A return to Switzerland – land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Saturday 7 September – part four: do you want a faster route?
We got on the Autobahn, then came off at the next exit, although there were roadworks, and it really wasn’t very clear at all where we were supposed to go, as it was in fact two exits. You can guess what happened, and sure enough, we took the wrong exit, but a quick U-turn later (we were on a main road, not an Autobahn), and we were going the right way again.
We were heading for Strasbourg, just over the border in France, although I was fascinated to see the German spelling for it…
Now you see it… … now you don’t!
As we approached Strasbourg, everything became a very weird mix of French and German. You’d see signs to the “city centre” for Strasbourg, while signs to a German town nearby said “zentrum”. We weren’t quite sure if we’d crossed the border or not, as it is easy to miss.
Then we found the border over a river, and we were moving out of Germany, and into France…
I have to say that Strasbourg didn’t do a lot for us. We had thought about stopping here, but decided to drive straight through to Luxembourg with no stop, so we didn’t see the historic centre, so maybe I’m being unfair here, but we weren’t wowed by the architecture we saw. It was all just, well a bit far out I guess.
It also struck us as a city that’s struggling to work out what it wants to be. It’s clear that the area around the river is pretty deprived, and has obviously been recently regenerated with new shopping centres, and restaurants, but the ones we saw looked pretty quiet, which was a bit worrying for a Saturday lunchtime.
We made our way through the city, and out the other side. By now, it was a little more cloudy than it had been earlier…
Soon we were approaching a toll booth, which was another surprise to us. I had looked up an online map, and had been pleasantly surprised to discover that there didn’t seem to be any tolls between here and Luxembourg, but obviously this one was missed out. At least it would be quieter on the toll road, which is always a good thing…
We got a bit of a shock not long after we paid for that toll, as another one appeared. We hadn’t taken a ticket, so we weren’t quite sure what was going on. As a result, we went for the “pay by cash” option, figuring there’d be someone to help us, but it was all automated. Thankfully the sign explained. It was a set fee, dependent on what type of vehicle you were in. It was only €4.40 (c. $5.80), so it was fine. It would’ve been better to pay by credit card, as there was no line for that, but we didn’t know what the situation was when we got in line.
It wasn’t long after that that the rain started. It had been looking as if it would rain, so it was only a matter of time. I did my best with snapping through the rain as we went along…
Soon we were starting to see signs for Luxembourg…
It was about this time that Mark’s GPS, which comes with live traffic updates, told us that there was a 42 minute delay on our route. Apparently there was at least 6km (3.75 miles) of stationery traffic. Not what we needed to hear! We kept an eye on it, and eventually the GPS asked if we wanted to use an alternative route, which was 25 minutes faster. please!
Soon we were crossing the border between France and Luxembourg, and despite the rain, I just about got photos of it. The whole thing was very odd, and it seemed to go on for ages…
There was also this border crossing, which was obviously a relic from years gone by when borders were in place. It was very weird to see it.
A couple of miles further on, we saw the back of the queue, and turned off, although in fairness, the signs were now telling everyone to do that.
On the route we took, we found a petrol station, so stopped to fill the car up, as she’d literally just told us that she needed fuel. I’d heard that the prices in Luxembourg were cheap, and my goodness, that was right! It was €1.25 (c. $1.65) per litre for diesel. Now you think that’s pricey? Compare that to £1.42 (c. €1.69or $2.25) and now you see why I think it’s cheap.
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You can guess what happened, and sure enough, we took the wrong exit, but a quick U-turn later (we were on a main road, not an Autobahn), and we were going the right way again. 
It was all just, well a bit far out I guess. 
It had been looking as if it would rain, so it was only a matter of time. I did my best with snapping through the rain as we went along… 
Apparently there was at least 6km (3.75 miles) of stationery traffic. Not what we needed to hear! 
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