Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
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11-14-2006, 01:45 PM
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#61
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Community Rank: Scout 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Songtan, South Korea
Posts: 4,681
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Pre-TR
<font color="blue">
<u>Travel Day, October 29, 2006 – Part 2</u>
We hopped in our rental car, and I got my directions to the hotel out. I had thought that our rental car place was at the airport. I hadn’t realized we would need to take a bus to the rental car place. So, my directions to the hotel were from LAX. When we left Thrifty, I noticed we were on the road we were supposed to be on so we started out. We drove and drove and drove. We got into poorer and poorer neighborhoods with Spanish billboards everywhere. Hmmmm. This did not seem right. It was interesting to see how no one had a yard. It seemed like every inch of LA is used for something. And the houses are so squished together. We are not used to seeing that at all.
Being uncomfortable in this part of town, my DH decided to turn around and get directions at Thrifty. He went in and we were actually on the right road, we had just gone the opposite way. Phew! It wasn’t too bad after all.
I was happy we were headed back towards LAX because it afforded me the opportunity to snap these pics.
 
LAX had really cool towers of light as you drove into the airport region. They were really beautiful. They would change colors every so often. I really liked that. It was really nice seeing the big LAX sign, too. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
After we figured out where we were going, everything was very easy from there. My directions actually worked. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
We made our way through LA and into Anaheim. I really enjoyed the drive. There was little traffic since it was so late. It was so exciting just knowing we were in CA, and then seeing signs to Disneyland. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img]
We found the Candy Cane Inn and checked in. We were very pleased with the look and feel of the hotel. It was so quaint and lovely.
We found our room and unloaded the car. I snapped a picture of the room before we moved in.
Then we noticed a bag of cookies on the table with a card attached for Victoria. The staff of Candy Cane Inn had signed the card wishing her a happy birthday. I thought that was so sweet!
Everyone got ready for bed. I unpacked (I just couldn’t wait until the next day.) and got ready for bed. I called the front desk for a wake-up call of 7 a.m., and crawled into bed. It had been a long day, and of course our bodies were still on Eastern time. I think we got to bed around 12:30 a.m.
The beds are queen sized and very, very comfortable with lovely down, soft pillows. It was wonderful. This is one of the only hotels where I didn’t wake up with a backache each morning.
The best thing today was arriving in LA.
The worst thing today was the flight to LA.
The funniest thing today was getting a little lost!
Today we tried AirTran.
And the result was that the first flight was fine. The second one was horrible. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
The most magical moment today was the surprise cookies and card waiting for Victoria to wish her a happy birthday!
Coming up: Sea World in San Diego!
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11-14-2006, 02:16 PM
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#62
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Living Seas wannabe
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 31,940
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Pre-TR
Great update!! Glad you made it to your hotel!
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11-14-2006, 03:44 PM
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#63
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RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Pre-TR
Glad you made it to the Candy Cane Inn [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img] The rooms looks great [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] More please [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
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11-14-2006, 08:10 PM
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#64
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Community Rank: Jetsetter 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Wishing I was at WDW
Posts: 2,384
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Pre-TR
Glad you made it and survived the flight!
More pls!
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11-15-2006, 12:48 AM
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#65
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Community Rank: Explorer 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,386
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Pre-TR
Glad to hear that you were happy with the Candy Cane Inn as that is the hotel we're considering trying out for our next DLR trip.
Joy
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11-15-2006, 01:45 AM
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#66
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PassPorter Message Board Manager
 PassPorter Guide Author
Community Rank: Legend VIP 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 190,285
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Pre-TR
Glad you made it OK to your hotel - and it looks lovely! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]
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11-15-2006, 06:12 PM
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#67
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Community Rank: Jetsetter
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Arlington,Texas USA
Posts: 2,555
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Pre-TR
Thanks for the update. More, please!
tenya
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11-16-2006, 09:28 AM
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#68
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Community Rank: Scout
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Songtan, South Korea
Posts: 4,681
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Day 1, Part 1, updated 11/16
<font color="blue">
<u>Day 1 - October 30, 2006 – Part 1</u>
Today was our day to head to Sea World in San Diego. Due to the time difference, we all were up and ready before the wake-up call ever came in. How nice is that?
The Candy Cane Inn offers a complimentary continental breakfast. I had half a bagel with cream cheese, a wonderful cranberry muffin and some apple juice. We all ate heartily and went to the front desk to make sure we had the correct directions to Sea World.
The Inn had directions to anywhere you can think of printed on notepads. The front desk was able to pull out the directions and hand them right over to us. It was so nice! The lady, however, told us we may not want to leave until 9 a.m., since it was rush hour and the I-5 can become very congested. We decided to take our chances. Sea World opened at 10 a.m., and I didn’t want to be late. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
We went back to the room to get our things, and I had to stop to take a couple of pictures of the outside of our room. We loved how the flowers were blooming over our doorway. There were always petals right outside our door. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
 
