A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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Oh, my gosh! That luggage fiasco was ridiculous. I do hope the young girl made her connecting flight without consequence. I'm glad you spoke up to try to help her and the others.
Oh my goodness, what a rough start for Mari and Raleigh between the flight delay and the luggage fiasco! I hope that all is smooth sailing from here on out!
That's nuts. Every little scenario there with the luggage is insane!! That shouldn't have to happen. Thank goodness everything turned up though. Or you'd have been there even longer!
Oh don't even go there... I cannot bear the thought of them spending any longer there... or us for that matter!
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My goodness, that was certainly a rough start to the trip for Mari and Raleigh. I'm glad it all worked out in the end but I know how frustrating it is to have to wait around an airport that long feeling unsure if your flight is going to ever get out!
Oh it's a horrible feeling, isn't it? I remember how awful it was when we were stuck in Cairo Airport.
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I really hope that poor girl got her bags checked in time. It was so nice of you to interject and help her out.
She was in such a state, bless her heart, we were all trying to help her, as she stood to lose so much if she didn't make that flight. I hope that, even if she didn't, somehow it worked out and she was able to get another flight and make the cruise...
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Oh my goodness, what a rough start for Mari and Raleigh between the flight delay and the luggage fiasco! I hope that all is smooth sailing from here on out!
Pretty much so. There's certainly at least one other rather big hiccup to come, but it didn't affect Mari or Raleigh, but there's a little while before we get to that....
Oh my goodness that is way too much drama for the start of a vacay. Sheesh! So glad the Norwegian flight girl and Raleigh and Mari had you to help out. I hope things improve from here ...
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Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow, for all you know, tomorrow, the dream that you wish will come true.
Not a good start at all! First the delay and then the missing luggage.
The triple and quadruple posts earlier was partly my fault as I kept trying to post my reply and getting nowhere. So, I guess all those tries eventually ended up posting. Glad you were able to delete them!
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Not a good start at all! First the delay and then the missing luggage.
The triple and quadruple posts earlier was partly my fault as I kept trying to post my reply and getting nowhere. So, I guess all those tries eventually ended up posting. Glad you were able to delete them!
Oh gosh, don't worry - it wasn't just you. It happened to a whole bunch of us. The boards reposted something I'd given up posting from out of nowhere. It was the most bizarre thing!
I hope Mari and Raleigh's vacation gets better. Between the flight delays and the confusion with the luggage , they need it to get better. That poor girl, I hope she managed to get home.
I liked Doctor Who. I wan't sure at first but Jodi really got the Doctor right. She seemed like a combination of the last few Doctors. I didn't get to see the previews. They had an after show party instead. I'll have to look on BBC America's web site and see if they have it.
I thought it was a little dark in spots but some of the monsters the past few season were pretty scary. according to my niece. She didn't think he was as scary as the weeping angels.
Liz
I hope Mari and Raleigh's vacation gets better. Between the flight delays and the confusion with the luggage , they need it to get better.
Oh it did from there on in....
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That poor girl, I hope she managed to get home.
Me too!
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I liked Doctor Who. I wan't sure at first but Jodi really got the Doctor right. She seemed like a combination of the last few Doctors. I didn't get to see the previews. They had an after show party instead. I'll have to look on BBC America's web site and see if they have it.
I really enjoyed it. Not what I expected at all. From what I'd seen beforehand, I thought it was going to be a lot more Sheffield based and would show more of the city and it didn't at all. I thought Jodie was wonderful - very energetic and a lot of fun in places and you could immediately accept her as the Doctor, because as you say, she combined a lot from the previous incarnations. Very pleased with it so far!
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I thought it was a little dark in spots but some of the monsters the past few season were pretty scary. according to my niece. She didn't think he was as scary as the weeping angels.
Liz
Mark said the same too, especially for that early in the evening (it aired at 6:45pm over here). I think bits would have scared the kids, but I guess if your niece is anything to go by, maybe not!
We headed back to the car, paid the astronomical parking charges (£8/$10), loaded up the cases and headed out, immediately laughing all the way, which I’m sure was a relief to Mari and Raleigh after all the stress they’d been through up until now today.
We went to put some gas in the car, as she was crying out for that, and they got a sandwich to keep them going. We asked them what they wanted to do, as we didn’t know if they’d just want to go back to ours and chill, but Mari was determined to do something with their day, so we stuck to our original plans and made our way over to Chartwell, Sir Winston Churchill’s former home.
When we got there, the car park was mobbed. Thankfully Tinkerbell was spreading her parking pixie dust on Mark (and we needed it, trust me!) and we got a space just opposite the disabled parking area. I was so relieved, finally something today was going right!
However, it didn’t continue that way sadly. Mark managed to catch Mari’s hand in the driver’s door when he closed it – thankfully no bruising or lasting damage. Phew! Then I saw the sign that there were no further tours of the house available today – they were sold out. I thought they would be, as it was on a first come, first served basis. We did explain what had happened today, but the staff weren’t budging and I guess they have their rules. Oh well, maybe we’ll just have to bring them back one day, so they can see inside the house, as well as outside it…
So, you already know that Sir Winston Churchill lived here, but to explain that a bit more, it was the family home from 1922 and Sir Winston lived here until 1964. Surprisingly, the National Trust actually took on the management of the property back in 1946/47. The Churchill family were struggling with the cost of the upkeep of the estate and it was purchased by a group of businessmen, who then offered it to the Trust on the condition that Sir Winston and his wife Lady Clementine could continue to live there for as long as they wanted.
Sir Winston left Chartwell in October 1964 because of his failing health, moving to his London flat. He celebrated his 90th birthday on 30 November that year and died just a few weeks later on 24 January 1965.
Chartwell opened to the public in summer 1966, as the public were keen to see where their former Prime Minister had lived. It’s now amongst the National Trust’s most popular properties, attracting around 232,000 visitors in 2016.
We made our way down the path towards the house, stopping to admire the beautiful scenery – it feels like you can see forever here…
…. and the beautiful black swans…
I’m glad I stopped to get photos of them, as they were nowhere to be seen when we returned.
I must admit I could feel the troubles lifting from my shoulders and I felt as if I was visibly relaxing. I hope Mari and Raleigh felt the same too.
These fish were all very hopeful for something, but they got nothing from us. We noticed how it was the big ones who were approaching the humans, while the small ones either couldn’t be bothered or knew there was no point!
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I know we were all hoping and praying she did - we talked about her a few times later in the day. I kept thinking good thoughts for her.
I'm glad it all worked out in the end but I know how frustrating it is to have to wait around an airport that long feeling unsure if your flight is going to ever get out!
Glad you were able to delete them!
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