A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 16 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Just catching up. The massage sounds wonderful. Your seats on the plane look nice a comfy, definitely the way to fly! I can't believe some of the amazing shots you got as you flying over England. Just beautiful!!
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Such beautiful scenery as you photographed the take off! I really like the patchwork fields. You are making me want to fly upper class at least once sometime.
Just catching up. The massage sounds wonderful. Your seats on the plane look nice a comfy, definitely the way to fly! I can't believe some of the amazing shots you got as you flying over England. Just beautiful!!
Such beautiful scenery as you photographed the take off! I really like the patchwork fields. You are making me want to fly upper class at least once sometime.
You'll either need a lot of miles/points or a lot of money - it's about £4,000 ($6,200) for a round trip.
Saturday 29 August – part six: now that’s what I call a lunch!
Soon the crew were getting our tables ready for food:
For appetiser, I went for the pillow of smoked salmon with creamy smoked trout and horseradish mousse, and pickled cucumber, although without the apple puree and blossom, given my allergies. I was so relieved I could still have it, as it sounded great, but the sight of apple on it made me think it might not be an option for me. Thank goodness it was!
I also got some rosemary focaccia bread, although I didn’t photograph it, but my goodness, I can tell you that the scent of it was just absolutely amazing – it filled the whole Upper Class cabin!
Mark opted for the warm chicken satay, Asian style meat skewers, perfect with cashew nut dipping sauce, although I’m not sure he got that, as they announced they had someone on board with a severe nut allergy, so I guess that might have been off the menu.
For my entrée, I went for the tomato and mozzarella gnocchi with creamy basil sauce, sun dried tomato, shaved Italian hard cheese and rocket, although I avoided the rocket, as it doesn’t do me any favours, shall we just say that?
Mark had the grilled fillet of beef, with new season vegetables, shallot puree, delicious garlic mash and a tomato and caper jus.
For dessert, I went with the clotted cream panna cotta with a strawberry compote (which the crew member warned me had just come out of the freezer, so was very cold, and she was right – thanks for the warning! ) and langue du chat biscuit.
Mark had the salted caramel pudding…
Then I had the cheese and port, served with assorted crackers and black grapes, and made up of Danish Blue, Red Leicester and Brie wedge, and very nice it was too. The perfect ending to a wonderful meal, and I have to say, a better quality meal than I remembered from four years ago in fairness.
I liked the way they paced the meal, as you could basically eat at your own pace. I think I was on dessert while the guys opposite (father and son, I thought) were still on their main course. It was nice not having to wait for anyone else.
As I’d promised myself, I started off my movie fest with Tomorrowland, and wow what a great film, although could someone please have warned me that it started off with the World’s Fair footage? It took all my strength to keep it together when I saw that and not to break down into a blubbing wreck! I needed the warning guys… I absolutely loved the movie, one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, and such a good Disney one.
Eventually, just after I’d finished eating and Tomorrowland was nearly over, I found out why my seat kept moving. I thought it was me accidentally hitting the controls, although I was convinced I was nowhere near them. I wasn’t. It was the idiot next to me, who kept putting his hand to activate my seat, rather than his. As soon as I worked it out, I’m afraid I gave him a piece of my mind. He looked very shocked, but this had been going on for some time, and I’d had enough, especially as it wasn’t actually my fault.
Not long after this, I asked for my seat to be converted into a bed, so that I could try and get some sleep, as I was already pretty exhausted. I think, in fairness, I did actually sleep properly for maybe half an hour or 40 minutes, but the rest of the time I ended up just lying there not really sleeping for another hour or so. It was a very smooth flight, but the problem was the little girl we had on board, and I know it wasn’t just us, as Mark said he saw quite a few other passengers giving her parents the evil eye. Let’s just say this kid was one who wanted to be heard, with crying, screaming, a weird type of shrieking and laughing. Her parents didn’t do much to quieten her down either.
Giving up on sleep for a while, Mark told me that Usain Bolt had won a third gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in the 4 x 100 metres men’s relay. We found out from the news service on board that the USA were disqualified, but nothing about Team GB and whether they’d medalled or not. However, Mo Farah did claim another gold medal in the 5,000 metres final, which was great news.
Mark told me that the crew had just been giving out ice creams, so I asked a crew member for one, and Mark had gone to get me one, so I ended with two – not bad going! Mark had also got a mug of tea, and he started something, as I then got one, along with a few other people…
I did open the window briefly and got a shot of us just starting to fly over Hudson Bay.
Not long after that, I decided to try and get a bit more sleep, and for about an hour and a quarter, I just lay there again, not really sleeping, but at least getting some more shut eye. When I woke up, I asked for the bed to be turned back into a seat, as we were three and a half hours out from San Francisco, and I figured I wouldn’t sleep again.
However, I did decide to get a photo of the bed before it was converted, so you could get an idea of what it’s like…
I have to say that the bed was nowhere near as comfortable as I remembered from our last flight, but then again, that was four years ago, and this was definitely one of their older planes. You could tell that from the entertainment system, as it wasn’t touch screen, and the restrooms were of the older kind – you had to keep your hand on the tap for the water to flow, for example, whereas on the recent flights we’ve taken, you press it and it stays on for a few seconds, which is much easier to deal with.
I headed to the restrooms and brushed my teeth, freshened up, and generally felt a heck of a lot better. It’s amazing how the small things can make such a huge difference.
Your flight sounded just heavenly! The pictures of Windsor Castle were so beautiful!!! The meal served on the plane looked delicious and your bed although not as comfortable as you expected was still perfect for such a long flight! That's certainly the way to travel
I'm so glad you capture the experience and relay the events as you do. I'm sure I'll likely never get to fly upper class, so this is as close as I can get! It is definitely quite the way to endure a long flight.
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Wow, what a meal!!! I may have to look into Virgin for our flights next summer. Although without miles, sadly it won't be upper class.
Can't believe the guy next to you couldn't figure out that nothing was happening with his seat when he was pushing buttons, so maybe they were the wrong buttons?!
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You are making me want to fly upper class at least once sometime. 
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I was so relieved I could still have it, as it sounded great, but the sight of apple on it made me think it might not be an option for me. Thank goodness it was! 
The perfect ending to a wonderful meal, and I have to say, a better quality meal than I remembered from four years ago in fairness. 
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