Don't Stop - Disney part 2 UPATED 5/5 - Page 33 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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That was nice that you got seated before your ADR I hope the next update is that your food is steaming and not you.
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
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Wow. I just tried to get through your TR. I love how many pictures you have been able to add in. I cannot wait to read more of your trip. Amazing!
I got excited seeing the pictures of T-Rex. We were thinking about trying it for our next trip, but it was not fitting in easily. Now I am wondering how we may make it work. It looks AMAZING!
Thanks for sharing all the details in photos and text!
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The room at the Hyatt looks really nice, I love how you can look out into the airport. Sorry for the long wait at the YS, hope that the rest of the meal makes up for it.
We were finally taken in and I was very happy with where we were seated, right by the window in the oval area that overlooks the walkway around the Yacht Club. I had always secretly wanted to sit here and now we were.
However, things didn’t improve from the poor start here. We waited and waited for our server and waited a bit more. There was no sign of anyone coming to see us. By the time we had been sitting there for about 10 minutes and we had already decided what to have for appetiser and entree and were ready to order, I thought things were getting beyond a joke. I got up and saw a manager and very pleasantly explained what had happened and that I didn’t think that it was acceptable.
Within a moment, we had a server, Brandon, who seemed very nice, but also a bit nervous, as he was stammering a bit, as he went through the menu. I got the impression that he wasn’t usually like that. I guess the manager said something then.... We eventually came to the conclusion that perhaps he didn’t know that he was meant to be waiting on us, as he seemed so nice and so attentive that we couldn’t believe he had just walked by us twice on purpose.
For appetiser, I went for the jumbo shrimp cocktail with champagne-citrus aioli and lime cocktail sauce and that lived up to its name, although I had no idea when I ordered it that it would literally come out steaming. Apparently it was served on a bed of dry ice, which made for a really neat effect and boy, those shrimps were so good.
Mark went for the Caesar salad and he certainly got a huge lump of it on his plate. I had a taste and it was very good.
For entree, Mark decided to go with the prime New York strip steak, a 12-oz strip steak with peppercorn brandy sauce and potato gratin with diamond white cheddar, after seeing the size of the Porterhouse and realising that there was no way that he could do that justice, as it was 24-ozs. He even struggled with what he was given.
I went for the fish dish, the Faroe Islands ocean trout with eggplant tarte tatin, rainbow chard with cara-cara orange butter sauce. It was beautiful in its sauce, just divine. The sad thing was that they had paired it with some vegetables that just didn’t work with it. The eggplant and chard were just far too heavy for the fish and would’ve been better with a meat dish. As a result, I was very glad that I had ordered creamed spinach as a side dish, as that went with the dish perfectly.
Mark also got some Brussels sprouts to go with his and he got a mountain of them. There were enough for about four people and he barely made a dent in his.
Mark passed on dessert, as he was just too full and I opted for the Artisan cheese platter, as I had enjoyed it so much last time I was here. Sadly, it wasn’t to live up to the expectation again. The platter came with Humbolt fog, Beemster XO, Robiola and gorgonzola dolce. I couldn’t even finish the gorgonzola dolce, as it was so sharp and the Robiola, I could only eat without the accompany onion jam, as to me, that just didn’t go with it at all. The other two cheeses were great and the Humbolt fog went beautifully with the almond fig bark they provided. It’s a shame that the others didn’t work that well.
All in all, we did enjoy our meal here and Brendan did come through in the end and proved to be a very good and caring server, but the whole start to the night did leave a sour taste in our mouths and we came away, saying that we preferred our experience at the Flying Fish Cafe the night before.
Yachtsman Steakhouse:
Appetiser 9½ 9½
Entree 9 9
Dessert 8 N/A
Service 9 9½
Atmosphere 8½ 9
Value for money 9½ 9½
Average score: 9.09
We finally rolled out of there and a word here about the Deluxe Dining Plan, as this was our last meal on it. We had again succeeded in spending every snack and table service credit, which I was very proud of. As far as savings went, they actually came out at a massive $298 over the five nights we were there, which I was amazed by. I know we can save a lot of money on the Dining Plan, but the amount we saved surprised even me.
We walked slowly out through the Beach Club, saying goodbye to our favourite resort and picked up the car from valet and headed back to the airport and our room at the Hyatt.
We dropped the car back at Avis and discovered that now you need to keep the car rental documents with you to hand back the car, something we have never done before. At least we know for next time....
We walked back into the terminal and headed for the hotel. We were surprised that all the shops were closed for the night. I guess there couldn’t be many more flights in at this time of the night, which surprised me, as it was only 9.00 by now. I assumed that flights ran much later than that, but maybe not.
We got back to the hotel....
.... and headed back to the room, ordering a wake-up call for 5.30 and bell services for 6.30, who would help us with our luggage all the way to check-in, which we thought was worth doing.
Then it was off to bed. It had been a great Christmas Day.
The weather today was humid with some showers and a lot of cloud, with temperatures in the low 80s. The best thing today was my entree at Tutto Italia. The worst thing today was leaving Disney and the wait for the Yachtsman Steakhouse. Today we tried seeing the American Adventure And the result was it’s much better than we remembered it being. The most magical moment today was catching the Voices of Liberty perform.
Just so you're aware, the next installment will be posted in the Globetrotting trip reports forum, as we're off to stay with Sue and Steve in the Pocono mountains next.
I'll post a link here tomorrow, when I start that segment of the report.
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