From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 7/24 - Page 16 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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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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Interesting opinion about Brent. We had him on one cruise, and I was excited because it was like having a celebrity since he was all the Travel Channel shows about DCL. I'm normally annoyed by over-the-top people, but he didn't bother me. Better than a boring cruise director. But I'm sure he'll be well suited to director of entertainment at DCA.
Sorry Mark wasn't feeling well. It would be strange getting seasick this late in the cruise. Maybe it was just his sinuses.
I think it was.
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The fireworks looked nice . Too bad you didn't get to see double fireworks. I'm glad you got to eat at Paolo's.It's too bad the service wasn't the best.
I've meaning to ask you what you think of the new Doctor. My friend at work and I are waiting to see how she does. it will be different. The actress was good in Broadchurch.
Liz
I'm coming around to it. I know the idea's been mooted for so many years (I seem to recall it started as a joke in 1981... ), but I really wasn't expecting it. I was completely convinced that someone else would get it, so my jaw was literally on the floor. She was very good in Broadchurch and I'm looking forward to see how she does. I just think it's a shame that we'll see a couple of minutes of her at most at Christmas and then we'll probably have to wait until Easter to see her properly in action.
That's good to know that you can tip "other" crew members! We've certainly had some we've mentioned by name in our surveys but it would have made me happy to tip them. They should broadcast that a bit more.
I completely agree. I was really shocked to find that out.
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So did the Guest Services folks ask about why you were taking away the tips from the dining staff? I think that would have been a perfect opportunity for some customer relations work.
That's what I was expecting to, but not a word. Very sad and definitely an opportunity missed.
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Sounds like you had a good sized crowd at the Gold/Platinum reception. We had only a small handful on our Alaska crowd. I'm assuming there will be more on the WBTA, only because it seems repeat cruisers far outnumber the newbies on that one!
Well, of course with the changes now, from what I recall, the receptions will only be on cruises of more than seven nights, which I feel is a bad move. We're on two seven night cruises next year, so we won't get a reception on either, just the transatlantic one.
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Hope Mark isn't getting a sinus infection. Those are just the worst, I think. Seasickness seems unlikely to me....
Interesting opinion about Brent. We had him on one cruise, and I was excited because it was like having a celebrity since he was all the Travel Channel shows about DCL. I'm normally annoyed by over-the-top people, but he didn't bother me. Better than a boring cruise director. But I'm sure he'll be well suited to director of entertainment at DCA.
Funny about Brent - he's always been our favorite CD. Maybe because we sailed with him more than any of the others? He was also just so great with guest interaction on our Baltic Cruise. I will give you the fact that he's a bit exhuberant at times (my daughter does a great impersonation!).
He's been at California Adventure for a while now - I know he was already there when we were at DL in February.
I actually don't know if I can tell you the names of the other CD's we've had - they just didn't make the kind of impression Brent did. And to me, that says something too. But definitely to each their own.
Funny about Brent - he's always been our favorite CD. Maybe because we sailed with him more than any of the others? He was also just so great with guest interaction on our Baltic Cruise. I will give you the fact that he's a bit exhuberant at times (my daughter does a great impersonation!).
You see, that's what really didn't appeal to me and I put part of that down to the difference between the British and the Americans. We are (hard to believe I know ) a bit more reserved and I just found him a bit too much. However, we've had other American cruise directors before and really liked them. I guess I felt he was trying a bit too hard to ensure everyone had a good time?
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He's been at California Adventure for a while now - I know he was already there when we were at DL in February.
I actually don't know if I can tell you the names of the other CD's we've had - they just didn't make the kind of impression Brent did. And to me, that says something too. But definitely to each their own.
Same here, although I can see the faces of a couple of them - clear as anything. That says something.....
Wednesday 8 March – part two: “troughing” our way through the Palo buffet!
We made our way back to our room, and ended up talking to Lois for ages. She really is an absolute star, and I am so glad that we’re giving all our tip money to her, as she really deserves it. We learnt that her 14 year old daughter is at home, which must be really tough for her, but she seems to handle it well. I have nothing but respect for someone like that.
We headed up to Palo for brunch just before midday, and were seated in a lovely window booth…
I have to say that I’m not sure if I prefer the new style Palo to the old style.
