Nineteen nights of MouseFest, Disney and Christmas - THREAD 2 - UPDATED 2/1 - Page 18 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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.
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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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Wednesday 12 December – part seven: a return to Jiko
After that, we decided to head back to Animal Kingdom Lodge, as our dinner at Jiko was only about 40 minutes away and I didn’t want to be late for that. The last time we ate here was in 2004 and we didn’t have a great time. a) our server was awful and ignored us in favour of a larger party and b) Mark had raw tuna for appetiser and didn’t realise it was raw, so that stayed with him. In fact, he did make a couple of comments earlier in the day about eating at Boma instead.
Well, this time couldn’t have been any more different. Thanks to all of you who raved about this place in your trip reports and inspired me to try it again. I’m so glad we gave this a second chance. Our server Jeff was great, very knowledgeable about the menu and the wine that we should have to go with our choices. He came up with a wonderful medium Chardonnay, which we both enjoyed a glass of.
For appetiser, I went for the roasted golden chaterelle soup, with toasted pumpkin seeds and white truffle whipped cream, as Jeff was so enthusiastic about it. He also influenced my main course choice as well when he told me about the maize crusted and seared sturgeon with vegetables of the moment, tomato butter sauce and crispy sweet potatoes and that was my choice. Oh my goodness, neither disappointed. They were both what you would expect from a signature restaurant at Disney.
Mark had the lamb “patis”, pulled lamb rolled in Phyllo with mint-cilantro chutney for appetiser, followed by the Chermoula-roasted Tanglewood chicken with red skin mashed potatoes, preserved lemons, Kalamata olives, roasted garlic and Harissa. Again, he seemed to love it. I don’t think either of us could fault our food here. It really was first class.
Eagerly anticipating our dinner
The restaurant – it’s very dark here, so very hard to get good photos of it
Mark’s appetiser
My soup
The chicken
My sturgeon
An even better surprise arrived in the shape of the bill. I thought for sure that it would be way over $100 in total, but with a very good tip for Jeff, it still only came to $95. The Disney Dining Experience had done us proud this vacation. Just a side note to this, it saved us $19 alone on this meal and, although I didn’t keep a record of everything it saved us, I kept records for a week and during that week (out of almost three), it saved us $175 alone! I guess during the whole vacation, the savings must have topped $250 or $300. Not bad for a $65 investment.
Jiko:
Appetiser 9½ 9
Main course 9 9
Service 10 10
Atmosphere 9 9½
Value for money 9 9½
Average score: 9.35
We made a quick stop at the Zawadi Marketplace to get a Christmas ornament from Animal Kingdom Lodge and then it was time to head back to the room.
Today we walked 6.75 miles. The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the 80’s. The best thing today was Bruce’s misguided tour and Jiko. The worst thing today was having to leave the misguided tour early and the price of parking at the Gaylord Palms. Today we tried seeing Ice And the result was it was amazing, but exceedingly cold. The most magical moment today was seeing all the animals on the savannah.
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Cheryl, just caught up on your last half-dozen updates! Your AKL Villa is gorgeous!!! It's seriously one of the most beautiful rooms I've seen at WDW. Actually, I've never had much of a desire to stay at AKL, even after visiting there. However, your trip report really brings it to life, and now it's on my "must-do" list. I especially love all the animal pictures - the night-vision ones are very cool.
That Tonga Toast from Kona Cafe looks soooo good - but I'm like Jill, if only I liked bananas enough! Oh well, guess I'll just have to get Mark's steak 'n eggs.
Bruce's tour sounded like a hoot. How fabulous! I'd love to do something like that someday. All that insider info!
Your ICE pictures are amazing. I had actually never even heard of that show/exhibit. I love the penguins. Sorry about the parking, though!
Animal Kingdom at night is a totally different experience, isn't it? Glad Jiko was fabulous. Can't wait to hear more!
Oh - I must try Jiko one of these days. I've only done 2 signature restaurants - HBD and FFC and I hope to do at least one on every trip from now on. They definitely are worth the price in my book.
Animal Kingdom looked so different at night....very beautiful and peaceful....glad you made the choice to go there for a little while and you got to see the Lion King (one fo my favorites)
Dinner looked and sounded delicious....my mouth was watering as I looked at the pictures.....
SO an Epcot room view....is another move coming up?
okay...Jiko just jumped right next to Le Cellier on my list of Must Eat At TS restaurants. I've only ever eaten at one TS restaurant (Hollywood and Vine), so there are a lot on my list. That chicken Mark has just sealed the deal.
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Your dinner there sounded absolutely fabulous!
I especially love all the animal pictures - the night-vision ones are very cool. 
TS restaurant (Hollywood and Vine), so there are a lot on my list. That chicken Mark has just sealed the deal.
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