From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 32 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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That IS adorable! Good choice!
Thanks for the picture��
I was sort of happy with it, sort of because it's not the one I have now, and I adore that one, but stay tuned... this story develops a bit more quite a way into the trip report, so you may have quite a wait for that.
Sorry Boardwalk is not impressing you all so far, but at least you've got great views from the room. I do like the new décor there since our last stay there five years ago
I liked the décor, compared to our last stay there about 10 years ago. Mind you, I personally like the fact that a lot of the DVC rooms have been re-done to make them lighter with more neutral colours. I know that move though hasn't been popular with everyone....
Monday 27 February – part seven: reflections of the real Portofino
We settled down to wait for the luggage and I worked on the trip report, while Mark flipped through the channels, finding Liverpool FC on the TV. However, they were already 2-0 down, and as I said to him, that was it – now they would lose, as apparently whenever I’m in the same room and they’re on TV, they lose. Sure enough they did, 3-1. He watched a bit of the match, but couldn’t bear to see more of it, they were apparently playing so badly.
At least his mood was lightened when we got a call to say the cases had finally arrived, and they were with us a few minutes later.
I then took the opportunity to soak in the Jacuzzi tub, and this was very different to Old Key West. For starters, it didn’t take 20 minutes to fill up, it was done in about five minutes. I also figured either they’d had problems in Old Key West or the clientele here are more sophisticated, as there were no instructions on how to use the tub – i.e. where to fill the water level to.
We headed out just before 6:00pm to make our way over to Loews Portofino Bay Hotel…
When we got there, we were treated to a neat sunset over the piazza…
We made our way down there and were completely blown away by the theming. It was beautiful and pretty much transported us back to the real Portofino, albeit this is on a much larger scale, and it’s lacking the “mess” and I mean that in a nice way – i.e. souvenir shops and restaurants everywhere.
At one point, a guy saw Mark taking photos of me, and asked if we wanted a photo together. He got such a lovely one of the two of us. so much – that was such a sweet thing to do.
We were here for dinner at this place….
I will be honest, I was expecting a lot of this place, given the amazing review I read from Tara (Tara O’Hara), and we were not disappointed.
The first thing that turned up was the bread service, and to the left of the shot there’s a smoked fish dish (we both thought it was salmon), which was amazing. We’d happily have had more of that one.
For appetiser, I went for the traditional La Caprese, fresh burgata mozzarella and vine ripened tomatoes with basil and EVOO, as I always find this to be a good judge of just how good an Italian restaurant is, and judging just on this dish, it is excellent.
Mark had the Parma prosciutto and sweet cantaloupe melon, and couldn’t believe how much arrived.
We both opted for pasta dishes for entrees. The second I saw the homemade agnolotti stuffed with shrimp and crab meat in a lobster and prawns sauce, I was sold. These were some of my favourite ever items to eat. When it turned up, I was disappointed with the appearance of it, although in fairness, it tasted beautiful, and the sauce was like having a lobster bisque to go with it, which worked for me. I thought it was actually amazing value, given this dish was $30, whereas lobster bisque on its own would’ve been $22.
Mark opted for the homemade lasagne with slow braised Bolognese ragu, parmesan, béchamel and mozzarella cheese. He thought it was very nice, but distinctly lacking in sauce, and again, I didn’t think much of the presentation in all honestly.
Ready to eat!
We both felt we just had room for dessert, so I went for the tiramisu della Bice, the homemade classic with mascaropone cheese and espresso soaked ladyfinger cookies. Once again, I use this dish to gauge how good an Italian restaurant is, and this was one of the best I’ve ever had.
Once again, Mark didn’t exactly luck out on his. He had the soft chocolate soufflé served with vanilla gelato, but he was very disappointed with the lack of chocolate sauce that came out of it, and I have to admit I was surprised there wasn’t more as well.
Our server, Felipe was excellent, and did a really good job looking after us. We were very impressed with him, although I was disappointed to find out he wasn’t Italian. He had a slight accent, but apparently that’s Brazilian, and he’s never been to Italy, although he wants to go. I told him he needed to, given he works in an Italian restaurant!
The atmosphere here was lovely, albeit a couple of times they played music in the bar, that we were quite close to, that we didn’t think was in keeping with the romantic and sophisticated, shall we say? And we were definitely glad to be leaving as the table of 10 arrived, who were noisy from the moment they walked in… had they arrived earlier, they would’ve definitely impacted on the enjoyment of our meal.
Bice
Appetiser 9˝ 9
Entrée 9 8˝
Dessert 9˝ 8
Service 9 9
Atmosphere 9˝ 9
Value for money 9 9
I was sort of happy with it, sort of because it's not the one I have now, and I adore that one, but stay tuned... this story develops a bit more quite a way into the trip report, so you may have quite a wait for that.
I bet the current one is fabulous then! Patiently waiting for that storyline. (Well, waiting, anyway.☺)
Glad you finally got your luggage. That happened to us once during a split stay and I ended up having to buy my kids swim suits at the Poly so they could go swimming and not wait around for the luggage to arrive. What a nice picture of you and Mark. Brice looks wonderful!
Beautiful photos outside. So glad you got someone to get a pic of the two of you - it's a cute one!
Dinner sounded delicious. I guess pasta dishes are hard to present? I don't know, but lasagna is lasagna. I'm not sure I've ever seen it look any fancier than it is!
Mmmmmm, tiramisu. So good!!
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Pixie Dust
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so much – that was such a sweet thing to do. 
Dinner looks delicious!!
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