Running Through Walt's Original Magic Kingdom **COMPLETE 10/9** - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Running Through Walt's Original Magic Kingdom **COMPLETE 10/9**
My DH and I "ran" the WDW marathon in January. It was our first full marathon, and according to my DH, his last. (Here's the link to the TR: http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/sharing-adventure-disney-world-trip-reports/239891-2011-marathon-weekend-trip-report-complete-4-5-a.html). We made plans to run the Disneyland half marathon over the following Labor Day weekend, not only because we really wanted to go see Walt's original Magic Kingdom, but also because we would qualify for a special medal called the Coast-to-Coast, having done a race on both coasts in the same calendar year.
We were supposed to get into LAX around 2:00, but arrived around 1:30. I'd made reservations for SuperShuttle, and it was very easy to find the pickup location. It did take about 20 minutes to get out of the airport after all the stops we had to make, but once we got out onto the highway, I was glad I'd booked it. I did not want to drive in that traffic! Before too long, we saw this:
We stayed at the Sheraton Park Anaheim, with a package we booked through Costco. I didn't do a whole lot of research, but I was happy with our package. It included 3-day park hoppers, a $20 Disney gift card, a $100 gift card to use for food at the hotel, preferred seating at several shows (including Aladdin), two pin & lanyard sets, and a character meal.
Our hotel was the second stop, and our room was ready. We dropped off our stuff and took a quick break, long enough to take a picture of this guy:
Duffy belongs to our youngest daughter. We purchased him for her on our January trip. He was the first of many Duffy bears that have made their way to our house! I brought him along back in April when I took my middle DD to WDW. I'd taken the youngest on her mom-and-me trip already, and she was a little jealous that her older sister got to go. So we brought Duffy along on this trip, because we'd left ALL of the kids behind! We planned to take pictures and post them on Facebook so the family could follow along and see what we were up to. Unfortunately, this is where Duffy stayed for the rest of the day. I didn't remember to bring him along, so I told the girls that all the traveling had worn him right out, and he needed to rest up!
We needed to pick up the one-day tickets we got with our race registration through GET travel. (We hadn't registered in time through RunDisney.) We needed to get them outside the ESPN club, so we were able to check out Downtown Disney for the first time! I'm sure we took the long way, because we ended up going past the Grand Californian.
It took a while for me to get my bearings at Disneyland. (Who am I kidding? Up until the last night, I still didn't know where I was going!) You had to go through Downtown Disney to get anywhere, it seemed. While we headed towards DTD, we noticed a group of Cast Members picketing across the street. We weren't sure what they were picketing, but DH noticed that their picket signs were using the Disney font.
The first of many photos of lamposts at Disneyland. We started noticing how many different light fixtures there are at a Disney park last January.
We did a little exploring around DLH:
Then we headed back through Downtown Disney, and I was on the hunt for my first Hidden Mickey:
Can you see it? I love the script on this sign; I think it's beautiful.
The new sign for California Adventure. I liked the old sign better, and I never even saw it in person. If you ask me, they didn't need this entrance at DL since they've got it at WDW. The old sign was much more unique.
Now it was time to head into our first park: California Adventure!
We'd only been to Anaheim once before, for one day, back in 1999. We spent the day at Disneyland and rode three things: the train, it's a small world and Haunted Mansion. Of course, there was no California Adventure back then, so we were excited to make DCA our first park of the trip. The first thing we had to do was pick up our pre-ordered World of Color picnic, which came with FPs for the 9:00 show. As much as I hate walking around a Disney park while looking at a map, I admitted to myself that I had no idea where I was going, and had to pull one out.
We eventually found our way into the Golden State area, to Sonoma Terrace. Here we picked up our picnics and received the FPs for WoC. We decided to go ahead and eat now, since we hadn't really eaten since the sandwiches we'd picked up at the airport before our flight. We ordered the Taste of Asia, which includes:
*Chilled miso-glazed salmon, Asian greens, soy-rice wine dressing
*Soba noodle salad and julienne vegetables with sesame dressing
*Gingered cucumber and radish slaw
*Mandarin orange cake
*Choice of bottled Coca-Cola® product or Dasani® water
The salmon was a touch dry, and I didn't try the slaw, but everything else was pretty decent. I was going to go pick up FPs for California Screamin' before we ate, but the Lines app told me that it wouldn't be necessary. Now, I don't have anything to compare it to, but the crowds seemed extremely light. For example, the new Little Mermaid ride had a 5 minute wait, which was more like a walk-on. Don't these people know that this ride is brand new?
