Living the dream and remembering the Bagman COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 9 - 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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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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Omigosh, what a nightmare at immigration! And if it was me, I wouldn't have had upper class, so I'd be at the back of the line! There are many reasons why people just can't stand for that long! I wish there was a better system.
Yep, that is true. I'd forgotten that. I dread to think how much longer it would've taken those in economy to clear immigration.
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What a pain, and, of course, there often aren't any bathrooms before you clear immigration, which adds another issue to the mix. We've encountered the automatic machines for immigration a couple of times and always have trouble with them. As a matter of fact on our last trip, the whole system went down! We had to wait for them to get another agent or 2 at the counters to get things moving along.
What a mess at immigration as sometimes it moves quickly and other times it doesn't. It just depends what other flights have just arrived. On my France trip in 2013 on arrival in Paris it was such a long wait but on return to NYC it was quick being a U.S. citizen and that to me is the reason on how fast or slow you get through immigration. Always worse in the big airports. In 2006 in Venice it wasn't bad at all.
Great photos of Boston on your arrival!
__________________
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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Sounds like overall you had a pretty good flight. Sorry about the mess with immigration. What a nightmare! Glad you finally made it through and our on your way to your friend's house!
What a pain, and, of course, there often aren't any bathrooms before you clear immigration, which adds another issue to the mix.
You are so right about that!
Quote:
We've encountered the automatic machines for immigration a couple of times and always have trouble with them. As a matter of fact on our last trip, the whole system went down! We had to wait for them to get another agent or 2 at the counters to get things moving along.
Oh my goodness! And of course, that's the problem with anything automated, it can fall over at any moment...
What a mess at immigration as sometimes it moves quickly and other times it doesn't. It just depends what other flights have just arrived. On my France trip in 2013 on arrival in Paris it was such a long wait but on return to NYC it was quick being a U.S. citizen and that to me is the reason on how fast or slow you get through immigration. Always worse in the big airports. In 2006 in Venice it wasn't bad at all.
You're so right, it definitely is worst in big airports. We always try and fly into smaller airports, but it's tough to find them with international flights and often they cost more.
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Ugh, what a mess with customs. Glad you got it sorted quicker than others. It was a beautiful day in Boston that day. We took the kids to walk the Freedom Trail that day. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day.
Ugh, what a mess with customs. Glad you got it sorted quicker than others. It was a beautiful day in Boston that day. We took the kids to walk the Freedom Trail that day. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Saturday 10 September – part six: dining at the Little Donkey!
I’d been texting with Dave, keeping him updated on our progress, so they were waiting when we got to the house, and immediately got our cases out, marvelling at how much stuff we had. I felt so bad when Rob told us he’d travelled round the world with one bag.
We paid the cab driver, and headed inside, and Dave volunteered to take the one case we’d need (which also turned out to be the heaviest one ) up to our room, which was right at the top of the house. My goodness, he regretted that decision, as he couldn’t believe how heavy it was.
Look at this amazing room…
The bed dates from the 1840s, which is older than the house. They got it online!
We were due out for dinner at 6:00pm, and we got to their house at 5:40pm, so we grabbed some water to drink (heaven!) and then got showered and changed and felt a little bit more human again, and headed out. The restaurant was about a 10 minute walk away, and I grabbed a couple of shots as we walked, with Dave marvelling at my ability to do that – years of practice!
We arrived at the Little Donkey about 15 minutes late for our reservation, but it was fine. If anything, it was packed when we got there, but it got quieter as the evening wore on, which was a little surreal, especially given this was the latest reservation Dave could get. He told us it was new, and apparently anything new in Cambridge is booked up really quickly. You can book at a month out, and he left it an hour, which is why he thinks all the later slots were taken. Remember you of anywhere?
It was a lovely place, and you could tell it had a lot of history to it. I’d like to have seen some details about the history somewhere.
This is a tapas place, which was nice, as we could all eat as much as we wanted, and I wasn’t overly hungry after all I’d consumed earlier.
We started out with some shrimp crackers and ahi tuna, which were very good, but it’s interesting, as Dave did all the ordering, and I know we discussed everything else, but I don’t remember discussing this dish at all, so maybe he just decided to throw an extra one in there?
Dave and Rob decided to start off with oysters, which I opted out of, as I’m not a fan, but Mark plucked up courage to have one. They did get four of one kind, and four of another. I believe, from what Rob told me, one set was from the west coast, and one was from Maine, but much more than that, I really don’t remember.
