Merrie Olde England TR - Read but Don't Reply! - Page 19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Cool armor for horses -- in keeping with my "War Horse" theme.
Can you imaging the poor horse that had to carry all this heavy stuff on its own body, PLUS the weight of the knight with all his armor? It's amazing the poor animals survived one battle!
Yes, and armor came in all sorts of sizes, from child through adult.
But then we got to a room that was more to my fancy! Or make that "fanciful." This is a fire-breathing dragon made out of old chain mail and other accoutrements of war.
And since I begged Rick to take this just for all of YOU, here's my best Tower of Terror pose:
Well, not my BEST ToT pose, but still -- I hope you appreciate the gesture.
Before leaving the Tower of London, I've got to show you some photos of Rick. Sometimes I get lucky and he agrees to pose -- I cannot WAIT to use this one for next year's calendar -- it's going to be his birthday picture on that, I can assure you!
That was in the gift shop. These next two were in sections of the museum. They were made for children's heads and were tied down so no one could walk off with them. But here's my honey as a Buckingham Palace Guard -- what do you think?
He positively scared me in this one -- very official-looking! I kept waiting for him to demand my passport.
Enough foolishness! I have space for two more Tower of London photos for you, so here they are:
Very enjoyable -- we probably spent 3 hours or so at the Tower of London and enjoyed eating lunch there as well. It's a definite "must see" if you have time!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
I had given Rick a huge Lego set of the Tower Bridge for Christmas last year, and so we were both eager to walk across it for ourselves. The sun was quite bright when a passing tourist offered to take our picture -- but although we're in shade you can still tell it's us.
This is such a gorgeous bridge -- we both kept snapping pictures like crazy.
By the way, you MAY cross on the upper level (you see it in the above shot) if you pay for the "Tower Bridge Experience," but since Rick Steves said it's not worth the money and it would have involved even more stair climbing, we felt well content to simply walk across the bridge on the street level, which doesn't cost a thing!
When we reached the other end of the Thames, we crossed over to the other side to walk back up the bridge. There were a few residential yards, and Rick pointed one of them out to me, although he was somehow reluctant to do so. . . .
By the time we walked to the Tube and got off at Westminster, it was pretty late in the day and we were tired. I've already shared my exterior shots of Westminster Abbey with you, and unfortunately you're forbidden to take pictures inside. It was extremely crowded in there -- don't know if it's always been that popular or if the recent royal wedding has made it more so, but we didn't stay long. It's probably much better to go in the morning, but this is when we had time for it.
Of course the English major in me led me to Poets' Corner, where I saw epitaphs for T.S. Eliot, Chaucer, Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling. And the music lover in me was thrilled to stand above Handel's grave.
But I must admit the biggest thrill for me was to read Laurence Olivier's simple inscription.
Rick snuck a couple of photos without aiming, and here they are:
Your pictures are amazing!!! I really enjoyed your shots of the raven, very tenacious...he was going to get that bag no matter what. Loved the Rick in his many hats...the one with the crown is priceless
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Would you believe we still had the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum to get to that day? Fridays are when the museum is open until 22:00 (10:00 p.m.) with the caveat that "some exhibits may be closed."
Well, what they SHOULD advertise is that "more than half the exhibits WILL be closed" but I only minded a tiny bit. The V&A is undergoing a 10-year renovation, so honestly I don't know if the Costume floor would have been open to us even if we'd arrived before 5:45pm (which is the normal closing time). But after 6:00 p.m. that day, several floors were locked off.
We took the Tube from Westminster down to our "home" stop of South Kensington and then started walking. We were hungry, but it was only about 5:30 p.m. and one restaurant that looked particularly enticing didn't open until 6:00 p.m. It's a French restaurant called Racine on Brompton Road in South Kensington, and this place ties for our favorite dinner of the trip. Yes, it's pricy -- I did say FRENCH, after all -- but it was superb. Racine Restaurant London
But we didn't find that out until about an hour later. We crossed Brompton to get to the V&A and thought we might eat at the museum.
There's the V&A, peeking out from the surrounding trees.
And here's the main entrance -- there's no way we can get the entire museum front in one picture. That is one BIG museum!
Once inside, we had no trouble identifying the creator of this fabulous piece: Dale Chihuly. We've seen his stuff all over the U.S. (including at our own Missouri Botanical Museum) and just love him.
We crossed to the outer courtyard to get to the museum's restaurant section.
They have an upscale "food court" with a lovely dining area inside:
However, while we found many hungry people standing in various lines, we saw ZERO workers. We stood in front of a pot pie display that looked good -- until finally Rick said, "Let's just look around the museum until 6:00, and then go to your French restaurant."
Of course it was after 6:00 p.m. by this point, so we crossed Brompton Road again and were the first patrons inside Racine. We were told we could have our table until 8:00 p.m. -- no problem, since we hoped to be at the V&A before then anyway.
The wait staff are international -- and they're all welcoming and eager to discuss food and wine with you. I knew we'd happened upon the right place! (Our lunch that day at the Tower of London was just a sandwich, and we'd walked miles in the interim -- so we were for a good, hearty meal. And we got it!
Here's the "empty" (except for us) restaurant. It filled up pretty quickly. Of course, when people saw US dining there, they knew it had to be fabulous, dahlings!
Rick's Crab Salad, Herb Omelette and Horseradish:
My beloved Heirloom Tomato Salad, Creme Fraiche and Mint:
Rick's Middle White Pork Chop, Mousserons, Spring Herbs and Spring Greens:
And yes, that serving of pork is as enormous as you think it is!
Since I knew I'd get some of that lovely pork, I satisfied my curiosity to have Macaroni Gratin Forestiere -- made with Gruyere cheese. And the "marriage" of our two main courses was just as perfect as what we'd shared at the Lime Lounge in Bath, our other "favorite" dinner of the trip. : yummy:
I also had Vichy Carrots that were exquisite, and Rick had a small green salad. And the bread there was perfection -- crunchy on the outside, soft and flavorful on the inside. Oh why am I writing this before going home for a dinner of leftovers -- and not THESE leftovers, either ???
We shared a bottle of wine that was lovely, but I don't remember what we ordered. It was food for our weary bodies and wine for our thirsty souls. It was heavenly!
I think we were too stuffed for dessert -- more's the pity.
Before we left, an elderly, well-dressed couple was seated at the banquette next to ours, and of course I struck up a conversation. They're celebrating their 60th anniversary, they're from the U.S., and they "happened" upon Racine some years ago just as we had, and now it's a place they stop anytime they find themselves in London. (They would be embarking on a cruise the next day.)
It was such a lovely experience, talking with the wait staff and the couple next to us.
For those who want to know prices, we spent 110 pounds for all that wonderful food, wine, and tip. That's about $176 U.S. And it was worth every bit of it!
We were ready to venture back across the street to explore whatever we could of the V&A.
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me in this one -- very official-looking! I kept waiting for him to demand my passport. 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
My normal everyday computer routine!
but I only minded a tiny bit. The V&A is undergoing a 10-year renovation, so honestly I don't know if the Costume floor would have been open to us even if we'd arrived before 5:45pm (which is the normal closing time). But after 6:00 p.m. that day, several floors were locked off.
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