A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I'm sure the grounds and the estate are beautiful and hopefully you'll be able to take Mari and Raleigh back there on another future trip. Although it's been a rough start to the trip for them, I'm sure you all had an incredible time traveling together. I'm hoping to make it over to England in the next few years and would definitely have Churchill's estate on my list of must do's! I thought he was a wonderful leader and I found his family history very interesting.
How disappointing that you couldn't tour the house, but the grounds are really beautiful! Interesting that the National Trust took over management while the Churchills were still living there.
House or not, those grounds are gorgeous! I'm sure just simply being outside with that scenery and the fresh air already improved everyone's day 100%.
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I'm sure the grounds and the estate are beautiful and hopefully you'll be able to take Mari and Raleigh back there on another future trip.
Oh I hope we can. Mari has talked about coming over and spending a long time here (six to eight weeks) to tour National Trust properties, as there are so many of them to see across England. If they do that, we'll definitely see whatever we can with them.
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Although it's been a rough start to the trip for them, I'm sure you all had an incredible time traveling together.
We did!
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I'm hoping to make it over to England in the next few years and would definitely have Churchill's estate on my list of must do's! I thought he was a wonderful leader and I found his family history very interesting.
Well, you know people who live close by to Chartwell, so keep us posted! Obviously you've already learnt from this that if you want to see inside the house, you need to be there early in the day... heck a bit like any popular Disney ride really!
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How disappointing that you couldn't tour the house, but the grounds are really beautiful! Interesting that the National Trust took over management while the Churchills were still living there.
I thought that was fascinating. I bet it was interesting for all involved, given that I would imagine, at that time in the National Trust's history, they probably hadn't done something like that before...
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Saturday 8 September – part four: exploring the estate….
We headed through the garden at Chartwell, although sadly we were probably a week or late for the best of the flowers, a story that was repeated the whole way around the garden. I bet it was a riot of colour and amazing to see.
We got some lovely views of the house from here…
This is the Marlborough Pavilion, which was built as a summer house in the mid 1920s and was decorated in 1949 by Sir Winston’s nephew. It’s beautifully done….
Once again, look at all the land you can see from here!
We walked around the outside of the house, sadly the closest we’d get to it today…
.. and got a selfie on the way.
We headed into the walled kitchen garden and this was just stunning. I think this was my favourite part of the visit…
Once again, it’s a shame the roses were just about over here, as the ones that were still blooming looked amazing.
I loved these sunflowers…
… and we also found a sleeping bee in one of the flowers!
Oh my word, what a rough start for Mari and Raleigh for your trip!! Glad to see that you are finally all together and having a nice time!! The grounds of Sir Winston Churchill's estate are stunning!!
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I'm hoping to make it over to England in the next few years and would definitely have Churchill's estate on my list of must do's! I thought he was a wonderful leader and I found his family history very interesting.
And what a shame there were no tours left! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Obviously you've already learnt from this that if you want to see inside the house, you need to be there early in the day... heck a bit like any popular Disney ride really! 
Glad to see that you are finally all together and having a nice time!! 
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