Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - Page 7 - 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.
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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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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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Welcome back! Our friends near Wales had more snow today, so I wondered about you.
Yes, it was quite widespread. I don't know what the heck is going on with the weather here this year. Mind you, it's no better across the pond - I've seen all of the photos of snow. Are you going back to it?
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The seas were sure churned up! Glad your ankle is coming along.
Ok, now I've been able to get some work done on this trip report, it's time to get it started.
Friday 30 March – part one: my new party trick
We were up relatively early and I managed to get to the bathroom with no crutches and no protective boot for a shower – this is my new party trick. I headed downstairs and managed to squeeze in another episode of my Lost marathon – I’m midway through the third season, which I don’t think is doing too badly and it makes so much more sense now I can constantly go to Lostpedia and see what happened to all the characters and how they fit in. Heck, it’s not cheating!
I got ready and started to load bits in the car and I must’ve done well, as my step count stood at something like 1,500 before we even left! Of course, the fact that I have to go up a step with one foot and then the other helps, as every time I go up or down steps, it doubles the numbers of steps…
There are no photos from our first drive, as there wasn’t that much to see. We saw the odd cow in a shed in the distance, but that was it. In fairness, it hasn’t been the greatest spring to let them out, so I can understand their non-appearances.
The roads were busier than we thought they’d be, especially given we left before 9:00am on a Bank Holiday. I was glad we left when we did and later on, when we checked into our hotel for the night, we were told there were a number of guests staying from Kent (our county/state) and some of them had drives of seven or more hours, as there were problems on the roads all over the place, including the M25, which we were driving along.
We were heading first for the Vyne, and they’d said I could use the disabled parking if I felt the need. I wasn’t going to, but it meant a much shorter walk to the visitor reception, where there would be a wheelchair waiting for me, so I decided I should probably play it safe. As we got out of the car, I realised how problematic uneven surfaces are to walk on. Of course, all my walking has been generally either around the house or on pavements, so this was a new experience for me.
We headed inside and showed our membership cards and I enquired about the wheelchair and they got it straight out for me. Now here’s where we definitely had some luck, as I knew from their website that if you took the mobility buggy up to the main house, someone had to walk up with the wheelchair separately, but as we were the only two, they just loaded it on the back of the mobility buggy.
At first, it was really fun, especially watching the two young kids, who were completely in waterproof gear, and were taking great delight in jumping in all the puddles. They looked as if they were having so much fun!
Then we set off on a very hazardous journey up to the main house. It was nothing to do with our driver, who was lovely – a volunteer who drives the buggy once a fortnight – but more to do with all the people who couldn’t see or hear us coming. Now, I could understand it if it was the kids, but it wasn’t. I felt so sorry for the three boys, who dutifully stood to one side of the path, so we could get past and tried to say something to their mum, but she was totally and utterly oblivious. She was fussing around a pushchair (stroller to you guys) and even when she noticed us, she just carried on walking in front of us. Charming! I figured she’d stop at the Easter egg hunt tent, but no, sadly they weren’t participating in that and carried on walking in front of us. Fortunately not long after that, we ended up on a buggy only route. Phew!
See what I mean about the problems we had on the way to the house?
When we were dropped off, we knew that the house didn’t open until 11:00am, so we headed for the shop to explore, but apparently that didn’t open until 11:00am either. I understand that they are staffed by staff and volunteers, but I never understand properties (and I include Disney here) not having shops open for as long as they can. You just never know what you’re going to sell, and we certainly bought a lot there later on…
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself… thankfully the tea rooms were open, so we headed in there.
We both had a hot chocolate (mine with cream) and Mark got a sausage roll, while I went with my traditional cream tea that I often indulge in at National Trust properties. These were very nice, although the strawberry jam was lacking flavour.
After we were done, we were just about in time for the house opening, so we made our way over there. By now, it was starting to rain, although thankfully nothing too heavy.
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You do get a whole new appreciation for things when using a wheelchair, and see a side of folks you may have preferred never to have seen.
Yum, cream tea!
So far, it sounds as though you are behaving yourself! People are just very self centered these days and I honestly believe they do not realize that they are being discourteous. The Vyne looks charming and your hot chocolate looks wonderful!!
Glad to see your TR is underway! Some people don't want to give in and let you by and just thinking about themselves. Hope all goes well with your mobility and the wheel chair on this trip! Seems like you enjoyed the hot chocolate and scones!
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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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Glad to see your TR is underway! Some people don't want to give in and let you by and just thinking about themselves. Hope all goes well with your mobility and the wheel chair on this trip!
I think it did go pretty well.
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Seems like you enjoyed the hot chocolate and scones!
Friday 30 March – part two: are you the only ones here?