Our room and our rental car.
We hopped in the car, got on the road, and came to an odd red light going onto the interstate. I was trying to read the sign when my DH went right through it. I told him he just ran a red light! He said, “Oops.” [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] Come to find out, they have these red lights for merging onto the interstate. When the light turned green, only one car could merge on. I really liked it. We could use those here. Traffic was constantly moving instead of getting bottlenecked. Anyhoo, we got on I-5 and were off. Traffic was not bad at all. The front desk clerk didn’t realize what it is like to drive in Atlanta and DC. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] This was a piece of cake!
I loved the scenery as we drove. I couldn’t get over how brown everything was, and yet it was still pretty. Soon enough, we caught our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] We came upon a pull over where you could get out, stretch your legs, see the ocean, etc. We pulled over and got out for some photos.
Victoria and Maxine at the Pacific!
Michael and me at the Pacific! (Victoria took this one.)
The view…
Then we noticed these furry creatures. They look like a type of squirrel. Does anyone know what it is? It sure was cute!
 
Here are pictures that Victoria took with her camera…
 
We hopped back in the car and got back on the road. The trip was uneventful. We followed the directions and made it to Sea World in about an hour and a half.
Up Next: Sea World!
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11-16-2006, 01:20 PM
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#69
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RED SOX NATION!!
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Connecticut
Concierge Level: 9
Posts: 136,854
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Day 1, Part 1, updated 11/16
Great pictures and a great start to the day [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] More please [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
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11-16-2006, 07:52 PM
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#70
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Northern New England
Posts: 12,249
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Day 1, Part 1, updated 11/16
Just catching up with your trip report. I'm enjoying every word.
Those squirrel like things are squirrels-just a different genus than you see in the east. My naturalist son was thrilled on our first trip out west to see these creatures but it's been many years and I can't remember the specific kind. What I do remember is that when we went hiking in the San Gabriel Mtns. there were signs not to touch them as they could carry the plague which the kids also found fascinating.
Diane
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11-16-2006, 08:47 PM
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#71
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Living Seas wannabe
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 31,940
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Day 1, Part 1, updated 11/16
Great udpate!!
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11-17-2006, 01:27 AM
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#72
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PassPorter Message Board Manager
PassPorter Guide Author
Community Rank: Legend VIP
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Maidstone, Kent, UK
Concierge Level: 3
Posts: 190,285
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Day 1, Part 1, updated 11/16
I couldn't agree more with you about those red lights - we thought they were a great idea as well. They're now talking about introducing them on the busiest freeways over here and everyone got really upset about the idea, but from what I could see, they worked really well. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]
Loved the flowers over your days - to me, that's what California was all about, we saw those sorts of flowers everywhere! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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11-17-2006, 02:18 PM
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#73
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Community Rank: Legend 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Slate Belt, PA
Concierge Level: 7
Posts: 15,346
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Day 1, Part 1, updated 11/16
Great TR so far. I love your photos! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] I never think to get a photo of the room before we clutter it up with our junk. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]
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11-17-2006, 03:57 PM
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#74
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New York
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,960
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Day 1, Part 1, updated 11/16
Your room looks great! I was also interested to hear about your drive to San Diego because I am doing that myself (though the reverse direction). Can't wait to hear about Sea World.
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11-17-2006, 09:14 PM
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#75
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Community Rank: Explorer
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 7,386
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Re: Sing with me...California Here We Come! Day 1, Part 1, updated 11/16
Wonderful update!
Joy
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