From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 6/30 - Page 5 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Friday 24 February – part three: great, no main course option for me!
Now we were told that everyone was boarded, and the ground staff had departed just as we boarded, so we figured we’d be leaving on time, especially as we’d commented in the lounge earlier how quiet the airport seemed. We sat for ages, I assume waiting to be pushed back…
When we did, we certainly saw some interesting things – not what you expect from an airport…
Finally, after what felt like ages looking like a building site outside, finally we were taxiing, and of course I had to put the new camera through its paces again…
Then we were in the air, about 12:10pm, half an hour after we were due to take-off. I have no idea what took so long.
At least the bonus was the entertainment system had been operating since we pushed back from the gate, albeit not brilliantly. Mark had his movie go into French about three times, and I assumed it was just him, but mine did it after we had a cabin announcement, and it took ages to get it back into English. I figured it might be a more general problem, and sure enough it was. As I got up to use the bathroom, there was an announcement that they’d be rebooting the system. Ok, so I picked a good time to get up then…
Finally, when it was rebooted, it seemed to work Ok and I immersed myself in Sully, which is an excellent movie, although as others mentioned in my pre-trip report, perhaps not the best choice for a flight, as there are definitely some heart stopping moments in it, and as you watch them prepare for a flight, and you’re sitting there thinking “that was us half an hour ago”, that’s not necessarily such a good thing…
Anyway, all in all, I thought it was one of the most inspiring movies I’ve seen in a long time, which amazed me, as I never expected to come along feeling that way about it. There were some points where I was honestly completely choked up, because it’s something that really happened, and despite the odds, everyone survived. It’s still an amazing story to this day.
About this time, lunch was served, and that’s where the fun started. The appetiser was the same for everyone – green vegetable and tomato salad – a bright and refreshing start to your meal with green peas and beans, and baby tomatoes on a bed of mixed leaves with balsamic vinaigrette. I have to say it didn’t look like much, but it tasted better than I expected.
Main course was where my problems started. The three choices today were pork chilli con carne, which Mark went for, mainly because he didn’t fancy the idea of the chicken and fennel casserole. I obviously wasn’t interested in either, which left me with just one option. I wasn’t enthused by the idea of halloumi and vegetable stack, but I wasn’t even going to get a chance to try it, as I heard the stewardess tell the passenger in front of me that they’d already run out of the halloumi. I really was not a happy bunny when I heard that.
Now I will be honest, I don’t declare myself as vegetarian before a flight, as technically I’m not. I still eat fish, and I’ve had a couple of instances where I’ve been told that, because I declared myself as vegetarian, I couldn’t have the fish option, which seems unfair, so I decided not to go down that route again. Anyway, today I was in real problems.
However, Lauren was a real star. I told her I wasn’t impressed by the situation, and she promised she’d find something for me, and she did. I think she got the mushroom ravioli she served me up with from Upper Class, and my goodness, it was beautiful. I was really impressed with it.
The pudding was the spiced carrot sponge, served with crčme Anglaise, which frankly sounded awful, but actually it was quite good, and the whole meal also came with cheese and biscuits – to go with my wine!
All in all, the meal turned out to be really good, but it could’ve been so much worse. I was not impressed to be told that they now only seem to carry a couple of vegetarian options per flight. Not good enough. I told Lauren I was quite happy to complete a feedback form, having had experience of doing them before, and I told her I’d praise her in it. She told me the cabin services manager would be along…
… and we met Claire, just as I started my second movie. She arrived with the feedback form, and just like Lauren, she told us they’d be saying for a long time that they’re not supplying enough vegetarian meals. Well, that went on my form, along with Mark’s excellent suggestion that perhaps they should start supplying the menu in advance of flights, and asking people to choose what they want. Well, heck, it can’t hurt to suggest it, can it?
By the time I’d finished, I’d filled in the entire feedback form, and trust me, there is a lot of space to fill in those things… and I handed it back to Claire as she came through with the captain, who wanted to check I wasn’t feeding back about the flying. I assured him we weren’t, and he was fine on that count.
I just love looking down upon England in your photos.
Wow, you even got the captain to come back and make sure everything was good! Very nice of Lauren to go above and beyond to get you the proper meal. So far so good with the flight!
__________________
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
I'm surprised that they wouldn't have more vegetarian options since more and more people are choosing that route. I'm glad they could accommodate you though. Great pictures from up in the sky.
I'm glad they were able to find a meal for you, but that is really wrong to not have enough vegetarian meals on board. I suspect there were still many more passengers to be served after you and probably a few more disappointments. That really puts the flight attendants in a tough spot when something like that happens. It's not their fault but I'm sure that they take all the flack.
Wow, that would've been a long flight if that salad had been the only thing you could eat! I think the idea of selecting your meal ahead of time - maybe when you do the check in 24 hours ahead - would be brilliant!! Seems it would make it easier for the flight attendants, too.
Glad you had such a relaxing experience in the lounge as it looks so nice there! I agree with you that the location of the bar in front of the window is not the best idea! Your eggs and smoked salmon looks quite appetizing!
Good to hear the flight staff was able to accommodate you with a good entree choice for your meal! That is kind of odd that the film Sully would be one of the choices on a flight, but it becomes a happy situation. I remember when this happened and was amazing. My brother was in his office in NYC at this time and actually saw the jet sailing down the Hudson River, which he said was such a surreal experience and sight to see!
__________________
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!
Didn't we tell you, in your PTR, that watching Sully while flying wasn't the best idea!?!?
That was a close call with the food. Glad Lauren was able to accommodate you! It would've been a heck of a long flight with just a salad in your tummy.
From no trip to celebrating 20 years together… planning it all in less than 100 days! UPDATED 3/14
Wasn't Sully such a great movie? I loved it! I never knew at the time about everything that happened afterwards, with Sully and the flight crew having to prove that there was no way to get to an airport to land.
I'm glad they were able to find a meal for you, but that is really wrong to not have enough vegetarian meals on board. I suspect there were still many more passengers to be served after you and probably a few more disappointments.
I think so too. I don't know whether there was a different menu for Economy, but if not, my goodness, that would not have been fun. There must've been another 20 people to be served behind us in Premium Economy..
Quote:
That really puts the flight attendants in a tough spot when something like that happens. It's not their fault but I'm sure that they take all the flack.
I felt so sorry for them and they were great about it, but frustrated too, as I got the impression they'd had these problems before and had raised it.
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.
Good to hear the flight staff was able to accommodate you with a good entree choice for your meal! That is kind of odd that the film Sully would be one of the choices on a flight, but it becomes a happy situation. I remember when this happened and was amazing. My brother was in his office in NYC at this time and actually saw the jet sailing down the Hudson River, which he said was such a surreal experience and sight to see!
Didn't we tell you, in your PTR, that watching Sully while flying wasn't the best idea!?!?
Er.. someone may have mentioned it somewhere along the line...
Quote:
That was a close call with the food. Glad Lauren was able to accommodate you! It would've been a heck of a long flight with just a salad in your tummy.
Wasn't Sully such a great movie? I loved it! I never knew at the time about everything that happened afterwards, with Sully and the flight crew having to prove that there was no way to get to an airport to land.
I think that was the beauty of it - all of us probably only knew a tiny bit of the story. I loved the end bit where they showed the actual people involved. That was really moving.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Luke would love that extra leg room in your section. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
mine did it after we had a cabin announcement, and it took ages to get it back into English. I figured it might be a more general problem, and sure enough it was. As I got up to use the bathroom, there was an announcement that they’d be rebooting the system. Ok, so I picked a good time to get up then… 
Linear Mode
