Water, wildlife and wonders... a road trip around Scotland COMPLETED 11/6 - Page 65 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Mark indeed has some special powers. Various animals, and parking!
This one looks intimidating from the outside, but sure sounds interesting... "pleasure palace" ?!
__________________
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
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I love the picture of Mark and the albino peacock. He really has a gift with animals.
the pictures of Scone castle are beautiful but I the name reminds me of food.
I'm happy you got to see so many of your friends and could get a collection of coo figures.
Liz
Wednesday 21 June – part five: inside the Royal “pleasure palace”
Falkland Palace was built in the early 16th century and was commissioned by King James IV and his son King James V, who wanted something of a “pleasure palace”, where they could go hunting. Mary, Queen of Scots, adored the place, as it reminded her of the chateaux of the French Royal Court, where she grew up, and as we moved through it, I could see that.
Sadly, the palace fell into disrepair about 100 years later, but fortunately for us, it was rescued by the third Marquess of Bute in the late 19th century, and he set about ensuring the original features were conserved, but he also re-crated the interiors.
Now I was honestly only expecting a few rooms inside – what a shock I got! You head up some spiral stairs to the first couple of rooms, and I figured you’d just go down, and see a couple more and that would be it. Not a bit of it!
The range of rooms was staggering, as was the age period, from the wood in the Royal chapel that dated from the 1480s (they carbon dated, so they know!) to the Edwardian study. Now this was fascinating, as it was agreed that it would be left as it was when the third Marquess died, and it’s now like stepping back in time when you enter it.
Throughout the palace, the detail on the wood, including on four poster beds, is just staggering. I love looking at things like this that date from so long ago, as I just marvel at how they were able to do things like this.
There was one area that they hadn’t restored, and as it was outdoors, we were allowed to take photos out here…
When we got to the King’s and Queen’s Room, the latter was decorated how it would’ve been in the period of Mary, Queen of Scots, while the King’s Room can only be open if they have a volunteer available, as they have a Mary, Queen of Scots costume in there, which you can admire, but can’t touch, and apparently people can’t be trusted on their own with it. Big surprise there!
On the subject of volunteers, they were very animated, shall we say? I got to the stage (and this sounds horrible and I don’t mean it to come across in this way) that I didn’t want to speak to any of them, as once you started talking to them, you couldn’t get away. It was a shame, as they had so much useful information to impart, but you then felt bad leaving the room, if that makes sense?
When we finished our tour of the rooms, we discovered it was raining, which was a great shame, as I’d hoped to go around the gardens, but not if it was pouring. I got a few photos…
… including a couple of the costumed guides here with a school party, which was pretty neat.
We went for a browse in the gift shop, and I happened to poke my head out of the door from there into the garden, and lo and behold, it had stopped raining, so we headed out, and thank goodness we did. Look at this amazing and colourful display of delphiniums!
Next: the world’s oldest tennis court still in use today…
Sounds like an excellent piece of history, very well preserved. It's nice that the guides have such info, but I know what you mean.
The garden looks beautiful!
__________________
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
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The castle is lovely, as is all the wildlife! Sorry the weather isn't the best!!
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Bummer on no photos. 
Don't these places know that you educate so many of us through your photos! 
It's also tough when you read a lot inside a property and then can't photograph it. My memory is sadly not what it used to be! 
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