A French Disney home for the holidays…. COMPLETED - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I've heard Disney Dreams is just amazing. Your photos of it are wonderful... I went through them nice and slowly to imagine it playing out...
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Oh don't worry about that, I'm sure videos can be found on YouTube. I like the photos because I can study the castle pictures for longer!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Saturday 15 November – part one: people here have no clue!
We woke up at 8:00am, not bad considering we went to bed at 9:00pm last night. My goodness, I guess we needed that sleep! In total, in the last two nights, we’ve now had 21 hours of sleep!
I headed to the shower and attempted to wash my hair. Here are some negatives about the Disneyland Hotel, and while they may sound like little gripes, bear in mind that their advertised rate for this room at this time of the year is €585 ($720), so I really do have high expectations for that sort of cost! The shower is pathetic. It really has absolutely no power whatsoever to it. The same applies to the hairdryer. Honestly, it’s just your standard “on the wall” dryer in the bathroom, and let’s just say my hand gets hot from holding it, but my hair certainly doesn’t. I guess all the heat leaks out before it reaches my hair! The lighting isn’t actually great. I’m sure they’ve done it for mood lighting, but they seriously could use another light in the room.
The Wi-Fi is free, which was a pleasant surprise, as I don’t think it was when we last stayed here in 2010, so that’s something, but Disney please sort out the shower and the hairdryer – it’s not really the standard I expect from a room of this price.
We headed down for breakfast at just after 9:00am…
…. and had about a five minute wait in line before we were seated. I said to Mark that you obviously needed to be down earlier on a Saturday… but then what seemed to be an entire coach party descended on the line, and it pretty much snaked around the atrium. I took the opportunity to get some photos while we waited:
We were seated almost at the same table we were at yesterday, so again, we had some wonderful views of the Disneyland Park. It did look as if it was raining outside, which was a bit depressing, given that the forecast for today was just that it would be cloudy…
I had much the same as yesterday, although I did discover the maple syrup to go with the pancakes they had out, so I decided to sample some of those, and very nice they were too. Honestly though, the people in here – they really had no clue, and a lot of them were just downright rude. It does make me angry how people are in Disney parks, but sadly especially in Paris. It seems as if people think they can behave how they like here. I waited patiently to get a plate for the buffet, only to see a child barge his way in front of us, with the father standing behind him looking so proud. Then there are those who are just totally oblivious – like the guy getting juice, but it must’ve taken him two minutes to fill two. I was in and out in about 30 seconds with my two.
Once we were filled up, we headed back to the room, admiring the guy who had sat at the table next to us. He had what I assume were his other half and his daughter, and he managed to do absolutely nothing to help with the girl. We watched him go up to the buffet again and again, and seriously, he ended up with four plates of food. We assumed he was getting them for his family, but they were for him! All I can say is that he must have a really nice life, not having to do anything for his family.
As we left, I had to snag a quick photo of just some of the line to get into breakfast… the moral of this story is definitely you snooze, you lose when it comes to breakfast on weekends.
We quickly went back to the room and got ready and headed into the park just before 10:00am, so technically it was still Extra Magic Hours, as the park didn’t open until 10:00am, but they were letting everyone in, and then holding them at the hub. We walked along the Discovery Arcade, which was deserted this morning…
If you could manage to push your way past the crowds, which we eventually managed to do, then by showing your hotel pass, they’d let you into either Discoveryland or Fantasyland. We went for Discoveryland, as I couldn’t remember when Buzz Lightyear would be up from its rehab. I thought it was either today or Monday, but definitely not today, as it was still closed when we got there. I later discovered, when I picked up a new programme for the Extra Magic Hours until early December that Buzz would now be closed until 21 November, so I guess the rehab didn’t go to plan, as it was certainly due to be open before we headed home…
As Buzz was closed, we figured we’d walk round into Fantasyland, but we got to this part, where you can see the station closed off to the right, and there are doors ahead. Well, this is the route we usually take into Fantasyland. Not today apparently!
We weren’t the only ones, as quite a few other people came through, expecting to be able to do exactly the same thing, and they were all disappointed too.
You're right, for those prices you'd expect everything to be better than average, for sure! I'd also be pretty upset at the long lines at breakfast, but I guess it's hard to deal with large groups arriving at one time.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Well that was kind of an off morning. Bad water pressure, bad hair dryer, and obnoxious people at breakfast! It's the little things that should be making an extra (expensive) luxury hotel special, so they need to work on those little bathroom things! But it's nice to hear you're getting so much sleep - this is your holiday after all!
People. Ugh. Some people just don't deserve 4 plates of food!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Hi Cheryl - really enjoying your trip report so far, it takes me back to our wedding anniversary trip in June! I really love the Christmas stuff they do there, it is very intensely done and so pretty. I also agree with you about the entrance to the Disneyland park - it is so gorgeous!
I wanted to say something about the smoking policy at DLP. We had a huge issue with it in June, and I eventually approached a CM near Big Thunder Mountain to ask him EXACTLY what Disney's policy is regarding smoking. As I recall, he began to tell me I could smoke anywhere I wanted to, and then when he saw my horrified face and realised I wasn't a smoker but was actually complaining about this, he did a rapid turnaround and said that they do have a no-smoking policy in the parks, with particular smoking areas set up and marked on the maps, but that it was difficult to enforce. I told him in no uncertain terms what I thought of this, and he suggested I call into City Hall to talk about this.
We never got round to doing this; however, on our return home, I emailed Disney about this issue and told them how unhappy I was with the non-adherence to the policy by guests, and by the CMs' dismal failure to even attempt to enforce the policy. I received an extremely apologetic email and two free day tickets to DLP from them! Sadly though it would appear from your more recent experience that nothing has actually been done about it. Maybe you need to complain to them as well, as the more complaints they receive from guests, the more likely they are to try and address the issue, hopefully.
Anyway, glad you had a great time, despite the weather, and thanks for the lovely photos!
Carolyn.
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Silvercat
(Enjoy reading trip reports? Why not try my books, "Tiggerific Travels Parts 1, 2, 3 & the new volume 4" - available now as e-books)
Well that was kind of an off morning. Bad water pressure, bad hair dryer, and obnoxious people at breakfast! It's the little things that should be making an extra (expensive) luxury hotel special, so they need to work on those little bathroom things!
They certainly do!
Quote:
But it's nice to hear you're getting so much sleep - this is your holiday after all!
There is that...
Quote:
People. Ugh. Some people just don't deserve 4 plates of food!
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In total, in the last two nights, we’ve now had 21 hours of sleep! 
I took the opportunity to get some photos while we waited: 
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