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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
It was requested that I do a little write up of a recent dining experience I had... so here we go For more history on Cody or Myself - check out the Celebrity Cruise PTR/TR or the Everest Challenge PTR/TR.
Who: Cody and Myself
What: Anniversary Dinner
Where: The French Room, Dallas, Texas
When: June 21, 2014
Why: To celebrate 1 year since our first date
So I love that it works out that the anniversary of our first date is also the summer solstice, the lovely longest, sunniest day of the year! Cody and I had recently eaten at Victoria and Alberts and loved the attention and the food, so for our one year anniversary he decided he wanted to take me somewhere quite fancy as well! So the reservation was made about 2 weeks in advance and we just spent most of June getting excited for this big dinner!
We determined that it had to be a true “date night” so Cody and I spent the day on Saturday apart after running to the Farmer’s Market for some produce first thing in the morning. Of course for a five star restaurant I had to look quite spiffy, so I opted for a classic black dress that is one of my favorites I pampered myself for the event with a mani/pedi on Friday and a niiice long shower on Saturday. Cody picked me up right on time and I threw on the finishing touches and we were headed downtown on our way!
I live just north of Dallas, in fact, if you keep going north from my little town, you are back IN Dallas! It’s a weird little layout that way. Anyway it’s a pretty easy drive down and it was a beautiful summer night perfect for a little drive. About 15 minutes later we were in the city, and 5 minutes later we found the Adolphus Hotel, which houses the French Room as one of it’s dining establishments. This part was quite confusing, as we pulled up to the valet we saw and he said he was only for the wedding that we had to go back behind us into what looked like a garage entrance…
Okay pretty illegal backup move and we are in the porte-cochere and no valets come to our car, so we pull through and try to head into the garage. The setup is very strange and there’s a very steep ramp up that doesn’t seem like you should enter, so there’s really only about 10 spots in the little garage here, all taken! This was not a good start… we pulled back around to attempt the valet again or at least ask where we could park. The first person that came up asked if we were checking in, we said no we are going to the French Room and he called someone else over to help us. No one opened my door Tsk Tsk Adolphus, Tsk Tsk.
Anyway they whisked away our car and we headed into the hotel which is quite beautiful in its own right and quite old. It was time for our reservation at this point so we didn’t get to really explore and take pictures. We found the restaurant and checked in. They had just taken a couple in in front of us so we had to wait for the seater to come back, soo we asked the host to take our picture of course!
It was really dark in there so we did have to use a flash, but as usual they cut off my feet! Why do women spend so much on nice shoes again?! Our reservation was at 6:15 and they only open for dinner at 6, so it was nice and peaceful while waiting and also in the dining room
We were sat shortly thereafter at a lovely table in the center of the dining room. Normally I HATE being in the middle of dining rooms but somehow I didn’t feel like I was awkwardly in the middle of things here, it was a peaceful little table and I actually felt like it was great where we were, bathed in natural light and surrounded by some beautiful things. It was a smaller restaurant but the detail was just simply outstanding. Very beautifully done space.
I started taking pictures of us, and our wonderful server offered to take some of the both of us! He even moved the roses into the picture and took probably about 10 from different angles and distances, bravo sir you just earned my seal of approval and the orders haven’t even been taken yet!
Place setting
Cody
Me!
together at our table
I couldn’t decide which I liked more!
Then our menus came - there are two options here. One: you pick three courses from the main menu for $80 with a few of the options having a slight upcharge. Two: you pick the Chef’s Menu ($110) with option of wine pairing ($165). We both decided the options on the main menu really appealed to us more so that’s what we went for.
Even the menu is lovely!
We ordered cocktails to start and asked the sommelier to bring us wines that would pair with our appetizer and entree (one glass for each course each) I loved having him there to help us with this! Bread was quickly brought out, with several options to choose from. We were surprised to then receive an amuse bouche and finally our cocktails followed shortly.
Bread Basket - raisin, multigrain, sourdough, and crisps
Amuse Bouche - beef tartare
Margarita on the Rocks
The Blue Devil
The bread was wonderful, I loved having so much variety and soft, whipped butter! I'd never had a raw beef dish before and was pleasantly surprised by just how tasty that was. Cody loved his margarita of course, but my Blue Devil just tasted like alcohol, bad alcohol to me. I don't know what it is but the last few times we have gone out I just have not liked my cocktails at all! I'll be sticking to wine from now on I think
We were already so impressed (with the restaurant) and we didn’t even have our appetizers yet, what more could happen tonight?
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.
Looks like a great restaurant and love the decor! The two of you look great all decked out for a great evening! I've had raw beef on a number of occasions at places that do it well! Most recently last year for lunch in Paris at a restaurant in Place de l'Alma, overlooking the left bank of the Rive Seine and Le Tour Eiffel in the distance. It was beef tartare and was quite good and flavorful as was the wine! Even better, enjoying all this outside on a nice warm sunny day in Paris. Sounds too perfect and it was! I'm a big foodie, so I enjoy all of this. Take a look at my France TR , which is here in the link below and just completed!
Looking forward to more of this and can't wait to see what you had to eat and the wines you had as well!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Beautiful restaurant! The service and food are both off to a wonderful start.
We were stunned!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jambo
Sounds like a wonderful evening.
