A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 14 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel 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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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Two good things for AP! Well, one of those will last 18 nights so that is awesome!
Well, yes and no, as you'll find out in due course...
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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.
I love meeting new people, don't get me wrong and we've made some great friends in all our cruises, including Mari and Raleigh of course! However, when you're cruising with good friends, I'd rather be just with them, so we can catch up!
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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?
You do, but not when the serving team are undergoing changes themselves, let's just put it that way... All will be explained in due course...
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That stateroom door is really creative. I can see why you smiled every time you passed it.
I still smile just seeing the photo of that door. Love, love, love it! They did put a note up at one point, thanking everyone for their comments about it and I thought that was lovely.
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Oh, all those lighthouses! They are different! I will have to come see them one day! How funny you met the couple from DC, yes, I can attest, I never go downtown, except for work. When I'm not working, the LAST place I want to be is downtown! WE do when we have visitors, but for ourselves, no.
THAT DOOR!!! OH MY GOODNESS! That is amazing and quite a work of art and labor of love! I shall feel quite poorly about ours on our next cruise...it's a Merrytime cruise, perhaps some lights?
Glad to hear you were happy with the service team. That would be awful to be stuck with lousy service for the duration!
Trust me, we would not have been! We've had three or four night cruises with bad servers and we just put up with it, as we couldn't be bothered to argue it, but for 18 nights, we'd have definitely said something!
Oh, all those lighthouses! They are different! I will have to come see them one day!
You'd love them!
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How funny you met the couple from DC, yes, I can attest, I never go downtown, except for work. When I'm not working, the LAST place I want to be is downtown! WE do when we have visitors, but for ourselves, no.
I understand that. We tend to only go into the centre of London, either me for work, when we're meeting friends or when we're doing the visitor thing and going to one or more attractions or perhaps when we've got a booking for a show. We never just pop in for no reason, if that makes sense?
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THAT DOOR!!! OH MY GOODNESS! That is amazing and quite a work of art and labor of love!
Gosh completely! I hope they have other cruises coming up where they can re-use it.
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I shall feel quite poorly about ours on our next cruise...it's a Merrytime cruise, perhaps some lights?
I hear you on that! I felt so embarrassed about our door in comparison to others. Don't get me wrong, I think we did Ok, but others put so much more effort in. In our defence, trying to get magnetic paper over here was an absolute nightmare, so I think you guys are ahead of us already on that....
When we arrived, I must admit I stepped off the elevator and thought “I’m home”! I do love this place.
We waited to see who the maitre d’ was, thinking we might recognise them from another cruise, but we didn’t. A bigger surprise was that he was French, not Italian! We later found out he came from Remy and he’s only the second non-Italian to hold that position. Wow.
We didn’t see anyone we recognised in Palo tonight, which was surprising, but actually it was fine, as we found out that there are other wonderful people working in there who we’ve just not had the time to encounter before.
We had Nikola from Serbia and, despite how the name sounds, he was a guy. He couldn’t have been better. We chatted away to him about all sorts of things, including the break-up of Yugoslavia (I didn’t realise it’s now six countries, I could name four…), football (he’s a big fan of a club that’s been matched with Liverpool, Mark’s club, in the Champions League) and even his personal life. This is his last contract with Disney and he gets off after the two cruises to Quebec and back, as he got married a couple of years ago (he met his wife on the Magic) and they want to have kids. He doesn’t have a job to go back to in Serbia and, as he said, he’ll take whatever he can. Kudos to him for his go getting attitude.
We were able to spend so long chatting to him and Nabil, the French maitre d’, as Palo was quieter than we’ve ever seen it before. I’d say it probably wasn’t even half full. It made for a very relaxed evening and I noticed a lot of the wait staff and even the chefs smiling and having fun, presumably because they weren’t rushed off their feet.
How did I know about the chefs? Because we had the most amazingly positioned table with a view of the kitchen. They said it was the best table in the house and I have to agree with them!
There was also a beautiful sunset outside, so I went to get some shots of it, but only managed a couple, as I was getting blown away and my poor hair was suffering!
We got underway with the antipasti trolley. Poor old Nikola, I turned down everything except for the parmesan cheese and the peppers! However, I was perfectly happy with what I got…
Mark had a bit more than me…
I decided to get a glass of wine and opted for the Rosa Regale, after a discussion with Nikola. He ended up opening a new bottle for me, as in his words “Mickey insists on the best for his guests”. Ok then, I won’t argue with the Mouse on that!
When we finally got to appetiser, we decided to share two items. Ironically, we had both thought separately about getting the same two things… our long standing favourite the tomato mozzarella caprese – sliced beefsteak tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella, basil, virgin olive oil and arugula leaves. This was just as good as always, although I couldn’t get over the taste of the tomatoes. How the heck do they keep them this fresh and wonderful tasting? Yes I appreciate that they took food on board today, but I’m willing to bet they’ll be just as wonderful later in the cruise.. of course I could be wrong…
We also had the fritto di calamari e gamberi or deep-fried shrimp and calamari with lemon-garlic mayonnaise and marinara dippings and this was beautiful as well.
We had our palate cleanser of the lemon sorbet and we both commented that this was sweeter than usual and, therefore for me, much more pleasant.
Your Palo experience, so far, sounds impeccable!! What a wonderful table you guys got on top of an attentive server and delicious food!! The photos you did get of the sunset are amazing!! Cheryl, you are such an awesome photographer!! I can't wait to hear about the rest of your meal!!
Your Palo experience, so far, sounds impeccable!! What a wonderful table you guys got on top of an attentive server and delicious food!!
Oh it was an amazing meal and I'm really glad we went on the first night. It made such a difference, as it was lovely and quiet in there, which definitely contributed to a much more attentive service.
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The photos you did get of the sunset are amazing!! Cheryl, you are such an awesome photographer!!
It’s nice that its a slower evening so you have a chance to really get to know your server. I must say your wine is a beautiful colour not sure if its the lighting but it has a nice purple shade. Glad the meal is off to a great start.
It’s nice that its a slower evening so you have a chance to really get to know your server. I must say your wine is a beautiful colour not sure if its the lighting but it has a nice purple shade..
No, it's not the lighting. It does have a stunning colour to it.
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It really says something about Palo that you feel so comfortable there. And that you know a lot of the people who normally work there! Very fun that you got to meet new ones this time. And even better (maybe?) that they weren't as busy so you could really enjoy it in a totally new way!
I was going to comment on the wine color too, wow! I don't drink wine but have never seen other peoples glasses with that color either. Very unique.
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It really says something about Palo that you feel so comfortable there. And that you know a lot of the people who normally work there! Very fun that you got to meet new ones this time. And even better (maybe?) that they weren't as busy so you could really enjoy it in a totally new way!
They were certainly as good as and possibly better, but it's so hard to judge, as nearly everyone we've had at Palo is amazing...
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I was going to comment on the wine color too, wow! I don't drink wine but have never seen other peoples glasses with that color either. Very unique.
It's so beautiful, isn't it? And it tastes pretty good too...
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Well, one of those will last 18 nights so that is awesome!
However, when you're cruising with good friends, I'd rather be just with them, so we can catch up! 
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We've had three or four night cruises with bad servers and we just put up with it, as we couldn't be bothered to argue it, but for 18 nights, we'd have definitely said something!
We later found out he came from Remy and he’s only the second non-Italian to hold that position. Wow. 
However, I was perfectly happy with what I got… 
I can't wait to hear about the rest of your meal!! 
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