National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 48 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Wow, that's a BIG mistake - not disclosing that there is MEAT in what would otherwise be assumed to be a vegetarian-friendly dish!
Part of me thought, well, they're short handed, and clearly had a lot of tour groups. But then I realized, it was shoulder season - they must deal with far worse in the summer!! I am very worried about what tomorrow's update may bring.....
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Oh no...I'm not fond of bacon in or om many things, but I do like it plain, but when you are not told it's in there...thats not good. I have to ask, do you not eat meat by choice or health reasons...I am just nosey..
Entirely my choice - something to do with growing up around animals, particularly cows (see the link now? ) when I was a kid and falling in love with them. I found it hard to reconcile eating beef while we had the cows lined up outside our dining room window, looking at us. Mind you, part of that was our own fault, as my dad used to feed them the grass cuttings - and as you probably know - get a cow into a habit and it remembers! Those things certainly did. They would watch for any sign of us, as they knew it might mean food. They are certainly intelligent animals!
Monday 12 September – part nine: this meal can’t get any worse.... can it?
When Mark was finally done with his appetiser, we got round two, my dish without bacon...
... while he had opted for the Ranchers rack of lamb, Morgan Valley Utah lamb, marinated, then grilled and oven roasted topped with a rosemary jus, served with roasted garlic, sage smashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. I think it would be fair to say that his comment that the potato was the best thing on the dish summed up how bad it was. It was cremated on the outside, but definitely under cooked on the inside.
He didn’t want to rock the boat any further, but what about my dish? Well, without the bacon, it was edible now, although I had to be careful what I ate. A couple of times, I thought I was getting a scallop and discovered it was a huge lump of risotto. I moved all the lumps I found to one side of my plate, managing to eat around them, and in the end, I got enough of a meal to feel full up.
Cheyenne came to collect our plates and asked how everything was. I pointed out the lumps and explained what they were and she started to say something, but then stopped herself. She said “I hope they’re going to comp you some of this” and I told her that I didn’t know, but secretly I hoped so too.
Imagine how I felt then when the check rolled up and it was for the full price of the meal, $115! That was it – once again, I asked for a manager and told Jimmy that there was no way I expected to pay full price, after what we’d gone through. Our server brought us out an amended check, removing my entree, and Cheyenne was with us when he did that. She’d gone off to check for us as well and seemed to think that more should’ve been taken off. I wasn’t brilliantly happy, but I was sick of arguing by now.
I got the credit card out, ready to pay the check, then our server returned with another version, telling us every time it had got smaller. I wondered what had been removed this time and discovered that all that was left on the check now was $8 for my glass of wine. We paid up, including a tip for our server, based on the original amount, as he really hadn’t done anything wrong during the meal.
We both suspected that Cheyenne had played a part in helping to get our meal comped and we called her over and tipped her as well. As we said to her, we had no idea what the etiquette was in situations like this, but at the end of the day, she wasn’t our server and had gone above and beyond to help us and we felt that deserved recognition. Once again, we asked to see a manager, this time to compliment her on what she’d done, as we felt the praise should be passed up the chain. Luther was very apologetic and I do think that, in fairness to them, they tried to do everything they could to make up for the poor food. It’s just a shame that we had such a bad experience here, as I was really looking forward to it.
We finally headed out just before 8:00pm, which was way later than I had thought we would be. We made our way out of the park and headed off towards the town of Tropic that’s about seven miles away. It was a very twisting and turning road with a guy in front who spent most of the seven miles living on his brakes, which was very frustrating for Mark.
Just as we were entering Tropic itself, we spotted the sign for Bryce Country Cabins and turned in. I went in to check in and collect our key for number five and was told that the telephone and Internet were both out, due to the storm they’d had earlier on, as it had flooded the valley and knocked out the fibre optics. Sure enough, when I checked the cell phone, that had no service either.
