Ships, castles and spas – passing through southern England and Wales COMPLETED - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thursday 11 June – part four: this is like no study I’ve ever seen before!
We made our way past the Norman Keep…
… and over to the castle apartments, which is what I wanted to see:
This apartment block was built between 1423 and 1439 by the Earl of Warwick, although it was altered considerably through the years. Additions were made in the 1570s and then again in the 1770s. The house was then rebuilt by the third Marquess of Bute during the late 19th century, when more accommodation was added.
We headed inside, and the guide at the entrance told us we should see the study before heading upstairs. When he said “study”, I was like “ok”, but my jaw dropped when we walked in. It didn’t look like any study I’ve ever seen before!
This was the entrance hall, not very impressive, but much better was to come.
The first room we came to upstairs was the Arab room, which I think was my favourite. It was just breath taking. This dates from the late 19th century and was designed to be an occasional sitting room and was sometimes used as a bedroom for guests. Wow, could you imagine staying in here? The ceiling is actually made of wood, which has been covered in gold leaf and then decorated. The walls and floors are Italian marble and the chimney piece is carved with the names of the architect, a tribute put in by Lord and Lady Bute, so pleased were they by his work. I can understand that.
Next we headed into the Banqueting Hall, the largest single room in the castle and the oldest part of the building. It’s theme is medieval history and the chimney piece shows Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of King Henry I. The detail in here was just exquisite.
We headed downstairs…
… into this, the small dining room. Well, if this is the small, I’d love to see the large! Interestingly, we didn’t on our tour, and we both got the impression that not all the rooms were open to the public, and we wondered if the large dining room was perhaps one of them.
This room was only used as a dining room for members of the Bute family and originally it was a drawing room. It was transformed into what you see now in 1875.
Next we entered the drawing room, and this is the only interior at the castle that survives from the 18th century, as much of the rest of the apartments were drastically changed a century later.
The final room we visited was the stunning library, the oldest part of the house and part of it once formed the Great Hall back in the 15th century. The bookcases and tables in here since date from the 1870s.
We got a glimpse of the main staircase from here, although I felt it was a shame that we couldn’t see it close up.
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The ceiling is actually made of wood, which has been covered in gold leaf and then decorated. The walls and floors are Italian marble and the chimney piece is carved with the names of the architect, a tribute put in by Lord and Lady Bute, so pleased were they by his work. I can understand that. 
Interestingly, we didn’t on our tour, and we both got the impression that not all the rooms were open to the public, and we wondered if the large dining room was perhaps one of them. 
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