Fall, Firsts, Food And The Final Frontier TR - UPDATED 11/11 - COMPLETE!! - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Had a great time and won here and there but nothing too much. Didn't lose too much either. I did win $90 as I was leaving late morning as I decided to spend a little time there before picking up my car at valet. Just had a feeling and good way to end trip!
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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!
Great way to start the day off with a spa treatment! Glad you were able to ride GMR one more time! Sorry for the wait at ToT! Can't wait to hear about Mama Melrose!
Great beginning to my last full day in WDW! The line was bad for TOT when I first got there but when I returned the wait for FP+ was manageable. I will certainly muss GMR and glad I rode it this trip!
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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!
What a nice and relaxing way to start your day off! Sorry the FP for TOT was so long but it seemed to turn out alright after you returned later! It is sad to see GMR closing but hopefully the new ride will make it all worth it!
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What a nice and relaxing way to start your day off! Sorry the FP for TOT was so long but it seemed to turn out alright after you returned later! It is sad to see GMR closing but hopefully the new ride will make it all worth it!
I enjoyed starting my day with the spa treatment! I didn't like the sight of the TOT line but glad it improved a bit later. Will interesting to see how this new Mickey ride turns out. I have a feeling they may use the same track and have some similarities to GMR.
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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!
What a great start to your day! I'm glad I rode the GMR in April, even though it's not one of my must-do rides. Hopefully the new ride will be great!
I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed Mama Melrose the one time I ate there, so hopefully you enjoyed it too!
I absolutely loved starting my last full day at WDW with a facial as I love those so much as so much attention to detail as so much involved! I enjoy massages but facials to me can't be beat!
I'm glad I had an FP+ for GMR, not knowing the circumstances just announced! I will miss it so much. Not as much as if they removed another attraction in Studios. Being as they removed TOT from Disneyland in California for Gardens of the Galaxy attraction. Hope it styas in WDW as I will be devastated if that happens!
I still haven't gotten over the end of Adventurers Club from the old Pleasure Island being sent to its' grave! I loved that place so much and I'd go there every night after dinner as worth it to travel to Downtown Disney alone as so unique. I've always thought that the Boardwalk would be the perfect place to relocate the AC as it fits in with the 1930's theming of the AC there.
I wa skeptical about trying Mama Melrose's as I've read some many mixed reviews of it here on the TRs and elsewhere. It's not an upscale restaurant and that worried me as being from the NYC area we have some unbelievable Italian food and thinking of MMs as basic, it would not satisfy me. You will find out in my next update.
I will tell everyone that it was better than expected. I usually won't give a heads up on these things, but the reason being is I'm going to put this TR on hiatus for a while! May be a few months.
I need to get my PTR going for my October trip, which is in something like 55 days. I may not even get that done before, but will try. Then the TR will resume! Just don't have the time to do both, but all will be completed!
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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!
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Your day at HS sounds wonderful. What a way to start it!. Can't wait to read your PTR .
It's been a great day at Studios so far with much more in store. Hopefully, I can get the PTR started today. The toughest part is coming up with a title!
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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!
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!
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'm off to read your PTR. I can't believe how quickly your trip is sneaking up on you!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Will be glad to have you on board! That's why I needed to get this PTR going and hope I can complete it in the next 50 days and may be a bit of a challenge, but we'll see!
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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 arrived in the Muppet’s Courtyard area of Studios in ten minutes and at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano with time to spare for my 2:30 pm ADR. I checked in and had to wait about five minutes or so to be escorted to my table. I love the décor of the restaurant and especially the strings of small bulb lights, which I found quite cool. I hope I made the right decision in getting an ADR for Mama Melrose’s as the reviews have been very mixed!
Love this as part of the check in area at Mama Melrose’s.
Open kitchen at the restaurant
It took a few minutes for my server to begin waiting on me as she had a table about twenty feet away with 12+ in that party, so that’s understandable with a lot to deal with. Overall, the course of my meal the waits for service were a bit longer than usual but not too bad as she did her best with the other tables.
I started my meal off with an Agave Habanero Spiced Margarita. It was very good and not that spicy, but lots of flavor. Shortly, my server returned with some ciabatta bread accompanied by an olive oil and herbs dipping sauce for the bread. This was so good! After going over the menu I gave my server my selections for appetizer and entrée.
Doesn’t this look good!
And this too!
After enjoying my margarita for a while as well as the bread and dipping sauce, my first course arrived and it was certainly a very enjoyable and tasty one!
Fennel Crusted Seared Tuna with an Arugula Salad
There was so much flavor in this course and I took my time with it to make it last. Every part of this course was great!
After finishing my first course and margarita I ordered a glass of Orvieto Classico White Wine. This is from the Umbria region of Italy and an area and town (Orvieto) I visited back in 2006 on a Rick Steves tour. In just a few minutes my entrée arrived and it was another winner!
Seafood Cioppino. Scallops, mussels, calamari and grouper with whole wheat spaghetti in a spicy seafood and marinara sauce.
I enjoyed this course so much with incredible flavor and there isn’t anything about it I did not love! A definite winner! I’ve had this course before and this is certainly the best one I’ve ever had!
After enjoying this course so much, I was quite full and decided to skip dessert. I did finish off the meal with a double espresso.
I was a bit worried, when I made an ADR for Mama Rose’s as it has received very mixed reviews for food and service and from here!
For me, my experience could not have been better for both food and service and enjoyed my meal so much. I will certainly return. I think this is the best Italian meal I’ve had in WDW. That includes Tutto Italia as I found this meal just a bit better. This is coming from someone who has many excellent Italian restaurants to choose from back home in Connecticut. They are all very good and one of them the top rated one on Tripadvisor in the state I dined at and loved!
After settling my bill, I left the restaurant and in the direction for my last FP+ of the day and perhaps another attraction before I need to go to the Star Wars Dessert Party.
NEXT: This is Just So Freaky and Very Cool!
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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!
Last edited by SuperDave; 10-19-2017 at 10:06 PM..