Returning to Roman times… COMPLETED - Page 10 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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 4 May – part five: I think we’ll follow the hotel’s directions…
Soon we were starting to get glimpses of Sorrento and the stunning coast…
By now, the road really was getting winding, as well as going up and down, and the mad scooter brigade didn’t help matters. I was oblivious to a lot of it, as I was busy photographing, but I felt really sorry for Mark, having to deal with all that. It’s certainly more chaotic than we’re used to at home.
We started to descend towards Sorrento, and got tantalising glimpses of this beautiful town…
Mark managed to find a place to pull over, and I jumped out and grabbed a number of snaps of the view from there, which was really quite something. Beautiful as Sorrento is to visit, I think you can only really appreciate its beauty from somewhere like here, where you’re above it, and get more of an idea of how gorgeous the buildings are, and how sheer the cliffs are before they drop into the sea.
Looking the other way, you wouldn’t even know that Naples and Mount Vesuvius was there. You just couldn’t see a thing that way. I guess that means it’s fairly polluted around here then…
We set off again, with Mark frantically dodging the mad moped riders who decided to pull out in front of him. As he said, they just don’t seem to care – and I may be wrong, but I suspect I’m not, in a car versus scooter situation, I think I know who’s going to come off worst!
There was plenty more gorgeous scenery to take in as we drove along…
… then we were turning off the main road. Now the directions to the hotel had warned us that GPS may not take us the right way, so when we turned off at the right point, I didn’t pay too much more attention. I should’ve done because we turned right soon after that, and then ended up at a dead end with the way the GPS wanted to take us. Ok, back to the main road then. I think we’ll follow the hotel’s directions.
We climbed higher and higher into the mountains, encountering switchbacks. I was very glad that the coach coming the other way didn’t meet us during one of those switchbacks.
Is most of that haze pollution? I hope some of it is just a hazy day. That's definitely something new in Southern Europe since I was there, and I hear unfortunately, that it's very bad it Greece as well. When I was there the air was crisp and clean and the sea and sky were very blue. Maybe the winds will change or something and you saw some of that later in the trip. In any case, the situation of Sorrento on the cliffs is so stunning and from above the town looks as beautiful as always.
Is most of that haze pollution? I hope some of it is just a hazy day. That's definitely something new in Southern Europe since I was there, and I hear unfortunately, that it's very bad it Greece as well. When I was there the air was crisp and clean and the sea and sky were very blue. Maybe the winds will change or something and you saw some of that later in the trip. In any case, the situation of Sorrento on the cliffs is so stunning and from above the town looks as beautiful as always.
It's hard to say. There was a bit of a haze the whole time we were there, which I think probably was pollution, but looking at these photos, I think it was clearer the next day...
Now that's some scary driving! I imagine Mark's hands were white on the steering wheel and were shaking when you were done! Stunning photos though. Just beautiful! The one with the signs made me laugh though. They could have just written "everything" with an arrow to the right and then "Napoli" to the left.
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The buildings on the edge of the cliff are scary. I know I could not drive those windy roads. All the balconies are just like in the movies about Italy and hanging the clothes on the line, too!!!
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Now that's some scary driving! I imagine Mark's hands were white on the steering wheel and were shaking when you were done!
He wasn't quite that bad...
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Stunning photos though. Just beautiful! The one with the signs made me laugh though. They could have just written "everything" with an arrow to the right and then "Napoli" to the left.
The buildings on the edge of the cliff are scary. I know I could not drive those windy roads. All the balconies are just like in the movies about Italy and hanging the clothes on the line, too!!!
I was so surprised to see the washing outside... but I thought it was really cool.
Of course - I'd forgotten about the one in Washington State, but I remember the last time it erupted and I remember seeing the photos of that at Yellowstone.
We have a nice one about 40 air miles from where I live in Northern Califoria..Mount Lassen..last erupted in 1917 and still very active
Finally, we saw the Il Panorama restaurant, which is the hotel restaurant, but it’s not located at the hotel, it’s about a mile or so away. We kept going, expecting to see the hotel at any moment, particularly as the GPS had told us that we were there, according to the address we’d given it. Eventually, we turned a corner, and there it was.
We parked up, and took in the views…
Then we headed into the hotel, which was just beautiful.
We were greeted by a lovely woman, who again was absolutely fluent in English, and couldn’t have been much helpful had she tried. She literally ran through absolutely everything you could ever want to know. I was pleased to discover that, although the main restaurant isn’t located here, there is still food available here, as it’s fair to say we were both pretty hungry by now. Our breakfast on board the plane was suddenly feeling like a long time ago…
All checked in, we headed up to the first floor, and found our room, which was lovely…
complete with bidet – you’re definitely in Europe now!
This was our own courtyard area outside.
Mark sampling the courtyard…
We settled down to relax for a few minutes, but soon hunger drove us out again. The pool is at the end of the corridor, so we headed that way first, and couldn’t help but think “where on earth is everyone?” It’s not that this place is quiet, as I checked it a couple of weeks ago, and certainly according to Hotels.com, it was all fully booked.
We wandered through the gardens, noticing all the loungers scattered around, as we did.
There were some superb views over Sorrento from here as well:
We admired the view from the first floor terrace at the front of the hotel:
You can just about make out an island in this shot, which is Capri
We headed up towards the third floor terrace, which we’d been told about when we checked in, but my goodness, although the views were stunning, it was baking up there. This wouldn’t work for us.
We made our way back to reception, meeting the same very pleasant girl we’d seen earlier, and ordered some food for delivery to our room. There’s no additional charge for this, which I thought was very good and it’s reasonably priced too.
We got a Caprese salad for me…
… one with tuna added for Mark…
… and two coconut sorbets…
This is what the whole lot looked like, all put together. I was very impressed with the presentation, and it was exactly what we needed. Even better, it only cost us €23 ($30), which I thought was very good. Ok, so it sounds much better in pounds, as then it’s only £20… but you get the idea.
I have to say the food was absolutely superb. As Mark said, it’s rare to taste tomatoes like this – they were just so ripe and beautiful. Perfect!
What an absolutely lovely hotel! The room, the private outdoor area, the views, the food-- looks perfect to me. Looks like you have it all to yourselves. I remember well the food in Italy. REAL tomatoes. Moreflavor in all the veg than you can get here straight from the farm. Italians know how to cook and how to grow things.
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I was oblivious to a lot of it, as I was busy photographing, but I felt really sorry for Mark, having to deal with all that. It’s certainly more chaotic than we’re used to at home. 
Beautiful as Sorrento is to visit, I think you can only really appreciate its beauty from somewhere like here, where you’re above it, and get more of an idea of how gorgeous the buildings are, and how sheer the cliffs are before they drop into the sea. 
You just couldn’t see a thing that way. 
I guess that means it’s fairly polluted around here then… 
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. All the balconies are just like in the movies about Italy and hanging the clothes on the line, too!!!
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