A return to Switzerland land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 - Page 65 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a great looking breakfast! Fooled again though, huh? I hope you can sort out why it wasn't included. Again.
They were right - when I got home and checked, breakfast wasn't included. So annoying, as I know it was when I originally checked..
I've learnt my lesson and I check and double check and take screen grabs, just to be on the safe side.
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The sunrise on the tip of the mountains was beautiful. I don't catch too many sunrises, but they can be just as gorgeous as a sunset. Now that winter is coming though, I'll see more of them. Not sure if I like that or not...
I don't generally catch many sunrises either... hopefully we might catch one somewhere nice and warm on Thursday morning.
I'm sure one night at this wonderful hotel wasn't enough! The sunrise might not have been colorful, but it's still magical to see the sun light up different facets of the mountans as it rises.
We will definitely be staying more nights at this hotel when we go back, hopefully in a couple of years' time...
You're right in saying sunrise wasn't something to compete with sunset.
Then again, that sunset really was something!
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Sorry to hear about the breakfast surprise! I hate when things like that happen - especially when you don't have "proof" of the false advertising!
Have you timed this so perfectly that the last installment will be on your final day of leaving for the US?!
Well, there'll be an instalment tomorrow morning before we head out, but my goodness, there is so much more to come - we're on 5 September and we didn't come home until 8 September... I wish I could say I was that organised, but sadly I'm not.
On that subject, I will hopefully add another update on Wednesday morning from the airport lounge and if I have a chance, maybe when we're in Hawaii, I will try and post the occasional update, but we'll see how things go...
You all have had the best views from your hotel balconies. A road trip in Switzerland does seem the best way to go since you get immersed in that gorgeous scenery.
You all have had the best views from your hotel balconies. A road trip in Switzerland does seem the best way to go since you get immersed in that gorgeous scenery.
Switzerland is definitely the place to do a road trip!
Nice views outside of the lake for breakfast. A real nice breakfast spread and found it kind of interesting to have quite a bit of the wine for the restaurant stored behind it!
More great views going out of Luzern! They will get even better as you get closer to the Italian border! This is close to the route, I think I took back in 1995 on my first trip to Europe. I know what is next, but won't spoil it for the rest here!
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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!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World Its hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Nice views outside of the lake for breakfast. A real nice breakfast spread and found it kind of interesting to have quite a bit of the wine for the restaurant stored behind it!
They were using the standard restaurant for breakfast, hence all the wine bottles.
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More great views going out of Luzern! They will get even better as you get closer to the Italian border! This is close to the route, I think I took back in 1995 on my first trip to Europe. I know what is next, but won't spoil it for the rest here!
It'll be interesting to see how our views of that part of the country marry up....
Thursday 5 September part two: going underground for more than 10 miles!
Soon we were heading towards the St. Gottard Tunnel, which as the sign says, is almost 17,000 metres long or 17 kilometres. In our language, thats just over 10 miles.
The run-up to it was interesting, as they had traffic lights to control the amount of traffic going in, with fortunately the lane of non-lorries released more often than the lorries.
Inside it was very impressive
You can see how straight it is
They had these SOS sections regularly carved out. They were all numbered, and I think by the time we finished, we were on something like number 73. Id love to know whats behind them, but I dont want to have an emergency to find out, if you know what I mean.
They also had a countdown to the end of the tunnel, which was neat:
Actually the whole journey passed a lot quicker than I thought it would. Now we can say thats another one crossed off the list of places weve driven well, Ok the list of places Mark has driven.
When we came out, we were literally straight into the Italian part of Switzerland, as you could see from the signs.
It still fascinates me how you can move so seamlessly between languages. I found the adverts particularly interesting. If youre a company in Switzerland, you have to have three sets of adverts ready to go.
We both commented that somehow the scenery wasnt as spectacular here. Sure, it was nice enough, but somehow it laid the beauty wed seen elsewhere in the country.
Our first stop of the day was the city of Lugano, which again (I know huge surprise here! ) lies on a lake, this one being Lake Lugano. Its a centre of finance and banking, which we quickly saw from all the banks when we started to walk around.
As we entered it, again you could tell that this was in a very different part of the country in terms of the architecture.
We managed to find somewhere to park, although it was full, so we had a bit of a wait for enough cars to come out before we could get in. Im always paranoid about these things, because its fine if everyone parks properly, but what happens if a couple of cars are taking up more than one bay, then it all goes horribly wrong. Fortunately, we found a space, despite being cut up by a local woman who was obviously desperate to get herself a parking space.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World Its hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
The tunnel to Italy - very cool! I guess a tunnel is a tunnel, but I'm guessing it feels different when you're driving it versus riding a train through it! (like the chunnel, I mean ) Yes, the architecture is decidedly different!
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I loved the area around Lugano. It's true, it doesn't look as charmingly Swiss as other parts of the Alps, but I kind of like the Italian style of small town, which looks like a mini-city with multi-family dwellings as opposed to lots of little single-family houses as in the French or German areas.
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Dinner looked fantastic, and worth the cost for the view alone! 
and if I have a chance, maybe when we're in Hawaii, I will try and post the occasional update, but we'll see how things go...
Id love to know whats behind them, but I dont want to have an emergency to find out, if you know what I mean. 
Fortunately, we found a space, despite being cut up by a local woman who was obviously desperate to get herself a parking space. 
Mary - not enough trips!
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