A Scottish right Royal time! TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 1/10 - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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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.
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Getting to check out the Fringe Festival sounds like a bonus! That one has spawned similar festivals all over the world, but none of that size!
It will certainly be interesting to see. I don't think it will be the sort of thing we go back to see again, as I doubt it's our thing, if you know what I mean, but at least we'll be able to say we've been and done it.
I love those HOHO bus services and I remember using this is Dublin and worked rather well and got to see and explore a lot in town.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
So what about our second and final day in Edinburgh? Well, after our late night the night before, I can tell you it won’t be an early start. I hope the hotel does breakfast quite late, as we won’t be up at the crack of dawn to have it. Once we’ve had breakfast, and got going, then we’ll check out, and head out for the day. As our flight isn’t until the evening, we’ll have plenty of time still left.
My priority for today, and something I didn’t mention in yesterday’s plans, is the National Museum of Scotland. I’d mentioned that we went there with Hazel and Graeme, and we loved it there, but there was just too much to see, so now we’ll go back and see what else there is that we missed first time around.
We also got another email from the Tattoo mailing list (yes, they’ve been busy contacting ticket holders ) saying that we also qualify for 2 for the price of 1 on the Jacobite exhibition they’ve currently got. Now that sounds interesting, particularly as we visited Culloden during our Scotland road trip, where the Jacobites were all but wiped out in the last battle on the UK mainland, so we may well visit that.
Something else I definitely want to see today is something I’d never considered until I looked at the official visit Edinburgh website, as I figured we might need some other things to do this weekend. Like I mentioned before, we’ve already done the traditional “E ticket” attractions in the city, so I wanted to see what lesser known attractions there were that perhaps we’d missed previously. One I came across was St. Giles’ Cathedral, which is described as:
This magnificent crown-spired cathedral on the High Street contains memorials to around 200 distinguished Scots, as well as some incredible stained glass windows. Parts of the structure date back to the 12thcentury and you’ll also find Scotland’s chivalric company of Knights, the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, located here too. You can enjoy a welcome rest and light bite in the Cathedral’s café.
They also have guided rooftop tours, which take a maximum of four people. They run every half hour, and bookings are only taken on the day, so this might be an option. You get a brief historical background to the church, followed by climbing up to a walkway on the North roof to enjoy spectacular panoramic views and a look inside the clock tower, which sounds really cool.
As I mentioned earlier in this pre-trip report, I would like to see the Edinburgh skyline, and we’ve never made it up to the top of Arthur’s Seat, which is the top of an extinct volcano. I like the idea of it, but I doubt we’ll manage it, given Mark’s problems with his ankle, and the weather would have to cooperate – i.e. not too hot and not too cold (and yes, trust me, that has been an issue so far this August! ) and not raining, so this should be a good way of doing it.
We should also get another chance to see some of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival street acts, as they’re also performing in a section of the High Street around here, so if we missed it yesterday, we should catch them today.
Then it really will be a case of seeing what time it is by the time we’ve finished these things, and how much more time we’ve got before we need to head for the airport. I figure we want to head out of Edinburgh on the tram around 6:00pm, so if we have time, there are plenty of other places we can explore.
Perhaps the one that appeals the most is another I’d never heard of before going on to the visit Edinburgh website (I tell you, it’s good ), which is the Real Mary King’s Close. It sounds like a fascinating place and quite unlike anywhere we’ve visited before, and it’s not often I get to say that. You basically go underground to visit the 17th century streets of Edinburgh Old Town. I have no idea more than that, so this is something I really want to do to learn more. I suspect at some point things were just built over the top of these streets, and then they were re-discovered, but if we get to do the tour, then we’ll find out.
There’s also the Scotch Whisky Experience, which I’m sure Mark will enjoy, given he made the most of our tour around the Glenfinnan distillery during our Scotland road trip. Well, at least he won’t be driving this time (I had to drive after the tasting tour at Glenfinnan…. ), so that’s a possibility.
Another option is the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions, and a bit like the Real Mary King’s Close, I’m not sure what to expect from this. I know what the Camera Obscura is, as I’m aware of the theory of it. It was a Victorian wonder, where you can see moving images projected through a periscope of the area around you. You can also go out on to the rooftop for another view of the Edinburgh skyline, which of course will be less of an attraction if we’ve already been to St. Giles’ Cathedral. There are also hands-on exhibits, all to do with how we see light, and I get the impression it’s a very small scale version of something like Ripley’s, where you see some odd things, but I may be getting the wrong impression of it.
Of course, we may not even make it that far, as I just have no idea how long we’ll spend at some of the other places, but at least there’s plenty to see. Hmmm…. At this rate, we still won’t have seen everything from Edinburgh, and we’ll have to plan another trip!
We’ll have dinner at the airport. I’ve already got my eye on Yo Sushi!, which we love, so provided we’re there in plenty of time, that will be our choice, and then it will be time to take a late flight home, with a day at home the next day to recover…
The Cathedral sounds like a great option for viewing! I remember climbing to the top of St. Paul's in London, that was incredible.
Those underground streets are really intriguing. I hope you have time for it!
Also hoping the weather cooperates for you guys. Have fun!
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Tanya
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I missed that. I sometimes think we get less coverage of what the Royals do over here than you guys do. At the moment, all the focus is on a BBC documentary on Sunday night, commemorating 20 years since Diana's death, which includes interviews with both William and Harry.
I've heard about that documentary too. Unfortunately I don't get the BBC channel that it's on here. But I did see the special with William and Harry a few weeks ago that was on HBO here and I think it was on a different channel in England. I was a huge fan of Diana, getting up in the middle of the night to watch both her wedding and her funeral.
I've heard about that documentary too. Unfortunately I don't get the BBC channel that it's on here. But I did see the special with William and Harry a few weeks ago that was on HBO here and I think it was on a different channel in England.
Yes it was - that one was on ITV.
Quote:
I was a huge fan of Diana, getting up in the middle of the night to watch both her wedding and her funeral.
I watched both as well and remember them clearly. I remember Mark waking me up to tell me Diana had died and me just bursting into tears. He was asking me why I was crying and I just said I grew up with her and she was my princess. Then over the next few days, it was as if everyone reacted the same way. It was such a weird and emotional week over here.
Sounds like some great possible plans for departure day. Hope you get to do a lot of this, depending on time you have but good thing you have a very late flight to accomplish a lot. I think you'll need the late start after the show the night before. I think I have been to Yo Sushi and it may have been in Dublin. If that was the place, I know I enjoyed it very much. If I'm correct the sushi choices are on conveyors and you just pick and choose and they are labeled by color.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I hope the hotel does breakfast quite late, as we won’t be up at the crack of dawn to have it. Once we’ve had breakfast, and got going, then we’ll check out, and head out for the day. As our flight isn’t until the evening, we’ll have plenty of time still left. 
) saying that we also qualify for 2 for the price of 1 on the Jacobite exhibition they’ve currently got. Now that sounds interesting, particularly as we visited Culloden during our Scotland road trip, where the Jacobites were all but wiped out in the last battle on the UK mainland, so we may well visit that. 
) and not raining, so this should be a good way of doing it. 
I know what the Camera Obscura is, as I’m aware of the theory of it. It was a Victorian wonder, where you can see moving images projected through a periscope of the area around you. You can also go out on to the rooftop for another view of the Edinburgh skyline, which of course will be less of an attraction if we’ve already been to St. Giles’ Cathedral. There are also hands-on exhibits, all to do with how we see light, and I get the impression it’s a very small scale version of something like Ripley’s, where you see some odd things, but I may be getting the wrong impression of it. 
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