Points make Paris... TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/29 - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 don't remember hearing that. But it would nice if it were true!
It looks like I was wrong. It's being used for the Star Wars Launch Bay, but wouldn't it be nice if after that was all done, we could have something animation themed there?
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It looks like I was wrong. It's being used for the Star Wars Launch Bay, but wouldn't it be nice if after that was all done, we could have something animation themed there?
Sunday 1 May – part seven: Mr. Tom, the escaped convict!
We were hoping to do Cinemagique next, as that’s something else we wanted to share with everyone, but sadly there was a Disney Performing Arts performance of some kind (that’s all it said) at 11:00am and 1:00pm, and no performances of Cinemagique until 3:00pm, and I doubted we’d still be in the park by then. I guess maybe that was why this park was so busy perhaps?
Instead, given Stitch Live would next be showing in English in 12 minutes’ time, we headed that way.
It was very funny in the pre-show, as just about the whole audience gravitated to one of doors, while we all just hung out on the benches at the back. When it came to enter, it turned out it was the other set of doors, and there was a mass panic, as suddenly they were all at the back!
Now given how enthused everyone seemed to be to get into the show, let’s just say that enthusiasm didn’t translate in the show. It calls for quite a bit of audience participation (it’s basically the same idea as Turtle Talk with Crush) and frankly, as an audience, we stank and were totally pathetic. No wonder Stitch got annoyed with us, as we really weren’t getting into it, although I tried – I promise!
Thankfully, when we got to the escaped prison convict bit (and those of you who’ve seen this, know what I mean and for those of you who haven’t, I won’t spoil it any longer), they picked Tom, which had Sara and the girls howling with laughter! It was classic, and honestly, had that not happened, it would’ve been a really disappointing show, so I’m really glad he did get picked to star in the show.
When we came out of there, talk turned to food, and I suggested to the others that perhaps Annette’s Diner, which is by the entrance to the Disney Village, might be a good bet. I said that, given how much they’d paid for quick service food in the parks yesterday, I didn’t think Annette’s would cost that much more, and it was basic American fare. That worked, as apparently Daisy is quite a fussy eater – who knew? The things you learn on vacation…
We made our way out of the park…
… and as we left we had a very surreal moment, when we heard the theme music from the James Bond movie, the Man with the Golden Gun playing. Not what we expected to hear at Disney!
We made our way over to Annette’s…
Thankfully, given it wasn’t long past midday, they had no problems seating us, as we were a group of eight. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever walked into a Disney restaurant anywhere in the world without a reservation for that many people, so it was a relief they could accommodate us. Daisy seemed to be quite impressed by the fact that we were seated by a rollerskating waitress.
We all took a while to decide what we wanted, but I didn’t take that long, as there were only a couple of choices for me. In the end, I went for the new veggie burger, which contained panko breaded tofu, Portobello mushrooms, aubergine (eggplant), courgette (zucchini), tomato confit, avocado, garlic pickles, peppers and rocket, served with wasabi sauce and coleslaw, although I asked for the pickles, rocket (arugula) and wasabi sauce to be left off, as I’m not fans of any of those. When it turned up, it looked excellent, and it was very tasty.
Mark had the original mega burger, a double burger with cheeses, bacon, mushrooms, grilled onions and Annette’s sauces.
I was wondering what the others thought of Annette’s, and then I heard Tom say that his was one of the best burgers he’d ever had – result! He also talked about what great value the children’s menu was. I think it was about €17, if I remember right, and they’d paid €15 each for quick service yesterday lunchtime, and you certainly got much more bang for your buck here.
While we were sitting there, the table behind us ordered what looked like the equivalent here of the Kitchen Sink, with loads of dessert stuff on it, and they didn’t make a bad job of demolishing it, although there were about six of them helping out. We were more impressed with the guy who ordered the maxi incredible burger, which came with 600 g (no I’m afraid I don’t know what that is in imperial – I don’t do weights well in either metric or imperial ), but it contained about four burgers. We were curious to see what happened, but by the time we left, that was all pretty much gone as well. Wow!
I was a bit disappointed with the lack of roller skating waitresses – we only saw two, and as I’m sort of sold the place to the girls on that basis, that wasn’t great, although thankfully they liked the food and the décor was fun, so all was not lost. The service wasn’t great, as when we got the checks (we’d asked for it to be split into three), each check was wrong in some way, and had to be corrected. Sara had also asked for water for Daisy, and never received it, so that could’ve been a lot better.
All in all though, it was well worth visiting for lunch, and it satisfied everyone without a long walk to get there, so it worked out well.
Annette’s Diner
Entrée 9 8
Service 6 7
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 8½ 8
Very cool Tom was the star of the Stitch show! The girls must have loved that.
Annette's sounded like a great choice for lunch. Maybe only a few of the employees know how to skate - and work at the same time?
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Tanya
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Looked like a yummy lunch. With such a big party, you should've given it a go in trying the Kitchen Sink!
I'm sure the girls loved seeing their dad up there as the convict!
A nice time in the parks even though there was some disappointment with some attractions you didn't expect to be closed and long lines! Nice going today with Buzz as it looks like you were the champ! Annette's looks good and resembles an old traditional diner from the 50's from Southern California. I can't believe the size of that burger. BTW 600 g. converts to just over 21 oz and just a bit under 1 1/2 lbs. That is big and too much for me!
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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!
A nice time in the parks even though there was some disappointment with some attractions you didn't expect to be closed and long lines! Nice going today with Buzz as it looks like you were the champ!
For once, yes!
Quote:
Annette's looks good and resembles an old traditional diner from the 50's from Southern California. I can't believe the size of that burger. BTW 600 g. converts to just over 21 oz and just a bit under 1 1/2 lbs. That is big and too much for me!