We made our way to the entrance and this was one of the weirdest ever entrances to a National Trust property, but I need to back up here and explain why it looks like this…
The Vyne is a former Tudor palace, which King Henry VIII visited in 1535 with Anne Boleyn. Look at this – it will give you an idea of the work that went into one of these Royal visits!
It was the work of William Sandys, who became Lord Chancellor to the King in 1526. In those days, it extended all the way down to the lake on the property and was described as one of the principal houses in the area.
This is the lake, so you can see how far down the house used to go…
Sandys was the one who took Anne Boleyn to be beheaded just six months after their visit to the house. Apparently he was never much of a fan of her, from what one of the volunteer guides told us…
The house today is about a third of the size of what it would have been in the Tudor era. During the English Civil War in the 17th century, the house fell into disrepair and the house was then sold on from the Sandys family to Chaloner Chute, who was a barrister and the Speaker of the House of Commons. He then reduced the size of the building and modernised it. The family continued to own the property into the 20th century and in the 1920s, it was occupied by a girls’ boarding school and then during the Second World War, schoolboys from our neck of the woods (Kent in the South East of England) were evacuated here. It was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1956.
The scaffolding all around this place is the conclusion of a £5.4 million project to repair the roof and make the building watertight. It started in October 2016 and over the last year, people have had the opportunity to go up on to the rooftop walkways. This only ended in February, but heck, I’m Ok about missing it. I mean it’s hardly like I’d have been able to get up there, is it?
When we got to the entrance, it was still roped off, even though it was past 11:00am. We were behind one other couple, who immediately asked what I’d done. I’d find a lot of this today…
Now, as a result of the restoration work, it’s fair to say that some of the rooms, particularly the first ones in our tour, did not look as they would normally. They were being used to display items that would normally be on the first floor of the house, which is closed to the public and apparently won’t reopen until August. We both said we’d like to come back when all the work is done to see it as it should be…
There was a fascinating video in the first room of how they emptied it out and I’m glad they had it, as otherwise I would never have been able to picture how it would normally look…
I was very relieved that Mark wasn’t pushing me around in this…
Then you went into a small ante room, where they displayed the plates and vases from the house. They were amazing to look at, particularly this collection of 16 plates depicting Venice, which date from 1740. They were commissioned by a group of tourists, including the owner of the Vyne, John Chute.
In the next room, we got talking to one of the volunteers and this then happened in pretty much every room, because there were so few of us touring the house. In fact, one person asked if we were the only ones and we said we weren’t, there was another couple, although they were behind us, as they stopped to talk to the volunteer in the first room. The volunteers are always so knowledgeable and keen to share what they know with you, which is lovely, but sometimes (and I know I’ve said this before in trip reports), you wonder if you’re ever going to get away, which sounds horrible. Trust me, it isn’t meant that way at all.
Anyway, she was talking us through the paintings in the room and some amazing miniatures, neither of which I photographed, as it was very dark in here and you couldn’t use flash, so I didn’t think they’d come out. She knew all the names of the painters and talked us through so much more additional information, but I couldn’t quite take it all in.
She did explain that the lighting in here…
.. was taken from all over the house and one of them would normally have stood over the staircase. When we got there, we could picture it.
The furniture is usually in here, including this amazing piece…
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Hard to believe how much bigger the house was way back when.
Looking forward to seeing more of the House.
Not sure I’d have ventured on the roof, even if I could.
Wow!! Those are a lot of pounds to fix the roof!! Your tour, so far is amazing!! I love the way you describes everything as it makes me feel like I am there!! Can't wait to hear more!!
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Now, I could understand it if it was the kids, but it wasn’t. I felt so sorry for the three boys, who dutifully stood to one side of the path, so we could get past and tried to say something to their mum, but she was totally and utterly oblivious. She was fussing around a pushchair (stroller to you guys) and even when she noticed us, she just carried on walking in front of us. Charming! 
I figured she’d stop at the Easter egg hunt tent, but no, sadly they weren’t participating in that and carried on walking in front of us. Fortunately not long after that, we ended up on a buggy only route. Phew! 
I understand that they are staffed by staff and volunteers, but I never understand properties (and I include Disney here) not having shops open for as long as they can. You just never know what you’re going to sell, and we certainly bought a lot there later on… 
The Vyne looks charming and your hot chocolate looks wonderful!!
Hope all goes well with your mobility and the wheel chair on this trip! 
Your snacks at the tea room look very delicious! 
She knew all the names of the painters and talked us through so much more additional information, but I couldn’t quite take it all in. 
Those are a lot of pounds to fix the roof!! Your tour, so far is amazing!! I love the way you describes everything as it makes me feel like I am there!! 
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