A Swiss spring break with friends TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/27 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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.
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.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Great plans for Montreaux. How can you beat chocolate and cheese experiences in Switzerland on the same day? That's odd with the Freddie Mercury and Queen experiences in Montreaux as I thought the UK would be more like as that's their home country!
__________________
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!
Pre-trip report – part five: walking back to health
With the plans all set, the one thing I should mention here is that I’m still recovering from the ankle operation I had at the start of March. I’m not going to go into all the detail of the original injury, the operation (and the non-starter of an operation) or my rehab until late March, because if you want to read all about that, you can find the details in the pre-trip report for our Easter break – putting a boot into our original Easter plans.
Since then, I’ve made a lot of progress – at least that’s what everyone keeps telling me anyway. I had no idea how long the recovery would be, certainly much longer than the “couple of weeks” that my consultant predicted before the operation anyway. Let’s just say he’s obviously hopelessly optimistic…
My physiotherapist has since told me that feet take the longest time to heal, much longer than knees. Apparently it’s got something to do with how many different muscles, tissues etc. there are in there. I’m learning so much.
Over Easter, I was walking very short distances in my protective boot - the most I’d done in one go was 0.2 miles on Easter Saturday – and I’d had to book wheelchairs and mobility scooters to help me get around. I worked hard to get to the stage where I could walk much longer distances in the boot, over a mile.
The next challenge was then getting out of the boot. At first I was literally just walking around the house, then it progressed to a few steps (and I really mean a few!) outside. Then I’d start walking along the road, going just one or two houses further each day. Eventually again, as with the boot, I got myself up to walking over a mile, which was quite an achievement.
However, it’s not quite as straightforward as it sounds. This is all walking along generally even ground and usually I’m walking on my own, so not in crowds. I don’t have to worry about anyone hitting my leg by accident.
The next thing I needed to do was to try and get out of the boot, as it holds your foot completely in place. I needed to start exposing it to reality. Once again, I started with walking around the house either in bare feet, just in socks or in trainers (tennis shoes) and then I started going outside, again very short distances and just increasing it by a few paces every day. It got to the stage where I was just about up to walking to the shops at the end of our road, which is about a half mile round trip. I was still only increasing it by tiny amounts.
Then one morning, my ankle wasn’t playing up as much as it had done previously. Usually, I’d notice which house I’d walked to and could just about force myself to go a little further, but that day, it seemed perfectly happy. That was the start of walking much longer distances – adding two tenths of a mile or a third of a mile each day. Eventually, I was up to walking over a mile – the same route I’d previously taken in the boot.
I did mention this in my trip report about our Easter trip to Sidmouth, but at that point, I was walking an average of 5,000 steps a day. Last week, I was up to an average of over 8,000 steps a day, which is a huge improvement. Just as well, as I have no doubt that we’ll be doing a fair amount of walking on this trip.
However, there were still times that I wore the boot. I went into London a couple of times and I agreed with my physio that it made sense to wear it then, because it’s a busy place and I wanted people to be able to easily see that there was a problem. It was definitely the right decision.
So what does this mean for this trip? Well, firstly I’ve asked for special assistance at the airport. It’s not an easy choice for me to make to actually request it, as I hate to ask for help. Equally, I want to be as active as I can and walking as much as possible, but sometimes it’s just not worth it. We’ll be doing a fair chunk of walking on this trip anyway, so it’s not as if I won’t get the exercise.
Secondly, the boot will be coming with me. I figure it’s just better safe than sorry. I’m certainly not at the stage where I’m ready to leave it behind. It’s always in the car with me (or us if Mark is with me) just in case I need it, so I wouldn’t leave it at home for this weekend. I have no idea how much I’ll use it while we’re away, but I’ll definitely use it around the airport, outside of special assistance, as again it’s a busy place and I don’t want it to get damaged accidentally.
I have contacted EasyJet about this to check it’s Ok and they’ve confirmed it will be fine. I went through their website very carefully and if you’re in a plaster cast, they tell you the situation (apparently you have to buy a second seat if your leg is in plaster, so thank goodness I’m out of that now! ), but there was nothing about protective boots and I wanted to just double check. Can you imagine getting to the plane and being told that I couldn’t have it with me? That was a risk I wasn’t prepared to take.
Well, that's it for the pre-trip report, as we fly out in the morning and head up to the airport tonight. I'll see you on the flip side! Have a good weekend everyone!
I'm so happy to hear the boot is coming with you! You just never know. Plus, like you said in London, it helps to obviously show others why you may be walking slower than average. Let's hope you don't actually need it very much though!
Fingers crossed for beautiful weather!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Glad to see your ankle is healing so well. There could be a lot of strenuous walking while in Switzerland. Hope you don't overdo. Have a safe and fun trip. Your plans look great. I am envious and looking forward to following along.
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
That's odd with the Freddie Mercury and Queen experiences in Montreaux as I thought the UK would be more like as that's their home country! 
Linear Mode
