easy to use, with the only problem being the issue of the provisional rail companies and our tickets not covering those. Equally, the Hiroshima street car system was very straightforward and a very unique way to get around. It was the Kyoto subway system that threw us, although in fairness, once we understood how it worked, we were fine with it.
Getting around that city though was not easy and we did have our fill of lousy taxi drivers. Getting to Tokyo Disney was a total nightmare as well, but once there, getting around was a dream and the monorail was lovely. I wish they would add this design into the American theme parks. It’s so much more fun here.
As for the accommodations we had, I don’t think there was one that was one that we didn’t enjoy. They were all excellently located and exactly what we were looking for in each city. Considering I had heard how small Japanese hotel rooms were, I was very pleasantly surprised by what we found. And as for the service we had from housekeeping, my goodness, there was nothing more you could ask for from those guys. : Seriously, before you know there was something that needed doing, they had already done it for you. And let’s not forget there’s no tipping in Japanese culture, so they get no reward for that. I wish other countries would adopt that system. It’s very refreshing.
That’s something we noticed with every single Japanese worker that we came into contact with – that they took such pride in their work and appear to be so happy in what they do as well. As I say, all this in a culture that gives no extra reward. It’s quite something.
OK, let’s take a light hearted look now at some of the Japanese myths that we managed to bust – or not! – as the case may be on our expeditions. For any of you familiar with the TV show Mythbusters, you’ll know where this idea came from!
Myths we busted:
1) The Japanese don’t like to sneeze, as it expels something from their body and that’s not the done thing in Japanese society. Not what we witnessed at all.
2) There’s no toilet paper in Japan. Yes, there is, but there are often no hand towels.
3) Bento boxes can be found in most shops. Not easily, as we found it hard to get them in Tokyo.
4) You need to speak Japanese to get around in Japan, as most Japanese don’t speak it – they’re too scared of making mistakes. You don’t need to speak Japanese, but if you do, it’s an added extra. Most Japanese speak superb English and are very happy to do so.
5) You’ll find sushi everywhere you go. Not our experience at all. The Japanese seem to love international food and that’s what you find everywhere. Finding genuinely Japanese food is quite a challenge.
Myths we didn’t bust:
1) Japan is expensive. It is. It’s very hard to find cheap meals, particularly in Tokyo.
2) Japan is clean. It is – amazingly so.
3) It’s got an amazing train service. It has and you can set your watch by it.
4) The Japanese are polite and helpful. That couldn’t be more true – that was the case with every person we met.
All in all, we picked a great time of the year to visit Japan. I wouldn’t have missed cherry blossom season for anything and the weather we had, with just two exceptions, was phenomenal. It’s an excellent time of the year to go and we struck gold with Tokyo Disney, as the kids had gone back to school and it was lovely and quiet.
So, finally, some of my favourite memories – a top ten, you might say...
Top ten memories:
10) The Senso-ji temple. This holds a special place in my heart, as it really did reduce me to tears when I saw it. That was the moment I really felt like we were in Japan and fell in love with the country first.
9) Kyoto. Despite our problems with the transport system there, we did enjoy this city and I’m glad we went.
8) Hiroshima. This is one place that everyone should visit, just to be aware of what happened, but also to see how wonderfully positive the city is now. It’s quite an inspiration.
7) Nikko. The shrines here have to be the finest in all of Japan and that’s saying something. Our jaws did really drop going around these and it was well worth the train journey out there.
6) Mount Fuji. Seeing this was something that I desperately wanted to do and the one day tour allowed us to do that, realising one of my dreams.
5) Nara. Our trip out there was well worth doing. Although we had seen a lot of temples by then, walking in there and seeing it lined with cherry blossoms just seemed so perfect.
4) Tokyo. Although I wasn’t sure about the city when we first arrive and it was hideously expensive, it had a wonderful vibrancy to it and a great spirit. It’s got just about everything you could ever want.
3) Miyajimi Island. I can see now why this is regarded as one of the three best vies in all of Japan. It’s absolutely stunning and well worth seeing.
2) Cherry blossom season. I can now see why the Japanese love it so much. For a fleeting moment in the year, it transforms an already beautiful country into one that is even more stunning. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate that with the Japanese and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this time of the year to anyone or to visit again at that time.
1) Tokyo DisneySea. This really was the highlight of our stay. As I’ve said before, if you are a Disney fan and you can find the time and money to come here, you owe it to yourself to do just that and visit it. Hopefully we’ll see some of you there in 2013!
So, bearing in mind that we had such a great time (and I speak for Mark here, as he loved it just as much as I did, which was a huge relief to me! ), would we go back? You bet!
The funny thing is when we came home and I originally wrote this in shorthand, the next – and final – sentence of this trip report read as follows: I have no idea how or when, but it’s definitely on the list of places to return to. One day, one day.
Well, bearing in mind the amazing response to this trip report and, in particular, the Tokyo Disney section, I can now change that, as we will be going back and hopefully in 2013 with a bunch of PassPorters. Now that’s got to be the most amazing PassPorter meet in the world – ever! I can’t wait to see you all there. Happy planning… and as Lorie said a while ago, something like 44 months to go…
Wonderful final thoughts, Chezp. I am so sad to see your TR end, but I'm so glad it has ended on such a fantastic note. You have made me hope we get stationed in Japan now so I can experience the culture there firsthand. That would be incredible! Thanks for sharing. I look forward to your next TR in a few months.
Oh yeah, I love your fridge! It looks a lot like mine. We get magnets from all the places we visit, too. I love looking at our fridge and remembering wonderful places we have been and cool things we have done. Thanks for posting that.
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Aw, I feel like I did when I got to the end of the last Harry Potter book - glad to know the whole story but sad that there's no more to come (at least in the very near future..!).
Hurrah for the Tesco Clubcard magnet on your fridge! If we could only get them to add a Far East travel operator to the very short list of ones you can use their points for, then DH and I could probably have banked enough to go by next year...we give far too much of our money to them
Had a fantastic thing in the mail today...but will tell you about it over on the 2013 thread...
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Wow! Wow! Wow! Great TR! So glad to hear the entire story, but so sad it has come to an end. I've looked forward to reading this daily morning "Disney fix" before starting "real life". Again, you have a fantastic memory and ability to write (not to mention the amazing pics!). Thanks so much for sharing.
I so loved this TR. It was truly like reading a good book that sweeps you off to someplace exotic and amazing. I hopped on for the Disney portion, and now I am off to find your TR for the rest of Japan.
Thank you for sharing your story and amazing pictures with us.
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I'm sorry to see this TR end. I have loved every minute of it. I'm looking forward to your last thoughts.
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: Seriously, before you know there was something that needed doing, they had already done it for you. And let’s not forget there’s no tipping in Japanese culture, so they get no reward for that. I wish other countries would adopt that system. It’s very refreshing. 
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