A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 always love your photos of the ships without lots of people crowding your shots. I guess that is a bonus of getting up so early, which Luke and I hardly ever do.
That is a nice plus side to an early awakening!
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I had wondered about the character breakfast on the Wonder as Luke and I considered it and then decided we didn't want to get up early for it.
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Believe it or not, my DH spent about 3 hours on deck 10, IN FRONT OF the glass, when we went through Tracy Arm. It was so windy I couldn't hear any conversation.
Wow, you guys were lucky you didn't get wind burn!
Wednesday 2 September – part three: “we know you”, don’t we?
Just a bit before 11:00am, we made our way over to Palo, being very careful to stay inside, given how windy it was. We were met by Marancello, the maitre’d there, and we both immediately said “we know you” but it turned out we didn’t, as he’s only worked for Disney since January. Interestingly, he told us a lot of people had said that to him, so I reckon he has got a lookalike, and someone who used to be the maitre’d at Palo as well – spooky!
We were taken through to our table, which sadly wasn’t a window seat, but it was the next row back, and we still had a nice enough view, so it wasn’t the end of the world.
Sadly it was for another couple who turned up a couple of minutes later, and literally threw a hissy fit over the fact they wouldn’t have a window seat. She said in a very loud voice “well, they’re just leaving, we’ll wait for their seat” and that’s what the servers had to do, turn around the table for them. Honestly! Now I wouldn’t have minded if they’d have spent all their time then admiring the view. Not a bit of it! I don’t think I saw them glance outside once during the entire meal. I really do not like people like that.
They had closed off the walkway outside Palo, which was a nice touch. We were later told they only do that for Tracy Ann Fjord, and as soon as Palo closes for brunch, they reopen it.
Our server was Alex from France, who was lovely, and sure enough, as we’ve discovered previously, your server follows you from brunch to dinner and vice versa, so we’ll see him again on Friday night for Mark’s 50th.
He took us around the buffet, and I was surprised to see that you can pick your own. The last couple of cruises, the staff have done that for you. We asked Alex about that, and he confirmed that the Wonder would be moving to that approach shortly as well. He explained that Disney are gradually rolling out this approach ship by ship.
There was certainly an amazing layout, starting off with the fish and the seafood…
… then moving on to the mainly veggie selection. I say mainly, as both the melon and asparagus were wrapped in ham, and there were some cold meat offerings at the end of this section, so it wasn’t completely veggie.
Next we admired the various a la carte dishes you could order, and I’m sure they had a few new ones here, which made deciding even harder.
Then it was on to the really fun part, the desserts and there were two distinct sections, one mainly based around bread items, such as sticky buns, and croissants…
… while the other section was what I can only call much more liquid based… see what I mean?
There was also a cheese selection, which we only went to last, as it was being replenished when we first passed by it, and they brought out the selection just after we’d seen the desserts.
Here’s what I got on my first pass…
… and here are the items I went for off the a la carte menu, I opted for the cold strawberry soup….
… the oriechette pasta with salmon…
… and the blue cheese and grape pizza…
I would like to make it clear now that I did not finish the pizza, I managed less than half, but despite my pleas to Alex, he wouldn’t just have a portion or a slice made, as “it wouldn’t look good on the plate”. I fully get what he’s saying, but I just find it so wasteful as well.
Mark went for the chicken parmigiana….
… and the eggs Julia, poached eggs with salmon, but he really didn’t like it, which was a shame.
Wow! The offerings on the buffet look I like how they have things portioned out, so you have just a taste. Your entrees look delicious! But, it's too bad they couldn't have brought you just one slice of the pizza. What a waste!
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Wow! The offerings on the buffet look I like how they have things portioned out, so you have just a taste. Your entrees look delicious! But, it's too bad they couldn't have brought you just one slice of the pizza. What a waste!
That's just like the people who grab a window seat on the airplane and then close the shade or just never admire the view. Rude.
So much food, so little time! I would have such a serious decision making problem there. Mostly because I can't stand to throw away food either! I love pizza, but couldn't bear to throw it away. Tough decisions there.
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That's just like the people who grab a window seat on the airplane and then close the shade or just never admire the view. Rude.
It is!
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So much food, so little time! I would have such a serious decision making problem there. Mostly because I can't stand to throw away food either! I love pizza, but couldn't bear to throw it away. Tough decisions there.
There are some seriously tough decisions at Palo, not least because everything there is so darned good!
We were happy to do a second brunch at Palo on our Alaska trip, as we felt there were too many good options the first time!
But I was laughing when you pointed out the sticky buns as a dessert! I see those as a starter!!! Hope you tried one - they were delicious!
We were happy to do a second brunch at Palo on our Alaska trip, as we felt there were too many good options the first time!
But I was laughing when you pointed out the sticky buns as a dessert! I see those as a starter!!! Hope you tried one - they were delicious!
What amazing differences in weather depending on which side of the ship you were looking! Sorry the gold/platinum reception was a disappointment. Every time you mention the stone chairs, I think Luke and I should try those next time we cruise. We got to meet Olaf at DCA earlier this month. I think it is neat that you met Anna and Elsa together, too.
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Now I wouldn’t have minded if they’d have spent all their time then admiring the view. Not a bit of it! 
and there were two distinct sections, one mainly based around bread items, such as sticky buns, and croissants… 
[IMG]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t320/chezp/chezp%202/Alaska%20California%20autumn
I like how they have things portioned out, so you have just a taste. Your entrees look delicious! But, it's too bad they couldn't have brought you just one slice of the pizza. What a waste!
Hope you tried one - they were 
I like your style!
Sorry the gold/platinum reception was a disappointment. Every time you mention the stone chairs, I think Luke and I should try those next time we cruise. We got to meet Olaf at DCA earlier this month. I think it is neat that you met Anna and Elsa together, too. 
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