Finding Walt: a DL TR: Update 2/23/12 - Page 25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 met Karen, Sharon, and Zack in front of Storytellers for dinner. We checked to see if we could be seated earlier and the answer was "no." So we checked in and waited---exchanged goodies--and chit chatted. I instantly regretted the Star Wars in you Pocket that I had found for Zack--okay not really, but I bet his mom does now! In a funny turn of events I had gotten Sharon and Karen T shirts that looked like ugly Christmas sweaters because I can't knit and Sharon had ACTUALLY knitted me a scarf--which I wore both yesterday and today--it's cold here this week!
The outdoor podium disappears and we're still waiting outside with our buzzer. Tables are walking up and being seated, we're still waiting. It's now well past our ADR time and a large party walks up. Karen, remember folks--it's her birthday--goes in to speak to the person at the desk inside the door. There might have been some raised voices. There was definitely a very rude hostess. We finally get seated, along with more commentary from rude hostess. I'm terrified that this has ruined Karen's birthday--I order wine immediately. Karen orders a drink. She needed it folks--and it was well deserved.
The manager came over and asked if we were eating the buffet. I'm sure if we had been it would have been free--they were getting ready to throw it all away anyway. However, none of us were planning on the buffet. The manager told us to order some appetizers and he'd take care of them and left--after Karen had stressed how important this dinner was because it was her birthday. However, no one wanted an appetizer at this point--nothing appealed and I'm not sure anyone had an appetite anymore. I was so traumatized by the downward swing of the day that I had to go back and look at a menu to figure out what I had for dinner. I sure don't remember what anyone else had. I had the four cheese ravioli with roasted red peppers and spinach. Zack must have had the same because it was the veggie option.
Oh wait! Sharon, I remember because the portion size was ridiculous, had the spaghetti with meat sauce. An absolutely crazy portion of spaghetti arrived in front of her--it was like a spaghetti mountain. I don't think she got through at third of it! Karen must have had the braised chicken with red wine sauce and garlic mashed potatoes. I think the food might have been okay. Our server was peachy too!
The plates were cleared and a special dessert arrived for Karen--maybe the brownie with ice cream and a candle? Sharon looked confused. The manager returned and Sharon indicated that there was an issue. Hmm? What? Really? Okay? All of a sudden this arrives from the back:
Sharon had ordered this absolutely beautiful cake from the Grand Californian bakery. We have it boxed to go because we were going to try and catch World of Color from the viewing area in the Villas. I stopped to pick up a surprise and in my doing so we missed the beginning of the show because they couldn't get into the viewing area without my key!
I popped the champagne cork and we watched World of Color from the roof top and ate cake. YUM!
All was not lost, but I'm still traumatized from that meal--so I'm going to stop here for the night. Up next--another early morning on Wednesday!
Oh my! What a shame that Karen's birthday dinner got screwed up by a rude hostess and a clear error on the part of the restaurant. But, man, that Princess Sharon sure saved the day with that amazing cake!!!
I've stayed at the villas twice now and didn't realize there was a viewing area for WoC! Where is it?
What a bad experience! Hope that rude hostess got a good talking-to. I'm not surprised that it was hard to shake the bad taste that left and you didn't even remember what you had for dinner. Poor Karen. That cake, though! Spectacular!
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I'm sorry so that you guys had a awful dining experience. The cake was beautiful though and at least you got to enjoy that and some champagne while enjoying World of Color!
Gosh, Heather, you haven't had much luck with DLR dining this trip! I'm really sorry about that!
I'm glad they finally brought out the "right" dessert for Karen, and it sounds like you all enjoyed a nice end to the day! That cake is gorgeous!
By the way, I don't remember if I mentioned this in one of your threads, but I went to Napa Rose with my best friend for the first time last year to celebrate my birthday. The server was just "ok" (she was nice enough, but very "blah") and despite our mentioning on the reservation it was my birthday and my best friend saying to the server it was my birthday, nothing special happened. Even at "average" restaurants, the birthday girl gets offered a scoop of ice cream or something. At Disney, you sort of expect that something extra if not more. Not crazy about what's been happening to service at DLR lately (although I do hear about some wonderful experiences). The inconsistency is what's really surprising!
