A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 65 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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Kind of odd without anyone introducing themselves, considering it was a FB group for this brunch! The private dining room looks quite nice and looking forward to photos and details of your meal, which I'm sure there will be more than an ample supply of! Nice start with a full Prosecco!
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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!
Kind of odd without anyone introducing themselves, considering it was a FB group for this brunch!
That's where a Facebook group differs from here. It's a lot harder to get to know people on a Facebook group, so all I had was names. I knew a couple of names from the posts they'd made, but that was about it.
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The private dining room looks quite nice and looking forward to photos and details of your meal, which I'm sure there will be more than an ample supply of! Nice start with a full Prosecco!
Saturday 15 September – part four: that’s got meat in it!
Once we were all served our drinks, then Andrew did the group photos. Apparently he’s been the server for all the private dining room events so far, all of them from our Facebook group, and I guess he’s got used to taking photos for everyone. He certainly did a good job.
At that point, he then went around everyone to get their order, before he showed everyone around the buffet, which was fair enough. We tried to be restrained, as this is always our failing – we order far too much from the menu and then fill up from the buffet.
Then it was time to attack… oh sorry I mean admire… the buffet in Andrew’s company. In truth, I was one of the last out of the room, so I didn’t hear a word he said and I can read the signs that go with the dishes. Instead, I chatted to one of the officers, Allen. They’d already said that they’d seen whales outside the back of the ship this morning, which was neat, but as I said to him, I didn’t stand a chance of seeing them. This is the girl who went to the restrooms on our first Alaskan cruise and came back to hear everyone else in the group raving about the whales they’d just seen.
So here’s an idea of the offerings they had…
For my first plate of food, I went for mainly seafood based items:
Then I decided for my second plate, I’d go with a cheese theme!
By this time, the menu items had turned up and a number of pizzas had been included for the group, which is one great benefit of going as a group – you don’t feel obliged to eat a whole one, you can just have a slice (or maybe two in my case… ) and one of the ones Andrew brought out was the blue cheese and grape. I love this one, but they took it off the menu a while ago now. I was so pleased when he said that we could have one. It was just as good as I remember.
I also got the rollatini melanzane, lightly breaded baked eggplant filled with prosciutto (which I didn’t realise until I took a bite of it – not nice!), sweet ricotta and smoked mozzarella, served on Toscana sauce and drizzled with aged balsamic moderna. Not a good choice for me!
Mark was much happier with his parmesan-crusted chicken breast, topped with a San Marzano tomato basil sauce and mozzarella sauce, although he asked for the creamy arborio rice risotto to be left off it and I don’t blame him. That would have been too much!
Next: “hey the Europeans are the last ones standing!”
Oh, Palo brunch - my favorite! I love that eggplant roll-up, but think the prosciutto is too salty with it. I love prosciutto but I like the roll-up without it.
Luke and I have thought we wouldn't really appreciate Palo, so we did not do it on either of our cruises. But you are convincing me that when we get the opportunity to cruise again with Disney, we are going to try it.
Oh, Palo brunch - my favorite! I love that eggplant roll-up, but think the prosciutto is too salty with it. I love prosciutto but I like the roll-up without it.
I think it would probably be very nice without that.
Luke and I have thought we wouldn't really appreciate Palo, so we did not do it on either of our cruises. But you are convincing me that when we get the opportunity to cruise again with Disney, we are going to try it.
Oh my goodness, really? You must try it on your next cruise, it is amazing and one of the best things about a Disney cruise!
Saturday 15 September – part five: “hey the Europeans are the last ones standing!”
For dessert, I think I tried most things… and yes, probably things I couldn’t try if I had a true “allergy” guys. This is why I manage it myself, as I know what I can and can’t have…
We all chatted away for quite some time, enjoying tea and coffee. We introduced some people to PG Tips, explaining that you could get it on deck nine, after I very strongly suggested Andrew could go and get some. Well, Nikola had got some and had volunteered to do so, so I didn’t think that was too big an ask.
Eventually, everyone started to disappear one by one. We assume the first couple who left paid up, as Andrew seemed very surprised they’d gone and we did think they were heading off very soon. Oh well, I’m sure Disney will be able to track them down easily enough…
In the end, it was ourselves, Dirk and Katrin (the German couple) and Brian and Elaine (the other British couple) and I loved the way Katrin said “hey the Europeans are the last ones standing!” Very true….
It was good fun and I’d definitely sign up for another of these.
Palo brunch:
Buffet food 9½ 9
Menu items 7½ 8
Desserts 8½ 8½
Service 7 8½
Atmosphere 9 9
Average score: 8.45
We made our way back to the room and settled down to chill and digest the huge amount of food we’d just had.
We were allegedly approaching land, according to the map on the TV anyway, but even a couple of hours later, there was still none to be seen. The great Transatlantic crossing continues…
We headed down at 2:30pm for our galley tour, meeting at Lumiere’s. I have to say this was Ok, but a bit of a let down. We had one of the chef de cuisine from Serbia and he was hard to understand at times and just rattled away. One of our group managed to finally interject a question and did say, in a very nice way, that she hadn’t had a chance to do so earlier, but I still don’t think he got the point.
There wasn’t much to see in here in truth. It was a kitchen, complete with areas where the completed food would be put, along with photos to make sure it looked correct. We did learn that there are 122 chefs under the control of the one chef here and the kitchen for Lumiere’s also provides for Rapunzel’s Royal Table. The food for Cabana’s is also made here too and they send it up in their own elevator on a food trolley.
The photos show the chefs what the dishes should look like when they go out
Food costs from $2.87 per person in Lumiere’s to $3.10 per person in Rapunzel’s, but to be honest, a lot of these facts came from the questions people asked. It also become apparent that the chefs all have their own budgets to stick to, which I’d never thought about, but of course, at the end of the day, it is all a business, as we all know only too well with Disney…
He talked a lot about the importance of hygiene, which is good to hear and said they get twice annual inspections from the US public health agency. I did ask whether the countries where the ships dock can send people on board to do inspections and they can, but he said they generally know when those will be happening, whereas they don’t know when the American ones will be…
We did learn that the kitchens operate 24 hours a day, complete with a night shift, which I hadn’t thought about before, but that does make sense. He said part of it is to deal with any requests for room service, but it’s also for food preparation.
These shots aren’t the best, but because I work in communications, I was fascinated by these boards with messages on for staff heading “on stage”…
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The private dining room looks quite nice and looking forward to photos and details of your meal, which I'm sure there will be more than an ample supply of! 
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Instead, I chatted to one of the officers, Allen. They’d already said that they’d seen whales outside the back of the ship this morning, which was neat, but as I said to him, I didn’t stand a chance of seeing them. 
This is the girl who went to the restrooms on our first Alaskan cruise and came back to hear everyone else in the group raving about the whales they’d just seen. 
) and one of the ones Andrew brought out was the blue cheese and grape. I love this one, but they took it off the menu a while ago now. I was so pleased when he said that we could have one. 
It was just as good as I remember. 
You must try it on your next cruise, it is amazing and one of the best things about a Disney cruise! 
The great Transatlantic crossing continues… 
What a blast!! Your Pirate outfits are amazing and I love the photos!!! 
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