From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 7/24 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I agree it's so nice to have the same server each meal at Palo. We've once ended up with someone different, but it was a cruise where we added an extra meal at Palo and a bit last minute as well.
Funny that you mentioned they now have a trolley - I can't recall what it used to be?
Sounds like this meal will be a better end to the cruise than eating with your regular servers would've been.
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I have found the showers to be way too small on cruise ships but I guess you have to expect that with the limited space in the rooms. That was an interesting tidbit of information of the removal of the cigarette from Walt's hand in the photo. Glad you got Nicola again as your server since you knew that you'd have great service this evening!
That's a good idea to give you the same server by DCL each time at Palo! Nice start to dinner and the apps look good. Sounds like you have a good server with Nicola!
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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 agree it's so nice to have the same server each meal at Palo. We've once ended up with someone different, but it was a cruise where we added an extra meal at Palo and a bit last minute as well.
Funny that you mentioned they now have a trolley - I can't recall what it used to be?
Now you say that... neither can I!
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Sounds like this meal will be a better end to the cruise than eating with your regular servers would've been.
Oh I think so - I was so glad not to see those guys again.
That's a good idea to give you the same server by DCL each time at Palo! Nice start to dinner and the apps look good. Sounds like you have a good server with Nicola!
Wednesday 8 March – part five: they do it for all DVC members!
Nicola took us through the Palo menu, and she was so confident with it. She knew it back to front, exactly as you’d expect, and I loved the way she knew all the detail of it. Mark and I were really boring, and ordered the same two to share that we always have. We had the tomato mozzarella Caprese with sliced beefsteak tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella, basil, virgin olive oil, and arugula leaves. This was just as good as ever, just as well, as it’s one of the ways that I judge a good Italian restaurant.
Then we had the fritto di calamari e gamberi, deep fried shrimp and calamari with lemon-garlic mayonnaise, and marinara dippings. Nicola explained to us how they treated the calamari overnight. I don’t remember the details, but this is what I mean about her being really knowledgeable about the menu. She explained that’s how they ensure the calamari is tender to eat, and good grief, it really was. And look at the size of that shrimp!
Once we finished that, we had the lemon sorbet as a palate cleanser…
Now I had some real issues deciding what to have for entrée, as there were so many wonderful choices. For years, I stuck to the same dish (lobster and mascarpone ravioli) but sadly that finally bit the dish about a year ago. Then I struggled to find anything that sounded as good on the menu to replace it. Well, now I couldn’t make my mind up on what to have. I debated for a long time between the sea scallops and the dish I eventually went for, and Nicola provided some excellent advice, before Mark told me I had to get the one I was thinking of, because it was filleted tableside.
This was the piquant Dover sole with nut-brown butter capers, anchovies, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, carrots and thyme potatoes. It certainly was quite the performance for Nicola to deal with it!
Oh my, this was superb. The only thing that stopped it getting a full 10 was the fact that I didn’t feel the spinach quite went with the dish, and that was a shame, as the flavours from everything else were perfect.
The rest of them all had the grilled prime beef tenderloin with pancetta potato, sautéed spinach, a choice of Barolo chinato wine sauce or gorgonzola cheese sauce.
For dessert, there could only be one choice, although there are now two choices. You can either go for the traditional chocolate soufflé, or the newer amaretto soufflé. We all opted for amaretto, except Barb who could only have the chocolate as gluten free. This was just as good as I remembered it from previously, although I don’t think I got through more than half of it, as I was starting to feel stuffed.
The best bit though was yet to come… remember our idea of a wind-up for Daryl? Well, Nicola was as good as her word. She brought it out, and Daryl’s face was an absolute picture, especially when Nicola said they did it for all DVC members! We let him in on the secret after a couple of minutes, and he really did enjoy the joke. You know, he did also say that he now understood a lot more how the DVC works, so maybe we’ll get him to buy in at some point?
The final bit to come out was the calvados, which I can’t have, as it’s got apples in it. I’d said to Nicola I did have some allergies at brunch, but that I was capable of managing them, and at this point, I had to come clean with her. She was quite shocked when I told her all my allergies, and I pointed out I’d managed fine at brunch, as I know how to deal with it.
When we were done, Nicola told us we could stay as long as we liked, and to just get our room keys out when we were ready to pay. We sat there chatting for ages, and asked Nicola to get some photos of the four of us at one point…
Eventually, we felt we had to settle up, and head out, and we said to Nicola that if she was still on the Wonder in January, hopefully we’d see her. It had truly been a wonderful evening with superb food and company.
We headed back to our room, and said goodbye to Daryl and Barb, but we’d see them tomorrow morning, as we’d agree we’d all head up to Cabana’s for breakfast. None of us want to see our miserable serving team again.
We saw Lois on the way, and were able to give her her tip envelope. She really is a star and a complete credit to Disney Cruise Line, and I wrote that on my survey. She wasn’t sure if she’d be on the Wonder in January or not, but she told us to enquire at guest services when we boarded, and if she was on board, we could request her. Cool – I did not know that! And look what awaited us on our final night…
We then finished the rest of our packing, and put our three cases out for collection. So sad that this is coming to an end…
The weather today was hot and sunny with more humidity, and some rain in the evening, with temperatures in the mid 70s. The best thing today was dinner at Palo. The worst thing today was that our cruise is ending. The funniest thing today was our “welcome home” plate! Today we tried taking the Art of the Theme Show Tour And the result was it was interesting, but I was disappointed it didn’t cover more of the dry dock changes. The most magical moment today was enjoying a wonderful dinner at Palo with good friend and great service.
Your entire meal looked delicious and I loved the presentation of your fish dish! How nice that you got along so well with Daryl and Barb on this cruise. It just adds so much to a vacation when you make such nice friendships.
Well, that's going to be a tough choice deciding between amaretto and chocolate soufflés. I love amaretto, but Palo's chocolate soufflé is my favorite dessert ever. Good thing we have 2 dinners reserved, as I guess I can do one at each.
Love the special DVC plate!!
Your entire meal looked delicious and I loved the presentation of your fish dish! How nice that you got along so well with Daryl and Barb on this cruise. It just adds so much to a vacation when you make such nice friendships.
Oh my gosh, completely! We've made some wonderful friendships on our cruises - Deb Wills (All Ears Net) and Linda and Mari and Raleigh, who we've just done our road trip around Scotland with are just two great examples.
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Nice start to dinner and the apps look good. 
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I got it in Disney - they had them in quite a few shops and it was a great buy. I've worn it quite a bit.
It had truly been a wonderful evening with superb food and company. 
What a perfect last evening!!
We've made some wonderful friendships on our cruises - Deb Wills (All Ears Net) and Linda and Mari and Raleigh, who we've just done our road trip around Scotland with are just two great examples. 
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