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Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
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I met Karen, Sharon, and Zack in front of Storytellers for dinner. We checked to see if we could be seated earlier and the answer was "no." So we checked in and waited---exchanged goodies--and chit chatted. I instantly regretted the Star Wars in you Pocket that I had found for Zack--okay not really, but I bet his mom does now! In a funny turn of events I had gotten Sharon and Karen T shirts that looked like ugly Christmas sweaters because I can't knit and Sharon had ACTUALLY knitted me a scarf--which I wore both yesterday and today--it's cold here this week!
I am giggling to myself now because I totally thought you were going to say "I had gotten Sharon and Karen T shirts that looked like ugly Christmas sweaters and Sharon had actually knitted me an UGLY scarf!" I hope you didn't think it was ugly and just didn't say so! I also forgot about that Star Wars in your Pocket thing, though now I can't imagine that being possible!
That dinner, yeah, it was ugly! But we made the best of it, and the food wasn't bad. My spaghetti mountain was rather tasty, in fact!
__________________
Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
I can see how a brownie just wouldn't cut it when you knew you'd ordered that AMAZING cake! What a work of art!
OK, I want to know WHAT 'Star Wars in your Pocket' is, and we need a picture of the ugly Christmas sweater t-shirts!
So sorry about the traumatizing dinner. But at least the night ended well - champagne on the roof watching WoC sounds like a perfect birthday to me.
Oh my! What a shame that Karen's birthday dinner got screwed up by a rude hostess and a clear error on the part of the restaurant. But, man, that Princess Sharon sure saved the day with that amazing cake!!!
The cake was amazing!
I've stayed at the villas twice now and didn't realize there was a viewing area for WoC! Where is it?
It's up on the top floor--I think the 6th!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What a shame that the birthday dinner ended up being like that. I love the cake though - that is beautiful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
What a bad experience! Hope that rude hostess got a good talking-to. I'm not surprised that it was hard to shake the bad taste that left and you didn't even remember what you had for dinner. Poor Karen. That cake, though! Spectacular!
The cake was great and the hostess did get a talking to--we saw the manager talking to her while we were eating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Sorry about the rude hostess! But what a gorgeous cake! Happy Birthday to Karen!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
I'm sorry so that you guys had a awful dining experience. The cake was beautiful though and at least you got to enjoy that and some champagne while enjoying World of Color!
We made the best of it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
Gosh, Heather, you haven't had much luck with DLR dining this trip! I'm really sorry about that!
I'm glad they finally brought out the "right" dessert for Karen, and it sounds like you all enjoyed a nice end to the day! That cake is gorgeous!
By the way, I don't remember if I mentioned this in one of your threads, but I went to Napa Rose with my best friend for the first time last year to celebrate my birthday. The server was just "ok" (she was nice enough, but very "blah") and despite our mentioning on the reservation it was my birthday and my best friend saying to the server it was my birthday, nothing special happened. Even at "average" restaurants, the birthday girl gets offered a scoop of ice cream or something. At Disney, you sort of expect that something extra if not more. Not crazy about what's been happening to service at DLR lately (although I do hear about some wonderful experiences). The inconsistency is what's really surprising!
I expect superior service from Disney restaurants--so this was a let down!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Ugh... what a bummer about the rude hostess and lousy dining experience on Karen's birthday. The cake, however, was beautiful!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
I am giggling to myself now because I totally thought you were going to say "I had gotten Sharon and Karen T shirts that looked like ugly Christmas sweaters and Sharon had actually knitted me an UGLY scarf!" I hope you didn't think it was ugly and just didn't say so! I also forgot about that Star Wars in your Pocket thing, though now I can't imagine that being possible!
I have worn my scarf on several occasions now! I love it!
That dinner, yeah, it was ugly! But we made the best of it, and the food wasn't bad. My spaghetti mountain was rather tasty, in fact!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
I can see how a brownie just wouldn't cut it when you knew you'd ordered that AMAZING cake! What a work of art!
OK, I want to know WHAT 'Star Wars in your Pocket' is, and we need a picture of the ugly Christmas sweater t-shirts!
So sorry about the traumatizing dinner. But at least the night ended well - champagne on the roof watching WoC sounds like a perfect birthday to me.
Star Wars in your pocket is a little key chain that has the best lines from the movies on little buttons!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Liz 
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I love the cake though - that is beautiful. 
Happy Birthday to Karen! 
I hope you didn't think it was ugly and just didn't say so! 
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