A Swiss spring break with friends TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/27 - Page 23 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Neat tour of the chocolate plant. You must really keep your eyes and ears open all of the time to find all of these great tours.
To be honest, a lot of this was a repeat for us. We did both the cheese and chocolate tours on our last visit to Montreux in 2013. That time though we did it as a guided tour, so our time was limited. It was nice to be able to spend as much time as we wanted this time. However, the guided tour was on the "chocolate train" - a beautiful train, so we didn't get that this time around.
Lot of great details, info and history of chocolate. It seems quite well done and pretty cool seeing some of the mechanized machinery used in the chocolate process in the early days. As far as fat free chocolate, I'd go for it if it was as good, otherwise no way! Then again, I don't have to worry about that much luckily.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Chocolate tour sounds so interesting. And who knew it was fat free? That’s picture proof, right? (Sadly I just finished a box of Jaffa cakes our friends brought us from England when we met up in April. I’m pretty proud I managed to make them last over a month!)
Lot of great details, info and history of chocolate. It seems quite well done and pretty cool seeing some of the mechanized machinery used in the chocolate process in the early days. As far as fat free chocolate, I'd go for it if it was as good, otherwise no way! Then again, I don't have to worry about that much luckily.
Chocolate is one of my weaknesses.... so the tasting section I'm about to cover in the next instalment wouldn't be of much interest to you then?
Chocolate tour sounds so interesting. And who knew it was fat free? That’s picture proof, right? (Sadly I just finished a box of Jaffa cakes our friends brought us from England when we met up in April. I’m pretty proud I managed to make them last over a month!)
Sunday 6 May – part eight: meeting “Heidi” and “Gertrude”
Next in our tour of the chocolate factory was the production area.
I was glad I’d been on a photography course and could get some shots of the machine actually picking the chocolate bars up!
Then we got into the fun part…
First, they take you through how the tasters work and that includes things like smelling and listening to the chocolate – and I am not joking! They even play you the sounds of a dark and milk chocolate breaking and there was quite a difference. Eventually, you could final sample the freebie they’d given you… it was like “finally!”
Then we were into the tasting room, where we got to taste so many pieces of chocolate…
… in fact, there was so much tasting that when we came out, none of us could face going near the shop. The thought of chocolate just made me sick I’d eaten that much!
We headed back to the car, but we didn’t get very far, as I just had to stop for my friends we’d seen on the way in. Graham christened them “Heidi” and “Gertrude” and I headed over to see them and photograph them… very obliging they were too!
I also got a video of them, which I posted on Facebook, so I’m sure quite a few of you have seen that. The sound of their cow bells was just so sweet!
We headed out through the beautiful countryside again…
We headed on to the motorway and found more of my friends!
Then we were heading into the wine growing region…
We couldn’t believe how many of these there were. And the most amazing thing? Swiss wine isn’t generally exported – they pretty much produce enough for their own needs and that’s about it.
Next: it’s not an Olympic sport, but perhaps it should be…
Too sick to buy any? What a tragedy! And not well-planned by the factory. I’m sure you’re not the first to have done that.
So, is Swiss wine good? I’d assume so, given its location between France & Italy, countries who seem to have OK wine....
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Too sick to buy any? What a tragedy! And not well-planned by the factory. I’m sure you’re not the first to have done that.
Maybe most people don't pig as much as we did? Actually... free chocolate, no what am I thinking? You're right - most people do probably eat until they're sick!
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So, is Swiss wine good? I’d assume so, given its location between France & Italy, countries who seem to have OK wine....
Love the chocolate tour, especially the sampling at the end, though I would probably be stuffed when I came out. Never realized that dark and milk chocolate make different sounds when broken. Cool!
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As far as fat free chocolate, I'd go for it if it was as good, otherwise no way! 
They even play you the sounds of a dark and milk chocolate breaking and there was quite a difference. Eventually, you could final sample the freebie they’d given you… it was like “finally!” 
Beautiful countryside!
You're right - most people do probably eat until they're sick! 
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