Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - Page 28 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Nice walk along the shore! That dog was too funny! Too bad the weather conditions were a bit brisk!
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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!
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Nice walk along the shore! That dog was too funny! Too bad the weather conditions were a bit brisk!
That's one way of putting it. The weather has been just as crazy over here as it has been for you guys. A couple of weeks ago, we were in the mid 70s (lovely) and today, while it's going to be sunny up here (I'm in the north east of England today), at home we had a month's worth of rain in one day yesterday and when I go out, I'm expecting it to be cold, albeit beautiful. It's going to be high 30s.
We made our way a bit further along Exmouth seafront…
… and then we headed out. The GPS ended up taking us along some ridiculously narrow roads, which I absolutely loathe, but Mark is fine with. Needless to say I wasn’t in a good state.
At least it did take us through the beautiful village of Otterton, which had a stream that would run open along one side of the road, then it would cross underneath and run along the other side. It was very surreal.
[
It was here we met a complete idiot in a Mercedes. It was our right of way and one car came through to pull in where there was space for only one and this guy carried on. Mark ended up having to back up to let him through, otherwise everything would just have seized up. Let’s just say he was driving as if he was welded to the car in front of him! I really hate jerks like that.
After a lot more nasty narrow roads and twists and turns, finally we were coming into Sidmouth and, as we were heading down a hill, we got some lovely views over the town…
Then we were driving along the seafront….
We parked up and headed into the hotel, just in time for afternoon tea. We were able to snag the seats with the sea view, which was nice…
Once we were done with that, we headed back to the room for some down time and watched as the tide came in and the sea became more and more fierce. I can tell you there weren’t many people walking along the seafront…
That drive looks postcard pretty!! What a charming area!! There is something beautiful about the sea when she is cold and angry!! How do you guys find these places?!
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That drive looks postcard pretty!! What a charming area!! There is something beautiful about the sea when she is cold and angry!! How do you guys find these places?!
Well, we'd never have found this area had it not been for the Donkey Sanctuary - I might as well just be honest about that!
As we've been quite a few times, we just explore. We look at places on a map and say "shall we go and have a look?" Sometimes it works out amazingly well, other times not so much, but you never know until you try something...
As you mentioned in your reply to me that is some crazy weather you are having today with temps in the 30's! Here in CT, today was a beautiful day as sunny in the low 70's! It will be nice all the way to Saturday with temps in 70's and into 80's! Will moderate after that for a few days in the mid 60's, which is fine.
Love the shoreline pictures and tidal action you got from your tea and room! Just so beautiful and I can watch that all day. Loved the views of the seas on my cruise just watching the tides as I spent a lot of time out there. Even good, when there was no land to be seen.
I can't believe that one driver and hate people like that whose only concern on the road is themselves!
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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!
As you mentioned in your reply to me that is some crazy weather you are having today with temps in the 30's! Here in CT, today was a beautiful day as sunny in the low 70's! It will be nice all the way to Saturday with temps in 70's and into 80's! Will moderate after that for a few days in the mid 60's, which is fine.
We're due to be back in the 70s this weekend, although I'm more concerned about the temperatures in Montreux - and apparently they're going to be in the 70s too!
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Love the shoreline pictures and tidal action you got from your tea and room! Just so beautiful and I can watch that all day. Loved the views of the seas on my cruise just watching the tides as I spent a lot of time out there. Even good, when there was no land to be seen.
That's one of the things we love about cruising. You just feel so peaceful watching the sea and it makes me feel so small when you're in the ocean with no land around. You forget that something like three quarters of the planet is water, but my goodness, you remember that on a cruise!
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We’d decided we wanted an earlier dinner tonight, as we were heading home tomorrow and the forecast wasn’t good (heavy rain, wind and they were even claiming there’d be snow in large parts of the country! ), so Mark was keen to leave earlier, rather than later, as a lot of people would be on the roads. We went down to the Faulkner Lounge to get drinks before dinner and, like the other lounges, it’s lovely in there…
I got a Martini Rosso and Mark got a Glenfiddich 12. For the price we paid, you’d usually pay that for just one drink at home. The drinks are certainly well priced here!
At 6.45pm, when dinner service started, they called everyone in, saying “breakfast is served”. Very good!
