A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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.
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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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Beautiful photos of the famed White Cliffs! I was curious, so I googled what it is that makes them white. Even though they look like chalk, I was surprised to learn that's actually what it is, as I think of chalk as being rather soft. Cool!
You're right about chalk being soft. Although thankfully Dover's white cliffs haven't suffered as many of these problems, a bit further down the coast in Sussex (our neighbouring county/state), they've had some very dramatic cliff falls after heavy rain. The footage of them, as they've had TV crews there following earlier falls, are just unbelievable to see...
Great photos from the beginning of your sailing! Especially, those of the White Cliffs of Dover which are stunning! It is quite a sight to see and I remember this from the ferry on the trip from Calais.
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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!
We made our way back to the room and we got some photos of the views…
Just before 6:00pm, we made our way down for dinner. I’d noticed earlier on that our early dinner was at 6:00pm, rather than the 5:45pm we’d been used to on previous cruises. We found Mari and Raleigh leaving their room, so we headed down with them.
We were shown to our table and it was just the four of us, which I was pleased about. You could see we weren’t sailing full, as there were gaps and quite a lot of smaller tables. Normally, they’re frantically shoving everyone together on bigger tables, but not on this cruise, which was a relief actually.
We met our serving team, Widi (it’s longer than that, but that’s what we were told to call him) from Malaysia, who was a little hard to understand, but had his heart in the right place and was definitely trying, so I appreciated that, and Andrae from Jamaica. Almost immediately, Mari and Raleigh said they thought they recognised him and, as soon as he saw them, he said the same. It turned out he’d been their second assistant server on the Transatlantic they did last year (don’t ask how they ended up with a second one – it’s a long story ). They told us he was very good and I must admit I immediately gelled with him, which I was so relieved about. Given we’re going to be spending 18 nights with these guys, that was one of the only worries of this cruise, especially as we’ve had some less than stellar service in the past.
I was pleased, but also a bit disappointed, to see that they’d finally changed the menu at Animators Palate. For those who don’t know (and if not, where have you been? ), I’ve had quite a few disasters with the old menu in here to the point where I haven’t yet found anything that I can eat and enjoy on the entrée side of the menu. I was so pleased when I found out this was tonight, knowing we’d be in Palo, but when I saw the new menu, I was like “I want to try that”. Oh well, we’ll get to on the next cruise, as we have no Palo dinners booked for that cruise.
Now we weren’t going to eat anything, but there was one thing that caught my eye that I just had to try… the chilled mango and papaya soup flavoured with passion fruit. I’m so glad I did, as my goodness, that’s perhaps the best soup I’ve ever had. I told Andrae I could happily have that every night and his answer? “You just tell me when you want it and I’ll go and get it for you” I like this guy!
Not long after that, we headed off, leaving Mari and Raleigh to the rest of their dinner, as we needed to get ready for Palo and we also wanted to hit the shops, as hopefully they wouldn’t be too busy, now the show and dinner were underway. It was pretty quiet in there. There wasn’t that much Transatlantic stuff in there, they still had a lot of generic Europe 2018 stuff, which I wasn’t interested in. However, Mark managed to get two tops and I found one and we also got a limited edition pin, so I don’t think we did too badly.
We headed back to the room to get ready and we were treated to a beautiful sunset…
Around now, Google told me we were going past Hastings (as in the Battle of…) as we still had UK cell phone coverage. I could see the coast in the distance, but it was a bit misty, so I couldn’t make anything specific out. I know it has a pier, but I had no hope of getting a shot of that.
Once we were ready, we made our way out to dinner and I had to get a photo of what I think has to be the best stateroom door, certainly that we’ve seen so far anyway. Look at this!
I will say that when we got to our second cruise, every time I walked past this stateroom door, I was really sad not to see this decoration any longer. It really brightened my day for the whole of the Transatlantic cruise.
That soup looks and sounds delicious!! I am so glad to hear that your serving team appears to be on the up and up and that you bonded with them right away!! That stateroom door is delightful and who wouldn't love it?! Some people are so creative!!!
Two good things for AP! Well, one of those will last 18 nights so that is awesome!
Nice that it's just a table for the four of you. It's nice to meet new people of course, but sometimes it's nice to just be with your smaller circle.
Mmmmm, Palo.
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Tanya
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Sounds like your serving team is going to go well. Do you get the same team on both cruises when you do a B2B? That stateroom door is really creative. I can see why you smiled every time you passed it.
That soup looks and sounds delicious!! I am so glad to hear that your serving team appears to be on the up and up and that you bonded with them right away!!
Oh my goodness, I cannot begin to tell you what a huge relief that was for me. I was so dreading getting a poor service team and I was so glad that they were excellent. It really does make all the difference, I can tell you!
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That stateroom door is delightful and who wouldn't love it?! Some people are so creative!!!
The creativity of everyone on the Transatlantic cruise amazed me. You'll see some more examples of that as we go through this trip report, as I tried to photograph as many as I could. They were just wonderful! I'll just say that unfortunately the creativity didn't last into our second cruise...
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Especially, those of the White Cliffs of Dover which are stunning! 
). They told us he was very good and I must admit I immediately gelled with him, which I was so relieved about. Given we’re going to be spending 18 nights with these guys, that was one of the only worries of this cruise, especially as we’ve had some less than stellar service in the past. 
), I’ve had quite a few disasters with the old menu in here to the point where I haven’t yet found anything that I can eat and enjoy on the entrée side of the menu. I was so pleased when I found out this was tonight, knowing we’d be in Palo, but when I saw the new menu, I was like “I want to try that”. Oh well, we’ll get to on the next cruise, as we have no Palo dinners booked for that cruise. 
I like this guy! 
I am so glad to hear that your serving team appears to be on the up and up and that you bonded with them right away!! 
Boy, those are some decorations on that door! Can’t wait to hear about Palo!
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