A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 38 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Right, I'm finally all caught up. I reasoned that if I'm going to meet up with you both this weekend then I needed to bring myself up to date with your Japan trip.
All I can say is WOW!!!!
You've surpassed yourself with your photography skills, Cheryl.
A fascinating trip report about what was clearly a fascinating trip.
Hey, you do know there isn't a test this weekend, don't you? Glad you're all caught up again..
Hey, you do know there isn't a test this weekend, don't you? Glad you're all caught up again..
Karen, don't let her lull you into a false sense of security. She is, as I write this, preparing a 100 essay question exam about her trip reports. ALL of them. So be prepared!!
Karen, don't let her lull you into a false sense of security. She is, as I write this, preparing a 100 essay question exam about her trip reports. ALL of them. So be prepared!!
oh to be a fly on that wall!
Darn... she knows me too well. Only up to question 38 though, so I don't know if I'll make it to 100 by the weekend...
Friday 3 April – part two: oh no, it’s a Japanese one!
We pulled into our first stop at the Mount Fuji visitor centre and here, it was a real shame that we didn’t stay longer. We only had 15 minutes and it wasn’t nearly long enough.
The first stop when we got off the bus was the restrooms for both of us and, as you’d expect there was quite a line for the ladies. So when it got to my turn and a cubicle became free, well, I’ll take it. and guess what it was? You got it, a Japanese style one. I nearly died, but when in Japan…. And heck, I was not about to go back out and line up again. : I will admit that actually it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Probably the thought of it is worse than the actual experience. Having said that, I would still choose a western style one every time if I had the option, but it’s another thing that I can say that I’ve done now.
From there, we walked over to the outdoor viewing area. It was gorgeous outside with beautiful sunshine and, despite the warnings before we got off the bus, it was pretty warm. We were quite surprised when our guide later told us that it was only 5ºC (about 40ºF) there, as it felt a lot warmer than that. We got some nice photos, although it was really hard to see whether or not Fuji was actually coming out in the background.
We then headed into the souvenir shop and they weren’t exactly packed in here, nor was it well laid out. We finally found what we were looking for, some fridge magnets, a book and a picture and some cheesecake to try and we got in line and waited and waited to be served. By now, we were well passed our allocated 15 minutes and we saw our guide come in. I apologised, but he was fine about it. It was a shame we felt so rushed through, as I would have preferred more time to explore the Visitor Centre, as apparently they had films about Mount Fuji and its nature and I would have liked to have seen those, but it was not to be.
Instead, it was back on the bus and up to the fourth station, which took about 35 minutes. During that time, Take told us more about the mountain and its nature (so maybe we didn’t need to see those films after all!) and about the climbing season. It’s clear he’s got a job he loves, as he’s been to the summit of Mount Fuji three times. Apparently, the Japanese have a saying that anyone who doesn’t get to the summit of Mount Fuji is a fool, but anyone who goes up there more than once is an even bigger fool. I liked that one.
The last time he went up, he went with his 70 year old mother and he’s even tried the marathon up there. It’s from the base up to the summit, but they only allow you four and a half hours to do it and he only made it to the eighth station (there are nine in total) in that time. He said he felt like he was going to die at that point. Fair play to him for even attempting that. There’s no way I could. :
Before we knew it, we were at the fourth station wit some nice views, not just of Mount Fuji, but also of the Japanese Alps opposite. Here, we did feel that we had too long, as we were here for 30 minutes, but I think we were done by 15 minutes, as there’s not much to see here and only so many things that even we can photograph!
Mark being sensible...
.... and me being silly, pretending to be cold!
It was a lot colder up here, although the sun did help to make it feel warmer. We had seen a lot of snow still on the ground here and in fact, we were at the fourth station, rather than the fifth station, as apparently that was impassable due to snow. It’s hard to therefore believe that there’s apparently no snow in the summer months on the top of Mount Fuji, but that’s what Take had told us. Apparently, that’s down to global warming, like so much else today.
We got back on the bus and next, it was off to a hotel for lunch. I was a bit surprised when Take told us that it would be nearly an hour’s drive away, but that time just flew by, as Take entertained us the whole way. He explained about the Japanese characters and how there are two alphabets, Hiragana for home grown words and Katakana for foreign words imported into the Japanese language. Then there are Kanji symbols that represent entire words. With that explanation, I think Mark could finally see why learning how to read and write Japanese was so difficult.
Take then took us through a number of Kanji characters, getting us to guess them, Some shall we say were very easy, but others were just impossible to work out. Still, it was a lot of fun. When Take offered to write people’s names in Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji, Mark immediately volunteered me. The Katakana immediately looked familiar when take wrote it, as we had had to do that in our first ever Japanese lesson, although I had long forgotten how to do it. Still, to see the other ways of writing it was very interesting.
Before we knew it, we were pulling into the hotel for a traditional Japanese lunch, essentially from a Bento box. Although as you can see, very much a high quality Bento box.
We were seated at a table with a couple who didn’t really say a word. I have no idea what nationality they were. They did speak English fine, but obviously didn’t want to talk, so it made for a quiet lunch. As for the food, it was very good and the sushi was excellent, as was the cooked salmon and tempura prawns. We then had a sorbet for dessert. It was certainly very filling and very welcome.
We finished within about half an hour and still had another 20 minutes before the bus was due to leave. We had a quick look around the hotel, but let’s just say while the food was good, it wasn’t on a par with ours. : Noticing the bus sitting there with the driver on board, we headed back and soon we were leaving, with all the hotel staff very enthusiastically waving at us as we pulled away, which was a nice touch.
Cheryl I love your pictures with you and Mark in front of Mt Fuji. I'm glad to hear you were able to get another traditional Japanese meal in and you got to have a Bento Box. I'm sorry it wasn't par to your's in the UK. That's a shame that they only alowed you 15 minutes at Mt Fuji and 30 minutes at the Japanese Alps side (would have made more sense to flip the allowed times). I'm glad to hear your Guide was quite the Entertainer. Yet again, another wonderful post by Cheryl
Your name actually looks like your shorthand to me!! It's all Greek!
Another fantastic update and I love seeing all the different layers of clothing you guys wore as the tour went on! Love the mountain shots. Very beautiful!
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Glad you're all caught up again.. 
I nearly died, but when in Japan…. And heck, I was not about to go back out and line up again. 
: I will admit that actually it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Probably the thought of it is worse than the actual experience. Having said that, I would still choose a western style one every time if I had the option, but it’s another thing that I can say that I’ve done now. 
It’s from the base up to the summit, but they only allow you four and a half hours to do it and he only made it to the eighth station (there are nine in total) in that time. He said he felt like he was going to die at that point. Fair play to him for even attempting that. There’s no way I could. 
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