It’s funny – this cruise, all people keep asking us is which ship we prefer, and honestly we don’t know. It’s so tough to pick. There are elements we prefer on each ship, and it’s a bit like that with Palo.
We had Nicola with New Zealand as our server, and she was absolutely wonderful. She took us through the expansive buffet, and wow, look at the selections they have! I swear it gets more and more extensive every time we eat here…
This was my first plate…
… and Mark’s:
If you think he was being a bit restrained, then he was! Here was his second plate:
On my second time up at the buffet, I concentrated on the cheeses, and they were wonderful, although my goodness, the blue cheese was strong!
Mark still wasn’t feeling himself, so he offered me his glass of Prosecco, and I couldn’t exactly refuse! For those keeping count, that’s not bad – two glasses of Prosecco, and three glasses of champagne, all free of charge this morning!
Something very different is that they now give you a menu with the various options on it, rather than just showing you options when you walk up. I think that’s better and probably leads to less wastage, as if people who come to brunch are anything like us, they see samples of the main courses, then decide they want more than they can stomach. This way, you just read the description and go from there. Also I found Nicola a lot less pushy than some of our servers in the past. They wanted to know almost straightaway what we wanted, rather than letting us just graze the buffet (or trough – my latest “in” word to describe what my adopted donkey Gareth does periodically throughout the day! ). Here, Nicola basically said she’d come back when we were done with the buffet, but we told her we knew what we wanted, and ordered quite early on.
I went for the rollatini melanzane, lightly breaded baked eggplant filled with prosciutto (which I asked to be left out), sweet ricotta, and smoked mozzarella, served on Toscana sauce and drizzled with aged balsamic Modena. Oh boy, this was superb! It may look very heavy, which was my first concern, but actually it was amazingly light.
Mark had the grilled cut sirloin steak with thyme-herb butter, green beans, Barolo wine potatoes, and a Barolo wine reduction.
I did try and look up where we were on Google Maps, but it wasn’t exactly helpful!
Then this turned up to celebrate our 20 years together.
We got Nicola to get a couple of photos of us:
It was about here that Mark got a cunning plan into his head. Daryl had kept talking about how we got so much more as DVC Members, and he’s been holding out on buying in. Nicola told us that we’d be getting another happy anniversary plate tonight, and he suggested they did “welcome home” instead. Now how much would that wind Daryl up, given we already apparently get so much specialist attention?
Now it was time to hit the dessert buffet, and I made an effort to try as much as I could from the dessert options. I mean, heck, I have to make such sacrifices, right?
We were pretty much done, and almost rolled out of there, knowing that in four and a half hours’ time, we’d be back there for dinner. Oh my, how we are going to be ready to eat again, I do not know!
Our brunch had been superb, just as good as all the other ones we’ve experienced there. Palo always seem to deliver continuously.
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That buffet looks amazing and where does one start? All your selections looked so good and obviously enjoyed all of it! Nice going with the extra Champagne and Prosecco today on your part! You probably had a good nap after Palo. I can't believe you'll be back at Palo in 4.5 hours. You may need to work off some of your meal beforehand!
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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!
Your photos of Palo's brunch amaze me every time I see them. How one could choose what to eat is mind boggling - everything looks so good! Thank you for the effort on the dessert front. It's much appreciated!
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That buffet looks amazing and where does one start? All your selections looked so good and obviously enjoyed all of it! Nice going with the extra Champagne and Prosecco today on your part! You probably had a good nap after Palo.
No napping for me... I tend not to sleep during the day unless I'm really not well.
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I can't believe you'll be back at Palo in 4.5 hours. You may need to work off some of your meal beforehand!
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), but I really wasn't expecting it. I was completely convinced that someone else would get it, so my jaw was literally on the floor. She was very good in Broadchurch and I'm looking forward to see how she does. I just think it's a shame that we'll see a couple of minutes of her at most at Christmas and then we'll probably have to wait until Easter to see her properly in action.
I was really shocked to find that out. 
I swear it gets more and more extensive every time we eat here… 
For those keeping count, that’s not bad – two glasses of Prosecco, and three glasses of champagne, all free of charge this morning! 
It may look very heavy, which was my first concern, but actually it was amazingly light. 
It reminds me of the Cali Grill Brunch!!
All your selections looked so good and obviously enjoyed all of it! 
I can't believe you'll be back at Palo in 4.5 hours. 
You may need to work off some of your meal beforehand! 
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