Boating on the Broads COMPLETED 5/19 - Page 26 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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A lovely last hour on the boat! I notice Captain Mark has his Disney Cruise Line shirt on, as if to show he's been on the water before, experienced Captain!
__________________
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
A lovely last hour on the boat! I notice Captain Mark has his Disney Cruise Line shirt on, as if to show he's been on the water before, experienced Captain!
Well he's certainly an experienced cruiser - not so much on the captain side of things... but he will be getting more captaining experience next May again!
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Monday 21 April – part two: a right Royal time at Sandringham
Soon the restaurant from last night was coming into view…
… and then our boatyard….
We made it back to the boatyard at around 9:20am, and they were immediately on hand to help moor us up. They told us not to hurry, as the boat wasn’t going out today, but we had plans for the day, so we did hurry. We put everything back in the car, got rid of the rubbish (I was surprised that it all went in a skip, with no recycling facilities anywhere… ) and then we headed into the office.
On the way, you could see all the staff working hard to clean the boats out, which was good to see. My goodness, they work hard for their money.
I handed back the Wi-Fi unit and lifejackets, and we then got the rest of our fuel deposit refunded. I’d paid £125 ($200) up front, and I got £67 back ($107), so that was a nice surprise. I asked if that was usual, and the woman told me it was.
By the time we left the boatyard, it was 9:45am, and the GPS gave us a bit of a shock when it announced that we wouldn’t get to Sandringham until 11:35am! Considering it was only 60 miles away, I wasn’t expecting that. Thankfully, it came down and down and in the end we made it just after 11:00am, which is more what I’d expected.
We parked up, and already the place was getting busy, considering the house had only opened a few moments earlier. We walked up there through the visitor centre, and got in line for tickets. There was only one guy working, and we probably waited in line about 10 minutes. They really could’ve done with a better system here, as I bet this is chaos in the summer.
Once we had our tickets in hand (paid for by the refund from our fuel deposit ) we took the short walk over to Sandringham House, and wow, it was a short walk. You could see the house almost straightaway…
You pass the side of the house first…
… then you go around to the front…
… where you enter the house. Sadly there are no photos allowed inside but I did manage to find some images online for you…
Let me give you some history about the place at this point… Sandringham House and the estate, which at that time, stood at 2,800 hectares was purchased in 1862 as a country home for Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales at the time (who went on to become King Edward VII), who had just turned 21. He then moved in with his new wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, but it soon became evident that the house was too small for his growing family, so they demolished it and built a new one.
The Royal family still come here every year for Christmas, and you always see the now traditional footage of them heading to Sandringham Church on Christmas Day morning, which you’ll see later on, with crowds of well wishers there to greet them.
The first room you entered into had a set of scales in front of you, which one of the guides told us was to weigh guests when they arrived and left! Apparently, in those days, if you didn’t leave weighing more than when you arrived, the cook hadn’t done their job properly. There was also a lovely portrait of various Royal families in November 1997 for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s golden wedding anniversary. It was fascinating to see it and put various names to faces.
I heard a guide tell a kid who asked “does the Queen live here?” that when they come for Christmas, they spend a lot of time in this room, as it’s comfortable (there were various sofas in here) and it always has a roaring fire. Sounds good to me!
The next room we headed into had the Queen’s coat of arms engraved into the windows in this room, which were only done recently.
Then you entered the library, I think if I remember right. See how quickly memories fade? This was only a few hours after we went through it. In fairness, there weren’t any details of what each room as we went through. I guess they wanted you to buy the guidebook. There were photos of the Royal family dotted around everywhere, and in here was one of King George VI, and his family, including the current Queen, taken at Christmas 1951, the last Christmas they had together, as King George VI died in February 1952.
We then passed through the dining room, where the guide told us the table was laid with one set of crockery, while another set was on the sideboard. The guides here were fascinating to listen to, and they were filled with stories. They really made the visit for me.
Then it was into what I can only describe as the gun corridor, with literally hundreds of guns stored in here. A couple were used by Queen Victoria, but it was King Edward VII’s collection that amazed me. Honestly, he must’ve used about 20 or 30 them at least.
In here too were some pencil drawings of the Royal family from the 1970s. It’s a real shame there wasn’t more signage in here, as I’d love to have known the history of these, and who drew them. The one that stood out was of the Duke of Edinburgh, who apparently was happily chatting away to the guy who drew this, then the guy potted a number of birds while they were out shooting, and then the Duke said no more!
While I was in here, I heard one of the guides explain that they are members of the Sandringham Estate, but that when the Queen comes for Christmas, she brings her London staff with her. We also later heard that the Queen takes the time and the trouble to get to know her staff, and every time someone leaves, she offers them use of the final room we saw, which was has a high ceiling with wonderful chandeliers in, for farewell parties. Now how cool is that?
The guide in here also told us how, when William and Harry were younger, they used to fly model planes in here, and every so often the Queen would throw open the doors and tell them to mind her chandeliers.
With that, our tour was over. It was fascinating to get a glimpse into the more relaxed side of the Royal family, and this certainly felt more like a home to me. I can see why they always spend Christmas here.
I enjoyed revisiting Sandringham with you. I loved touring this estate as it's so familiar from photos of the family there. I remember seeing so many photos from when Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were growing up as well as Prince Charles and Princess Anne. It does seem more of a family home than their other residences, which makes sense, as it's privately owned, along with Balmoral.
I admit, I don't pay much attention to what the Royal family does for holidays. Or really, what they do for normal days either! So this is all new to me. Very nice! Cute about Harry and William flying their little planes! I'm glad the guides were useful in telling the story about Sandringham.
__________________
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 enjoyed revisiting Sandringham with you. I loved touring this estate as it's so familiar from photos of the family there. I remember seeing so many photos from when Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were growing up as well as Prince Charles and Princess Anne. It does seem more of a family home than their other residences, which makes sense, as it's privately owned, along with Balmoral.
I bet there were some wonderful photos when you were there, as they were a growing family back then. I love seeing photos of the Queen when she was still a princess and a young Charles and Anne.
I bet there were some wonderful photos when you were there, as they were a growing family back then. I love seeing photos of the Queen when she was still a princess and a young Charles and Anne.
There were lots of Charles and Anne as well as a few of Andrew and Edward-- those two seem to always be a bit overlooked, don't they? Many also of Princess Elizabeth, her sister and parents before they had any notion they'd be King and Queen. I was born the same year as Charles and so the photos of his childhood -- the cars and the way people dressed-- always look like my childhood photos. Minus the castles in the background, of course!
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) and then we headed into the office. 
I asked if that was usual, and the woman told me it was. 
Considering it was only 60 miles away, I wasn’t expecting that. Thankfully, it came down and down and in the end we made it just after 11:00am, which is more what I’d expected. 
Apparently, in those days, if you didn’t leave weighing more than when you arrived, the cook hadn’t done their job properly. 
In fairness, there weren’t any details of what each room as we went through. I guess they wanted you to buy the guidebook. There were photos of the Royal family dotted around everywhere, and in here was one of King George VI, and his family, including the current Queen, taken at Christmas 1951, the last Christmas they had together, as King George VI died in February 1952. 
Or really, what they do for normal days either! So this is all new to me. Very nice! Cute about Harry and William flying their little planes! I'm glad the guides were useful in telling the story about Sandringham.
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