A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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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Tuesday 1 September – part seven: this is not how I wanted it
For entrée, Mark had the herb crusted pork chop, roast pork chop brushed with Dijon mustard and crusted with herbed breadcrumbs, served with sundried tomato risotto and a Borolo wine sauce.
I went for the grilled tuna steak with fingerling confit, caponata, sun-dried tomato pesto, and aioli. This is what turned up:
Now you can’t see it from this photo, but it was completely red inside, and everyone agreed it had been cooked rare. I really wasn’t happy to eat it, and Norma agreed with me that it was too rare. I went to get Parcha, but of course we were now into the show, so I couldn’t find him or anyone. That’s the problem if you have an issue at this point in the meal.
Finally, I managed to catch Parcha, and told him there was no way I was eating this and I wanted a well done tuna steak. I have to say that they were immediately fussing around me, asking what they could do to make things better. Tom didn’t hold back, and told them they should ask passengers how they’d like their tuna, and he had a really good point there. They hadn’t asked, and if they had, the whole problem could’ve been avoided.
Thankfully, the second time around, although it looked exactly the same on the outside, it was cooked to perfection on the inside, and was very flavoursome. It was exactly how I’d have wanted it the first time around, so at least we got there in the end.
We both thought the dessert menu was a bit disappointing, so Mark didn’t bother as he couldn’t see anything he liked the look of. I went for the Cookies ‘n Cream Sundae, cookies and cream ice cream with chocolate sauce and chocolate chip cookies, as nothing else appealed, and it was fine, but then again, what the heck can go wrong with a dish like that?
At some point during the meal, we had a photographer come around again:
Our head server, Kerry Sean, came round to see me after the issue with the tuna and asked if we had any other feedback, and I told him what I thought of the character breakfast, that it was too rushed, and that the portions were too small. We were told the Magic had re-introduced their character breakfast, and I told them I was very surprised to hear that, as the way it’s treated on board the Wonder, it came across to me that they were just hedging to get rid of it.
We did also suggest various other character meals that would be selling points for certain cruises – like you could do a Frozen themed meal for Alaskan and Norwegian itineraries, with Anna, Elsa and Olaf visiting tables. As I said to Mark later, you could even charge a premium for that, similar to Palo, and I bet they’d still have a full dining room.
When we got back to our room, this was the sight that greeted us – a dinosaur, as I assume that’s what it was was a new one for us…
We were also passing by various islands and it was a gorgeous evening outside:
We headed to bed just before 9:00pm, but it was not to be a quiet night… about half an hour later, we had a tannoy announcement from the captain in our room, which was a shock to the system a) because they don’t do these unless it’s really serious and b) we had both been fast asleep. We both guessed Disney were forced into a corner on this one, and had to say something, as apparently fire doors across the ship had been automatically closed.
Captain Robert came on to tell us that there had been an “incident in the engine room” and that’s why the fire doors had closed. He reassured us that there was no issue, and he would update us again shortly. Then Clayton came on from the bridge, which has to be a first, and for him to be on the bridge told me it was something serious. He was trying to be his usual cheery self, but there was a definite edge to his voice, and he didn’t sound that calm. I could almost hear some panic in his voice.
I did no more than get up, and assemble some clothes just in case. I figured it made sense, although I figured it wouldn’t get anymore serious than this with any luck. It didn’t – 10 minutes later, Captain Robert was back on to tell us that “the first responder teams” had dealt with the incident, so that says to me there was something serious going on in the engine room, and crew members were apparently now going around the ship, re-opening the fire doors. He told us he’d see us all around the ship, and there was nothing to worry about, and Clayton came on again from the bridge to give us the same message.
A few minutes later, we heard alarms going off, which we assume were the fire doors all being re-opened. We think things weren’t 100% after that either, as we heard a loud clunking noise about 1:00am, and Mark was convinced that was a generator coming online. We’ll never know the truth of what happened, but I suspect there were a lot of officers who had a bit of a panicked evening, let’s just say…
The weather today was mainly dry with some rain in the morning, but some sun later on, and temperatures in the low 60s. The best thing today was getting all our formal photos done. The worst thing today was the tannoy announcements after we’d gone to bed. Today we tried going to the character breakfast at Animator’s Palate And the result was it was a bit of a disappointment. The most magical moment today was meeting Olaf!
Holy cow, that tannoy announcement would have given me a heart attack! Good thing it was fine in the end but still...
Manuel had the same issue with the tuna as you, Chez. When his dish came out, the tuna was raw. Someone else at our table had ordered the exact same dish, and his tuna was cooked perfectly. And no, the server hadn't asked beforehand how DH would like it cooked. This made it look like there's no rhyme or reason how "done" they send the tuna out...
What a scary announcement! I would not have been able to sleep after that, as my imagination would be running wild thinking of all sorts of catastrophic scenarios!
The first time Jeff ordered tuna he was surprised to see it served rare, as he assumed it would be served cooked through, like most fish. But the server assured him that tuna is generally served rare because it tastes better that way. The longer it is cooked, the more moisture and flavor it loses. She offered to take it back if, after he tasted it, he was not happy with it. And after the first taste he was sold! But I think instead of just bringing it out that way, servers should ask to make sure rare is ok. In your case, it would have saved a lot of hassle trying to get it changed.
Good thing they could fix your dish, and (hopefully) even better that you could discuss your dining issues thus far. I hope they take your comments to heart.
But I'm surprised and sad to hear no decent dessert items on the menu! That would be a big disappointment to me.
