A return to Switzerland – land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 - Page 31 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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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.
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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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As everyone else has said, that view from your room is something I cannot describe into words! It just cannot be topped. If you were in a major city like NYC or Hong Kong with a view like that, I wouldn't even want to imagine, what they'd charge for that! Then again the Bay Lake views from the CR! The first thing I would have done was go out and get a nice bottle of champagne or a good white Swiss wine! That would make it special and hopefully, you had a view of the sunset. Better to do it this way instead of ordering it from room service as it may be double the price as going down the street a bit to get it for basically the same thing!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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That is an amazing view!!!! I could stay there all the time with views like that.
I just got myself caught up again and I am loving all the pictures.
Is that sweet corn or field corn. (I have a hard time telling the difference, but Skip usually can...I guess Sweetcorn is a smaller stalk). I don't know if cows eat sweetcorn.....they don't heere, but they do eat field corn. In fact last week Skip was chopping it into silage for the cows and fill up the silo with it. I think they are going to do some more next week too. I do know Dairy cows eat differently than beef cows because we gedd them to better their milk, while beef cows are fed to be fatten and have better meat.
As everyone else has said, that view from your room is something I cannot describe into words! It just cannot be topped. If you were in a major city like NYC or Hong Kong with a view like that, I wouldn't even want to imagine, what they'd charge for that!
I dread to think!
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Then again the Bay Lake views from the CR!
There is that, but then again, as DVC members, we thankfully don't have to pay for that...
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The first thing I would have done was go out and get a nice bottle of champagne or a good white Swiss wine!
We did do that, just not tonight.
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That would make it special and hopefully, you had a view of the sunset. Better to do it this way instead of ordering it from room service as it may be double the price as going down the street a bit to get it for basically the same thing!
We did have a view of the sunset, as you'll see in a minute....
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That is an amazing view!!!! I could stay there all the time with views like that.
I just got myself caught up again and I am loving all the pictures.
Is that sweet corn or field corn. (I have a hard time telling the difference, but Skip usually can...I guess Sweetcorn is a smaller stalk). I don't know if cows eat sweetcorn.....they don't heere, but they do eat field corn. In fact last week Skip was chopping it into silage for the cows and fill up the silo with it. I think they are going to do some more next week too. I do know Dairy cows eat differently than beef cows because we gedd them to better their milk, while beef cows are fed to be fatten and have better meat.
I believe a lot of it is field corn - and thanks for explaining the difference, that's really interesting.
Sunday 1 September – part nine: how long does it take for entrees?
About 7:00pm, I suggested we get ready for dinner, with Mark heading down to the car to get his decent tennis shoes, as I’d decided to wear a dress tonight. Sometimes, it’s just nice to dress up, if you know what I mean?
We headed down, and were seated immediately outside at the hotel restaurant, Safron. We were seated at a table outside, which had some lovely views over the lake outside…
We ordered, and our appetiser arrived quite quickly. We both went for the half portions of Caesar salad, mine coming with prawns (and look at the size of these prawns ) and Mark going for chicken:
These were superb, although thank goodness we didn’t go for the full size portion. I dread to think how big that would’ve been.
I kept nipping out to go and get some photos of the sunset from the lakeshore, which was beautiful.
Unfortunately, about 10 or 15 minutes after we’d finished our appetisers, our worst nightmare happened, with someone lighting up a cigarette nearby. I suspect it was a Marlborough, as I started coughing not long afterwards, and Marlboroughs always have that impact on me. We grabbed a server, not ours, and asked if we could move inside, and he found us a table there.
I kept nipping out again to photograph the sunset…
We sat there, and sat there for about another 20 minutes, when a server, not ours, came to ask whether we were still waiting for something. We told him and off he went. This isn’t a good sign.
Finally, our food appeared, except it wasn’t what Mark had ordered. He’d ordered the burger, and the steak appeared. He refused it, as it was more expensive (remember this….) and we waited again. I went back outside to photograph the last of the sunset…
I was hoping when I got back that our meals might be waiting, but We saw the maître d’ standing there, and Mark frowned at him, and I shot him a very exasperated look, and he came to see what was wrong. We explained, and he immediately knew what was up, when he said “ah yes, the mistake with the steak”. He went off to sort it, so at least we knew our food would hopefully soon be on our way.
Eventually it turned up, about 15 minutes after the steak had been brought out. In total, I reckon that it was about 50 minutes after the appetisers had appeared, as we’d been seated at 7:30pm, and it was now 8:40pm, and the appetisers had been pretty quick.