They also had some foie gras with plum jam, bee pollen, and nepitella, which obviously I opted out of as well.
Then the interesting sounding clam garlic bread with Baharat, clam and garlic butter. It was nice, but it was a slightly odd combination of flavours.
Next up was the farro kimchi fried rice with egg, scallion, bean sprouts, Thai herbs and green curry. It was a little too spicy for my taste, which was a shame, as it had a good taste to it.
Not long after that, the heirloom tomatoes, with XO sauce and garlic scapes appeared, and we all really enjoyed this dish – very tasty.
The charred avocado with pepitas, yoghurt, and pomegranate molasses was beautiful tasting, although sweeter than I expected, but the presentation was not what I expected at all. I was expecting strips of chargrilled avocado. We did comment that it was a bit of a pain trying to get some of these items on to your plate, as we only had forks and knives, and each dish could’ve really done with a spoon accompanying it to make life easier.
Then we moved on to the main course – very kindly, everyone went for fish dishes, so we could all eat them. We had monkfish biryani with basmati rice, saffron, cashews and cardamom, which was really good…
However, the swordfish with zucchini and marcona almond taboeleh, harissa and mint was the real winner for everyone, and the last course we had. That was just excellent and I could’ve happily polished off a second dish of that, it was that good.
We did look at the dessert menu, but I didn’t see anything I liked the look of, so we opted out. My eyes were starting to get very tired by now, and I figured we really needed to head back. We hadn’t done badly, given it was now 8:00pm, or 1:00am for our body clocks.
We settled up – the check for us came to $90 for the two of us, including tip, and although it was a little pricey, I could see why. Dave had earlier told us that apparently this place is run by a famous chef, and let’s face it, we all know you can make money from your name in cooking.
The Little Donkey
Appetiser 8½ 9
Entrée 9½ 9
Atmosphere 8 9
Service 9 8½
Value for money 8½ 8½
Average score: 8.75
We made our way back to Dave and Rob’s, stopping off to get some bits for breakfast in a patisserie, which included macarons, which we then ate as soon as we got back! It was an amazing place. It didn’t look that big from outside, but step inside, and it was like a TARDIS (couldn’t resist the Doctor Who reference ) – it went on and on and on out at the back. They told us there’s a Korean supermarket out there.
We also stopped off at Walgreen’s to get my deodorant and some for my dad. Mark kept telling me to do it later in the trip, but I just wanted to get it out of the way – one less thing to do.
When we got back to Dave’s and Rob’s, Dave eagerly opened up the photobook of the wedding, and judging by the reaction (a lot of squealing, laughing, “I didn’t know you got a photo of that”! etc. ) I think the verdict was they liked it. In fact, Dave did say it was the best souvenir of their wedding, so I couldn’t hope for more than that.
We sat up until about 9:30pm, which was very late for us, just chatting. I really didn’t want to go to bed, as we so rarely get to spend time with them, but eventually the long day caught up with us, and we gave up and headed up.
The weather today was rain and temperatures in the mid 50s in London and warm and humid and dry with temperatures in the mid 70s in Boston. The best thing today was having such a smooth flight and the time whizzing past in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse lounge. The worst thing today was the wait at immigration. The funniest thing today was being photobombed with champagne! Today we tried going for dinner at the Little Donkey And the result was we really enjoyed it, it’s a very different kind of place to eat. The most magical moment today was seeing Dave and Rob again.
Next: two things broken… and you’re hungover? Not a good start to the day!
That restaurant name sounds perfect for you. I would have skipped the oysters,too.
Your room looks really nice. I'm glad they like the wedding album.
Liz
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It just depends what other flights have just arrived. On my France trip in 2013 on arrival in Paris it was such a long wait but on return to NYC it was quick being a U.S. citizen and that to me is the reason on how fast or slow you get through immigration. Always worse in the big airports. In 2006 in Venice it wasn't bad at all.
Sorry for all the issues with immigration! 
He told us it was new, and apparently anything new in Cambridge is booked up really quickly. You can book at a month out, and he left it an hour, which is why he thinks all the later slots were taken. Remember you of anywhere? 
I was expecting strips of chargrilled avocado. We did comment that it was a bit of a pain trying to get some of these items on to your plate, as we only had forks and knives, and each dish could’ve really done with a spoon accompanying it to make life easier. 
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