I can't believe the tannoy announcement waking you up! Yikes, that would be scary indeed. So very thankful they got that sorted out without anything too serious for the passengers.
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Just catching up with the report. Love your scenic photos! We are seriously considering a second Alaska cruise for our anniversary next August on Celebrity Solstice. We lived in Oregon when we took the first one and were not that impressed because the scenery was so similar to home. It was also freezing in May. But now living in Las Vegas, an Alaska cruise looks amazing! Especially in August. I also think spa treatments are in order. We also do not like traditional dining with other people (have had horrid experiences) so we cruise on lines that have flexible dining and tables for two. Communal dining and the high prices are what keep us from cruising Disney.. But I am so enjoying cruising on Disney through you.
I see from the Navigator on the bed that you had some of the same entertainment that we did. We really enjoyed Kyle Knight and Misty (aside for the very Las Vegas appearnce of the two).
I cook tuna rare at our house - just seared on both sides to seal in the flavor. So, if you come to dinner at any point, I'll know to cook it a bit more for you! But you are right, you should be asked on something like that, as not everyone likes rare fish.
Sorry about the undercooked tuna. I tend to like my food cooked one step longer than the "preferred" method, so I usually specify even when not asked. But they really should have asked! Hopefully the serving team keeps improving each night! I'm curious about what happened to have alarms going off and fire doors closing, but it actually pleases me to see how safe things are automatically.
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Holy cow, that tannoy announcement would have given me a heart attack! Good thing it was fine in the end but still...
Yep, we were pretty freaked out by it!
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Manuel had the same issue with the tuna as you, Chez. When his dish came out, the tuna was raw. Someone else at our table had ordered the exact same dish, and his tuna was cooked perfectly. And no, the server hadn't asked beforehand how DH would like it cooked. This made it look like there's no rhyme or reason how "done" they send the tuna out...
Whoa, how freaky is that? I can't believe exactly the same thing happened, so it sounds like sadly it's a common problem. I think Disney need to get their act together on this....
What a scary announcement! I would not have been able to sleep after that, as my imagination would be running wild thinking of all sorts of catastrophic scenarios!
Mine did for a while... and I have to confess I did start thinking of all those disaster movies - Titanic, the Poseidon Adventure... you get the idea!
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The first time Jeff ordered tuna he was surprised to see it served rare, as he assumed it would be served cooked through, like most fish. But the server assured him that tuna is generally served rare because it tastes better that way. The longer it is cooked, the more moisture and flavor it loses. She offered to take it back if, after he tasted it, he was not happy with it. And after the first taste he was sold! But I think instead of just bringing it out that way, servers should ask to make sure rare is ok. In your case, it would have saved a lot of hassle trying to get it changed.
They should definitely ask and it's interesting they told you that. I have to say, I always find more well done tuna to be pretty moist and full of flavour. I suspect I wouldn't like rare tuna, as it would probably have too much flavour for me, if that's possible?
Good thing they could fix your dish, and (hopefully) even better that you could discuss your dining issues thus far. I hope they take your comments to heart.
More about that later in the report....
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But I'm surprised and sad to hear no decent dessert items on the menu! That would be a big disappointment to me.
Trust me, any time there's a poor selection of desserts, it's a huge disappointment to me as well!
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I can't believe the tannoy announcement waking you up! Yikes, that would be scary indeed. So very thankful they got that sorted out without anything too serious for the passengers.
Can you imagine what it was like for parents who had young kids who were already asleep? It doesn't bear thinking about...
Just catching up with the report. Love your scenic photos! We are seriously considering a second Alaska cruise for our anniversary next August on Celebrity Solstice. We lived in Oregon when we took the first one and were not that impressed because the scenery was so similar to home. It was also freezing in May. But now living in Las Vegas, an Alaska cruise looks amazing! Especially in August.
Oh I can imagine that would be very inviting, now you're in Vegas.
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I also think spa treatments are in order. We also do not like traditional dining with other people (have had horrid experiences) so we cruise on lines that have flexible dining and tables for two. Communal dining and the high prices are what keep us from cruising Disney.. But I am so enjoying cruising on Disney through you.
I don't know whether others can help on this, but I think you can ask to be seated alone on Disney cruises. We were seated near a couple on our Med cruise last summer and they were alone, which is what makes me say that.
I see from the Navigator on the bed that you had some of the same entertainment that we did. We really enjoyed Kyle Knight and Misty (aside for the very Las Vegas appearnce of the two).
I'm almost embarrassed to say we didn't make it to a single show during our cruise. However, I have to say that the look of the pair of them didn't really appeal to me, which is terrible to admit to, but I'm glad to you enjoyed their act.
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I cook tuna rare at our house - just seared on both sides to seal in the flavor. So, if you come to dinner at any point, I'll know to cook it a bit more for you!
Sorry about the undercooked tuna. I tend to like my food cooked one step longer than the "preferred" method, so I usually specify even when not asked. But they really should have asked! Hopefully the serving team keeps improving each night! I'm curious about what happened to have alarms going off and fire doors closing, but it actually pleases me to see how safe things are automatically.
That was good to know, but I was very curious about the actual incident. Despite using all my journalistic skills, I could never get to the bottom of it.
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Good thing it was fine in the end but still...
But you are right, you should be asked on something like that, as not everyone likes rare fish.
However, I have to say that the look of the pair of them didn't really appeal to me, which is terrible to admit to, but I'm glad to you enjoyed their act. 
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