Lions, lanterns and lots more! – a unique Christmas celebration at Longleat COMPLETED - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Love all the Stonehenge pictures, but it makes me laugh a little as here in Virginia, we have FOAMhenge. That's right, a styrofoam replica of the real thing!! VERY kitschy, to be sure. It's in a rural area, so the fields are green and rolling. Just like the real one. NOT!
Love all the Stonehenge pictures, but it makes me laugh a little as here in Virginia, we have FOAMhenge. That's right, a styrofoam replica of the real thing!! VERY kitschy, to be sure. It's in a rural area, so the fields are green and rolling. Just like the real one. NOT!
Oh my goodness, if we ever get out that way, we'll definitely have to check that out!
Sunday 30 November – part four: I don’t think you’re going to move that…
When we were done in the shop, we headed out to see the replica they had of the village that they believe the builders of Stonehenge would’ve lived in. It was interesting to see, but in all honesty, there just wasn’t that much to see here, which was a shame. You couldn’t actually go inside any of the huts, which I thought was a shame.
They had a woman here weaving baskets, and she explained to us that everything she was using had come from local hedgerows, which was good to hear, and she was working on the bottom of the basket to strengthen it up as much as possible.
Then Mark had a go at moving one of the stones, although don’t worry this is only a replica…
As you can see, he didn’t do a very good job of it, and of course, that’s the aim of this, to show people just how tough it was to move these things. How the heck they did it all those thousands of years ago is just completely beyond me….
Then we went inside to see the new exhibition on Stonehenge, and very impressive it was too. You could see that they’d spent a lot of money on this, and it showed. It was excellent.
There was also a fascinating exhibition looking at Stonehenge during World War I, given that it’s the centenary of the outbreak of this war, but sadly you couldn’t take photos in here. The person who owned Stonehenge lost his son and heir in the war, and that’s the reason he then gifted it to the nation, so actually from a terrible family tragedy, thank goodness something good came out of it.
It was also interesting to read about all the soldiers who were garrisoned here during the war, and also how many army barracks etc. there still are in this vicinity, something Mark had commented on during our journey here.
With that, we headed over to the café to get a hot chocolate, which was just what I needed. I used the restrooms here, and I was really shocked that there was only one disabled toilet and one unisex one in here, but of course there were more toilets outside just by the entrance. You certainly couldn’t survive on just two toilets somewhere like this.
When we left, I had to snag a photo of the car park – look how busy it is! And the coach park was pretty busy too – it’s actually located further away from the entrance than the car park, which we found interesting.
As we headed out, the army were on the move – see I told you, they were everywhere here…
As you can see, it was a much better day now, and the early morning mist had now disappeared.
There were still some vibrant colours in the trees as well, which is always lovely to see.
When we got to the M25, the traffic going the other way was awful. Thank goodness we weren’t in that…
However, a few miles on, it was looking a lot better…
Soon we were back in Kent, and get ready for some of the worst bovine and furball (sheep) photos ever….
And before we knew it, we were back home, having enjoyed a wonderful weekend away. And the best bit? We’ve got another weekend away ahead of us – starting in just six days’ time…
The weather today was very misty in the morning, with some sun later on and temperatures in the low 50s. The best thing today was seeing Stonehenge. The worst thing today was how misty it was first thing. The funniest thing today was Mark trying to move one of the “stones”! Today we tried exploring the new visitor centre at Stonehenge And the result was we were very impressed with it. The most magical moment today was the sun poking through and suddenly seeing Stonehenge bathed in its rays.
Finally caught back up once again.
The chinese latterns at night were just amazing and you got fabulous shots of them. So vivid and sharp! That would be amazing to see.
I am so glad you stopped at Stonehenge. It always facinates me but I don't know a lot about it. I was reading all the little signs you took pictures of. Truly beautiful and so interesting.
Thanks for this wonderful little report!
Finally caught back up once again.
The chinese latterns at night were just amazing and you got fabulous shots of them. So vivid and sharp! That would be amazing to see.
I am so glad you stopped at Stonehenge. It always facinates me but I don't know a lot about it. I was reading all the little signs you took pictures of. Truly beautiful and so interesting.
Thanks for this wonderful little report!
So glad you enjoyed it and found it interesting - that's the main reason I write them.
What a wonderful weekend, loved the lanterns all lit up, so beautiful. Also glad that Mark finally turned up after losing him.
Dinner looked very yummy at the pub and glad that the pub noise did not both you much but I think as you said the wine would of helped even if it had gotten a bit rowdy.
The pictures of Stonehenge are beautiful, love the play of the sun against the stones. Just amazing. The exhibit looked really interesting.
What a wonderful weekend, loved the lanterns all lit up, so beautiful. Also glad that Mark finally turned up after losing him.
I have to confess I was very relieved to see him!
Quote:
Dinner looked very yummy at the pub and glad that the pub noise did not both you much but I think as you said the wine would of helped even if it had gotten a bit rowdy.
The pictures of Stonehenge are beautiful, love the play of the sun against the stones. Just amazing. The exhibit looked really interesting.
It's excellent and I think does an amazing place justice.
Enjoyed your photos of Stonehenge and enjoyed the background history of the place! Those thatched huts that some of the workers at Stonehenge lived in reminded of those I saw in Ireland at an archaeological site I visited!
__________________
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!
What a great short trip! I'm amazed at the variety of animals that they have at Longleat! The Chinese lanterns were gorgeous, especially when they were lit up at night! I'd love to see something like that. Thanks for sharing another wonderful TR!
About This Page: 
VERY kitschy, to be sure. It's in a rural area, so the fields are green and rolling. Just like the real one. NOT!
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
And the coach park was pretty busy too – it’s actually located further away from the entrance than the car park, which we found interesting. 
Thank goodness we weren’t in that… 
Those thatched huts that some of the workers at Stonehenge lived in reminded of those I saw in Ireland at an archaeological site I visited! 
Linear Mode
