Dreaming of a Disney spring break! THIS SECTION COMPLETED - Page 116 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wednesday 13 April – part eight: now this is what you call signature dining!
By now, it was about 6.45pm, so we made our way to Artist Point and checked in. We were seated immediately and the restaurant really wasn’t that busy. It seemed to be a lot lighter than I remembered it, but that could be because usually when we eat here, it’s already dark outside and that does make a difference!
We were served by Paul, who was very knowledgeable about the menu and was exactly what I would expect from a signature dining server, unlike our guy last night. In fact, that was a theme the whole way through tonight’s meal. When you try to compare Artist Point to Le Cellier, there is just no comparison whatsoever. : Our server was great, but he wasn’t perfect, especially towards the end of the meal, when I had to ask another server to get me some more water.
During our meal, Paul brought out a knife for Mark for his meat and Paul told him that it was no longer a Jim Bowie knife and that was all the fault of Alvin, one of the managers, who came over to us. I remembered that Bruce had said something about saying hello to Alvin from them, if we saw him, so we did and soon we were chatting away with Alvin, like we were old friends.
We had a lovely bottle of wine between us, which was sweet and complimented the meal very well. It was so nice not to have to think about driving back for once and made for a very relaxing meal.
Ok, so down to the serious business of the food. The second that I mentioned the words “food allergy”, that was it, I had the chef come out to me, Marco from Brazil, who went through the menu with me and what I was thinking of having. Fortunately, my choices were both fine.
For appetiser, I went for the artisanal cheese, which consisted of the rogue river blue cheese, Reypenaer VSOP and the Drunken Goat with seasonal garnishes and walnut toast. They were beautiful, although I didn’t think that the blue cheese went that well with the honeycomb they put with it. The other two, which were served with dates and raisins were both perfectly matched.
Mark went for the spring pea risotto with crispy snake river farm pork belly, with radish salad, and goat cheese crisp. As he said, he never expected to like this dish, but he did. I have to be honest, it’s also not the sort of dish he’d usually pick, so it was a surprise all round.
For entree, there was only one choice for Mark and that was the chargrilled buffalo striploin steak with three cheese mac, cider glazed Brussels sprouts and Syrah gastrique. He was concerned about the three cheese mac, so he spoke to the chef when he came out to see me and he suggested that he got for the mushroom potatoes instead, which he did and really enjoyed.
I had the cedar plank roasted King salmon with marble potatoes, asparagus, Pinot Noir buerre rouge and crispy truffle chips. It was 100 times better than last night’s effort at Le Cellier. The flavours just blended together so well and the salmon was cooked to perfection.
Where’s the salmon? Ah... there it is!
For dessert, I opted for the chocolate indulgence, the Valhrona chocolate ganache with salted chocolate ice cream and dark chocolate crumble, but without the cherries it usually comes with, after having been told that was possible. I have to say that the salted ice cream that went with it was a little bit odd. I would have preferred normal ice cream, if I’m being honest.
Mark had the baked peach upside-down cake with sweet and sour caramel sauce and roasted peach ice cream and he seemed to like it.
It was a very relaxed meal. Although it took a couple of hours, but at no point did we feel rushed or like it was taking too long. : It was just right and that really sums up this meal. Every time we go to Artist Point, it does always deliver and it did this time as well.
Artist Point:
Appetiser 9 9½
Entree 9½ 9½
Dessert 9½ 8½
Service 9 8½
Atmosphere 9½ 10
Value for money 9 9½
Average score: 9.25
Finally, it was time to head back to the room and do the last of our packing, as we would be heading out on the cruise tomorrow.
The weather today was hot and sunny, with temperatures in the high 80s. The best thing today was dinner at Artist Point. The worst thing today was Sean and Sharon actually enjoying the Beverley – foiled again!
[b]The funniest thing today was Ciaran dragging Mark into the Seas with Nemo and Friends. Today we tried the Nature Inspired Design Segway Tour And the result was it’s a great tour and definitely one we’d recommend. The most magical moment today was going backstage at Epcot on Segways.
[b]Next: “if you don’t sit down, Stitch won’t come over”
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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.
Your dinner looks and sounds wonderful -- different, but enticing all the same! We have yet to try Artist Point, but it's definitely on the list. Can wait to hear all about your Bon Voyage!
Ahhh, what a wonderful and relaxing meal. I've noticed a trend in menu's lately that they like to "salt" the desserts. Salted caramel, salted ice cream..... I don't get that!! But the ganache part sounded sooooo good!
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Tanya
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