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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Ships, castles and spas – passing through southern England and Wales COMPLETED
Ships, castles and spas – passing through southern England and Wales
Dates: Wednesday 10 – Sunday 14 June Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (42), DH Mark (49) Destinations: Cardiff, Wales, Bath, Southampton and Portsmouth, England Resorts: Futures Inn Hotel, Cardiff, Cranleigh Bath and Holiday Inn Southampton Meets: our friends Bruce and Marta, who we first met on the inaugural Med cruise on the Magic in 2007
This trip report started when Marta got in touch with me on Facebook in September 2014 to say that they’d be coming to the UK in June 2015… more of which in a moment. We’d first met her and her husband Bruce on the inaugural Med cruise all the way back in the summer of 2007, and since then, we’ve met up with them on every visit we’ve made to Walt Disney World, as they live locally, and we were also on the same Alaskan cruise as them back in 2011.
Well, the message she sent me asked what we’d be doing over the weekend of 13 and 14 June, as in her words they’d be “passing through England on those dates”. They’d be flying into Heathrow on the afternoon, as it turned out, and then going to Southampton for the day, until they boarded the Queen Mary 2 in the evening to set sail on a return transatlantic cruise. And this is following three cruises on board the Magic, including the transatlantic over. I know, I know – pick yourself up off the floor at this point, it’s just unbelievable, isn’t it?
Her message got me thinking… we’d been talking about going back to the Thermae Bath Spa, which we’d first visited in May 2014, as we’d absolutely loved our day there (starts from post 584), and that’s not that far from Southampton (about an hour and a half), so maybe we should make a long weekend of it, and head to Bath on the Friday. A few weeks later, I got an email saying that the Doctor Who Exhibition would be reopening in Cardiff late in 2014, after a massive update, following the arrival of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor. Now Cardiff is only an hour from Bath… I think you can see where this is going…
As a massive Doctor Who fan, I suggested to Mark that we expand our weekend even further, and take the Thursday off, so that we could go to the Doctor Who Exhibition on the Thursday. Ok, that works for me, although I know Mark wasn’t quite so sure…
Fast forward another couple of months, and I got an offer from Hotels.com, which was basically that you’d get two nights for the price of one as far as their loyalty scheme goes. With this, for every 10 nights you stay, you get one night free, so this was a good deal. Now obviously it would be better if we had a two night or more stay planned anywhere at any point… fine, except we didn’t. That got the wheels turning in my mind, and I think you can see where this is going…
I asked Mark how he felt about driving down to Cardiff on the Wednesday night, and he agreed to it. It’s June, so it should be light for most of the journey, and if we can leave around 6:00pm, provided the roads are clear, we should be in Cardiff by around 9:15pm – 9:30pm, which isn’t too bad, so I went ahead and booked two nights at the Future Inn Hotel in Cardiff, which is right by the Doctor Who Exhibition, and comes with free parking, a definite bonus as we’ll have the car with us. With two nights booked under the offer, that would count for four nights towards our next free night!
The next day as just going to be the exhibition, but then I realised that, despite visiting Cardiff two or three times previously, we’d never been to Cardiff Castle. Well, we could easily put that right, now we had a full day in Cardiff… The exhibition doesn’t open until 10:00am, while the castle opens at 9:00am, so that’s going to be our first stop of the day, then I’ve booked tickets to the Doctor Who Exhibition for 12:30pm. They reckon it takes 90 minutes to get around it, so that only takes us to the early afternoon. If we’re in a fit state, and still have time in the day, then we’ll put our National Trust membership to good use, and visit Tredegar House in Newport, about a 20 minute drive away.
Then as if that wasn’t enough, I discovered that there are previews of the movie Jurassic World that night. We were both really taken with the idea of seeing the film when we saw the trailer, as it’s about Jurassic Park operating as a theme park, and some of the elements in the trailers reminded us of existing theme parks, shall we say? There is a cinema almost next to the hotel, but the show times weren’t great, either too early, which would eat into our touring time during the day, or too late, and we figured we’d be asleep by the end of it. Mark eventually suggested checking out another major chain of cinemas, and although it’s not as conveniently located, at least the film times were much better, so we’re booked for a 3D showing of the film at 6:30pm that evening. After that, we’ll collapse back in a heap at our hotel room after a pretty busy day!
On the Friday, we’ll head over to Bath, and spend the day at the Thermae Bath Spa. Mark’s opted for exactly the same treatment he had last time, the hot stones vichy massage, a stone, oil, and water ritual using hydro massage techniques. You start with a full body exfoliation and cleanse, which is where the water ritual comes in, then it’s all finished off with a hot stone massage on the legs and back.
