A magical Mediterranean vacation COMPLETED - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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Brunch looks fabulous! I was so sad we only had a 3 nighter, so I couldn't do brunch again this past March.
Your server looks like so much fun too.
I love Marks tie!
Your brunch looked so good and glad the chef was so accommodating with your food allergies! Sorry, to hear the daily Navigator is a bit of a mess. Shouldn't take much to organize it the way it should be! The two of you looked so decked out and up for the part of great photos!
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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!
Sunday 6 July – part five: you’ll be the first people in line tonight…
We headed over for what we thought was a basic backdrop, only to be told they’d just stopped doing photos, as the captain would be out in shortly. I asked how shortly, and was told a couple of minutes. Well Ok then, I guess we’ll be the first people to meet him tonight then… It was more than a couple of minutes, but for once, it was actually worth the wait. We’ve met quite a few captains over the years and some of them have been more painful than others – i.e. “hello”, “nice to meet you”, “how are you?”, right let’s get the photo over and done with. However, with Captain Robert, he was much more chatty. He asked if we’d cruised before, we explained we were on the inaugural Med cruise and how smooth this was compared to the previous time, and he started to explain the reasons why. I have to confess with his slightly thick accent, I didn’t follow all of it, but it certainly sounded impressive…
By the way, I just noticed the captain’s name on here is John, but it was definitely Robert – at least that’s what his name tag said and what everything on board the ship said anyway…
That done, we headed over to the boat backdrop, and that was us done for the professional shots for the evening.
However, the photographer with the captain had told us Chip and Dale were out, so we got in line for them, and wow, what a line. I think in total it was about a half hour wait, and we had some interesting moments during that wait… there was this guy:
As you can see, he got Chip and Dale to lie down on the floor, not once, but twice, as he then wanted a photo with his own camera. I also got chatting to the Cast Member, and unwittingly got her into trouble, as she’d cut the line, but a family sneaked in, then the father was very snarky when she told him the line had been cut, saying “well, maybe if you hadn’t been chatting, you could’ve told us earlier.” She just smiled, but I was so tempted to say words to the effect of, well maybe if you hadn’t tried sneaking it, probably knowing full well the line had been cut… I hate people like that.
By the time we’d finally seen Chip and Dale, we were running late for dinner so we headed off to Animator’s Palate, finding me another free drink on the way!
We were escorted to our table, which was almost as far from the entrance as it was possible to be – right at the back and on the other side of the restaurant. Mike apologised for the table, as it was a bit cramped, telling us this was the only restaurant it would be like this on the cruise.
Mari and Raleigh were already there, so it’s one all in terms of lateness to dinner now. We studied the menu, and Mari told me she wasn’t impressed. I had a look, and I have to admit I felt the same way. It certainly didn’t scream out to me the way last night’s had.
For appetiser, Mark went for the smoked salmon tartar with dill, capers, onion, pickles and a horseradish cream. I sneaked a taste, and it certainly had a kick to it – too much for me, but Mark seemed to enjoy it.
I went for the black truffle pasta purseittes, pasta purses filled with a truffle-scented cheese and coated with a champagne sauce. I did have to check whether it was vegetarian, as it wasn’t marked as that, but I was reassured it was fine, and it was very nice too.
For the soup, I had the creamy butternut squash soup, garnished with chives and drizzled with sour cream. I don’t know why I keep trying this on the cruise. I should know better by now, as I always find it too rich for my taste and tonight was no exception.
Mark had the serrano ham with tomato bread and Spanish olives. I know he enjoyed the ham, but wasn’t keen on the bread.
For entrée, really nothing was screaming out at me, but I eventually decided on the seared red snapper with scallops, crushed new potatoes and salsa verde. Sadly, this dish didn’t work for me at all. I found that in places it was fine, then I’d hit a patch that had too much salt on, and that was just horrible. I think I only made it halfway through. This was not going well… Bless Mike and Desiree, they kept asking if I wanted anything else, but there really wasn’t anything I fancied, so I kept saying and I’m sure I upset them, but I really wasn’t being difficult at all.
Mark had the lemon-thyme marinated all natural chicken breast, with sour cream mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables, and grain mustard jus.
As the meal wore on, we got to see various characters being created on the walls…
… and my donkey boy was even amongst them! :thewave
Then suddenly as we headed towards dessert, we started to see colour appearing on the sketches on the wall, one by one…
Love your formal wear, you both look great! I enjoyed the photos of empty Palo at brunch, very cool to see it in the day. We haven't done brunch yet but have one scheduled for our upcoming cruise. I thought we might cancel but your photos and descriptions might change our minds
Love your formal wear, you both look great! I enjoyed the photos of empty Palo at brunch, very cool to see it in the day. We haven't done brunch yet but have one scheduled for our upcoming cruise. I thought we might cancel but your photos and descriptions might change our minds
Oh don't cancel - brunch at Palo is truly amazing.
sounds like you are having a wonderful time. I'm sorry dinner wasn't what you were hoping for but everything else sounds great/ Having the spa all to yourself - heavenly!
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You and Mark look awesome all dressed up for formal night. 
Great photos, too. 
Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
Sorry, to hear the daily Navigator is a bit of a mess. Shouldn't take much to organize it the way it should be! 
The two of you looked so decked out and up for the part of great photos! 
It was more than a couple of minutes, but for once, it was actually worth the wait. We’ve met quite a few captains over the years and some of them have been more painful than others – i.e. “hello”, “nice to meet you”, “how are you?”, right let’s get the photo over and done with. However, with Captain Robert, he was much more chatty. He asked if we’d cruised before, we explained we were on the inaugural Med cruise and how smooth this was compared to the previous time, and he started to explain the reasons why. I have to confess with his slightly thick accent, I didn’t follow all of it, but it certainly sounded impressive… 
I hate people like that. 
so we headed off to Animator’s Palate, finding me another free drink on the way! 
We studied the menu, and Mari told me she wasn’t impressed. I had a look, and I have to admit I felt the same way. It certainly didn’t scream out to me the way last night’s had. 
I found that in places it was fine, then I’d hit a patch that had too much salt on, and that was just horrible. I think I only made it halfway through. This was not going well… Bless Mike and Desiree, they kept asking if I wanted anything else, but there really wasn’t anything I fancied, so I kept saying 
Holly: 
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