Boating on the Broads COMPLETED 5/19 - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Yikes about the camera! Not sure if I told you I got that camera, and it wouldn't take more than a few pictures before saying the battery was dead. Same thing after buying a new battery and a new charger. Sent it back to Sony and they ended up having to replace the motherboard. Now it is fine. Hope yours holds out for the rest of the trip!
I didn't know that about your camera. Glad it's now fine. Mine has held out so far. A couple of times the malfunction message has gone, but then it comes back again.
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Well as you've probably gathered from my previous comments, the camera is holding up so far. A couple of times it's been fine with no error message, so that's an improvement. We left Wroxham early this morning and have spent the day cruising, seeing lots of beautiful places along the way. Just stopped for a very nice lunch and now enjoying some time on the boat moored up with the canopy open as it's a pleasant day. So much for the rain we were supposed to get today!
Glad to hear you are having good weather for your trip, but sorry to hear of the camera trouble. Things like that can be so frustrating on a trip! Can't wait to see all the pictures and read the report.
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. Jenn
Well, we're back home now. We had a lovely last day visiting Sandringham and all in all, it was a great trip.
The camera did hold out and at times it stopped displaying the error message, but it's still happening, so I'll have to work out what to do with it. It's horrible timing, as we're off on a longer vacation a week on Saturday and I want the camera for that, so I have decisions to make.
Ok, no time like the present to get this trip report started...
Friday 18 April – part one: this is just stunning!
We set off from home just before 9:00am, which was roughly when I wanted to leave. Before we’d even got a couple of miles down the road, we encountered our first wildlife of this trip – it was sweet, but terrifying at the same time. A duck was leading her five ducklings across the road. Thankfully she was on the other side of the road, and nothing was coming the other way or behind us, so fingers crossed she made it across Ok.
As you can see from these photos I got just after we joined the motorway, it was a beautiful day.
I got a few more shots as we made our way through the Kent countryside. We love live in a beautiful part of the country, and sometimes we do take that for granted. Then again, I guess we can all say that, right?
Soon we were crossing under the River Thames through the Dartford Tunnel. Above us as we came out was the Dartford Bridge, which you take to go the other way. It’s an imposing sight from down here.
Fortunately, it was a pretty quiet morning out on the motorways, which I figured it would be:
It would no doubt have been a lot busier last night, as people tried to make the most of the four day weekend.
The fields were in full bloom, which plays havoc with my hayfever, but it is absolutely beautiful all the same.
Eventually, after an hour or so, we were pulling off the motorway and on to the country roads, heading for our first destination of the day, the National Trust property of Ickworth. It’s in a beautiful area:
As you can see from these photos, it’s set in a huge estate and the road to get up to the car park and the main house went on for some way….
We found parking easily enough in the main car park. By the time we left, the main car park was full, as was the overflow car park, which gives you an idea of how popular this place was. Thank goodness for Disney is all I can say, because we’ve learnt over the years to get to a place for opening time, as we know it’ll be a lot quieter than later in the day.
We headed up towards the main house, getting some photos on the way. Although all the traditional yellow daffodils were pretty much done by now, the white ones were still in full bloom.
Isn’t this just stunning?
I was particularly taken by the various carvings on the building…
To give you some history of the place, here are some shots I took inside the visitor centre:
And I couldn’t resist getting a shot of this that Mark spotted…
Next: encountering “living history” in Ickworth’s kitchens
Beautiful start to the trip! The long drive and large property of Ickworth rminds me of the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.
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Tanya
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Glad it's now fine. Mine has held out so far. A couple of times the malfunction message has gone, but then it comes back again. 
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Pixie Dust
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
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