I’m going for something different, a bamboo massage, a deep tissue massage with warm bamboo sticks. As I love my hot stones massages that I regularly get, I figured this would be similar, and therefore should be just as enjoyable.
Both packages come with a four-hour spa session, lunch at the restaurant, and complimentary use of towel, robe and slippers. We plan on getting there around 10:30am, and our treatments are at 2:15pm, so we’ll still have time after our treatments, especially as the four-hour session doesn’t include time in the restaurant. I’m so looking forward to hopefully having warmer weather than last time, so we can spend more time in the rooftop pool!
That night, after much hunting around, as most bed and breakfast places in the area insist on a minimum two night stay if you’re staying a Friday night I found a well rated B&B called Cranleigh that had no such requirement, so I booked ourselves into it. I’ve also managed to find a pub that’s apparently got lovely views of the surrounding countryside, and again is well rated on TripAdvisor, so I’ve booked that, and at least we don’t have to worry about dinner for that night.
The plan for Saturday, as Bruce and Marta aren’t flying into Heathrow until mid-afternoon and probably won’t make it to Southampton for another couple of hours after that, is that we’ll start off by visiting Prior Park Landscape Garden in Bath, another National Trust place. The plan is then to head for Mottisfont, another National Trust property, and there’s even the chance of visiting the famous Stourhead gardens again (we went about seven years ago), as that’s sort of on the way. As you can see, I plan on putting our membership to very good use this trip.
We’ll then head for the Holiday Inn Southampton, as that’s where Bruce and Marta are staying. That means we can have dinner together at the hotel, then head up to our rooms (it’s always more relaxing when you don’t have to drive anywhere after a meal).
We’ll then get breakfast together the next morning, before we take them over to visit the Mary Rose in the Naval Base in Portsmouth. We’ve seen the Mary Rose, but not since the purpose built museum opened in May 2013, so I’m really excited to see that, as I’m sure that it will present her in an amazing way that befits such a grand ship.
We’ll then get Bruce and Marta to the station, so they can head back to Southampton. It’s fairly cheap on the train, and it takes about an hour, but if we drop them back, it’ll add over an hour to our journey, so we’d rather head home, as we’d like some time back in our own house before we head back to work the next morning.
Another packed weekend for you! A long one, too. Very nice to be seeing Bruce and Marta again. I've met Bruce a couple of times back when he was posting as "Zazu" on rec. arts.disney.parks long ago. His posts were amazing!! Sounds like he and Marta should just get a permanent cabin on the Magic! Happy and safe travels!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
This is sure to be a great long weekend - lots of fun things lined up!
__________________
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
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
OK, first of all, so of Bruce & Marta and their trip! THREE cruises on the Magic, with a EBTA, and then a second crossing, on the QE2?!?! Lucky!
Second, I'm excited to read about what there is around Southampton, since I've mentioned we hope to be sailing in/out of that port in August of 2016. I'd feel so much better getting to Southampton the day before we sail, so I'll also be interested in your review of the hotel.
Have a great trip! I guess you'll be hitting the road in only a few more hours!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Another packed weekend for you! A long one, too. Very nice to be seeing Bruce and Marta again. I've met Bruce a couple of times back when he was posting as "Zazu" on rec. arts.disney.parks long ago. His posts were amazing!! Sounds like he and Marta should just get a permanent cabin on the Magic! Happy and safe travels!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
We’d first met her and her husband Bruce on the inaugural Med cruise all the way back in the summer of 2007, and since then, we’ve met up with them on every visit we’ve made to Walt Disney World, as they live locally, and we were also on the same Alaskan cruise as them back in 2011. 
I know, I know – pick yourself up off the floor at this point, it’s just unbelievable, isn’t it? 
A few weeks later, I got an email saying that the Doctor Who Exhibition would be reopening in Cardiff late in 2014, after a massive update, following the arrival of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor. Now Cardiff is only an hour from Bath… 
I think you can see where this is going… 
That got the wheels turning in my mind, and I think you can see where this is going… 
With two nights booked under the offer, that would count for four nights towards our next free night! 
I found a well rated B&B called Cranleigh that had no such requirement, so I booked ourselves into it. I’ve also managed to find a pub that’s apparently got lovely views of the surrounding countryside, and again is well rated on TripAdvisor, so I’ve booked that, and at least we don’t have to worry about dinner for that night. 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
of Bruce & Marta and their trip! 
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
Linear Mode
