A return to Switzerland – land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 - Page 67 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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Sorry the attitude towards tourists wasn't more warm and welcoming in Lugano. I found it to be very friendly when I was there, but that was many years ago. And the smoking.... when I was traveling a lot in Europe there was smoking everywhere, including on all cars in the train and on planes. I'm so glad that's changed in most places and the prevalence of smoking would have bothered me a lot, too.
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I love the brightly colored buildings. The pink reminds me of the pink hotel on Waikiki- The Royal Hawaiian, I think? (stop there for a MaiTai ) Sad that it's not tourist friendly. I guess it's just nice to see how the "other half" lives.
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I'm getting caught up again. Life around here has been a bit hectic! Such beautiful mountains and lakes! I haven't seen as much of Switzerland as you, but those are imprinted in my mind when I think about it. Where did you stay in Lucerne? I'm keeping it in mind.
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Sorry the attitude towards tourists wasn't more warm and welcoming in Lugano. I found it to be very friendly when I was there, but that was many years ago.
What a shame that's changed.
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And the smoking.... when I was traveling a lot in Europe there was smoking everywhere, including on all cars in the train and on planes. I'm so glad that's changed in most places and the prevalence of smoking would have bothered me a lot, too.
I'm getting caught up again. Life around here has been a bit hectic! Such beautiful mountains and lakes! I haven't seen as much of Switzerland as you, but those are imprinted in my mind when I think about it. Where did you stay in Lucerne? I'm keeping it in mind.
I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner! My parents have been to Hawaii twice, and my old boss (travel agent) 18 times. Yes, 18 times. They highly, highly reccomend visiting The Royal Hawaiian if not just for 1 drink at the MaiTai bar. I think they have live music nightly too. It's a classic hotel, one of the originals from way back when.
__________________
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
I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner! My parents have been to Hawaii twice, and my old boss (travel agent) 18 times. Yes, 18 times. They highly, highly reccomend visiting The Royal Hawaiian if not just for 1 drink at the MaiTai bar. I think they have live music nightly too. It's a classic hotel, one of the originals from way back when.
Surprise! As I have a bit of time on my hands this morning, I figured I'd post an update...
Thursday 5 September – part four: “Oh yes, I live in a castle…”
Our next destination was Bellinzona, just about half an hour’s drive away.
We had a few issues here reaching our destination, the Castelgrande, as I’d programmed the GPS to take us there. Of course, being a machine, it doesn’t have the ability to think laterally, and find us the car park near to our destination. Instead, it tried to take us up roads that weren’t allowed traffic on, At least it took us through some picturesque sights.
Second time around, we followed the signs for Castelgrande, and quickly found the underground car park right by it… this was the view when we emerged from it.
To give you some history on this place, due to the location of Bellinzona on a valley on a route over the Alps, it was a fortress town from the Roman era onwards. The Dukes of Milan built a total of three castles here in the Middle Ages, so that they could control the crossing. The castle was extended several times up until the late 15th century.
Fortunately, there’s an elevator up there, so we set off that way…
Do you think this was created more recently than the rest of the castle?
This reminded me of the elevator we caught from the underground parking in Monaco up to the palace above.
This was the view that greeted us at the top…
We wandered around, very surprised that there didn’t seem to be any kind of charge for doing so. I’d read something about a 5 CHF charge per person, but it turned out that was actually for the museum, and all I wanted to do was wander around the castle.
Unbelievably, we found some toilets here, and they were pretty decent. We also discovered that people actually lived here, which was a bit surreal. Can you imagine giving your address out? “Oh yes, I live in a castle…” Well I guess it works for Disney princesses….
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) Sad that it's not tourist friendly. I guess it's just nice to see how the "other half" lives.
PassPorter Guide Author
Wow! Thanks for the tips! 
Can you imagine giving your address out? “Oh yes, I live in a castle…” Well I guess it works for Disney princesses…. 
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