The trip of many changes... TRIP REPORT UPDATED 4/25 - Page 11 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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There must not have been a good beef option for Mark to have ended up with turkey!
You know him so well! Don't get me wrong, he loves his turkey during the holiday season and I think it's fair to say that he eats as many turkey meals as he can at that time of the year, but generally he doesn't go for it during the rest of the year.
I just looked up the rest of the menu and there was New York strip steak on the menu. I asked him why he didn't get it and the simple answer is he'd had steak for lunch and didn't fancy more that evening. So now we know!
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So the show in Tiana’s must be like the full show in Animator’s Palate - only one time in a sailing?
Well, they have two different shows for the seven night sailing, so we still got a show, just not the full show, if that makes sense? That's how it felt to me anyway.
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Was there music all thru dinner? I loved the way the ambiance sounded when you described this restaurant the last time.
There was music through quite a bit of dinner, but there were more quiet periods than the other show.
Well that's a bummer. (I guess good to know the real show was later in the cruise.) Turkey for Mark? Is that drink still affecting his judgment? hahaha....
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But kind of a disappointing dinner to kick off the cruise. Well, let's hope that this was the worst thing for the week, then it's not that bad, right?!
Well, I can tell you I didn't have a great experience at one of our other dinners... but we've got a while before we get to that...
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I agree with Julia above - the china is really cute! I love that they have the frog detail on there. It's these little things!
And, let's face it, that's what we all love Disney for!
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It sounds like the first night's dinner was less than awe inspiring. I wonder if you could have gotten the shrimp without the sausage. Of course, it might have been cooked together, but doesn't sound like it would have been.
I figured it might have been and I know that they pre-prepare most things, so I thought it was unlikely they'd be able to do it for me. I guess maybe I should at least enquire next time and not just assume...
I finally had my ankle surgery done today, after an abortive attempt last week due to the snow. I won't go into the details here - there's a post in the Family Room if you want to read more, but I didn't know if all of you go down there. I just wanted to say it's very nice to get back from the hospital and read all your comments on this trip report. for sharing them and making me feel good. You guys are the best!
Dinner looked very good with the gravlax and swordfish. Just had the latter the other night, which was quite good that I made myself. Too bad with the queasiness of the waves at sea and always common on both ends of the ship. Always good idea to get a midship room if you can, but I don't need to tell you that.
Funny that you mentioned in my reply from yesterday about the French with wine at an early age. My sister in law's mom is from France and my nephew and niece have been having wine at holiday dinners since they were about 13. I had just mentioned this minutes ago in Alaskan Mom's TR before I saw this.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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Dinner looked very good with the gravlax and swordfish. Just had the latter the other night, which was quite good that I made myself.
Sounds lovely. I have to confess I love swordfish and don't get to have it as much as I'd like...
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Too bad with the queasiness of the waves at sea and always common on both ends of the ship. Always good idea to get a midship room if you can, but I don't need to tell you that.
That's why we always get a midship room but that's what always makes us laugh - the restaurants are at one end of the ship, just where you're more likely to feel the motion. I never understand why every cruise line seems to do that.
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Funny that you mentioned in my reply from yesterday about the French with wine at an early age. My sister in law's mom is from France and my nephew and niece have been having wine at holiday dinners since they were about 13. I had just mentioned this minutes ago in Alaskan Mom's TR before I saw this.
I literally just saw that a few minutes ago. Yes, the French are ridiculously relaxed about alcohol at a young age, which is no bad thing, having experienced that myself growing up. It led to some entertaining episodes, especially as I was first drunk at the age of three after having had some of my dad's wine! Apparently I got back to the room, told my parents the room was spinning and then proceeded to go to sleep. They still tell me that it was one of the best night's sleep I ever had!
Well, not the most inspiring first meal on this cruise.
No, not really. I find it sad, as I'm sure the quality of food on Disney cruises has deteriorated in recent years - unless it's just us being more picky?
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Sunday 14 January – part seven: don’t judge by appearances…
For dessert, thankfully I found something I liked the sound of – the tiramisu, but with no sugar added. After the wonderful no sugar added strawberry panna cotta I’d had at the Crystal Palace, I was prepared to give it a go. However, it was disappointing. I had figured as much from the look of it, but I thought “no, don’t judge by appearances”. However, my initial reaction was right.
Mark went for the banoffee cream pie, but peeled off most of the cream, as he’s been having issues with his sinuses. In fairness, the menu had described “an abundance of whipped cream”.
