Wine, friendship, crème brulee and dinner on the Seine! COMPLETED - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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It is fun reading all about your trip. However, the updates leave me with serious cravings for French food that is just not readily available to me. The closest thing I have right now to French food is the frozen croissant I found in my freezer yesterday.
Especially now that you know it is just across the river from the holiday inn you stayed at before
that was so bizarre, finding how close that was! I think the cafe's a perfect place to visit after a visit to Versailles... and I do like the Triannon Palace Versailles hotel (Waldorf Astoria), so maybe if we could get another amazing deal to stay there, we could combine it all into one trip...
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
It is fun reading all about your trip. However, the updates leave me with serious cravings for French food that is just not readily available to me. The closest thing I have right now to French food is the frozen croissant I found in my freezer yesterday.
Well, at least it's something as opposed to nothing!
The meal looked so good, although the restaurant didn't look very French like as being too modern. More like something out of NYC or LA!
Too bad you had such a clutz for a waiter, but maybe he was new to this? Glad you had some great creme brulee to enjoy for lunch as you can't beat it when it's that good! Even better, when you're in France! I was so happy on my just concluded WDW trip that I has able to enjoy some as well!
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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!
I am late to the party once again, but all caught up.
Loving the pictures. your dinner cruise just looks amazing. What beautiful sites you saw along the way. I laughed when I saw the iphone 5 sign.
Does Bonny mean beautiful then? Is that a foreign term? I am not sure where Hazel is originally from. You all look wonderful all dressed up for the night and I cracked up with you having your camera around your neck...because that is how I look when I dress up too.
I am glad the cafe delivered once again and your meal and more importantly, dessert met your expectations.
I am a bit confused though. I know you said Hazel is moving to Australia, but I see mentions of a house in Scottland...is that a 2nd home for them? Just curious!
The meal looked so good, although the restaurant didn't look very French like as being too modern. More like something out of NYC or LA!
I didn't even think of that - I was too taken by the quality of the crème brulee!
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Too bad you had such a clutz for a waiter, but maybe he was new to this?
Definitely not, as he was the same guy we had in June of last year. I think he was just having a bad day....
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Glad you had some great creme brulee to enjoy for lunch as you can't beat it when it's that good! Even better, when you're in France! I was so happy on my just concluded WDW trip that I has able to enjoy some as well!
I'm looking forward to reading all about that trip.
I am late to the party once again, but all caught up.
Loving the pictures. your dinner cruise just looks amazing. What beautiful sites you saw along the way. I laughed when I saw the iphone 5 sign.
Ugh - it was just so out of keeping.
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Does Bonny mean beautiful then? Is that a foreign term? I am not sure where Hazel is originally from.
Bonny does mean beautiful. Hazel's Scottish, so whether that's a foreign term is a difficult point... I wouldn't say so really, as Scotland is (currently) part of the UK - the reason I say that is there's a referendum later in the year about whether Scotland will become an independent country. If that happens, then a guess it would become a foreign term....
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You all look wonderful all dressed up for the night and I cracked up with you having your camera around your neck...because that is how I look when I dress up too.
I am glad the cafe delivered once again and your meal and more importantly, dessert met your expectations.
I am a bit confused though. I know you said Hazel is moving to Australia, but I see mentions of a house in Scottland...is that a 2nd home for them? Just curious!
Hazel is moving to Australia for work, but they have a family home in Scotland that they will be returning to whenever they can - they'll be spending Christmas and New Year there for example. Does that sound about right Hazel?
We had talked about going to the Bois de Boulogne that we hadn’t made it to when Melanie, Meri and Nadine had come over to visit, but with the way the weather was, it was clear it wasn’t going to happen today either. Oh well, third time lucky – one day we’ll get there I’m sure. After all, we’re not that far away from it…
Hazel asked Graeme to take us up to La Defense, so that she could pick up the car, and we could do a bit of shopping. I was fascinated by their underground parking garage, never having seen anything like it before…
As we set off, the skies were looking menacing again, and very black. As we drove along, the rain started, and then it got heavier and heavier. Wouldn’t you know it – it was absolutely tipping down by the time Graeme dropped us off?
We headed up the stairs and into the main part of La Defense, and it felt freezing. The rain felt more like hail coming down, as we were walking straight into it, and the cold just took our breath away completely. We made it to shelter, and stopped to catch our breath, as we were both exhausted from fighting our way through the rain/hail.
As we looked one way, towards La Grande Arche, the sky was beautifully blue…
… but the other way – my goodness!
We headed towards the shopping centre, but the entrance Hazel usually uses was closed off, so we had to walk a bit further through the rain to the RER station. We were so relieved to get in there, as my goodness, we were absolutely soaked by this point. It really had been a complete deluge!
I think it’s fair to say we were so relieved to get into the dry and warm. We visited a couple of stores, including my beloved C&A that I miss so much from the UK. It wasn’t to be my day though. I found three tops – one of which wasn’t available in my size and the next size up was too big for me, another of which was far too long, while the final one was too hot even in the changing room and as I wanted it for Florida, that wasn’t going to work.
We made our way out, and you couldn’t believe the change in the weather. We could see how much things had changed while we were still in the shopping centre…
It was still cold outside, especially for us in our wet things, but it looked so much nicer out there.
I got some shots of the general area…
… and then used my lovely zoom down towards the Arc de Triomphe…
We made our way back to the car and this time I could stop to take photos, as at least it wasn’t tipping with rain.
We headed back to the car, and within 20 minutes, we were back at the house.
We spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling and talking, watching some of the tennis from Miami, admiring the weather out there, and in the case of Hazel and I trying to warm up and dry off.
Dinner was pasta with tomato and mushroom sauce, which was very tasty, although the others had bacon added into theirs. Personally I thought it was perfectly good without it.
We did have a conversation about if anyone else was hungry, then perhaps we could go to the bakers. I looked at Hazel and said “but it’s 7:30pm” and apparently the bakers here do open for a few hours in the afternoon/evening on a Sunday. I still can’t over how much is open here, as compared to the rest of France, literally nothing is open on a Sunday.
After dinner, we settled down to watch the latest episode of Revolution, and by the time it got to 9:00pm, Hazel said she was going to bed, as she was shattered, and we agreed that bed sounded like a good plan too. After all, we had had a very long day yesterday, so a nice short day today sounded like the perfect anecdote.
The weather today was all over the place, with some heavy rain, hail and also some sun with temperatures in the high 40s. The best thing today was lunch at the café. The worst thing today was the heavy rain at La Defense and how wet Hazel and I ended up getting. The funniest thing today was Rory with his dessert at lunch! Today we tried going to the Bois de Boulogne for the second time And the result was the weather intervened and we had to give up on that idea. One day… The most magical moment today was getting to sample that wonderful crème brulee for a second time!