Forever Young: A Disneyland Trip 50 Years in the Making COMPLETED 1/16/16 - Page 48 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Nice photos from within your hotel, which looks absolutely stunning for Halloween!
That was quite nice that you got to meet up with some fellow PPs and spend some time together in DL! Glad that RSR re-opened and also enjoyed TOT. Both of your breakfasts' looked quite good from Flo's.
The Grand Californian was quite festive for fall and Halloween.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lindawdw
Your dinner looked fabulous at the Jazz Kitchen!!! So nice that you were able to spend time with PP Friends
I wasn't sure how many PP folks we'd be able to meet at DLR, but we managed to get in a few, which just added to the magic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tdhc
Great update. Breakfast looked yummy! Hope your weekend went great.
Saturday, October 10 – Seeking A/C, we enter a whole new world.
It was now a little after 12:00 PM, and the heat had soared again in to the 100+ degrees. I asked Tricia if there was anything in the air conditioning that would be good to do, so we could all have a break from the heat. She asked if we had been to Animation Academy yet. When I answered that we had not, she told us about several attraction that are housed in Disney Animation over in Hollywood Land. Luke and I always love drawing characters, so this sounded like the perfect idea. Thank goodness it was short walk from a bug’s land. The moment we entered the doors to the theater like building, I felt so much better. We immediately got in line for Animation Academy. There was a line, but nothing like some that we’ve seen for this attraction at WDW.
Soon enough we were entered a large room with theater style tiered seating. We each picked up a drawing board and piece of paper and made our way to our seats. There are no desks here as at Studios, but for me that would be an advantage as I tend to work at an angle when I write and draw. With the lap board, I could angle my paper just as I wanted it. Our animator was Allison who took a few moments to introduce us to the concept of animation. While listening, I used the time to get a few photos of the area. We were seated about mid theater and on the right, but the tiered seating made it easy to observe Allison and the big screen as well as zoom in for some nice shots.
When she sat down to begin our lesson, I stowed the camera away with one last shot of Katie, Tricia and Roger sitting to my left.
We soon discovered that we would be drawing Perry or Agent P from Phineas and Ferb. Luke and I had drawn him once before at WDW, but I think my drawing was so much better this time. In fact everyone in our little group did a great job on Perry. I have forgotten to take photos of mine and Luke’s. When we got home, these needed to be laid out flat and weighted down so that they’d unfurl from the rolls we had put them in to keep them from being crushed. Maybe I can still get around to that as they should be ready now. I have stowed them out of the way in the scrapbook room on my work table.
Also inside Disney Animation is a meet and greet with Anna and Elsa, and even though it has a shorter line here than at the Magic Kingdom, I wasn’t interested. I asked Tricia what Sorcerer Workshop was and even though she said it was hard to describe it sounded very interesting, so that was our next attraction inside the A/C. This area is designed to make guests feel like they have descended into a castle dungeon, and the dungeon itself is divided into three areas. The first room is the Magic Mirror Realm. Interactive exhibits are displayed here “to teach how the principles of persistence of vision trick the eye into believing that still images are in motion.” [Borrowed from Disneyland website] We even discovered a famous villain in the mirror here.
The second room is the Beast’s Library. Using enchanted books, we took turns discovering which Disney character our personalities most resembled. Every four minutes the room itself shifts its own character around you, so even the wait for an enchanted book is still quite interesting. Turns out I’m most like Rapunzel.
Ursula’s Grotto was closed this day, so we did not get to experience it. Instead we returned to the lobby area of Disney Animation, which is quite expansive. I had noticed artwork on one wall that I thought would make a great backdrop for Luke and me. Tricia was sweet and took a couple of our photos here that will appear on the last page of my scrapbook when I finally get around to working on it.
Disney Animation also houses Turtle Talk with Crush, but like Anna and Elsa’s meet and greet, I was interested at this time. Instead of exiting back outside, we entered a shop called Off the Page that was full of Disney art and collectibles. Almost immediately, Luke found a Department 56 Holiday Tree Hand Car with Mickey and Minnie, which will be perfect for his train layout. We also noticed a sizable selection of Christmas ornaments. We had been looking for one, but nothing had yet caught our fancy. We had almost given up when I noticed a Mickey ear hat in the 60th anniversary motif, all sparkly like diamonds. The cost of our two treasures came to $58.27 after our $6.00 DVC member discount. The purchases in hand we went back outside as I now had another mission.
Next: Finally in a character-meeting mood.
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Oh I love that Christmas decoration. I wish we'd seen that during our trip, as I'd have bought that. As it was, we didn't get a diamond anniversary Christmas decoration, as we just didn't find anything we liked.
Fun! What do you mean, the library changes character every 4 minutes? I totally missed this when we were there. I did love the general lobby area of the A of A area, did you?
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Great update! We drew Agent P in April at WDW. My oldest nephew won the animators drawing for answering the question. Actually, he had his hand raised before the animator finished asking the question. I am going to miss the Animation Academy when I go next year.
The ornament is beautiful!
We've done that personality/character quiz at WDW - can't recall who I got now. Glad there were a few things to keep you out of the heat for a bit!
Oh I love that Christmas decoration. I wish we'd seen that during our trip, as I'd have bought that. As it was, we didn't get a diamond anniversary Christmas decoration, as we just didn't find anything we liked.
We were leaving Monday, and I was beginning to think we weren't going to find a 60th anniversary ornament, too. This one was slightly above my head, but when I looked up at it sparkling there, I knew I'd finally found the ornament for us.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
What a beautiful ornament! Glad you found a way to escape the heat for a while.
Thanks! This really was a fun way to get a break from the heat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KimmyAnn1147
Fun! What do you mean, the library changes character every 4 minutes? I totally missed this when we were there. I did love the general lobby area of the A of A area, did you?
As you turn around the library, it goes from disrepair to fixed back up.
I really did like the lobby area. It was a roomy and cool area to wait for each of the attractions there and so beautifully done. I forgot to mention the movie scenes playing along the walls here, which I could have stared at forever.
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Glad that RSR re-opened and also enjoyed TOT. Both of your breakfasts' looked quite good from Flo's. 
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