So how was the service? It was fine – no issues and they seem very nice. We have Mabel as our assistant server, although I noticed although it’s pronounced that way, it’s not written that way and don’t ask me to write it out, as it was complicated on her name tag and Henry as our server. We didn’t really get much opportunity to gel with them, but it’s a promising start at least. We didn't see our head server, so I have no idea about him/her.
All in all, it was a good meal, but not great and great is what I’d expected after our first wonderful experience at Tiana’s almost a year ago. I don’t like the fact Disney have changed something that was superb originally. It’s a real shame. And I stress again here, it wasn't a replacement, that meal was still to come in the schedule - phew!
Oh and I forgot to mention our tablemates. We’re on a table of eight and two other guys called Mark - yes, seriously! – and one called Brian. As to the women’s names, I can’t remember in all honesty. I feel bad saying that, but we were closest to the two Marks and spoke most to them, as it was quite loud and hard to hear any further away. They all seem nice enough. One woman is on her 19th cruise, so she has us beat, although her husband isn’t anywhere near that. We didn’t like to enquire further. One couple have done four cruises and another are gold members. They’re also Disney Vacation Club members. That’s about all I can tell you for now.
After dinner, we headed off to get our free cocktails at the Disney Vacation Club member meet, but I was left disappointed, as they only had one and it had dark rum in. I can’t have that, as I pass out and I don’t mean that happens if I drink too much – it can happen on a very small amount and it’s quite scary.
It was basically a sales pitch, but dressed up a bit and we did at least learn about some new discounts on board, which I didn’t know about, so it was worth going along. They obviously still haven’t got the timings quite right though, as they had to shelve the last video, as it was getting a bit tight on time for those who wanted to go to the late show or had late dining. It was Ok, but not great. We didn’t win anything, including the $200 onboard credit, which was a shame, but not a surprise. We never seem to win in these things.
We had a quick browse around the shops and I saw some jewellery that I was interested in, but with the way the ship was still pitching, I didn’t spend too much time browsing. It wasn’t fun, let’s put it that way. I’d say it was a 6 or 7 out of 10 for movement.
Even though it was still early, we headed back to the room, as we were exhausted and the rolling of the boat was not helping. Poor old Mark was suffering with his sinuses and just wanted to sleep and I couldn’t blame him. This is what greeted us when we arrived back…
By 8:30pm, we were both in bed and despite the noise the ship was making with things moving with the pitching, I did get off to sleep relatively easily…
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the low 80s. The best thing today was getting started on our southern Caribbean cruise. The worst thing today was how much we were pitching around after we left San Juan. Today we tried leaving a Disney cruise out of San Juan And the result was it wasn’t too bad, although they could’ve had more chairs in the cruise terminal and it would’ve been nice to leave earlier, rather than during dinner. The most magical moment today was getting our free bottle of Prosecco for being platinum members that we didn’t even know we qualified for!
Mark’s dessert looked delicious, sorry yours was disappointing. Hopefully Mark’s sinuses do not get worse and he feels better with a good nights sleep.
Some of the sugar free desserts are delicious - and hard to believe they’re sugar free. But that tiramisu? No thank you! I had a cinnamon creme brûlée that was sugar free on our last cruise (it may be part of my next installment?) and it was disappointing as well. But I had a sugar free lemon pie (I think) that was delicious!
That was an early night! But I know how that feels with the pitching - sometimes being in bed is the best thing, as the rocking lulls you to sleep, and has a different effect if you’re trying to walk around.
Well that’s a bummer that dessert wasn’t that great. It’s usually the best part of the meal!
Was it a little scary with the ship pitching that much? Or kind of just - oh it’s a little rough, but nobody was getting sick? I recall the one night we had rough seas and people were getting ill left and right!
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Don't get me wrong, he loves his turkey during the holiday season and I think it's fair to say that he eats as many turkey meals as he can at that time of the year, but generally he doesn't go for it during the rest of the year. 
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for sharing them and making me feel good. You guys are the best! 
Too bad with the queasiness of the waves at sea and always common on both ends of the ship. Always good idea to get a midship room if you can, but I don't need to tell you that.
I have to confess I love swordfish and don't get to have it as much as I'd like... 
I feel bad saying that, but we were closest to the two Marks and spoke most to them, as it was quite loud and hard to hear any further away. They all seem nice enough. One woman is on her 19th cruise, so she has us beat, although her husband isn’t anywhere near that. We didn’t like to enquire further. One couple have done four cruises and another are gold members. They’re also Disney Vacation Club members. That’s about all I can tell you for now. 
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