We drove up, trying to work out which one was number five. I thought I’d counted right and there was no vehicle in front of one, so I tried the key and I was right. Of course, it was only then that I spotted the number on the door of our cabin. Figures!
It was beautiful inside and bigger than I expected.
We settled ourselves in and quickly discovered that of course the fibre optics being out meant that something else wasn’t working – the cable TV system. Thank goodness Mark had suggested downloading the latest episode of Doctor Who, rather than watching it. He must’ve had a premonition about what would happen today so we settled down to watch that and then headed to bed.
The weather today was a very mixed bag! It varied in temperature between low 50s and mid 70s and from sunny to cloudy to rain, hail, thunder and lightning. The best thing today was visiting Bryce Canyon. The worst thing today was the weather and what happened at dinner. Today we tried having dinner at Bryce Canyon Lodge And the result was that it was a bit of a disaster. The most magical moment today was seeing Bryce Point.
Next: is it really worth it to be getting up this early?
Good grief! Lumpy risotto and lamb chops burnt to a crisp. How on earth could the chef send meals like that out of his kitchen? Good thing Cheyenne was there to give you one good memory. That cabin is very cute!
I can't believe that fiasco at dinner - and then they gave you the bill for the total amount! Who does that? Crazy. I'm so glad Cheyenne helped you out, and then you helped her in return with compliments. So many people are quick to complain, but forget to compliment.
Your cabin is so cute! No TV or phone though? That's "camping" to me!
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I can't believe that fiasco at dinner - and then they gave you the bill for the total amount! Who does that? Crazy. I'm so glad Cheyenne helped you out, and then you helped her in return with compliments. So many people are quick to complain, but forget to compliment.
Your cabin is so cute! No TV or phone though? That's "camping" to me!
That's "camping" to me as well - and that is as basic as I will ever get. I am not the type of person to try camping... ever!
Entirely my choice - something to do with growing up around animals, particularly cows (see the link now? ) when I was a kid and falling in love with them. I found it hard to reconcile eating beef while we had the cows lined up outside our dining room window, looking at us. Mind you, part of that was our own fault, as my dad used to feed them the grass cuttings - and as you probably know - get a cow into a habit and it remembers! Those things certainly did. They would watch for any sign of us, as they knew it might mean food. They are certainly intelligent animals!
I didn't realize you had grown up next to cows....and yes , they definately have habits and personalities. Some of them are so funny.
That cabin is so cute. Too bad about tv and internet out though. It's like the "olden days" and you were roughing it!
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That has to be one of the worst dinners, ever! Glad it worked out in the end, but seems like it shouldn't have taken so much effort to get to the end result.
The cabin is adorable!
The cabin is really cute! Although I think on this kind of trip I'd be toting a sleeping bag and a tent--I miss camping, but then I spent 10 summers living in the woods in Upstate New York.
Sorry about the disaster of a meal--although I am glad to hear that things sometimes go badly when I'm NOT with you--I was starting to think it was me!
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) when I was a kid and falling in love with them. I found it hard to reconcile eating beef while we had the cows lined up outside our dining room window, looking at us. Mind you, part of that was our own fault, as my dad used to feed them the grass cuttings - and as you probably know - get a cow into a habit and it remembers! Those things certainly did. They would watch for any sign of us, as they knew it might mean food. They are certainly intelligent animals! 
It was cremated on the outside, but definitely under cooked on the inside. 
I moved all the lumps I found to one side of my plate, managing to eat around them, and in the end, I got enough of a meal to feel full up. 
That was it – once again, I asked for a manager and told Jimmy that there was no way I expected to pay full price, after what we’d gone through. Our server brought us out an amended check, removing my entree, and Cheyenne was with us when he did that. She’d gone off to check for us as well and seemed to think that more should’ve been taken off. I wasn’t brilliantly happy, but I was sick of arguing by now. 
We paid up, including a tip for our server, based on the original amount, as he really hadn’t done anything wrong during the meal. 
so we settled down to watch that and then headed to bed. 
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