A tale of two cities… and a few other places… COMPLETED - Page 50 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Friday 22 September – part eleven: what a wonderful meal
Having been very impressed so far with Kingfisher on the Quay, the theming and the views from our table, I was hoping the food would be just as good… and it was! We were first offered complimentary bread and oils, which is something you don’t get that often these days.
Sorry about the size of a couple of these photos... I don't quite know what happened here
For appetiser, I had the red pepper soufflé with balsamic reduction, red pepper curls, buttered spinach, and olive oil. I must admit when it turned up, I was like “this doesn’t look like much”, but you should never judge by appearances. It was delicious.
Mark had the crayfish cocktail with paprika Marie Rose sauce, tomato, cucumber, gem and lemon, and after a mouthful of the crayfish and sauce, I can tell you that was very good too.
For entrée, I had the king prawn and smoked salmon linguini with creamy white wine sauce. I normally don’t go for this dish, as it’s usually quite spicy, but our server assured me that it wouldn’t be, and she was spot on. It was lovely without the spice.
Mark had the pork belly strips with fried free range eggs, triple cooked chips, and watercress.
For dessert, I had the tiramisu with marsala, espresso, cocoa powder, dark chocolate pencil, and chocolate sauce. It was very good.
Mark had the homemade pavlova with whipped cream, red berries, and mint, and look at the size of it!
The service was superb. The woman we had was very open and honest about the menu, and looked after us very well. She also told us that the place underwent a £3 million refurbishment three years ago – amazing!
All in all, it was excellent, and if it was closer, I’d be a regular visitor. I can’t tell you anything about the value for money score for this meal, as Jan paid for it for all of us as a thank you to us for everything we’ve done while she’s been with us. Not necessary, but a lovely gesture and
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Mmmmmm, yum So glad it was a delicious meal! 3 million pound refurbishment?! That's a huge amount for a restaurant. They must be quite busy to make that investment worthwhile.
Thoughtful of Jan to treat you guys!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Mmmmmm, yum So glad it was a delicious meal! 3 million pound refurbishment?! That's a huge amount for a restaurant. They must be quite busy to make that investment worthwhile.
It is an amazing investment - I couldn't believe it when we heard that!
Friday 22 September – part twelve: is this a standard double room?
We headed out and made our way over to Jan’s hotel at Heathrow. On the way, she got a call from someone, who said “it sounded like a long distance call” and she told the person it was, as she was in England.
We found her hotel easily enough, unloaded everything, and ensured she was all checked in, before heading off. She did thank us for making the worst day of the year “bearable” in her words, and that was the highest praise we could get. Honestly, if we could bring just a little light into her life on the anniversary of Bill’s death, then that’s the most important thing.
We headed out, and made our way over to Foxhill’s, where we were staying the night. As we pulled up, we could see there was a disco taking place in the marquee outside. Ugh, I hope we can’t hear that in our room.
We were checked in by a trainee woman who was literally trembling as she took our credit card for payment for our room. Poor thing!
We were told we were in the courtyard buildings, and made our way over there. Oh my goodness, look at it! Even at night, you can see how big it was…
Now there is a story to this. There must’ve been something in my brain that made me go out and take this photo, because just after I took these photos, I noticed something on the ground. I bent over to have a closer look, and it was the Eeyore that goes on my check-in luggage. Even more bizarre, my other Eeyore fell off the same check-in luggage when we stayed here last year. What is it with Eeyores and this hotel? At least he wasn’t broken, and could be re-attached, and thank goodness I hadn’t lost him….
As for what awaited us, wow! This was our entrance area…
This was the bathroom….
And this was the bedroom…
It was tough to photograph the exterior at night, but I tried…
We couldn’t believe this was just a standard double room. I even checked at check-out in the morning, and yes, it was! We were very happy with it, considering how little we’d paid for it… result!
The weather today was dry and sunny with temperatures in the low 60s. The best thing today was the fact that we were able to help Jan have a good day on the second anniversary of Bill’s death, which we knew would be really tough for her. The worst thing today was having to say goodbye to Jan today. Today we tried eating at the Kingfisher on the Quay And the result was it was superb, and very Disney-like in its theming. The most magical moment today was getting to spend time petting Gareth.
So good that you could be there for Jan.
For someone who doesn't get into a whole lot of trouble, Eeyore sure seems to be mixing things up at that hotel! That donkey. Awesome room!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
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What a great meal you had at the Kingfisher as everything looks so good and great service too! So nice that Jan paid for the entire meal! Your new hotel and room looks very nice. Too bad you had to say goodbye to Jan after some great days together in France and England!
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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 meal you had at the Kingfisher as everything looks so good and great service too! So nice that Jan paid for the entire meal! Your new hotel and room looks very nice. Too bad you had to say goodbye to Jan after some great days together in France and England!
Thankfully, despite hearing some of the disco from the marquee, it didn’t affect my sleep, and I eventually woke up about 7:30am. Talk about a good night’s sleep!
We got going slowly, and I asked Mark which he wanted to do first – spa or breakfast, and he chose breakfast, so we set off to the main house. Now it was daylight, you can see how big our room was…
It was located in this complex:
Once in the main house…
… we headed into the restaurant for breakfast, and look at it!
Along with the continental buffet, you could also order items, and in a change for me this vacation, I went for Belgian waffles served warm with maple syrup, and soft berries, and my goodness, it was amazing.
Mark had the traditional English breakfast, made up of pork and leek sausage, grilled sweet cured back bacon, saute field mushrooms, grilled tomato, and your eggs of choice.
When we were done eating, we wandered through the main house….
… and out the other side. My goodness, we both love this stuff – it looks almost unreal, but it’s not!
The main house is beautiful. If you and Mark ever make it to Portugal Mark will be fine for breakfast as they also serve all the items for a full English breakfast.
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We were first offered complimentary bread and oils, which is something you don’t get that often these days.
I can’t tell you anything about the value for money score for this meal, as Jan paid for it for all of us as a thank you to us for everything we’ve done while she’s been with us. Not necessary, but a lovely gesture and 
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Pixie Dust
Even more bizarre, my other Eeyore fell off the same check-in luggage when we stayed here last year. What is it with Eeyores and this hotel? At least he wasn’t broken, and could be re-attached, and thank goodness I hadn’t lost him…. 
What an incredible room! 
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