The Life of a VIP - Adventures By Disney Backstage Magic - Page 8 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
I can't wait to hear alllll about this!!! Alot of the things you've done are things I've also done because my dad lives in Los Angeles. Sounds like an absolute blast I'm totally doing the helicopter tour the next time I go out there!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
I was up before my alarm went off, but it was set for my normal time and I’m normally up before the alarm. I finished my last-minute packing and got ready. I was out the door at 6, just like I’d planned. DF was taking me to the airport and he kindly stopped at the bagel shop so I could bring John and Kevin (from the podcast) some bagels. I also got bagels to send home with DF for him and DM.
When we arrived at the airport, I noticed about a dozen people in line for curbside check in. I rarely use that, because there’s almost always a shorter line inside. Also, it was like 45 degrees. Inside there were like 2 people ahead of me, so I was able to quickly get my luggage checked (it weighed 46.8 pounds, but no worries about all the stuff I knew I’d be buying, since I packed an empty suitcase inside ).
There was no line at all at security, and in no time I was at my gate. I had done the Early Bird Check-in, so I had A18 for both legs of my flight. When we boarded, I was happy to see we were on the Shamu plane! Inside, there are scenes of Shamu painted on the overhead bins. My camera was in my luggage, in one of those overhead bins, so I don’t have a photo of it. The flight was just about full, but I ended up with an empty middle seat next to me. It was a smooth flight and we landed in Chicago 25 minutes early. I was happy about that since I had a scheduled 45 minute layover. This gave me a bit more time to grab a snack in the airport and use the restroom (I don’t like using the one on the plane).
I wasn’t really hungry at the time, so I bought a sandwich, figuring that would keep until I was ready to eat it. I also bought a pasta salad that looked pretty tasty. I was happy to find out that my flight to LAX was only 2 gates over! It wasn’t long before I was seated and I was able to see my old plane from the window, so I got a picture (I remembered to grab my camera from my carry on before stowing it overhead).
The flight was fine, and I spent most of it reading or listening to my iPod. The route we took flew us over the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, which was really pretty. I took a bunch of pictures.
When I got a little hungry I decided to eat my pasta salad (I wasn’t hungry enough for the sandwich). I have to tell you, that was the worst pasta salad I’ve ever eaten. It had absolutely no taste at all! I've had pasta with just butter or olive oil on it with more flavor than that. I couldn’t figure out how it seemed to be like eating Styrofoam or something. It takes a special kind of talent to create a black hole of flavor, I guess.
Anyway, it wasn’t much longer before we were making our descent. The approach was a bit bumpy, but otherwise, the flight was perfect. I went to collect my bags and then outside to catch the Hertz shuttle. There was one arriving just as I got outside and after a bunch of stops to fill the bus, we went to the lot.
I quickly got my car (it was a Mazda something) and loaded in my luggage. I fired up the GPS and was off! It’s a short drive to Santa Monica from LAX (well, short in terms of miles – in minutes, it’s less so ). Before I knew it, I was arriving at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel “on left,” as Gladys would say. Who’s Gladys? Glad you asked! That’s the name Zack gave my GPS.
In the lobby, I didn’t take any photos because there was a huge conference going on in there. I checked in, but my room wasn’t ready. I wasn’t planning to do more than drop my bags there anyway. I drove over to the Renaissance to drop off the bagels for Kevin and John (which they never got and I am convinced that someone at the hotel ate them! - but more on that later). From the Renaissance, it was a fairly short drive to Griffith Park.
I wasn’t really sure where the merry-go-round was, but Gladys told me to keep driving past lots of signs saying Griffith Park, so I did as I was told. It turned out to be a good thing, because I found the merry-go-round quite easily.
After parking, I noticed that I had a voicemail, which turned out to be from Celebrity Helicopter. They told me that they could put me on an earlier flight if I wanted it. That would work just as well into my plans, so I took the 2:30 instead of the 3:30.
Now about Griffith Park. First of all, it’s huge! And lovely! I was pleased to see lots of people enjoying the park on such a beautiful day. But I was on a mission, so I headed directly to the merry-go-round.
I’m sure everyone’s heard the story – Sundays used to be Walt’s day with his two daughters and he would take them to Griffith Park. While they rode the carousel and he sat on a bench and watched them, he thought it would be great to have a place where grownups and kids could have fun together. So, Griffith Park is sort of the birthplace of Disneyland. It was a really special moment to get to visit the same merry-go-round. I also thought it was a fitting way to start the trip.
There was a little plaque there telling the story, but I guess I didn’t get a photo of it. And there’s also some stuff at Disneyland park, but more on that later.
Sadly, the merry-go-round is in need of some attention, but it’s still in working order and was being well used by happy children. Also sadly, inspiration did not strike me, so I won’t be changing the world forever with any groundbreaking ideas. Prolly because I didn’t sit on the same magic “idea” bench. That’s it. Ahem. More photos!
I still had my sandwich, so I ate it then. After that, I walked around that area of the park a bit. There were a few parties going on with bounce houses set up, people playing with their dogs and lots of picnickers.
One of the things I enjoy most about California is the trees. That’s not odd, is it? Of course there are trees in New York, but not as interesting (and not nearly as tall). This particular tree was a favorite, but I don’t know what kind of tree it is. But I’m sure one of you out there knows!
