A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 43 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Maybe in his old age, Mark's turning into some kind of cheap drunk! Two drinks, and unable to walk one flight of stairs?! Those were some generous pours, I'd say!
That's his excuse and he's sticking to it! I managed fine with my two drinks, that's all I'm saying!
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Love the touch with the confetti!!! I may have to show that to my DH, and hint that he could do such a thing when we are sailing on my 50th this summer! On second thought, not sure I want to advertise that I'm 50!
Oh shucks... and there was me going to bring some confetti along for when we met up!
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Glad that you enjoyed your tour in Juneau so much! The pictures of you and Mark turned out so nice and I loved that you were able to get a picture with Remy! I miss him in Chefs de France. How lovely that you had the lounge to yourselves and your drinks looked quite yummy! How sweet that you bought the 50th birthday confetti for your table!
Glad that you enjoyed your tour in Juneau so much! The pictures of you and Mark turned out so nice and I loved that you were able to get a picture with Remy! I miss him in Chefs de France.
I think it's a shame he's not out more.
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How lovely that you had the lounge to yourselves and your drinks looked quite yummy! How sweet that you bought the 50th birthday confetti for your table!
I wanted it to be a special evening and there wasn't much I could easily smuggle across the pond without Mark knowing.
Friday 4 September – part nine: a perfect birthday meal
Alex was once again our server at Palo, and was just as wonderful as at brunch. They now have the appetizer trolley as well, although we did notice they didn’t ask you what you wanted, which didn’t work well for him, as of course I didn’t want any meat, and Mark didn’t want any cheese. He served everything up on two plates, so we could sample it all, although I have to say I prefer the way they do it on the other ships, where they give you a choice. That way, you’re not wasting anything.
Mark decided to get two appetisers, and heck, why not? It is his birthday after all. He first got the tuna carpaccio and lemon oil dressing…
… then he got the mozzarella caprese, which was also my choice:
Then we had our palate cleanser:
For entrée, I had my old favourite the lobster and mascarpone ravioli, which I just love, and can never get enough of. I have to say tonight it was a little bit herby than I’ve had before, which did detract from it just a little bit.
Mark went for the beef tenderloin “Palo”….
It was at about this point that Pierre (from France of course ), one of the officers who we’d chatted to earlier in the cruise, came over to see us, and we chatted to him for ages. Poor Alex kept hovering, but obviously didn’t want to get in the way, given Pierre is responsible for the food and hospitality on board. Pierre is a fascinating guy, who’s spent a lot of time in the UK, and he’s got a very dry sense of humour that we both appreciated. As Mark said, for a Frenchman, he’s pretty cool – and you have to remember how well the English and French get on to truly appreciate that comment.
We both opted for two desserts. Of course, we had to have the chocolate soufflé with vanilla bean and chocolate sauce, although when Alex put the ice cream into it, that was a new thing.
I had the amaretto indulgence, rich chocolate cream served with traditional filled cannoli, but when I started to eat it, I had the awful feeling that was one of the dishes I was told I couldn’t have on the Med cruise, as it had cherries in it. I didn’t eat much of it as a result, and to be honest, I have no clue where the amaretto was in it, as I couldn’t taste any of it, so that was very disappointing.
Mark also had the warm orange almond cake with orange fennel salad with rhubarb puree, and lemon cream, and he pronounced that to be a real winner for him.
Just as we’d finished our meal, and Mark was saying that he hadn’t yet had a plate for his birthday, guess what showed up?
Getting a bit arty with the photos!
It had been a perfect birthday dinner, and thank you to all the staff at Palo for making it so special for us. They even got a couple of wonderful photos of us during the meal:
And we had a visit from a Disney Cruise Line photographer too:
We headed back to our room and there was an entire menagerie of animals waiting for us!
It was our latest night by far this cruise, and unsurprisingly headed to bed, with Mark telling me what a great day it had been. Well, I couldn’t hope for any more than that.
The weather today was dry and cloudy with temperatures in the low 60s. The best thing today was dinner at Palo. The worst thing today was that we didn’t see an orca for Mark’s 50th. The funniest thing today was Marcello sorting out Mark’s birthday buttons! Today we tried taking a photo safari to see the whales And the result was it was much better than the last whale watching expedition we did. The most magical moment today was seeing the whale’s tail fin.
Just so you know there won't be any further updates until Monday or Tuesday of next week, as we're off to Budapest in Hungary for the weekend. The pre-trip report will be appearing shortly in the Globetrotting trip reports forum, if you'd like to follow along....
Whst a wonderful night! Looks like he had a great 50th birthday.
Have a great weekend!!
__________________
Tanya
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I honestly couldn't believe it when he said it, but I thought "heck, at least he's having a darned good birthday!" 
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Pixie Dust
How lovely that you had the lounge to yourselves and your drinks looked quite yummy! How sweet that you bought the 50th birthday confetti for your table!
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