It wasn't until we got into the queue for LM that I felt like I was at Disney.
I don't know what it was, but all of a sudden, I got a huge grin on my face and felt like I was finally there! It didn't hurt that I love this movie, and sang throughout the whole ride!
Before we left on our trip, I'd read lots of Disneyland trip reports to try to acclimate myself to this uncharted territory. One such report had pictures of things I'd never noticed before: exit signs. Just like light fixtures, exit signs are there, but we never take the time to notice them. On this trip, I decided to make a point of noticing the exit signs. Here's the one for LM:
There was a store nearby which already had some Halloween merchandise. I had to go check it out, since fall is my favorite season, and I love Halloween!
This particular store also had a big display of Duffy bears and accessories. I decided that my Duffy must have one of these:
The next item on the agenda was California Screamin', so we headed to Paradise Pier.
We met Mickey here after the race, but he was nowhere to be found this day!
When I was a kid, I had a beach towel with this picture on it.
I am a roller coaster girl, so I was excited about California Screamin'! Wait time was 10 minutes, and it was only after we got into the standby line that I remembered that we could have used the single ride line. Oh well, we could handle a 10 minute wait![] It was a fun roller coaster; not the best I'd ever ridden, but we enjoyed it.
DH and I had debated whether or not we'd try out Mickey's Fun Wheel. He's not a big fan of heights, so I really didn't think he'd be up for it. We decided to go for it, so we headed that way, passing Toy Story Mania and Mr. Potatohead along the way:
It was fun seeing him out on the boardwalk. We always use FP at WDW, so we've actually never seen him in person. TSM had a 30 minute wait, which we would have totally jumped on at WDW. But since we had several things on the agenda before the World of Color show, we skipped it. We knew the ride itself was the same as in Florida, and we'd get a chance to ride it in January if we didn't get back to it on this trip.
We went with the non-swinging version of the Fun Wheel, at least for the first time around. Boy, is this a slow-loading ride. I had time to take a picture of each gondola while we waited:
We decided once was enough.
One of our favorite things to do at WDW is the drawing class at the Studios, so our next stop was the Animation building. I took a few photos on the way out of Paradise Pier.
DH really liked the Mickey head pictured on California Screamin'. I told him that it used to look like that; now it has a sun on it.
We took a shortcut through a Bug's Land. I'd originally planned to skip this land altogether, but I'd seen a picture of something in a trip report and had to get one of my own:
There are tons of cute details in this land. We used it as a shortcut many times, and I took new pictures each time.
Up next: Animation Academy and World of Color
__________________
Last edited by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince; 06-17-2014 at 03:31 PM..
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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.
The front of California Adventure is a maze of construction walls. At least they have interesting decorations on them:
We were headed to the Animation Academy in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot.
When you enter the Animation building, you see this:
When we made it into the Animation building, we asked at the podium if there was a class starting soon. Lucky for us, one was about to start! If you've ever been in the Animation class at WDW, you know how tiny the room is. We couldn't believe how huge the room at Disneyland is!
Lots of awesome props in this room. I would have loved to have the time to take lots of pictures. Unfortunately, this is the only one I was able to take.
Instead of built-in desks, like at WDW, each seat has a lap desk. Once everybody is seated, they pass out the papers. There was a little guy, probably 7 or 8, sitting alone in front of us. He had a stack of extra papers next to him, and every time he made a mistake, he'd grab a new piece of paper. The assistant came by and picked up the rest of the papers before the little guy used them all up!
The instructor was great, and DH was happy because we got to draw his favorite:
When you leave the Animation building, you see this:
Next up was another one of our favorites: Tower of Terror!
We took another shortcut through a bug's land:
Lightning bugs, with the light shining out of its rear!
I told DH that ToT was a little different than at WDW. I did miss the portion of the ride where the vehicle moves forward, but since the drops are the best part, we got what we came for.
Back row, left side, with our hands in the air!
