10 Nights of Magic in The Orlando Trifecta-TR - COMPLETE!! 12/10 - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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The train looks so cool! Happy New Year to you and can't wait to read more!
The train was amazing in every way! Happy New Year to you and your family as well. Much more to come and only on day 1. It will be a long one!
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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 are wonderful and bring back great memories, Dave!! I love Hogwart's express!! What an awesome day you are having!! Happy New Year!!!
Glad you are enjoying the photos and TR and brings back great memories for you! Hogwart's was amazing. Such a great day so far and still a few more updates left. Happy New Year to you as well!
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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!
What a great start to your trip! I haven't visited US/IOA since 2008. There are so many new things that I feel I have to go back. Maybe when I return to Orlando with my family in 2019.
What a great start to your trip! I haven't visited US/IOA since 2008. There are so many new things that I feel I have to go back. Maybe when I return to Orlando with my family in 2019.
Mayra,
I am so happy to see you posting again here! You have a lot going on and you and your family's lives are certainly not back to normal as I saw your post as you still have no power after 104 days! Hope soon and things improve in PR.
I'm guessing you may be getting cell phone service to post or went somewhere else? Hoping to see you here on a regular basis in the future as you are so missed here!
I still had my 2016 TR going the last time you posted on it before this one began. I finished that one on November 11th, I think? Feel free to resume my previous one (Fall, Firsts etc), when you get the chance and things get back to some sort of normalcy! I'm sure you have many TRs to catch up on!
Hope things improve soon and wishing you, your family and your island the best on the road back!
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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!
Mayra,
I am so happy to see you posting again here! You have a lot going on and you and your family's lives are certainly not back to normal as I saw your post as you still have no power after 104 days! Hope soon and things improve in PR.
I'm guessing you may be getting cell phone service to post or went somewhere else? Hoping to see you here on a regular basis in the future as you are so missed here!
I still had my 2016 TR going the last time you posted on it before this one began. I finished that one on November 11th, I think? Feel free to resume my previous one (Fall, Firsts etc), when you get the chance and things get back to some sort of normalcy! I'm sure you have many TRs to catch up on!
Hope things improve soon and wishing you, your family and your island the best on the road back!
Thank you so much for the warm welcome Dave! It's good to be back. I'm slowly getting back into TR reading. I definitely have to finish your last TR. I do have cellphone coverage with internet but my home internet is still not working. So that means I can't be here on the boards too much because then I'll consume all my phone data. But I'll pop here from time to time.
Thank you so much for the warm welcome Dave! It's good to be back. I'm slowly getting back into TR reading. I definitely have to finish your last TR. I do have cellphone coverage with internet but my home internet is still not working. So that means I can't be here on the boards too much because then I'll consume all my phone data. But I'll pop here from time to time.
I'm sure it feels good but at the same time you and your family have so much to deal with and especially since things are no where near normal yet! No hurry on my TR as you need you need your phone data for more important things. I'm looking forward to your comments as I always enjoy them!
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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!
This is Bizarre and Never Had a Room Like This in Any Hotel!
Wednesday, October 4th (Part VII) I walked over to bell services to get my luggage and luckily there was no one ahead of me in line. While I was waiting for my bags to be brought out to me, I checked the text I received earlier from the front desk on my room number which was #2224. There are four towers off the lobby, which correspond to which elevator you take to your room. I asked one of the bell staff and showed him my room number and told me to go to Tower 2. I think it was also named the Windward as well.
I walked to Tower 2 and down the hallway a bit and found the elevator. When the elevator opened, at first I couldn’t find the button to push for the second floor, where my room is located. Then it made sense, as the second floor button is located beneath the one for the lobby on the panel. I would be going down to get to my room. This is bizarre and never had a room like this in any hotel! The second floor is always above the lobby, but not here! Once I got off the elevator, I was only a few rooms down the hallway which was convenient.
So, here’s several photos from my room as I know you want to see these.
