Forever Young: A Disneyland Trip 50 Years in the Making COMPLETED 1/16/16 - Page 39 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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I, too, love WOC. We stood a little farther back, not wanting to be in the splash zone, but we still had an excellent viewing spot. The DVC viewing location was on the top floor of the GC and it was pretty small. We never used it to see WOC. I imagine it must get pretty crowded, and unless you're right at the front, it probably isn't a great place to view WOC. It was a nice view of Paradise Pier, and we did visit it several times during daylight hours. Make a note for your next visit
Finally got all caught up with your last few updates! Loved hearing about the World of Color show as that's definitely on our must-do list! Did you have a special viewing area because you did the dining package? If you don't do it that way, would you say that it's not that easy to find a good spot to watch it? Your description to the Walk in Walt's Footstep Tour sounds so interesting but I'm not sure that I could handle standing around in those kind of temperatures for that long.
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That's what I thought you might say. Oh well, maybe we will do it one day....
I even asked Luke before I responded in case the others had sat at any time. But he said that the hub was the only place where there we benches and none of us sat as that was at the start.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
Sounds like a great tour so far!
I'm never bored hearing Walt stories over and over.
I, too, love WOC. We stood a little farther back, not wanting to be in the splash zone, but we still had an excellent viewing spot. The DVC viewing location was on the top floor of the GC and it was pretty small. We never used it to see WOC. I imagine it must get pretty crowded, and unless you're right at the front, it probably isn't a great place to view WOC. It was a nice view of Paradise Pier, and we did visit it several times during daylight hours. Make a note for your next visit
Can't wait to hear more about your tour.
I have definitely made a note to check out that DVC viewing area on future trips.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Finally got all caught up with your last few updates! Loved hearing about the World of Color show as that's definitely on our must-do list! Did you have a special viewing area because you did the dining package? If you don't do it that way, would you say that it's not that easy to find a good spot to watch it? Your description to the Walk in Walt's Footstep Tour sounds so interesting but I'm not sure that I could handle standing around in those kind of temperatures for that long.
We did have a special viewing area because of the dining package. We never did it but you can get FPs for the WoC earlier in the day and I think that is another special viewing area. I was a little concerned that I'd get too hot and have trouble continuing, but I ended up managing pretty well with lots of fluids.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start to your tour Cam, other than with the listening device! Gosh, the sky is so blue in your pictures!
One other lady and I seemed to be the only ones whose listening devices would just suddenly shut off. Thank goodness it was an easy fix each time.
Friday, October 9 – More touring and another behind the scenes ride. As we walked from Adventureland into New Orleans Square, Jeff had a stop again in a shady area. He pointed out a sign with a large D and the staircase beside it. He informed us this was the main entrance to the Dream Suite, which we would be touring later in the day. Our little group definitely seemed excited about this, and I couldn’t believe our good fortune. But for now we were moving on.
Our next stop had us surrounding this large rock, which we learned that Walt picked up on a vacation with Lily. I believe Jeff said it was originally put in the yard much to Lily’s chagrin. But when the park was built, Walt decided to share it with all of us. There is some history to it but I never got a chance to get close enough to the marker to take a photo, and now my memory has totally faded on what Jeff told us about it that made Walt want it.
While standing here listening to Jeff, I took the opportunity to take a photo back toward the Dream Suite. I was so excited about this portion as Disneyland’s website states that this is not always available.
Jeff announced that it was time for our second attraction. Our group was very excited to learn we’d now be riding Holiday Haunted Mansion. I had hoped to do this attraction again today so it was wonderful that we wouldn’t have to wait too long to enter. Jeff led us to the exit and then took us right up to the part of the queue right in front of the house. We still had a little wait before entering the mansion, so I used my wait time for more photos. The overlay for this during the holidays is so impressive.
In about 5 – 10 minutes we had made our way inside, entered the stretching room, and the fun could begin. We were somewhat kept together as a group, but as you all know moving from the stretching room to the Doombuggies is not the easiest place to keep even a small group together. Jeff had told us prior to entering that he would be waiting at the exit for all us. The plan was for all of us to meet back up there then. Having ridden once already I had a few ideas of photos I was hoping to capture, so I was ready.
I don’t usually like posting blurry photos, but the next two below are such cool touches that I wanted to at least give you all a glimpse. This was the best I could do this day on both. The first is the Hatbox ghost who returned just in time for the 60th anniversary. The second is Mr. Halloween himself, Jack.
I love how the bust statutes are replaced with pumpkins as you’ll see in the photo below.
The angels above were HUGE!
The section with Oogie Boogie was so colorful.
We disembarked our Doombuggy and made our way to the exit where we found Jeff and about half our group reassembled. We had gotten split up quite a bit getting to our rides. In a few minutes the last folks had rejoined us, and Jeff announced that it was time for lunch. We followed him back to the hub as he shared a few last Walt and Disneyland facts. I kept thinking though what about the Dream Suite, but a glance at my watch told me that it was time for the scheduled lunch. I was starting to feel a little disappointed as according to the description online lunch is the conclusion of the tour. But I was hungry and thirsty again, so lunch was going to be enjoyable.
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