From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 7/24 - Page 14 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Your seafood pasta dish is my favorite too! It's a great dish! I'm pretty sure that the Florentine shard is not a reduction; I think it's the cookie/wafer thing in the sundae. Pretty sad that your servers didn't know the answer to your question.
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Your meal at Tiana's looked very good for the most part! Too bad your service team was just god awful! Good going with your table mates taking the tips away from them as they certainly didn't deserve any!
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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!
Well if the service was bad, I'm glad that (most of) the food made up for it! And the Pirate party aspect was still fun!
A real shame about the service though. You answered just what I was going to ask there - did you already sort out the tips?!
Well, I did answer it and now at least I know what to do if a similar situation arises again - I hope it doesn't. We're always so conscious about tipping whenever we're in the States, as we know it's an integral part of wages, so we feel really bad whenever we get bad service, as it's such a dilemma for us to know what to do about it. We tend to tip on the lower side at a restaurant, but when it's a cruise, we've usually just left it as it was.
Your meals looked delicious but it's just too bad that you were so disappointed in the dining service this cruise. It does send a message to a server when you reduce or hold back a tip that they need to step it up next time if they want a tip!
Yes it does, and that's a good way of putting it. Thanks - that makes me feel better.
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Disney cruises are more expensive than many other lines, so you deserve the best food and service for your money.
NOOOOOOOOO!!! They took off the coconut covered banana and pineapple from the Pirate's menu?!!???!?!?! That was my favorite! DS and I have been known to order doubles on that one. In fact, it was one of the only things I really liked on that menu. Now I am sad....
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I've been tempted on occasion to pull a tip - and I agree, the service needs to warrant a tip. But I've wondered what Guest Services response would be to that. I'd be interested in knowing what you found, if you decided to follow suit with your table mates.
Details to come on that in due course - and trust me, I was wondering what their reaction would be as well....
Your seafood pasta dish is my favorite too! It's a great dish! I'm pretty sure that the Florentine shard is not a reduction; I think it's the cookie/wafer thing in the sundae.
To be honest, that's the answer I expected...
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Pretty sad that your servers didn't know the answer to your question.
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Your meal at Tiana's looked very good for the most part! Too bad your service team was just god awful! Good going with your table mates taking the tips away from them as they certainly didn't deserve any!
No they didn't. It's so frustrating, as we don't seem to have much luck with good service on board the Disney ships, which is a huge shame.
I'm sorry that your dinner service team are doing so poorly. I hope that we don't get the same team on our Alaska cruise next summer. It will be my parent's first cruise and I want everything to be perfect for them.
Tiana's looks amazing and after reading about your two meals there I am a little less apprehensive about the spices. Thanks for your wonderful descriptions.
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. Jenn
Just getting caught up again! What a relaxing day on the ship! I could sit on my balcony for hours and look at CC! Your time at the spa sounds wonderful! Dinner looks delish as well!!
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Just getting caught up again! What a relaxing day on the ship! I could sit on my balcony for hours and look at CC! Your time at the spa sounds wonderful! Dinner looks delish as well!!
I know how you feel as I did that once I went back on board after spending a few hours on CC and just taking it all in on my deck and just loved doing that!
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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!
Last edited by SuperDave; 07-17-2017 at 09:09 PM..
I'm sorry that your dinner service team are doing so poorly. I hope that we don't get the same team on our Alaska cruise next summer. It will be my parent's first cruise and I want everything to be perfect for them.
Fingers crossed! Previously, we had one cruise where we were really unhappy with our servers and this was our whole table, but someone on our table heard the people at the next door table telling them how wonderful they were. I think part of the reason we felt we got such bad service is they were spending so much time with them... It just goes to show that views can vary from one person to another...
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Tiana's looks amazing and after reading about your two meals there I am a little less apprehensive about the spices. Thanks for your wonderful descriptions.
Tuesday 7 March – part five: where did the Dream go?
Eventually, we wandered out with Barb and Daryl following our Pirates in the Caribbean dinner, and I plucked up the courage to ask Barb if she’d like us to join them at Palo if we could get in tomorrow night. She gave me a huge hug and said she’d love that. They had a reservation at 6:00pm, so we went straight up there, and the maitre d immediately sorted it out for us.
