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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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03-31-2016, 10:20 PM
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#1
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PassPorter Guide
 Community Rank: Globetrotter 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,041
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Feature Article: Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure - A Disney California Adventure Attraction Review
Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure - A Disney California Adventure Attraction Review
by Cheryl Pendry
Things are forever changing at Disney parks. Attractions come and go, and they also sometimes wane in popularity.
However, usually when something new opens, you can pretty much guarantee it will be mobbed. We’ve been fortunate enough to visit Disneyland on a number of occasions when they’ve had recently opened attractions, such as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Monsters Inc., Mike and Sully to the Rescue, and the Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. With all of them, you had to head to the park at opening to stand a chance of riding without a long wait. But on our most recent visit back to California in fall 2015, we were able to pretty much walk to all of them on at any time of the day, with one exception: Radiator Springs Racers. In summer 2012, Disney’s California Adventure welcomed the arrival of Cars Land, and an immediate success in the shape of Radiator Springs Racers. When we visited for the holiday season that year, we knew that we would need to be there at opening to try and snag Fastpasses for this extremely popular ride. In the three years that passed until our next visit in September 2015, I did wonder whether we’d see much lower waits at Radiator Springs Racers, but from the reports I heard, it's popularity didn't seem to be waning. And indeed that proved to be the case.
As one of our friends commented, Radiator Springs Racers has now very much become a Fastpass only attraction, unless that is you want to spend hours waiting to enjoy it. But why has Radiator Springs Racers retained its popularity over so long? I think there are a number of reasons for it.</p>
Firstly, Radiator Springs Racers is based on a hugely popular ride on the other coast of the States: Test Track in Walt Disney World. The cars are essentially, as I understand it from what I’ve been told, using the same type of technology, and they certainly give the same type of smooth ride, particularly when you get to put your foot to the metal at the end and fly round the track! However, this technology is also probably the cause of some of the long wait times regularly seen at Radiator Springs Racers, as it’s still notoriously unreliable. On our recent visits to Walt Disney World, we haven’t found that many problems with Test Track, but the same can’t be said on the eastern coast. On the first morning we headed into Disney’s California Adventure, we found a very quiet Cars Land, and quickly realised Radiator Springs Racers were down. We were able to ride it later in the day, but a couple of days later, when we headed into the park for early opening, we were stuck on the thing, frustratingly just as we came back to the finish line. We were very lucky, and were only sat there about 10 minutes, as we saw other cars being evacuated as we left, with people walking down the track.
Technical problems aside, there are other reasons why this ride is so popular. It’s based on a hugely popular movie, and let’s face it, if you look at another of the newer rides in Disneyland, Monsters Inc., Mike and Sully to the Rescue, you can’t say that about the film it’s derived from. The Cars franchise is also squarely aimed at boys, both young and old, and that’s a rarity these days, given how many Disney princesses there are. But despite this, the movie and the ride are both popular with everyone in the family. Let’s face it, I can’t see young boys queuing up to see the Little Mermaid in the same way…
In keeping with Walt’s idea of always having “wieners” that would make people want to explore the park, when they see something exciting ahead of them, Radiator Springs Racers has a tremendous draw for anyone walking through to Cars Land from the Pacific Wharf area of the park. There is something about that view, and seeing the amazing landscaping with the cars passing through it that I imagine would make just about anyone keep to get themselves on the ride as soon as possible.
It doesn’t hurt Radiator Springs Racers that it’s also located in the most wonderfully themed part of a Disney theme park that I’ve seen in a long time. Maybe when Avatar adds on its land to Animal Kingdom and the Star Wars expansions are complete, I’ll change my view, but for me, Cars Land is second only to some of the first class theming we witnessed at Tokyo DisneySea – huge praise indeed. If you’ve got a location that good, it’s going to draw people, and they’re going to want to sample the biggest attraction there.
And the theming of course doesn’t stop when you get to the entrance of Radiator Springs Racers, it carries on the whole way through the ride… and the waiting area, which is probably just as well, given people may be standing in the same spot for some time. The only shame I find with this ride is that you just can’t take everything in once you’re on the ride, particularly in the latter section, as you’re just moving too fast.
But perhaps the most important thing about Radiator Springs Racers is that it’s a thrill ride that just about the whole family can enjoy. Sure, there’s a height limit on it, and it is dark in places, and it’s certainly fast, but despite that, it’s also a huge amount of fun, and I’m willing to bet there are kids who have desperately waited to reach the magic height, so they could take their first spin on it.
There are many reasons why Radiator Springs Racers is such a hugely popular attraction even more than three years after it opened. It’s certainly one of my favourites at Disneyland, and something we have to do, otherwise our Californian vacation isn’t complete. Long may it continue to be such a hit with everyone who visits, that’s so long as there’s a Fastpass option on it of course…
Added to PassPorter's Article Collection on 03-29-2016 09:03 AM
What do you think? Please add your own comments, experiences, or news related to this article in this thread! Reader feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
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