On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Those pictures are amazing!!! I'd be in one of those bubbles in a hearbeat - how !!! The mountains are beautiful, even my DH was interested in looking at these pictures (that's quite a feat too )
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Tanya
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Medieval buildings and beautiful country and quaint French villages, just great! The gondola looks fun, and I was able to look between the raindrops on the glass and see the fantastic views... although a clear day might have been better.
I had in my mind that France would look somehow different, but really, nope, it looks like driving through America, except the buildings of course. The scenery is pretty much the same!
Yeah, the landscape looks alike - but other than that, pretty much everything is different Buildings are different (well, mostly older!), and the people are DEFINITELY different.
Love those gondolas! Really cool. Sorry about the crappy weather though.
Cool pictures from the gondola! I also loved how one of the highway signs listed three Olympic host cities in a row. That was really cool to me for some reason!
Beautiful pictures! The gondolas are neat looking. I'm scared of heights too , but I would have definitely braved them to see the mountains!! Can't wait to see more!!
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Stephanie
Riding the Magic Carpets with Jasmine and Aladdin
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Sunday 21 March – part two: mountains and stunning views everywhere!
When we got to the top, we were treated to some superb views, not only of Grenoble, but of all the mountains surrounded the city. We stood there and did a 360 turn and literally everywhere there were mountains around us, some with snow on and some smaller ones that didn’t have snow on. I said to Mark that it was a really unique experience.
We wandered around for a while, ensuring that we had got photos from every possible angle...
I was hoping to go into the museum about the teleferique, but they’re in the middle of renovating it and it’s closed at the moment, ironically due to open later in the spring, so I don’t think we missed it by much.
Instead, we thought we’d go into the museum up there, which is all about soldiers and war in the mountains around here. When we walked in, they asked us about languages and we explained we were English. It was fairly apparent that their audio tour was only in French from the look on the guy’s face. I told him I understood French and took an audio unit. We wandered around the exhibition, which was very good and the audio tour worked really well. Often, you’d stop and a film would start, registering your presence, with the audio on your top. I was able to understand most of it, helped by the French information charts they had in each area.
It took you through from the 18th century to the present day, explaining about the battles here in both the first and second World Wars and also how it was being used today by French soldiers in places like Afghanistan. It also turns out that some of the military have gone on to become champion skiers. It’s something that I’d never thought of before, fighting in the mountains of the Alps and it really opened my eyes. It was fascinating how the skills being learnt here are still being put to good use around the world.
We were about to head back when I spotted that the souvenir shop was now open and I couldn’t resist getting a T-shirt, fridge magnet and a calendar, where you can change the dates and months, with a cow on top of it. The guy here was hysterical, telling us how he was doing Karaoke and then that, for no extra charge, I would get a lovely Gucci bag in black and white. Yes, the black and white small plastic carrier bag was very fetching, no disputing that.
From there, we headed back down the mountain. We were the only people going down at this time, so we had our pick of the gondolas and chose the first one. We weren’t sure about the fold-down seats, but they turned out to be great, as you sit in the middle and look out. I got loads more photos as we went back down.
When we got there, I stopped for a few more photos of my beloved gondola cars moving back up the mountain....
.... then we walked through the nearby park and headed back to the car.
Here, we had a minor problem at the pay machine, as the parking cost €4, but I didn’t have that in coins and there was no way of paying with notes, so we had to pay the darned thing with a credit card.
We drove along towards Grenoble and, as we did, we started to see mountains on either side of the road. I was absolutely captivated by the sight of mountains with snow on the tops of them so close to where we were driving. As I explained to Mark, I’ve never really gone to places where you see that, so the whole thing was a novelty for me and I was absolutely spellbound for it. I was very quiet, just taking it all in – and taking a few photos of course!
You should come here - we still have snow on Snowdonia, and can see it quite clearly in the mid-distance every time we go to Tesco (I have to remind myself sometimes how lucky I am to live in between the coast and the mountains!).
Bubbles look AWESOME!! I'd have been racing you for the front one... I'm planning to do a lot of gondola riding when we go to Austria, though DH is not so keen. However it's MY birthday trip so I get to decide.
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Tinkerboo (or in the real world, Toyah) Reading Challenge 2015: 0/84
Follow my journey from sweaty panting mess to running goddess (I hope!) Out walking with The Boy...
Unfortunately, there will now be a break in this trip report, as we return to day two - Saturday 20 March. Somehow (don't ask me how ) I managed to skip it completely. So I'll now go back and post that day, before coming back up to date again.
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Those pictures are amazing!!! I'd be in one of those bubbles in a hearbeat - how 
!!! The mountains are beautiful, even my DH was interested in looking at these pictures (that's quite a feat too 
)
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
The scenery is pretty much the same!
, but I would have definitely braved them to see the mountains!! Can't wait to see more!! 
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for any confusion....
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