A tale of two cities… and a few other places… COMPLETED - Page 21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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So many details, it's crazy to think of all the people that lived there. All the events that happened.
Lady Baillie's area looks nice and bright, and inviting actually.
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Tanya
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So many details, it's crazy to think of all the people that lived there. All the events that happened.
Lady Baillie's area looks nice and bright, and inviting actually.
I love the bathroom and dressing room - they seem to be the most light out of all the rooms.
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Great coverage of the various rooms and it's so well done at the castle!
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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!
Love these rooms, but Lady Baillie's private quarters are incredible.
I'm doing a tour of some of the private rooms upstairs at Leeds Castle next month and I can't wait! It's something I've wanted to do for some time, but the dates have never worked out for me...
Monday 18 September – part six: bet you can’t guess why it’s called that?
We made our way downstairs in Leeds Castle into the yellow drawing room. Bet you can’t guess why it’s called that?
The last room we saw was the Thorpe Hall drawing room, the principal drawing room in the castle since 1822. The reason for the name of this room is simple. The pine panelling and chimneypiece came from the great parlour at Thorpe Hall. How did it end up here? Because in the 1920s, believe it or not, the English country house was in decline. Many heirs died in World War I, so houses and their contents were sold off.
As I mentioned earlier, the library and dining room were sadly closed today, although I did manage to snag a shot of the library before the staff member came out and closed the door on it.
Mark also did a great job of acting as a tour guide, most of it he claims learnt from his school trips, which if that’s true, is a pretty impressive memory, as that was a few years ago now…
When we came out, it was raining a little, but thankfully, nothing horrendous.
We went into the shop here, and wow, what an amazing selection they had! We ended up buying a couple of bottles of mead, as we liked it so much, and so did Jan. I guess it really was good stuff! As a footnote, we understand at least one bottle of mead never made it back to the States, as apparently it was consumed in either Ireland, Scotland or both!
Jan wanted to see the gardens, and Mark volunteered to wait at the land train for us, to save either of us carrying the bits and pieces we bought. Jan and I set off that way…
On the way, we found this guy who seemed to be very popular with the birds… can’t imagine why!
We found more bird life a bit further along…
We had a lovely wander through, and it was beautiful there. It’s a long time since we’ve done this, so I really enjoyed it.
[
Next: “would it be Ok if my husband paid and he met us on the other side of the lake?”
Ooooh, the door to the library looks so cool!
So is mead more like a sweet liqueur? I’ve never tried it.
There’s cactus in that garden!
__________________
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
Monday 18 September – part seven: “would it be Ok if my husband paid and he met us on the other side of the lake?”
We saw the boat that runs on the lake at Leeds Castle…
… and I said to Jan that it was too late, as I knew it stopped running at 4:30pm, and we were past that now, but she stopped people heading towards it, so we made our way over there. Phew – made it!
I went to look for my purse, and couldn’t find it. Four other people said they didn’t have any money, and seriously, they were thrown off the boat, as they didn’t take credit cards. I must admit I was thinking we’d face the same fate, then I had a brainwave! “Would it be Ok if my husband paid and he met us on the other side of the lake?” The guy agreed, so I quickly called Mark, and asked if he had any money, and could he bail us out, and although a bit annoyed he agreed. I told the guy he’d meet us at the dock, and he let us stay on.
It was the first time I’d ever done this, and it was pretty neat. It gave a different view of the castle.
When we got there, sure enough, Mark was waiting for us, money in hand!
We got off, and made our way over to the land train (something else you have to pay for – honestly, don’t get me started on that! ), and jumped on, and we made our way back to the entrance.
We headed out through the shop, which was nowhere near as well displayed as the one at the castle, and made our way back to the car. Once again, we really had lucked out with the weather, as the worst of the rain seemed to have come while we were in the castle.
We drove out, and took Jan back via one of the many picturesque villages we have around where we live, called Bearsted. It’s a very traditional village, complete with village green…
Then it was back to ours… I don’t have photos of our house per se, as it’s not something you usually photograph but I did take some photos of the remaining colour in the garden a few days later, so I can share those with you. It’s not much, because we go for summer flowers and by mid-September, a lot of plants are past their best. In fact, I pulled quite a few out after we got home and Jan had flown on to Ireland, but hopefully you’ll still enjoy this glimpse of what we still had…
We have these geraniums outside the front door in pots and they have been amazing this year! We have a series of fuchsias in baskets at the back of the house These double begonias have only got going really late into the season. The chicken wire you can see behind them has to be put around plants in our garden to protect them, otherwise the neighbourhood cats just dig them out to use our flowerbeds as their toilets The dwarf marigolds, definitely past their best now… One of our flowerbeds with alyssum and geraniums in
After showing Jan around, I put a load of washing on, including some of Jan’s as I figured she’d appreciate being able to do some. Usually finding places where you can do washing is very difficult, which always makes me very grateful for the facilities you get at the Disney Vacation Club…
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It's something I've wanted to do for some time, but the dates have never worked out for me...
We ended up buying a couple of bottles of mead, as we liked it so much, and so did Jan. I guess it really was good stuff! 
As a footnote, we understand at least one bottle of mead never made it back to the States, as apparently it was consumed in either Ireland, Scotland or both! 
Four other people said they didn’t have any money, and seriously, they were thrown off the boat, as they didn’t take credit cards. I must admit I was thinking we’d face the same fate, then I had a brainwave! “Would it be Ok if my husband paid and he met us on the other side of the lake?” The guy agreed, so I quickly called Mark, and asked if he had any money, and could he bail us out, and although a bit annoyed 
he agreed. I told the guy he’d meet us at the dock, and he let us stay on. 
), and jumped on, and we made our way back to the entrance. 
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