A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 43 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Wow, from the looks of the pictures of you and Mark on an empty train (how huge the train looks empty) to the beautiful views of the Palace, Cheryl your trip looks so enjoyable, despite the rain and your room not being ready (good thinking you were forgetting your camera and remembered to get it before you left). These pictures are stunning.
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caught up again, the bullet train looks amazing, I have always wanted to travel that way. I still havent even tried the Acela train here.
the garden is stunning, I love those trees!!
I have been reading this TR over the past few days and I am fascinated by it! Japan was never on my list of places I'd like to go, but now maybe??? I'm so happy to have found the Globetrotting threads - I'm sure I have lots of reading ahead of me. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful trip!
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Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
I have been reading this TR over the past few days and I am fascinated by it! Japan was never on my list of places I'd like to go, but now maybe??? I'm so happy to have found the Globetrotting threads - I'm sure I have lots of reading ahead of me. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful trip!
I'm glad you've found the Globetrotting trip reports too, as we have so many fascinating trip reports in here from all around the world.
Saturday 4 April – part three: sampling new delicacies and trying out my Japanese
We climbed up to the top of the castle walls for a look over Nijo Castle, with Kyoto sprawling in the background. As we stood there, I saw a couple of women in traditional kimonos and couldn’t resist getting some photos with them in shot. I love the look of kimonos, although they are appalling pricey.
We continued our walk around the gardens, which were filled with more lovely cherry blossom trees. Here the cherry blossoms looked like they were further along than in Tokyo, which would fit in with everything I’d heard, as I know the climate here is a lot warmer. It was a shame in a way, as I hated to see the blossom on the ground beneath us. Indeed, as we walked along, I saw some flutter to the ground in front of me. Sad how short a time they last for…
We got to the end and they took us out through some stalls, some selling souvenirs and some selling food. We decided to try some of the food, but the concern for me is always what is it> Some of it looked nice enough and my initial thought was that they looked like rice balls, but what if they weren’t? As we stood there, pondering, a kind guy came to our rescue and explained that they were indeed rice balls in soy sauce. How perfect. We got a string to try and it was so good, that we went back and got some more. Very tasty.
Then we found another booth that interested us and again, we weren’t use, but we managed to find out, through a bit of broken Japanese and some broken English, that it was fish, so again, we gave it a go and again, it was so good that we went back for more. That was us full for lunch and we had had the chance to try out some great Japanese delicacies too. Perfect.
We made our final stop at the last area to visit, then it was out.
We decided to get a taxi back to the hotel, as it was still raining lightly and we didn’t fancy the walk back or trying to work out how to use the subway system. Again, we had some problems getting the driver to understand where we wanted to go, but we got there in the end.
Safely back, we got our room, 3220, which Mark confidently told me was on the third floor. I assumed he had checked that and it was only just as the doors of the lift closed that I realised there were only restaurants on the third floor. We tried one floor with no luck, then another and figured out how the numbering worked. We were on the 12th floor. We were right, but wouldn’t you know it, that was written on our check-in details, when we looked at them. Typical!
The room was very nice and bigger than I expected, having heard how small Japanese hotel rooms are. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no way it was on the same lines as the one we had just left behind in Tokyo, but it was still very pleasant. The bathroom was very small though. My goodness, you could barely move in there!
The welcome gift they left for us
After a little bit of down time, we headed back out. A quick phone call confirmed that the geisha tour I wanted to do was still on for this evening, so we grabbed a taxi and headed over to the Ryoan-ji temple. The driver didn’t speak a word of English, but I was able to make myself understood and answered his questions about when we had arrived here and how long we were staying. He was very enthusiastic, trying to tell us things about Kyoto, some of which I understood or worked out, and some of which I just couldn’t fathom.
We later figured out when we saw a leaflet for it that, at one point, he was telling us that Nijo Castle is currently illuminated at night. He certainly tried his best to be a tour guide for us and he was lovely. I was said when we had to say goodbye to him.
Next: and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down…
All caught up again. Wow - you guys really did it all! I'm loving your pictures. I feel like you are our personal guide thru Kyoto. You're doing a great job! Can't wait to read more .
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Enjoying Tokyo DisneySea with my Buzz & Woody...
I know'd I made a good choice! DVC - Saratoga Springs Resort
Deep fried and on a stick--it just doesn't get any better than that!
Stunning photos of the gardens, so serene--it's amazing how rested ones eyes are after viewing them. Thank you for going to the trouble of posting them.
Uh oh . . . rain . . . the cherry blossom pictures are fantastic, as are the details in the architecture! I LOVE food on a stick, so your lunch would be fine with me!
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All caught up again. Wow - you guys really did it all! I'm loving your pictures. I feel like you are our personal guide thru Kyoto. You're doing a great job! Can't wait to read more 
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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