A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 53 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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That's neat about the mobile dog groomer. Funny thing, I've never seen them in Japan, but we had one in my home town in NY. I used it once and it is a really good idea and sooo convenient.
Loved the Kimono Minnie. Wonderful wrap up on the Kyoto portion of your tour. Really looking forward to the next installment in Hiroshima!
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Enjoying Tokyo DisneySea with my Buzz & Woody...
I know'd I made a good choice! DVC - Saratoga Springs Resort
Well, all caught up now and all I can say is WOW! Your experiences have been extraordinary!!! Wonderful pictures and details of everything you were showing us.
Monday 6 April – part four: what a room – and what a view!
Our next stop, about 15 minutes later, was Kobe, probably best known for the earthquake in 1995. Sadly, we saw barely any of it, as we were in a huge tunnel as we entered and left the city. From the brief glimpses we got while were in the station (impossible to photograph), it did look like a nice city and much more attraction than Osaka.
Sadly, beyond Kobe, a lot of the journey was either through tunnels or with fences alongside the tracks, but from what I could see, there was a lot of countryside and the cherry blossom trees seemed further along. Rather than the white that we had seen so far in Tokyo and Kyoto, there was a lot more pink and red to be seen now. I guess a sure sign that there season was quickly coming to an end.
I don’t know what it is about the Shinkansen, but it seems to make me feel very drowsy. Maybe it’s the motion of the thing, but it was all I could do to stop myself from falling asleep. I didn’t want to do that, as I knew that our journey was only an hour and a half long and I didn’t want to miss our stop. :
Soon we were at the station for Hiroshima. This was the one I was most worried about getting on and off at, as it said in the information we received in our pack that you would only have a minute to board, but it was absolutely fine. I guess I should’ve have more confidence in Japanese efficiency by now! They seem to know how to time everything perfectly.
I knew that we had to head for the south exit, as that was where the hotel was located. We found that exit easily enough and were soon outside.
The map I had wasn’t the greatest, but immediately I spotted the post office and now that it was just a little further down that road. What struck me as soon as we got outside was how hot it was here. My goodness, it was baking! Still it didn’t help that we were pulling all the cases with us and I had the backpack on. I’m sure that we found the hotel quickly enough, although it wasn’t on the side of the road that I expected.
We checked in and got our room on the 10th floor. As soon as I opened the door, I knew this was something special, as this was the view that greeted me:
Here’s what was outside that door…
… and here’s what was inside:
The bed looked massive, compared to the one that we had had in Kyoto and Mark showed his instant approval!
The view from the window was superb. It looked out over the Enko Gateway River.
Even better was to come when we discovered that they appeared to have free Internet access and that the restaurant downstairs had some reasonable priced dishes. Before the trip, this was the part that I was most apprehensive about. I picked this hotel, because it was close to the station, but I couldn’t find anything out about it online, which always worries me. I needn’t have worried, as it was a lovely little find and somewhere I would definitely recommend. In fact, when we looked at the plan of our floor, it looked as if our room was the biggest on the floor. Not bad at all.
We spent some time in the room, then decided to go out and visit the Shukkeien Gardens, as they were fairly close by. I had been planning on going to Miyajima this afternoon, but the girl on reception had advised us against it, saying that the shrine shut at 6.00 and the restaurant here looked pretty good, so we decided to go out for a while, then come back here for dinner.
The walk to the Shukkeien Gardens was very pleasant and only took about 10 minutes.
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Pixie Dust
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
That's neat about the mobile dog groomer. Funny thing, I've never seen them in Japan, but we had one in my home town in NY. I used it once and it is a really good idea and sooo convenient. 
PassPorter Guide Author
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They seem to know how to time everything perfectly. 
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m83/kazzamcgazza/dlp-1.jpg
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