We headed out on to deck, and I got some night-time shots of our shadow, the Dream…
… and here she is with no zoom…
… and I also zeroed in on the moon…
At that point, we said goodnight for the evening, and headed back to our room, where we found this waiting for us:
We’d seen Lois outside, and had chatted away to her. She is such a wonderful character and a real credit to the Disney Cruise Line. She’ll be getting a name check on our survey tonight.
We had some downtime, and watched an episode of one of the shows we’d recorded from home, as Mark pointed out we still had quite a few of those to watch.
I also gave Mark a bit of a wacky idea… what about, instead of trying to get into Rivers of Light on Thursday night when we don’t have a Fastpass, we see if we can tickets for La Nouba? His answer showed he was thinking along exactly the same lines as I was – “well, Rivers of Light will be around on our next trip, and La Nouba won’t”. I went online to see what tickets were available, and we settled on some that weren’t perfect, but heck, we were buying two nights in advance, rather than six months, so you get what’s left…
After we’d booked our tickets, I let Linda (lindawdw) that we’d still be having dinner with her at Boma, but we wouldn’t be seeing her beforehand at Animal Kingdom. I am sad about Rivers of Light, but if I’m honest, I was pretty cut up when I discovered they were stopping La Nouba, and was desperate to see it one more time – and now we can!
Around 9:30pm, we looked outside, and the Dream was gone. Where was she? We assumed she was over the other side, so we bundled up, and headed up to deck 10 to have a look, but she was nowhere to be seen anywhere.
We did stop to ask a Crew Member and she was surprised, saying last she’d heard, they were still with us. She again said we’d essentially extended the hand of friendship, and had talked about double fireworks, but the last she’d heard, we hadn’t had a response from the Dream. Not nice…
We passed by the pirates’ party, which was just getting underway, but unsurprisingly, it was packed up there, so we got a hot chocolate and headed back to the room to wait for the fireworks on our balcony…
We heard the music from the party pumping away, and I was trying to remember when the fireworks were. Mark thought about 10:00pm, but I thought it was later, and said it could be as late as 10:30pm. Well, we were both wrong. It turned out to be 10:15pm, and my goodness when the first rocket went off, we had a massive shock, it was so loud!
I was quite pleased with my shots of the fireworks…
I’m not sure when the last time was we saw these, as usually we’re too tired and tucked up in bed. When they were done, that’s exactly what we did do – headed to bed!
However, that wasn’t the end of the day. About half an hour later, just as we (and I suspect a lot of other people) were getting off to sleep, we got a call in our stateroom for the assessment party to go to Tiana’s Pantry. Ooops… I guess someone set something alight. However, I don’t think that announcement should’ve gone out to all the staterooms.
The weather today was warm and sunny, but windy too, and temperatures in the low 70s. The best thing today was staying on the ship while everyone went ashore! The worst thing today was our lukewarm service… Today we tried watching the fireworks from our balcony And the result was we got a great view! The most magical moment today was seeing the Dream!
What a lovely evening!! We are also planning on seeing La Nouba one last time in November! I will miss that show so much!!. How cool that you got into Palo and can also eat with your friends!!. Great shots of the fireworks!!
Your zoom photos of the ship and the moon are so good!!
Now how cool is that. Out there, in the middle of the ocean, you can order up tickets to La Nouba. And fireworks in the middle of the ocean too! Technology!!
That said though, technology should have also prevented that announcement for all to hear as well...
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Tanya
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Too bad your service team was just god awful! 
Good going with your table mates taking the tips away from them as they certainly didn't deserve any! 
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It does send a message to a server when you reduce or hold back a tip that they need to step it up next time if they want a tip!
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
Previously, we had one cruise where we were really unhappy with our servers and this was our whole table, but someone on our table heard the people at the next door table telling them how wonderful they were. I think part of the reason we felt we got such bad service is they were spending so much time with them... 
It just goes to show that views can vary from one person to another... 
Where was she? We assumed she was over the other side, so we bundled up, and headed up to deck 10 to have a look, but she was nowhere to be seen anywhere. 
I will miss that show so much!!
Your zoom photos of the ship and the moon are so good!! 
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