Boating on the Broads COMPLETED 5/19 - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a beautiful drive and area. I wish our area was blooming like yours, but, alas we only have the last dregs of winter and no blooms yet.
I can understand that. We've been very lucky and have had an exceptionally mild winter, so things are actually ahead this spring. Our cherry blossom tree usually blooms around now (22 April ish) and it's been in full bloom for the last couple of weeks....
Friday 18 April – part two: encountering “living history” in Ickworth’s kitchens
We had a look around, and had a quick browse of the shop, where I got the obligatory fridge magnet.
Then I headed down to use the restrooms, and the reason I tell you this is that they’re currently undertaking a major renovation project, and here’s why:
I must admit, having seen details of the project as we walked in earlier, I was thinking that the toilets here would be awful, as they talked about “basic” temporary toilets, but they were outside, as I discovered when we walked back to the car and spotted them.
We still had a bit of time to kill before the house opened to the public at 11:00am, so we wandered into the orangery:
It’s very unusual to see these in the UK, so I had to get some photos of them:
From here you have stunning views of the Italianate gardens outside, and you can wander outside in them, which I did.
Finally, it was 11:00am, and we were one of the first to be let into the house, which starts off with the servants’ quarters. This sets the scene for the era you’ve about to visit:
Then you head downstairs, which it turns out is at the base of the rotunda. What you can’t see from the front is that it’s actually surrounded by a dry moat essentially – see what I mean?
We learnt about the electricity supply here, and of course Mark had to try out the “hands on” exhibit!
You immediately got the feeling that the servants here had a heck of a lot of work to do. Everywhere, there were signs, setting out the basic tasks that they had to do:
Then we were into the “living history” area. We’d been told about this when we arrived, and it sounded very cool. They’d explained that anyone dressed historically couldn’t interact or answer our questions, but the National Trust volunteers could. It was fascinating, as we came to an area that ran from the kitchen, and honestly you had to stop and look both ways to see if any of the servants working in the kitchen were running to and fro.
Of course, we had to go and see what they were doing in the kitchen, and one of the volunteers explained to us as soon as we walked in that they were making Easter goodies, including hot cross buns. I asked her whether the recipe had changed from back then in the 1930s to today, and she told me it hadn’t really, which was interesting. I was assuming that we’d have added more to them today, but apparently not.
Also really interesting were the other stories she told me. You see these flaps at the back of the oven?
Apparently the youngest servant, whose name was Daisy, had to clean these out each day, and of course they were covered in soot. Even worse, she couldn’t use the bath that the servants had, as it was only for men. The poor girl had to get hot water and then carry it up to her room. The volunteer then went on to say that Daisy died at the age of…. And I was honestly expecting her to say in her 20s, given what she did, but no, she was aged 106 when she died! What a great story that was!
She also suggested that we should try to lift the saucepans, and my goodness, with the big ones, I couldn’t. Even the smallest ones were a lot heavier than I expected. They’re made of copper, but lined with tin, as copper’s poisonous, and the volunteer explained to us that they had to be sent away to be re-lined every few years. The family had their initial engraved on the pans to ensure that they got the right ones back and not a cheap imitation!
It was absolutely fascinating to stand and watch the living history in action, and the volunteers could tell you the stories of every single woman in there. There was one who apparently only came in from the village when the house was really busy, so wasn’t as sure of herself, and had to be shown how to do things, and as you watched, that’s exactly what happened. I wish I’d asked, as I’d love to know whether they were volunteers or actors, they were that good. I can see why this is hugely popular with visitors, as it’s a great way of bringing the history of the property to life, especially children.
The house is beautiful. I loved the living history part! Working so hard as a young person apparently helped Daisy live a very long time. Wow! I am glad you asked about hot cross buns. I wondered the same thing!
Wow, that's a really clever way of explaining history to kids -- and grown ups too! I can't help but think it's a bit like being in a show of Downton Abbey.
Daisy stayed active and lived a long life, good for her!
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What a well-run place! It just points out how little most historic houses do to communicate the history and details of what it was like to live and work there. Mostly you just walk around, read a few signs, and that's that. It's no wonder it's a popular destination. Just compare it to the estate you went to in Mallorca (La Granja?), where you were just left to wander about and wonder what you were looking at.
Wow, that's a really clever way of explaining history to kids -- and grown ups too! I can't help but think it's a bit like being in a show of Downton Abbey.
It probably is, although never having watched it I can't say for sure... They do tours of the place where Downton Abbey is filmed, as I looked at getting a tour as a present for a family friend who loves the show, but the places sell out stupidly fast. I guess that shows how popular it is.
What a well-run place! It just points out how little most historic houses do to communicate the history and details of what it was like to live and work there. Mostly you just walk around, read a few signs, and that's that.
Sadly, although it wasn't quite that bad, that's a bit how Sandringham was. The guides were full of amazing stories, but there wasn't really anything to read in each room and, as a result, with some rooms I wasn't even sure what they were - and if the guides were busy talking to someone else, you didn't want to butt in and ask.
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It's no wonder it's a popular destination. Just compare it to the estate you went to in Mallorca (La Granja?), where you were just left to wander about and wonder what you were looking at.
Oh gosh - yes, it's the total opposite to that and you remembered the name perfectly!
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
We've been very lucky and have had an exceptionally mild winter, so things are actually ahead this spring. Our cherry blossom tree usually blooms around now (22 April ish) and it's been in full bloom for the last couple of weeks....
they were outside, as I discovered when we walked back to the car and spotted them. 
The poor girl had to get hot water and then carry it up to her room. The volunteer then went on to say that Daisy died at the age of…. And I was honestly expecting her to say in her 20s, given what she did, but no, she was aged 106 when she died! 
What a great story that was! 
I can't say for sure... They do tours of the place where Downton Abbey is filmed, as I looked at getting a tour as a present for a family friend who loves the show, but the places sell out stupidly fast. I guess that shows how popular it is.
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