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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Saturday 13 June – part one: what do you mean there’s no parking here?
We were both awake early again, not long after 6:00am, although I violently objected to the fact and tried to sleep until at least 7:00am. After all, we are on vacation! I then caught up on the trip report, until 8:30am rolled around, as that was when breakfast started. We headed in there, and here’s the breakfast room. Isn’t it neat?
A very neat teapot…
… and some neat coasters as well!
Oh my goodness, you should’ve seen the selection of hot food they had on offer. Wow, it literally went on for pages and pages! I decided to get the toasted bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and they were excellent. Look at the size of the bagels!
Mark went for the traditional English grill, made up of two rashers of grilled farmhouse bacon, a farmhouse sausage, grilled cherry tomatoes, buttered mushrooms and a fried egg, and it looked decidedly on the healthy side, compared to what I was having…
I wasn’t done yet, as I also went for the simply sweet package, two homemade pancakes, served sweet with a jug of maple syrup. Oh wow, these were absolutely superb. They were beautifully rolled up inside, a sign of just how well they’d been cooked.
I really could not fault breakfast here, both the choice and the quality of food on offer… When we checked out, the guy on reception, who was different to the one who had checked us in insisted on shaking both our hands before we left. My goodness, talk about a warm welcome!
We headed out about 9:20am, thinking we’d have plenty of time to get to the Prior Park Landscape Garden.
We had a bit of a shock when we got back, as there was only disabled parking at the gardens. When I had a more careful look in the National Trust book, sure enough, it did say that, but it wasn’t highlighted at all. Very irritating!
We had a look to see if there was any parking nearby, but there wasn’t. Instead, they recommend you parking in the centre of Bath, and taking a bus up there. Ok, not in our plans today… We could’ve parked about half a mile away, but it was raining quite heavily, so that just didn’t feel like a good plan at all. We debated what to do, and eventually after looking at various options, we decided to head to another nearby National Trust property. That meant heading back through Bath, which at least gave us the chance to have one last look at it…
Our route took us out through some lovely villages, although it was tough to get photos of them, with the rain and the mist.
We were heading to the Great Chalfield Manor and Gardens,but when we got there, there was a sign that told us it was closed today. We just couldn’t believe our luck.
Fortunately, there was another National Trust property nearby, the Clouds Garden, so we made our way over there, seeing some more lovely villages on the way…
We got there just before 11:00am, which shows you the type of morning we’d had – literally we’d been on the road for an hour and 40 minutes. We parked up, and headed into the garden, seeing a sign about Wiltshire’s best keep secret, and my goodness, they were right. Talk about a secluded entrance to it!
The gardens were originally an industrial site, a woollen mill that went bankrupt. It opened in 1797 and was a four storey building linked to the main house by a bridge. It didn’t last long, and by 1885, it had ceased trading. It was left empty for several years, and then was purchased cheaply by William Davis, the grandson of the original mill owner.
However, the transformation into what you see today didn’t start until the early part of the 20th century. Doctor George Hastings moved in and only stayed three years, but made a huge impact on the garden, laying out all the paths, adding the statues and garden buildings, and planting out most of the hedges.
This is the tea room that was originally a billiard room…
With it having just rained, the flowers looked beautiful with the dew on them….
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
I then caught up on the trip report, until 8:30am rolled around, as that was when breakfast started. We headed in there, and here’s the breakfast room. Isn’t it neat? 
I decided to get the toasted bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and they were excellent. Look at the size of the bagels! 
there wasn’t. Instead, they recommend you parking in the centre of Bath, and taking a bus up there. Ok, not in our plans today… We could’ve parked about half a mile away, but it was raining quite heavily, so that just didn’t feel like a good plan at all. We debated what to do, and eventually after looking at various options, we decided to head to another nearby National Trust property. That meant heading back through Bath, which at least gave us the chance to have one last look at it… 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Threaded Mode
