Back to Bath and my donkeys… COMPLETED 7/25 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Perhaps the sculptures hint at a long ago resident fond of safaris? Wasn’t big game hunting by the nobility popular during the Victorian Era especially?
What a lovely hotel! Sounds like a sumptuous stay.
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Perhaps the sculptures hint at a long ago resident fond of safaris? Wasn’t big game hunting by the nobility popular during the Victorian Era especially?
You're right - it was, very much so. In Balmoral, they had a display of the animals that the Royal family had shot in years gone past, which was quite uncomfortable to see today, especially given a number of them are now patrons for various animal welfare charities. How things change...
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What a lovely hotel! Sounds like a sumptuous stay.
Oh my goodness, it was! It was so good, we've booked to go back in November.
Excellent welcome to the hotel! Looks amazing. Should be a good start to a great weekend!
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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
The grounds are so beautiful and just so well done with all the stone work! The inside is just as beautiful. Your room is quite nice but it's the bath that's amazing! Hoping the downside to your room isn't too bad.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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The grounds are so beautiful and just so well done with all the stone work! The inside is just as beautiful. Your room is quite nice but it's the bath that's amazing!
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Friday 15 June – part three: “I’d love a Belle dress”
We made our way over to the main house of the hotel…
The bar was quite something…
I headed outside to get some shots of the golf course and the exterior of the building…
Now as we ordered our drinks, there was a Welsh woman who we started to half chat to at that point and she seemed to be lovely. We ended up sitting opposite them and at one point, I heard her say “I’d love a Belle dress”. My ears pricked up and yes, they were talking Disney, so I couldn’t help but interrupt. We both showed them all our Disney stuff – my handbag, scarf, ring, bracelet etc. and Mark’s Grumpy sweatshirt he was wearing. From that point on, we must have chatted away for the next hour.
It turned out they have two kids (how I do not know, neither looked old enough ) and were here for a weekend away at the Bath racecourse just down the road. Their daughter is four and really into Belle, and their son is two and loves Toy Story. They’re thinking of taking them to Disney World next year, so we were telling them all sorts of things, like the new Toy Story Land in the Studios (a friend of mine had just had a ride on the Slinky Dog Dash and I’d seen the details on Facebook, and Be Our Guest. We got on so well with them and it was a great shame they were eating in the restaurant and had to leave, as the last serving was 9:00pm.
While we were chatting to them, we managed to eat our food. I got a mozzarella, tomato, basil pesto and olive salad, although Mark got all the olives, as I can’t stand them. The rest was very nice, although a bit lacking in tomato.
Mark had the pan fried flat iron steak with roasted tomato, flat mushroom and chips, after being told the burger he wanted was off.
Once our Welsh friends had gone to dinner, we had our desserts. Mark got a massive lump of sticky toffee pudding – look at the size of it!
I went for the chocolate brownie with forest fruits and vanilla ice cream, and very nice it was, although I did feel a bit short changed, when I saw the size of Mark’s dessert.
We settled up and headed outside to walk back to our room. It was a nice evening, but a bit crisp and cold outside, which was interesting, given it’s now mid-June. This seems to be happening a lot at the moment and you’d expect it to stay a bit warmer a bit later into the evening, but apparently not.
We headed back to the room and Mark wanted to go for a walk around the grounds when the light started to fade, as there were lights everywhere, but so much for that. Even with the World Cup on in the background, he fell asleep within a few minutes, barely waking up when I turned out all the lights. I guess the drive down had taken it out of him.
The weather today was warm and sunny with temperatures in the low 70s when we left home and cooler and cloudy with temperatures in the low 60s when we arrived. Today we walked 3.76 miles. The best thing today was our amazing hotel! The worst thing today was the traffic we ran into on the way down… The funniest thing today was meeting up with the couple from Wales and talking Disney! Today we tried staying at Tracy Park And the result was it’s a beautiful place, but it does need a spa. The most magical moment today was seeing our amazing room.
How neat to run into some other Disney lovers, I am sure you provided them with a lot of usefully information. Your dinner looked delicious and Mark’s sticky pudding was quite the serving.
Gorgeous! Wow, that place is just beautiful, everywhere!
Finding new Disney friends is always a treat! I'm sure you provided lots of useful information.
Dinner looked pretty tasty, especially dessert! Your brownie looked nice and thick and fudgy. Yum!
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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
I absolutely love the animal sculptures, especially the elephant. Was there a story behind them and their placement there?
The grounds are stunning. Always nice to run into Disney lovers. I just ran into one at the National Aviary and we had an unexpected but wonderful Disney chat. Those unexpected moments always brighten my days.
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Last edited by cattailmarsh; 07-10-2018 at 10:40 AM..
The hotel is just stunning. Add a spa and it would be perfect! Did it have any kind of pool?
Dinner looked good, but I’m with you on the olives. Funny enough, I do enjoy a good black olive tapenade, but no other shape or form.
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It was so good, we've booked to go back in November. 
The inside is just as beautiful. Your room is quite nice but it's the bath that's amazing! Hoping the downside to your room isn't too bad.
) and were here for a weekend away at the Bath racecourse just down the road. Their daughter is four and really into Belle, and their son is two and loves Toy Story. They’re thinking of taking them to Disney World next year, so we were telling them all sorts of things, like the new Toy Story Land in the Studios (a friend of mine had just had a ride on the Slinky Dog Dash and I’d seen the details on Facebook, and Be Our Guest. We got on so well with them and it was a great shame they were eating in the restaurant and had to leave, as the last serving was 9:00pm. 
Your brownie looked nice and thick and fudgy. Yum!
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