I like the separate sink basin outside the shower area with sliding door.
Nice shower
Room looks good!
The room is 335 square feet, which is a good size as not overly small or large and is quite comfortable. I like the couch and desk and some outlets for charging phones and laptops. Although, they could use more of these as I could only find a couple located on the desk and not anywhere else in the room. The HDTV is good, but only watched it on a few occasions.
Not a great view from my room, but better than looking out towards the parking lot!
So, there you go with a mini-room tour. It was around 5 pm and I planned to leave for dinner around 5:30-5:45 pm as I’d have to take two water taxis to get to my destination as dinner is at one of the resorts. In the meantime, I got ready for my night out, charged my phone and got what I needed for tomorrow lined out on the couch. Although, some things I’d need tonight. I also watched some of the Universal Studios programming on TV for a while.
I left my room at 5:45 pm and took the elevator up to the lobby and then walked to Tower 3 to take the elevator down to the first floor, where I’d walk to the water taxi as I did earlier today. I walked to the boat dock and there were a few people waiting for the water taxi. I think we waited about five minutes before one arrived, but unfortunately another ten additional minutes as they try to fill the boats. We arrived at City Walk at nearly 6 pm and I found the line to transfer to the Portofino Resort, where I’d be having dinner tonight. A boat was just pulling up, when I got in line. We waited again for the boat to fill up again and it was only a few minutes to the Portofino Resort. It’s just after the Hard Rock Hotel.
Looks like a beautiful resort and will only get better later. Felt like I’ve returned to Italy.
Once, I disembarked the boat I walked to the piazza, which was close by. It looked so beautiful and spacious. My ADR isn’t until 7 pm, so I had time to grab a beverage and relax in the piazza for a while and take it all in.
Where I’d be having dinner shortly
Doesn’t it look nice and so vast? There are tables around the perimeter of the various buildings, which are the various restaurants, bars and guest rooms.
Now, I just had to find a place where I could get a glass of wine. I asked a cast member serving tables outside in the piazza and suggested Mama Della’s Ristorante, which was close by. I went inside and ordered a glass of Chianti at the check in area and they brought it to me from the bar. The host of the ristorante was a lovely Italian woman and so accommodating. She said once I’m done with my wine that I can just leave it on the table outside. It was quite windy out, so hopefully, it wouldn’t get blown off the table.
Mama Della’s Ristorante
I found a table outside and took a seat. There were quite a few people sitting at tables and enjoying their beverages. There was also some entertainment with a couple of Italian singers providing it from the balcony above Mama Della’s. It is provided nightly from 6:30-7 pm, so good timing!
View from my table and you can see one of the performers on the balcony.
Quite a nice evening in the piazza!
Good one and the dog seems to be enjoying it out here as well!
They were quite good and very enjoyable sitting out in the piazza.
I was enjoying my glass of Chianti during their performance.
Soon, their performance came to an end and I enjoyed it so much sitting out here with a glass of wine before dinner. A good way to begin my first evening in Universal Orlando!
I tried posting a video of their performance through Flikr but all I get is a photo. Perhaps, I have to post it differently through Flikr or upload it to YouTube for the link? Any suggestions?
After finishing my glass of wine my ADR was just five minutes away and left my empty wine glass on the table upside down and hope it wouldn’t be blown off. I walked over to BICE Ristorante for dinner. I was looking forward to it as I’d heard good things about it from Cheryl and Tara in their past TRs on the boards. It’s a signature restaurant and hope it would be worth it and that I’d enjoy my meal here!
NEXT: I Hope This Was the Right Choice!
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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!
Last edited by SuperDave; 01-05-2018 at 12:42 AM..
Very nice room, but you're right, how strange to go downstairs to your room. That Italian restaurant looks so nice and cozy, have you heard any reviews of it? Glad you were able to enjoy a glass of wine on the piazza before dinner. Can't wait to hear about Bice