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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thanks so much for putting in the time to do this report - it's brought back so many happy memories of my (four) visits to DLP. It's also made me realise that I still haven't seen everything!
Wow, Chez. I just caught up in one sitting, your entire report to date. I can't wait for Paul to get home so I can show him Tomorrowland. It really looks cool. I love Space Mountain and the X wing fighter. My favorite, though, is the Alice in Wonderland attraction. You and Mark did such a good job on all the photos. I especially like the one showing the deck of cards. I really feel like I got a good tour of DLP, thanks to the incredible number of photos you took. Mark's hat is too funny. Is that Professor Ludwig Von Drake?
It was now heading towards sunset, which made for some great shots:
We knew where we wanted to go, the Plaza Gardens. We had eaten there on our last visit and really enjoyed it and walked past it again earlier today and commented on how good it looked. When we arrived, we were asked if we were there for tea or dinner. I didn’t quite follow and said either. When we sat down, we could see why we were asked that, as there was a character meal to the right of the restaurant, which I guess was tea and guess who was there? None other than my favourite donkey boy! So at least I got to see him from a distance, which was a result.
We had the all you can eat buffet dinner and with it, I had the cocktail of the day, which was Martini, Campari and 7UP. I wasn’t sure what I would make of it, but I like Martini, so I thought that I’d give it a go and it wasn’t too bad, but was a little sour for my taste.
As for the food, that was excellent, although strangely some of the fish wasn’t the best. They had hot and cold food and dessert. Examples of what you could have included gratin of potatoes, garlic prawns, smoked salmon, fish terrine, blue cheese and tomatoes on crackers (nicer than it sounds) and salad items. I left some room for dessert and I’m glad I did, as the apple torte, pastries and berry cheesecake were all excellent.
I thought this was so neat, I just had to get a photo of it on the way out!
The bill came to €54, with the buffet costing €23 each. Not bad for what you get. This place does seem to serve consistently good food every time we eat here.
Plaza Gardens:
Salad items 8½ N/A
Hot food items 8½ 9½
Dessert 9½ 7
Service 7½ 8
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 8½ 8½
Average score: 8.50
When we came out, darkness had fallen completely and the castle was lit up. OK, so it’s nowhere near as good as in Florida, but it was still pretty neat all the same. I will admit I was hoping for a little more, as we saw lights covers over parts of the castle, as we walked round earlier, but I guess that some of those aren’t being used right now. We took a quick walk into Discoveryland to get some night time shots.
Then it was back to the hub and the walk down Main Street, as our day was nearly over.
We had one final stop to make. Earlier, when we went into the Emporium, we had seen an Eeyore bag for me, but we hadn’t got it then. Mark kept saying how good it would look one me, so we went back in to get it. I guess you’ll be seeing that addition at a Disney park near you sometime soon.
Then it really was time to head out. It was a shame it was over, but it had certainly been an action packed day and we had managed to fit a lot in, more than I thought we would.
The neighbouring Disney Village, their equivalent of Downtown Disney
We walked back to the station and, as it’s a terminus, there was a train in the station waiting for us, so on we got and it was off a few minutes later. Let me tell you that obviously Saturday night is the time that the French really come out to use their railway service. This was packed most of the way back, with standing room only. I couldn’t believe how busy it was.
It was the same story when we had to change trains at Chatelet Les Halles, the platform was packed. Fortunately, we got on board OK and were soon back at Gard du Nord.
We made it through customs, security and immigration easily enough and were soon in the waiting area. It was packed when we got there, as there was another train due to go just before ours, but as soon as they started boarding that, we were able to find a seat. The only problem was the one girl who sat next to us was up and down all the time to see her friends and, my goodness, she really did throw herself down every time she sat back down, so much so that the seats shock!
Finally we were boarding and then we were on our way back to Ebbsfleet International Station. The journey was a bit slow on the way back. Despite the fact that our train had been moved forward – we were notified about a week beforehand that it would be leaving 20 minutes earlier than it was timetabled – we still got back to the station at the original predicted time. That meant it took us a good 20 minutes more to get home than it took on the way out to Paris this morning.