It was!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
Looks like a great restaurant and love the decor! The two of you look great all decked out for a great evening! I've had raw beef on a number of occasions at places that do it well! Most recently last year for lunch in Paris at a restaurant in Place de l'Alma, overlooking the left bank of the Rive Seine and Le Tour Eiffel in the distance. It was beef tartare and was quite good and flavorful as was the wine! Even better, enjoying all this outside on a nice warm sunny day in Paris. Sounds too perfect and it was! I'm a big foodie, so I enjoy all of this. Take a look at my France TR , which is here in the link below and just completed!
Looking forward to more of this and can't wait to see what you had to eat and the wines you had as well!
I'll have to check it out, I'm so behind in my Europe planning!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh wow - what a stunning place and you two both look beautiful. It sounds amazing so far - I can't wait to read more.
Thank you
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
What a lovely place. It's nice to do these special things at home and not wait for vacation.
Yeah it's great that we are able to do them at home too
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start! Love all the pictures from your evening!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coop
Yay! The restaurant looks beautiful as do both you and Cody. What a great start to year 2!
Our appetizers came out quickly after the amuse, with our first wine pairings of the night! Mine was a rose, however we saw him take this same wine to multiple tables throughout the night. Seemed like they were really trying to push it, BUT it was tasty so it’s all good!
I was able to sneak a picture of my bottle while he was pouring Cody’s
Cody and I both loved our individual appetizers, but we didn’t order something the other person liked. I think for once, I didn’t try anything of what he ordered at this meal (well I tried dessert!). He went for the crab cake on the valet’s recommendation and I went for an intriguing salad.
Petite Green Salad, Texas Ruby Grapefruit, Fig, Crispy Cream Cheese, Sherry Vinaigrette (on the side)
Jumbo Lump Crab Cake, Lemon Grass Lobster Sauce, Tomato Jam, Mango, Curry
While looking up the menu online to give the best description, another menu came up and I was worried I couldn’t find what we had! Although now I’m wondering how soon we can get back to try the summer menu I found our correct menu though so the descriptions should be accurate!
For mine it was pretty simple, but has anyone had fried cream cheese before? It was so interesting and I really enjoyed it!
Our table got quite full quite fast!
After our apps, another surprise came!
White chocolate orange sorbet
We cleansed our palate with this tasty and beautiful treat, we both loved it and it was such a cute little surprise!
Then quickly once again (but without feeling rushed one bit) our entrees and next round of wines came! I actually didn’t like the wine suggested this time and was quickly brought a second option which I enjoyed MUCH more.
This time I snuck a pic of Cody’s bottle - yummy!
Nova Scotia Halibut, Marcona Almond, Spring Pea Risotto, Citrus Cardamom Sauce
Colorado Lamb Chops, Smoked Whipped Potato, Citrus Garlic Mint Jam
($10 additional)
Our entrees were incredibly delicious. Who knew I would like fish so much once I started ordering the right ones? I also love getting risotto while out because I’ll never make it myself! Cody loves his lamb but I am not a fan, so we will just have to trust him that it was good
I opted to break things up with some tea before dessert
Our server highly recommended the souffles, but I had mentioned that a particular chocolatey dessert sounded wonderful and he agreed that if I was a chocolate girl I should opt for the torte instead - so I did! (I guess I can’t be souffle girl anytime soon!)
I was so surprised that they were brought out like this, how sweet of them! We blew out our candles and dug in! Both desserts were so tasty, and how could you not love honey kahlua ice cream?!
We polished those off and yet ANOTHER surprise came out!
Cody ate a macaron before I got the pic…
We were stuffed after those last few bites and ready to finish up. Our server brought “something for me” and “something for Cody” His was the bill! Mine was another surprise, something yummy to go! He said for tomorrow morning
We were getting pretty tired so after we paid up we headed home without sticking around to explore the hotel any more. What’s crazy is it was STILL light outside! I took some pics of the skyline on our way out. We made it home just before 9pm
We topped off the night with our beverage of celebration (thank you Disney!) Rosa Regale as we wound down for the night with the kitties
Summer
Sparkling red
We tuckered out pretty early but woke up excited to extend our celebration just a bit more with our breakfast treat! We indulged in the tasty banana bread and shortly after my floral arrangement from Cody came (the florist was closed on his way to get me for dinner)
To go bag
Banana bread loaf
sliced up!
beautiful flowers!
We were so impressed with our experience at the French Room and especially for the price with all the bonus extras we received! We would gladly go back but of course for a special occasion, we can’t make that splurge every weekend
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 whole meal looked very delicious. I love the presentation of your desserts, and the special breakfast treat to take home. Minus one macaroon you get a cute hidden Mickey.
About This Page: 
For more history on Cody or Myself - check out the Celebrity Cruise PTR/TR or the Everest Challenge PTR/TR.
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
I pampered myself for the event with a mani/pedi on Friday and a niiice long shower on Saturday. Cody picked me up right on time and I threw on the finishing touches and we were headed downtown on our way!
Tsk Tsk Adolphus, Tsk Tsk. 
PassPorter Guide Author
I found our correct menu though so the descriptions should be accurate! 
Mine was another surprise, something yummy to go! He said for tomorrow morning 
Linear Mode
