A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Oh my gosh, that food all looks amazing!
And I agree - can't wait to see the bathroom now! And wondering if some of the hand towels may now be across the pond?
Tuesday 8 September – part eleven: I bet they had a good laugh at my antics!
For the fourth course, I got the iron seared fish of the day (and I am so sorry, I forgot what it was now ) with crayfish hoppin’ John and sun gold tomato sauce. Once again, everything on the plate was just perfect, and yet another course where I could happily have carried on eating this for the rest of the night.
This was the wine I had with this:
I’m no wine expert, but I’d describe this as oaky, which surprised me, as white wines I normally have aren’t like that, but this one was, and I didn’t mind it at all.
Mark had the petit Angus filet mignon with Tasso ham scalloped potatoes and collard green peas:
I think it was here that the fireworks went off, but sadly we didn’t have a good view of them from our table. I did try to sneak a look through the big window you saw earlier (the one that used to be a fireplace) but I couldn’t see much, and getting photos was nigh on impossible, so I gave up. Oh well, I guess we’ll see them tomorrow night instead…
Mari and I were the only ones who went for the whole six courses, as number five was the cheese course, made up of chevre panna cotta, and artisanal cheeses with wine poached figs, fig velvet, quince paste (not me, given my allergies) and pistachio butter on toasted brioche. I will say straight off the bat here that the pistachio butter on toasted brioche was just weird, and quite heavy, and I didn’t feel like it went with this dish at all. I also did not like the chevre panna cotta. It had been whipped so much that it had a very weird texture to it. Sadly, this was my least favourite dish of the whole meal.
Now at this point, I felt the need to visit the restrooms again and this time my trusty camera came with me, so I could document the splendour of them..
I also bought my handbag with me, so that some of those embossed hand paper towels could just find their way into my bag to go home… I must admit, as I stood there doing that, and taking all of the photos you’ve just seen, I couldn’t help but wonder if Disney have CCTV in here, and if they do, I bet someone was having a darned good laugh at my antics!
As I made my way back to the table, I took the opportunity to photograph everything on the way, from the reception area…
… to the entrance to the restaurant…
… the restaurant itself…
As I walked back in, I realised we were now the last table standing, as everyone else had departed, with the other table leaving just as I came out of the restrooms. We now literally had the place to ourselves!
The final course was dessert, and I had the Mississippi molten chocolate cake, vanilla bean marshmallows, and café au lait ice cream. The cake and the ice cream were wonderful, but I wasn’t so sure about the marshmallows, both in terms of texture and flavour, as they made the dish taste very sweet. Thank goodness for the ice cream, which was a bit more bitter to take away from that sweetness.
Mark went for the warm monkey bread with old fashioned vanilla ice cream and candied pecan praline. However, it came out with a very nice touch to it.
Next: please, can we just photograph the castle at night
Incredible! The meal, the atmosphere! That is more than a bathroom! It is an experience! I am so happy for you to have been able to go there. Amazing. I totally would have grabbed some of those towels too. LOL
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) with crayfish hoppin’ John and sun gold tomato sauce. Once again, everything on the plate was just perfect, and yet another course where I could happily have carried on eating this for the rest of the night. 
Oh well, I guess we’ll see them tomorrow night instead… 
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