Dreaming of a Disney spring break - part three COMPLETED - Page 47 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great pictures from DHS! I've actually never been in One Man's Dream before, but I've seen lots of pictures and will make a point of visiting there next time!
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Thursday 21 April – part five: one of the best value for money meals on Disney property
We had a quick look at a few shops, but started heading for the exit, as our dinner at Tokyo Dining was beckoning.
We headed for the Beach Club to park up and didn’t even have to explain why we were there, as the security guard who’s been there for years (probably about 10 years now) knows us pretty well and just waved us through.
We found this cute duck family by the Villas pool:
On the way into Epcot, we found this area:
We walked through and I got a few photos as we came into World Showcase with the setting sun.
We even managed to find a Photopass photographer:
Of course, I also had to get a Grand Marnier Slush as I’d only had two so far this trip, which was a poor show.
We walked through the green and living garden, which was neat.
Then it was on to Japan for our dinner. We still had some time to kill first, so we looked around the shop, one of my favourite things to do here.
Then we went up to check in. We were seated immediately and at a table not too far from the window. We immediately started to admire the images that are projected by the cooking area, recognising some of them as places we’ve visited in Japan before and wondering about others. We did ask if there was a list of all the places featured, but sadly there isn’t one. Hopefully maybe they’ll now create one?
Our server was very attentive, but that was no surprise, because being like that is a way of life in Japan. We chatted quite a bit to her about her country and how well everyone had coped with the earthquake and resulting tsunami. There was one girl there I noticed who was from Fukoshima and I couldn’t help but wonder how on earth she must be feeling right now. It’s got to be very difficult for her. The Cast Member we chatted to told us that Disney gave them all free phone calls home when the earthquake hit, which was good of them, but then again, I’d expect nothing less from them.
Mark had a starter, the Wafu ribs, sake, soy and ginger braised pork ribs, which he said were some of the best he’d ever had, but in all honesty, if we’d known what was coming for entree, he probably wouldn’t have bothered with a starter.
My goodness, the dishes didn’t look that big in the photos and I must admit that when they first arrived, I thought “that will never fill me up”, but how wrong you can be! Neither of us could finish what we had ordered, there was so much of it. For value for money, you really couldn’t fault it.
It was amazing quality food as well, some of the best tempura I’ve ever had. My only issue was that literally it fell apart as I ate it, it was that lightly cooked. I had one of the Gozen dishes, which came with miso soup, somen salad, sunomono and steamed white rice. Mine was the Ginza, a tempura and sushi combination.
Mark had the Bento box, a selection of Japanese tasting dishes, served with miso soup and steamed rice. Mark had the Fuji, which included the chef’s selection of sliced sirloin, sashimi, California roll, tempura shrimp and vegetables.
Tokyo Dining:
Appetiser N/A 10
Entree 9 10
Service 9½ 10
Atmosphere 9½ 9½
Value for money 10 9½
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Love the shots of the ceiling at DHS - where is that shop? I don't spend much time at DHS, so I'm not surprised I don't recognize it. But I do enjoy One Man's Dream. Glad you could squeeze in one more FAB before dinner.
Have a good time with your family this weekend!
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Tanya
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Tokyo Dining looks very good. I don't eat sushi, so I've never even considered it, but the non-sushi items looked delicious. I'll have to give it a try one of these days!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
We tried Tokyo Dining on a walk-up whim last year and it ended up being one of my favorite meals! We were actually looking for the tiny sushi bar that used to be in its own room between the two restaurants (we ate there on our first trip together) not realizing it was now part of the renovated Tokyo Dining.
Great updates! I'm not a sushi fan, per se, but I LOVE a good crab and cream cheese roll, or the ebi (cooked shrimp on rice).
We skip DHS on almost all of our trips. I'd say we hit it every 3rd trip. It's just not my favorite park. I love TOT and I like RnRC, and One Man's Dream is great, and I like the Great Movie Ride ok, but I just don't love the park the way I love MK and EPCOT, so we generally just skip it.
I do need to go there soon, though, to check out the updated One Man's Dream, now that I've seen your photos!
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