After a while, I figured it was time to head over to the Observatory. I got in the car and followed the signs to the Observatory. Did I mention Griffith Park is huge? It was easy to find the Observatory, though. What was not easy was finding a place to park! The lot was full, so they were directing people to park along the road. I had to drive a long way to find a spot, but I found one. Luckily (for me and cars in the vicinity ) I found a spot large enough to pull in without having to parallel park. Do you know when was the last time I parallel parked? If you guessed it was on my road test for my driver’s license, you’re right! And we won’t talk about how many years ago that was.
So it was a long way to the Observatory from where I parked. See?
Luckily, I had on comfortable walking shoes. After a bit, I came upon a woman and her two daughters. The woman had on stiletto heels and was climbing steep hills in them. And the path on those steep hills were right beside a huge cliff. I mean, like three feet away. See?
I was a bit nervous myself! I don’t think I need to tell you she was traveling at a snail’s pace. I followed them for a long time, but only because it was providing me with free entertainment. Hey, I’m easily amused!
After about 25 minutes (it would’ve been a bit faster had I not been following the chick in heels), I reached the parking lot. I decided to do a little hiking, since I’d heard about the phenomenal views from the top. I started up, getting a few pictures of the Hollywood sign.
That ended, though, when I saw this…
Yeah, the views just didn’t seem that important to me, especially knowing I’d get great views on my helicopter tour. And a rattlesnake bite would really spoil the rest of my trip, ya know?
So I turned around and headed back to the Observatory. Obviously it was crowded, since the parking lot was full, but not terribly bad. It’s big enough to handle the crowds.
I saw the James Dean memorial – parts of Rebel Without a Cause were filmed up there.
I first headed up to see the telescope. I took photos of the view on the way.
I could see the telescope, but not look through it.
I grabbed a self portrait.
If you look closely, you can see the Hollywood sign in the background
I then headed inside, where I saw the Foucault Pendulum. It didn’t tell me where to find the island, and I really looked hard. It was really cool, though.
I loved the look of the rotunda where the pendulum is.
I also got to see the Tesla Coil, but it wasn’t turned on.
They did turn it on later, but more on that in a bit. I looked at a bunch of the other exhibits. This place is heaven for science/astronomy geeks. I wouldn’t consider myself one at all, but it was still interesting.
They announced that they were turning on the Tesla Coil. The Tesla Coil is wireless electricity. Nikola Tesla said it was safe, but having witnessed it in person, I wouldn’t volunteer to test that theory. It was awesomely cool looking, I must admit.
People were meant to put them on top of their homes to power all their appliances and junk. FAIL. It was loud. Also, you’d have to leave everything on all the time. And there’s that electrocution risk, too, but you know, it looks so cool!
There was a neon sign there, which lit up from the wireless electricity.
That may have been my favorite exhibit there (since the pendulum couldn’t tell me where the island was ). I bought a ticket for the Planetarium show. It was $7. I thought it money well spent, especially because there is no charge at all for admission (or for parking, for that matter). I took some more pictures while I waited for the show.
The Planetarium show was pretty cool, too. It was all about star gazing throughout history. After that, I had one more look at the view.
I got a final picture of the sundial before leaving.
Then I took the long walk back to my car. I was happy for two reasons – it didn’t take near as long to get back since I wasn’t behind stiletto lady, and I actually remembered both where I’d parked and what my rental car looked like. The good news ended though when I discovered that someone had parked behind me. Now I had to parallel unpark or whatever. But the good news is that the people in the car behind me were leaving at the same time. The guy said they couldn’t get out (I guess his girlfriend wasn’t good at parallel unparking either), so he would direct me out of my spot so they could leave. Yay!
I drove back to the LSMBH and checked out my room.
There was a special message for me on the TV!
Well, it wasn’t really a special message, but I thought it was cool to see my name there. There was a Keurig coffee maker, but I didn’t use it since I don’t drink coffee.
And the bathroom had a little tv in it.
Then I wandered around the hotel. I love that there are huge palm trees in the lobby!
I went outside to check out the pool (there were people swimming – in fact, there was almost always someone in the pool during my entire stay).
I loved the view of the pier from the hotel.
I had planned to spend that night on the Santa Monica Pier, but it had gotten cold and I didn’t feel like it, so I just hung out and ended up going to bed pretty early, at about 9:30 (which my body clock said was 12:30). You’d think I was being punished – sent to bed early without any dinner! I guess I never got hungry enough for dinner. I think I must’ve eaten something, but I can’t remember.
Up Next: The best way to see L.A.
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
Back!! Can't wait to hear abll about this trip!!
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
I cannot wait to hear all about it. 
.
Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
Inside there were like 2 people ahead of me, so I was able to quickly get my luggage checked (it weighed 46.8 pounds, but no worries about all the stuff I knew I’d be buying, since I packed an empty suitcase inside 
It wasn’t long before I was seated and I was able to see my old plane from the window, so I got a picture (I remembered to grab my camera from my carry on before stowing it overhead).
It had absolutely no taste at all! I've had pasta with just butter or olive oil on it with more flavor than that. I couldn’t figure out how it seemed to be like eating Styrofoam or something. 
It takes a special kind of talent to create a black hole of flavor, I guess. 
- but more on that later). From the Renaissance, it was a fairly short drive to Griffith Park.
I also thought it was a fitting way to start the trip. 
Prolly because I didn’t sit on the same magic “idea” bench. 
That’s it. 
Of course there are trees in New York, but not as interesting (and not nearly as tall). This particular tree was a favorite, but I don’t know what kind of tree it is. But I’m sure one of you out there knows! 
See?
Linear Mode