We caught this Hidden Mickey on the way out of ToT:
We'd been instructed to get to World of Color about an hour before the show, and it was about that time. We didn't know what to do, so we asked the first CM we came across. He pointed us in the right direction, but before we made our way to the yellow section, we stopped and got some ice cream to enjoy during the show: a Mickey bar for DH and a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich for me.
We wandered around a bit aimlessly, trying to figure out where the best view would be. We knew there would be some friends at the early show, but didn't have any idea where to find them. We hadn't picked up our picnic until around 5:00, and knew that the rest of the group was planning on getting theirs much earlier. Odds were they were able to get FPs for the blue section, not the yellow section like we did, so we didn't have any hope of finding them. (Come to find out, they no longer offer blue FPs with the WoC picnics. Everybody gets yellow.)
We did manage to find our friends, and met some new ones, as well. We chatted for a while, and then sat back to enjoy the show. I really didn't want to worry about pictures, but I couldn't resist taking a few:
Words cannot describe how amazing this show is. The fountains, the water screens, the music, the fire...It's incredible! I was so glad we'd get a second chance to see it the night after the race.
We said good-bye to the friends and headed out of DCA. It was quite a walk back to the hotel, and we were pretty tired. We'd been up since 6:00 east coast time, and it was now about 12:30 a.m. (9:30 local time). We pretty much crashed as soon as we got back; we had a Magic Morning to attend the next morning!
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 took really good notes on our arrival day, and then stopped taking notes. So I guess I'll let the pictures refresh my memory!
We had booked the "Walk in Walt's Footsteps" tour for 9:30 a.m. on our first full day. There was a Magic Morning scheduled for this day, which is like Extra Magic Hour at WDW. Everyone who stays at a DL resort has access to Magic Morning, but you also get one MM if you buy a 3-day Park Hopper ticket.
The gates were to open at 8:00 a.m., so we planned to get there about 7:30. We didn't have to check in for our tour until 9:15, so we were going to pack in as much as possible in the Magic Morning hour!
We arrived in plenty of time, but didn't know that we had to go to the gates with the "Magic Morning" signs over them. We lined up at a gate with no lines when we heard someone else ask the CM if they would be opening all of the gates.
"Let me in! Let me in!"
I stuck my camera through the bars and took a couple of photos:
When we realized that they wouldn't be opening the gates we were standing in front of, we hustled over to the ones with the long lines. Once they opened the gates, the lines moved pretty quickly, and we were seeing this sign in no time:
I couldn't wait to see the updated version of my favorite attraction!
We took this one for our oldest DD. She Pooh!
Magic Mornings are even better than morning EMH! The park was empty, empty, empty! They were filming something in a few spots around the hub; we looked for somebody famous but never saw anyone we recognized.
We decided to hit Fantasyland first. I didn't really understand the layout of Walt's original Magic Kingdom, but I figured we could find our way around Fantasyland. A bulk of the crowd went to Tomorrowland, where the updated Star Tours is located.
We stopped to get a couple of Photopass pictures in front of the castle, and then it was off to Fantasyland! I don't have the exact order of the attractions we hit, but we managed almost all of them! I know we started with Mr. Toad, since this attraction is no longer at WDW.
I believe Pinocchio was next. It didn't even look like it was open when we walked into the queue! As the ride vehicle took off, the CM said, "Enjoy the puppet show!"
The Mad Tea Party was our next stop. We had to wait one cycle, so I took LOTS of pictures! The ride is the same, but the presentation is very different.
I guess I missed the exit sign for the teacups. The Alice in Wonderland ride was right next door, so that was our next stop.
Up next: more Magic Morning, and a very interesting bathroom...
Yay, you started!! So far, it's bringing back some great memories from last year. You guys sure packed in a TON of stuff on your first day - and the first hour of the next day. Whew!
I know which bathroom you speak of.... and I'm pretty sure I used that bathroom every single day of my trip last year - even during the race!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
I love all the old Fantasyland rides at DL, especially Mr Toad! I've got to re-familiarize myself with the layout of this park before my trip next summer. It's so weird to be lost there... familiar sights all around, but they're in the wrong place!
About This Page: 
(Here's the link to the TR: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Pooh!
They were filming something in a few spots around the hub; we looked for somebody famous but never saw anyone we recognized.
The Alice in Wonderland ride was right next door, so that was our next stop.
Linear Mode
