Jeffrey made me do it, but it’s almost free for our three!! **Updated 5/19** - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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La Brea Tar Pits looks fascinating - we only saw it from the road, as we only had a couple of minutes stop there on our tour. What a shame we didn't have time to go inside - it looks great.
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What a really cool tour...you can get off where you want, get back on when you want...much better then when you have to follow a pre-written plan set for you...
La Brea Tar Pits looks fascinating - we only saw it from the road, as we only had a couple of minutes stop there on our tour. What a shame we didn't have time to go inside - it looks great.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you had a great time at the tar pits! Very cool!! Love the pics and video
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydani
Glad you enjoyed the tar pits...sounded pretty cool.
Cheryl, Marnie and Danielle! The tar pits were a pleasant surprise. We had heard it was a nice place to visit, but I really didn’t expect that we would spend that much time there. I believe we would have spent more time if we had more than one day touring the Los Angeles area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemap760
Great tour. I like the way you were able to get off where you wanted and spend as much time as you wanted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcc0313
What a really cool tour...you can get off where you want, get back on when you want...much better then when you have to follow a pre-written plan set for you...
Pam & Meg! I was so glad that we opted for this tour over the more expensive one, where we were tied to certain stops and limited to a certain amount of time. We also loved being outside on the upper deck, even though my hair took a beating! The price was definitely a bargain!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
The La Brea Tar Pits looks very interesting! And I loved the video (that little girl dancing cracked me up! ). MORE! Please.
Sharon! That little girl was hysterical! I also think she has much better rhythm than I do!!
Now playing:A touch of Disney and a visit to the famous
Saturday, February 16, 2008 – Day 2/Part 4
We were off in search of food, with something in mind. We had decided we would like to try Disney’s Soda Fountain & Studio Store, which is directly across the street from the Kodak Theatre.
This star was just outside the door.
We ventured up to the podium to give our name. We lucked out as there was a spot at the counter; so the CM brought us over there to seat us. It was a neat little place, but everything was kind of crammed in to make the most of what they had. I’m glad we were seated here, as it was really fun to watch them work behind the counter.
We had reviewed the menu at home prior to our trip, so we were kind of familiar with it. (Kyle went with the spaghetti & meatballs, Jeffrey had a hot dog & chips and I tried the French dip & apple slices (something I normally wouldn’t order – I don’t think I’ve had a French dip in 25 years! ) After we ordered a different CM came up to us from behind and questioned us at to who sat us at the counter. We explained who sat us, but I couldn’t locate her visually at the time. He told us someone told him we just sat on our own. I politely told him that we had seen the sign at the podium that we needed to wait to be seated and we had done just that, but Jeffrey & I never really got over the uneasiness it left with us afterwards. I may not always sound like it, but I’m a rule-follower…honest!
We left a little room for dessert and we all opted for some kind of ice cream. I had a very small sundae – 1 scoop of peppermint ice cream with hot fudge sauce, Kyle had a fresh dipped frozen banana and Jeffrey had a sundae like mine, with caramel sauce – neither one of us can remember what kind of ice cream he had. It’s not in my notes, which aren’t as detailed as they usually are.
It was an okay meal. The atmosphere was different (in a good way) and the service was terrific, but the food was just okay for us. We would definitely try it again, if we were ever to venture back to the west coast again. Would we go out of our way to eat there? Probably not, but if we were in the area, I would make sure it was a stop on our list.
We looked around the store a bit. They also had photos of various stars who had passed through the doors. Kyle was particularly excited about Dane Cook. He had me take photos and then he took some himself!
Our next stop was to see some famous people at Hollywood’s Wax Museum. On the way out, I took a photo of the Kodak Theatre and the viewing stands that were set up for the Academy Awards being held the following week.
The museum was on the other side of the street and just a short walk away.
Admission was $18 each, but it also gave us admission to the Guiness Book of World Records Museum, which was directly across the street. I thought the price was a little steep, but the trip was almost free for our three, so we went for it without a second thought!
The museum was set up into little themed areas/rooms. This is just a sampling of what we saw, with more to follow in the detour.
For those of you who don’t know, our last name is Chaplin. Whenever we are making reservations, placing orders or doing various things that require me to spell our last name, I always say “Chaplin, like Charlie.” I’ve learned to do this after so many requests to spell it or receiving things with it spelt “Chaplain.” In any event, I asked Jeffrey to pose with Charlie and he was more than happy to oblige.
There was a room (more like tunnels) with various characters from horror movies. I’m not sure if the picture captures the full essence of Hannibal’s presence, but I have to say that I actually gasped when I turned the corner and saw him standing there.
I’d like to think that my son doesn’t know who this is. He took photos of every display, so there’s no telling. I’m not going to ask, because I don’t want to know!
We probably spent about 45 minutes in the museum. I think it was worth the price of the admission. I know there are other wax museums around, but there was just something about touring one while in Hollywood. We finished up there and went across the street to the Hollywood Guinness Book of World Records Museum. It wasn’t quite as interesting as the wax museum, but it was fun to look at and read about some of the records. We only spent about 15 – 20 minutes here.
I couldn’t resist
And neither could Kyle , but Jeffrey just wouldn’t do it. Don’t worry, I got him back the next day!!
It was nearing 6:00pm, so we decided we should get moving since we still had to drive to Anaheim, but we had one last stop to make before hitting the road. . .
FUN! I cannot wait to visit some of the sites you went to. I love your photos!
Quick question: about how long did it take you to tour the Walk of Fame, El Capitan, Kodak Theatre area? Is this something one could easily do in an hour? Just trying to figure out my itinerary.
Thanks!
Ok so your DH looks like he is either ready for some tea or ready to knock someone out with that GINORMOUS World Series ring! Go Sox! Sold on being Bronson's Fan or is he being bribed to say that???
and Free is always a good thing Good Start!!!
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Cheryl, Marnie and Danielle! The tar pits were a pleasant surprise. We had heard it was a nice place to visit, but I really didn’t expect that we would spend that much time there. I believe we would have spent more time if we had more than one day touring the Los Angeles area.
Don’t worry, I got him back the next day!! 
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