Adults only – sampling southern England COMPLETED - Page 46 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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What a nice visit on the ship and quite fascinating with the dehumidification of the ship and the view from below the water line.!
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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!
Saturday 10 May – part five: look what I found on board!
With that, we emerged from the dry dock, and got some more photos while the weather held…
… then we headed into the museum to learn about the history of the ship. I did find the layout of this a bit weird, as it seems to start from today and then go backwards in history, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before…
Anyway, here’s some history for you, starting from the beginning… The SS Great Britain was designed by the amazing engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I don’t think it’s over the top to say he was one of the greatest ever Britons. He started work on the Great Western Railway (GWR), which linked London to Bristol (remember the bridge from Hungerford from a couple of days ago?). Aged 27, Brunel became GWR’s Chief Engineer, and he designed a number of viaducts, bridges and tunnels, as well as Bristol’s Temple Meads Station.
He then persuaded GWR to look at trans-Atlantic travel and they established the Great Steamship Company, and the Great Western steam ship was constructed, and was the largest of its time. She made her maiden voyage in 1838 and the voyage took 15 days. She made over 16 crossings over the next eight years.
However, Brunel wasn’t content with that. He wanted something better, and that’s where the SS Great Britain came in. When she was launched, she was the world’s largest ship, and she was also the first screw-propelled (as opposed to using a conventional paddle), ocean-going, iron-hulled steam ship, a forerunner to all modern shipping.
Although she was designed for trans-Atlantic travel, she only spent the first nine years of her life doing that, before other coasts beckoned. She was bought in 1852 to be used to carry emigrants to Australia. The ship was adapted, and the engine replaced with a more fuel efficient one for the longer journey.
After 30 years in her new role, SS Great Britain changed roles again, and was moved into carrying cargo. She carried items such as coal and wheat between Great Britain, and the west coast of America, and of course in those days, you had to sail all around south America – not a short journey!
Her working life ended in 1933, and then tragically, she was left to fall into disrepair for the next few decades. She was eventually re-floated in 1970, and then made the 8,000 mile journey home to Bristol from the Falkland Islands, just off the coast of South America.
As we went round, Mark had fun with the propeller lift, as you can see! You needed to turn it to make it go up and down…
Now it was time to finally head aboard on to the boat itself. As we stepped out, I heard the immortal words from someone “it’s starting to spit with rain.” Oh goodie! However, although it did indeed spit with rain for a few minutes, it never got any worse than that. We really did luck out with the weather today!
I couldn’t believe my luck when I found this on the top deck!
Of course, they had to take everything they needed on the voyages to Australia with them…
We each took a turn in captaining the vessel!
From up here, you also got some great views back to the dock area they’d established around the ship, which was very realistic.
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More great pics and lots of fun on the ship! Love the cows! Glad the rain mostly held off, it was so weird to see blue skies one picture and gray the next!
More great pics and lots of fun on the ship! Love the cows! Glad the rain mostly held off, it was so weird to see blue skies one picture and gray the next!
I know. The weather was a bit all over the place that day. Mind you, it was an improvement on the forecast, which suggested that we would have torrential rain all day....
Now that is a ship with some history. Wow! Quite impressive. Very cool to think you're walking around where thousands of others made such journeys so many years ago. And with cows on board too.
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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
Now that is a ship with some history. Wow! Quite impressive. Very cool to think you're walking around where thousands of others made such journeys so many years ago. And with cows on board too.
Sometimes when you visit places like this, you almost can't take in all the history you're seeing, if you know what I mean.
Great photos on and within the ship! That was a great bit of history you gave us on the ship! No matter where you go, it seems your boys (whether real or not) are there waiting for your arrival!
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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!
Saturday 10 May – part six: these restrooms are amazing!
We then headed inside to see what life was like inside the ship.
We started out in the first class area…
… although even here, the cabins weren’t exactly generous, shall we say?
This was the doctor’s area…
… and the barber’s area…
Next we went into the first class dining room, and wow, this was very sumptuous! I’d be happy eating here each night.
We then passed by the engine area…
At this point, I saw a sign for lavatories, and I thought that it was for some you’d look at, but they were real ones, so in I went, and I couldn’t believe what I found!
Isn’t this just the coolest? Thank goodness I needed to visit them! I immediately sent Mark in to inspect the men’s, and here’s what they looked like…
We headed through into an area that eventually we recognised. We were above the waterline, but essentially we were in the hull of the ship. So cool!
I have to say here as well that they were very good with the smells. In here, you could smell the horses, and let’s just say it wasn’t exactly a pleasant smell, but it certainly added to the atmosphere…
We went back through the engine area…
… and then found what we assumed were the officers’ area…
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Thomas Crapper & Co!! That's awesome. I also have to say I love how they have the mannequins there too. It's not too creepy, and it allows a better sense of space and reality as to life on board. And all that food laying about too. Very cool!
__________________
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
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He wanted something better, and that’s where the SS Great Britain came in. When she was launched, she was the world’s largest ship, and she was also the first screw-propelled (as opposed to using a conventional paddle), ocean-going, iron-hulled steam ship, a forerunner to all modern shipping. 
Oh goodie! However, although it did indeed spit with rain for a few minutes, it never got any worse than that. We really did luck out with the weather today! 
How great to find some cows on there! 
That's awesome. I also have to say I love how they have the mannequins there too. It's not too creepy, and it allows a better sense of space and reality as to life on board. And all that food laying about too. Very cool!
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