So after the appalling wait, how was the food? Well, my poached vendance fillets from Lake Geneva with vegetables and vitelotte potatoes was nice enough. The fish was more bony than I’d have liked and was a little overdone in places, but the beurre blanc sauce that came with it was spectacular. My grandmother, who was French, used to cook this when I was a kid, and I always say that if it tastes like I remember it, then it’s the best, and this did taste just like that.
Ok, now you may be wondering what vendance is. To be honest, so am I! I have tried to translate it, and it just translates as the same into English, which is what the menu said. It was a white fish, and it tasted like something like monkfish, although it wasn’t that. I don’t know what it was, so it remains a mystery…. As for the vitelotte potatoes, check out this article I found online for more about them…
Mark went for the famous Swiss burger with Raclette cheese (a speciality around these parts) and French fries. It also came drowned with salad items, which wasn’t mentioned on the menu, but my goodness, there were enough greens on this to sink a battleship. It sadly wasn’t that good either, after the wait, as Mark said the beef was pretty tough and overcooked. Not good.
We were asked if we wanted dessert, but we dreaded to think how long that would take, and with the meal having taken so long already, we weren’t that hungry now, so we asked for the bill.
When it arrived, I noticed that we’d been charged for Mark, which Mark hadn’t had. I went back and checked the menu, as I knew he’d said he didn’t want it, as it was more expensive. It was only 5 CHF (c. $5.40), but heck, it was the principle of the thing, so I called the maître d’ over to say that there was an issue with the bill. I then heard our server try to tell him that both items were the same price in French. I’m sorry they are not! Sure enough, the maître d’ came back with a revised bill, but by then, I was livid. Our server was definitely not getting a tip after that.
We paid up, and when we got back to the room, we both said that we were surprised the maître d’ hadn’t knocked something off the price of the meal, given the issues we’d had with it… It had not been a great evening sadly. Brilliant views, a wonderful appetiser, not great entrees and lousy service. Overall this place was a miss, rather than a hit…
Safron:
Appetiser 9 9
Entrée 8½ 5
Service 3 5
Atmosphere 9 8½
Value for money 6 5
Average score: 6.80
We headed to back to the room, and I got some photos of the night-time view outside:
The weather today was cloudy at times, with a little drizzle, but also some sun and temperatures in the mid 70s. The best thing today was seeing the Rathaus in Basel and the view at Montreux. The worst thing today was the wait for dinner. Today we tried visiting Solothurn And the result was it’s a beautiful place. The most magical moment today was watching the stunning sunset over Lac Leman.
Just to say I'm hoping to update tomorrow, but we have an early start and a busy day, so if I don't get it done first thing, I may not get an update up at all tomorrow. I hope to and will do my best, but just in case....
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I'm so sorry dinner wasn't up to par! I cannot believe they didn't take anything off the bill! Being delivered the wrong meal is completely unacceptable--and your server's fault--tough meat--that's the kitchen's fault!
What a shame that the hotel restaurant didn't live up to the setting. Really terrible service and a tough burger? That's kind of hard to do! The sunset was amazing.
I hate when dinners turn out to be subpar and I really hate poor service. I seem to attract it lately. I swear on our weekend away last week, every place we went had slow service and one night several of our meals came out cold. My Aunt complained. I didn't but when the manager came out I did tell her both Claire and I had cold meals as well, but we just lived with it and ate them. My sister said hers was cold after we left too, but didn't speak up at the restaurant. in the end, My meal, Claire's and my Aunts meal were all taken off the bill. not something I expected or even intended to have. But it was a very nice gester as this place was a bit pricey.
What a shame the meal wasn't as good as the sunset and the setting. I wonder if moving indoors messed up the server's head and he just forgot everything. Doesn't matter -- he shouldn't have messed up. At least you guys looked nice all dressed up!
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If you were in a major city like NYC or Hong Kong with a view like that, I wouldn't even want to imagine, what they'd charge for that! 
Then again the Bay Lake views from the CR! 
The first thing I would have done was go out and get a nice bottle of champagne or a good white Swiss wine! 
PassPorter Guide Author
) and Mark going for chicken: 
I have tried to translate it, and it just translates as the same into English, which is what the menu said. It was a white fish, and it tasted like something like monkfish, although it wasn’t that. I don’t know what it was, so it remains a mystery…. As for the vitelotte potatoes, check out 
Our server was definitely not getting a tip after that. 
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