I’m really glad we went back to Disneyland Paris. We didn’t come back that positive about the place the last time we visited in 2003. This trip helped to remind us that there are lot of good things about this park. Let’s get the bad things out of the way first:
There is little – or no – transition between the lands at Disneyland Paris, which is frustrating to say the least. That could be so much better and Disney World is an example of how they could do it.
There’s smoking in most of the park. That makes for a pretty unpleasant experience, especially as it’s not something you’ll find in either of the American parks these days.
As you may have noticed from the photos and what we were wearing, it wasn’t the warmest of days. The wind at Disneyland Paris can be really biting and I think today the temperature didn’t get above the low 40’s. I really wish they had chosen a warmer location for this place.
Another issue with the location is unfortunately the French attitude. Some of the French guests really surprised me with how mice and polite they were, but others just barged me out of the way. In particular, I had three people do that to me as I tried to leave Alice’s Curious Labyrinth. That sort of thing leaves a sour taste in your mouth.
Although it’s clear they are starting to try, they still haven’t mastered how this queuing thing works with the characters either. They’re getting there, but it’s still a mess at times and a real scrum.
All that aside, Disneyland Paris is probably one of the best themed Disney parks, despite the problem with the transition between lands. In the middle of Adventure Isle, our attention was drawn to the beautiful white sand everywhere and Discoveryland is just stunning with its Jules Verne theming.
It has some wonderful unique attractions that could easily be exported to other parks. I hope that some will be one day. In particular, there’s no reason why Alice’s Curious Labyrinth and a different version of Cinemagique couldn’t find their way into some of the other parks.
They also have some of the best versions of some of the real Disney classics, like Pirates of the Caribbean and Snow White.
They have by far the best castle, because they’ve made more of it then anywhere else. On a visit here, you have to see the story of Sleeping Beauty and visit the dragon – what great additions those would be to any other Disney castle.
Their merchandise has improved beyond belief and they have a much better selection on offer now than in Florida – I really never thought I’d say that.
We came away feeling that Disneyland Paris has really learnt from its weaknesses in the last few years and has done what it can to improve and, my goodness, if it carries on like this, it will continue to just get better and better. It was a pleasant to return and see so much had changed and I hope that trend goes on. Fifteen years in and Disneyland Paris really has the makings of a stunning park and it’s getting there. It’s certainly gone up a lot in my estimation.
Having bought tickets that are good for two days in a year, I now can’t wait to go back and I really didn’t think that I would be saying that in a hurry.
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Beautiful! Thanks for sharing your trip!
I think the castle in DLP is really neat (esp. at night) because of the sculptures on the tops of the spires and it has attractions inside it.
What was the loaf on the plate with the prawns?
I did not see a photo of the Eeyore bag !
I am sorry to hear about the boorish people, especially in a country that claims to be more 'cultured' than others. I know you know that you find people like that all over (sigh).
I would like to see the Jules Verne area -- in the MK, it's practically an American (self) love-fest -- we like to think we invented everything! I think many miss 20,000 Leagues, now that it's gone.
I hope you have a fantastic trip to Hong Kong, it will be nice to hear about it soon!
I really like the fiber-optic lights in the banners. They add a nice touch to the scenery at night time.
The buffet looks very tasty.
Thanks for sharing your trip with us Cheryl!
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing your trip!
I think the castle in DLP is really neat (esp. at night) because of the sculptures on the tops of the spires and it has attractions inside it.
What was the loaf on the plate with the prawns?
I did not see a photo of the Eeyore bag !
I am sorry to hear about the boorish people, especially in a country that claims to be more 'cultured' than others. I know you know that you find people like that all over (sigh).
I would like to see the Jules Verne area -- in the MK, it's practically an American (self) love-fest -- we like to think we invented everything! I think many miss 20,000 Leagues, now that it's gone.
I hope you have a fantastic trip to Hong Kong, it will be nice to hear about it soon!
Sorry - I totally forgot about a photo of the Eeyore bag. The loaf with the prawns actually turned out to be quite boring - I thought it was going to be cheesy with some nice herbs in it, but unfortunately now.
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Such neat things they have at that park 
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