They have a new menu every evening, which is good, as otherwise you’d get through it very quickly, as generally there are only two or three choices per course. We both went for the smoked salmon salad for appetiser and it was lovely. However, mine turned up not quite looking like Mark’s… I think the right version was his…
For the second course, my gut told me to go for the mango sorbet, which Mark got…
… but he talked me into getting the red onion and mature cheddar gnocchi, against my better judgement. Oh my goodness, the stench from it was appalling. It was totally overwhelming and I had a feeling I wouldn’t like it before I even tasted it. I tried it and I was right. Oh my goodness, way too much cheese and onion flavour and way too much of it. I took one bite and sent it back and asked for the sorbet instead. The staff were very good and asked for some feedback about why I didn’t like it. I know I wasn’t alone, as I heard someone else say it wasn’t very nice and saw someone on the same table playing with it and not eating it.
For entrée, I had the poached fillet of haddock with sweet pepper and shallot butter and tonight it came with honey roasted parsnips, steamed broccoli, roast potatoes (of which I had one) and chive new potatoes (which I didn’t have any of). They had to bring extra honey roasted parsnips, we both wanted that many. Well, it is one of our five a day fruit and veg!
Mark got the pan fried pork fillet with an apple and brandy cream sauce, which he described as being very sweet and he ended up leaving it, he found it so sweet.
I made my entrée last for as long as I can, as I was finding the pace of service too much. Literally as soon as you finish, they were offering you the next course and it would then turn up a couple of minutes later. It was just too much. I ended up sending the woman away twice before I was ready to order dessert.
Eventually, we were ready and Mark got the raspberry Eton mess…
I went for the three cheese and biscuits and had the Longman mature cheddar and the Brie, both of which were very nice and the smoked Applewood Vulscombe goats cheese, which was way too strong for me, so I left quite a lot of it.
We got chatting to one of our servers (we had quite a few) and it turned out she’s from Hungary and is over here to make as much money as she can in a year before returning to Hungary. She explained that, over there, about three quarters of your wages goes on accommodation and you just can’t save anything, but she does want to go home, albeit with some savings to her name. Good for her!
Royal York and Faulkner Hotel Restaurant
Appetiser 9 9½
Second course 8 8
Entrée 9 9
Dessert 7½ 8
Service 8½ 9
Atmosphere 8½ 8½
Average score: 8.54
Finally it was time to brave the 15 steps outside (I’d counted them on the way here) back to our suite from the hotel. We’d both commented that it didn’t look that bad outside from our table, but we wondered if that was because we were further away from the window and concluded it was. We were right. Oh my goodness, within seconds of going outside, we realised it was literally freezing with rain coming straight into our faces, thanks to the wind. Accuweather had said the realfeel temperature would be in the high 20s and I could easily believe it. We both felt chilled to the bone when we got into the room. Thankfully we soon warmed up and watched some TV before heading to bed, with the waves still crashing on the shore in the front room.
The weather today was mostly cloudy with some rain and wind with temperatures in the mid 40s. The best thing today was spending more times with the donkeys while there were less visitors. The worst thing today was how cold, wet and winy it was! The funniest thing today was one donkey hitting the other with the wellie boot! Today we tried going to A La Ronde And the result was it’s a fascinating place to visit, I don’t think there’s anywhere else like it. The most magical moment today was stroking donkeys!
Mark’s salmon does look better arranged. Your second appetizer doesn’t look appetizing, let alone taste good. Glad you could change it out.
Too bad you had to deal with the weather to get back to your room after dinner.
Your second appetizer does not look good at all but I'm allergic to anything in the onion family and would never have ordered it. Your servers sound a little bit over eager.
The weather outside sounds horrible. I hope you don't have too much trouble driving home in the morning.
Liz
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Too bad the weather conditions were a bit brisk!
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The weather has been just as crazy over here as it has been for you guys. A couple of weeks ago, we were in the mid 70s (lovely) and today, while it's going to be sunny up here (I'm in the north east of England today), at home we had a month's worth of rain in one day yesterday and when I go out, I'm expecting it to be cold, albeit beautiful. It's going to be high 30s. 
I really hate jerks like that. 
What a charming area!! There is something beautiful about the sea when she is cold and angry!! How do you guys find these places?!
Here in CT, today was a beautiful day as sunny in the low 70's! 
Will moderate after that for a few days in the mid 60's, which is fine.
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