Escaping The Brutal Northeast For Sunny, Warm Florida and Fun! Completed 7/12 - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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As Cam said, you certainly will eat well. I'm curious about the next instalment...
I certainly wasn't worried about not eating well on my trip! Stay tuned!
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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!
Great ADRs.
Can't wait to see if the best day of your life happened!?
Glad you like my ADR choices!
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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!
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!
Yayy almost to the start of the trip! Things shaped up nicely for you
Almost here! Things came together well. Just a matter of good planning and staying on top of things!
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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!
Well. I’m sure you’re wondering about the headline of this next post, aren’t you. Was today, the best day of my life? It certainly ranks up there.
After over 15 months of my initial offer, today I finally closed on my first real estate purchase. It’s a 2 Bedroom condominium with 1 ½ baths, kitchen, small dining room. large living room and a pretty big deck with sliders. I probably had looked a 30 or more of them with my realtor over time. Now, what took so long to close on this? It was a short sale and I got it at a very good price, when I put my offer in, two days after Thanksgiving in 2012. These things take a lot of time and everything has to fall into place correctly for the sale to go through. Lot of headaches with this and I’d never do it again. It takes a lot of patience, which wasn't always easy! There were two banks involved on the seller’s side who held the lien on the condo and the two of them were never in agreement with each other. The whole sale fell apart at one point in the summer of 2013 so the whole process had to be started over again. The seller’s attorney and realtor weren’t always the most competent at putting this together, so certain documents that had to be submitted at times by them weren’t, so they’d have to be submitted and re-submitted.
Just after Christmas,2013 things started to look more promising and seemed the sale would finally go through. In February it was all approved and we set up a closing date for March and on this day I finally closed on it! What a relief and sense of joy this was! I’m glad I had a relative as my attorney and also a good realtor, who both kept up on the whole process. Just wish the seller’s team had done the same. So, overall I got a good price as the value of the other units, including mine in my development have all increased in value, quite a bit since my initial offer and is the price I paid for it. It’s located in a good area, a very nice development and I’m only about two miles form work. Even better, it’s in move in condition and doesn’t need any major work. Just some painting and fixing this and that.
I had to drive about twnety minutes from work and sign all the documents for the closing. I couldn’t believe the stack of these involved!! It was done, but it was still a busy day for me as I’d be attending a trade show for work later that day, which I’d be staying over at Foxwoods Resort and Casino. So after closing, I returned to work and finished up there and then headed out with some work colleagues to Foxwoods. I was exhausted, but had to do work stuff there. Although, the dinner and cocktail hour were quite relaxing!
Sunday, March 16
Today, my brother and I went to a local independent appliance store and make my first major purchase for my condominium. Always, good to have a second pair of eyes when making these purchases. It was for a washer/dryer as the one in my condo is kind of old and certainly needed an upgraded one. I decided, what I wanted and they would have it delivered next Saturday, March 15 as well as removing the old pair.
Saturday, March 22
Today, not only is my washer and dryer being delivered, but a week from now, I’ll be in Walt Disney World. My washer/dryer is scheduled for delivery between 11 am-2 pm. I had some time in the morning to do other things before it was being delivered, so I began some of my packing for my trip. It was basically, my golf bag and all the golf related things I’d need for my trip. I thought, that was all I’d have time for.
It got to be almost 2 pm and my washer and dryer had not been delivered yet. I called the company and said they were running behing and would be shortly. They arrived about 2:15, took out the old stackable units and brought up and installed the new washer/dryer. When they took out the old one, you should have seen all the bunnies in the alcove, where it was located. So I did a quick cleaning job, while they were working on taking the old units outside. Once my new combo was hooked up, it was a happy day as I’d no longer have to drop off/pickup for fluff and fold service anymore. The old washer had a leak, so I wasn’t about to use it.
This is what it looks like!
Now, you’re saying,,,where’s the dryer? It’s right there as is the washer. It’s a condensing/ventless combo, one unit from LG. In my condo complex, we cannot have dryers that vent to the outside. At one time you could, but they sealed up the vents here. I guess it saves them money, plus some owners may not have been cleaning the vents. So it’s either a washer/dryer combo like this or getting a kit in which the lint goes into a pan. No thanks! So I went with what I got and made the right choice! These combos are relatively new in the USA, but somewhat common in Europe as many of you from across the pond are probably quite familiar with or even own one. They are about the same price as two separate units, but are a big space saver and good on the electric bill as well! Looking forward to using this for the first time!
NEXT: Packing Up and Readying to Go!
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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!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
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!
Very nice! I can see why this was one of your best days. We've had a similar washer / dryer unit, and it worked well.
Another question - how did you decide to do the Queen Victoria Room over just the regular V&A dinner? I'm concerned it might be too much food.
It was most certainly a great day with the long closing! Glad I'm not the only one who is familiar with these type of w/d units!
I have dined in Queen Victoria's Room on a couple of previous occasions. Both times using some Disney Visa Rewards Points, but still paying a good part of the bill by CC, but still save a lot! It's a hefty bill, but it's an amazing dining experience if you can afford it. Love the main dining room as well, but QV is just amazing! It's tough to top this experience and I've been to some great restaurants in my day, including a couple of the best ones in NYC and V&A's definitely gets the nod on this for sure!
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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!
Many thanks Laurie as it was so drawn out, but so worth it!!!
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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!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
It will depend on how much you want to spend. Using Disney Visa Rewards Points helps and if you don't have one, I'd suggest one. Check it out!
Below are the links for the Main Dining Room and Queen Victorias/Chef's Table (These are the same). A good web site and lot to explore. The menu changes from night to night, although a lot of menu items can be similar on similar nights, but always some changes, especially with seasonal things. The dessert menu doesn't seem to change much for some reason and this is over many years as the rest of the menu does!
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!
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!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
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I'm curious about the next instalment...
Stay tuned! 
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Was today, the best day of my life? 
It certainly ranks up there. 
Now, what took so long to close on this? It was a short sale and I got it at a very good price, when I put my offer in, two days after Thanksgiving in 2012. 
There were two banks involved on the seller’s side who held the lien on the condo and the two of them were never in agreement with each other. 
The seller’s attorney and realtor weren’t always the most competent at putting this together, so certain documents that had to be submitted at times by them weren’t, so they’d have to be submitted and re-submitted. 
It’s located in a good area, a very nice development and I’m only about two miles form work. Even better, it’s in move in condition and doesn’t need any major work. Just some painting and fixing this and that. 
Liz 
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