A return to Switzerland – land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 - Page 39 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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More beautiful rooms and views from the chateau! The hunting room reminds me of Gaston's Tavern in new Fantasyland. I love the knight's room and the painting on the walls is marvelous. You did get to see and hear several cows. They have such green pastures to graze on in Switzerland.
Oh, that first picture looks like Disney imagineers thought it up. It's just so....Swiss. The gardens are beautiful but framed by the hills makes them more so.
Love that garden! Although I wouldn't want to be the one in charge of keeping it looking that way! And what a brilliant, blue sky - gorgeous day!
I bet they have their work cut out for them...
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Hey, did you buy a Swiss cow bell while there? I'm sure Mark would have been happy to wear it around the house so you could hear the sound!
I did buy one (to add to the one I bought in 2010 on our last visit to Switzerland). I love the idea of Mark wearing it but I can't see it happening somehow... I cannot wait to see what he makes of this comment when he reads the trip report later...
More beautiful rooms and views from the chateau! The hunting room reminds me of Gaston's Tavern in new Fantasyland. I love the knight's room and the painting on the walls is marvelous.
Oooh cool - we never went inside Gaston's Tavern on our last visit. We'll have to make sure we do this time.
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You did get to see and hear several cows. They have such green pastures to graze on in Switzerland.
They do - I think they probably have a great life out there.
More great photos of inside the chateau! The photos outside of the formal gardens and with the covered green mountains in the background, just blow me away and compliment each other so well! I just need to get on the next flight to Schweiz! I'm just missing so much from the scenery, landscapes, chateaus, food, wine, cheese and of course....the cows!
Thanks Cheryl for all of this as it brings back some great memories of my two short visits here to Luzern and Bern back in 1995 and 1996. I was on tours and I saw quite a bit, but so much more to see than just those two towns. Will make it happen! Just don't know when!
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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!
More great photos of inside the chateau! The photos outside of the formal gardens and with the covered green mountains in the background, just blow me away and compliment each other so well! I just need to get on the next flight to Schweiz! I'm just missing so much from the scenery, landscapes, chateaus, food, wine, cheese and of course....the cows!
Thanks Cheryl for all of this as it brings back some great memories of my two short visits here to Luzern and Bern back in 1995 and 1996. I was on tours and I saw quite a bit, but so much more to see than just those two towns. Will make it happen! Just don't know when!
Well, when you do make it back to Europe, you know where to head for...
Monday 2 September – part seven: why do the kids get the best designs?
We headed back into the village to try and find somewhere for lunch.
Neither of us were that hungry, we just wanted something light and eventually I found a place that did Caprese salad, so we decided to get a big one to share between us. We were taken through to the restaurant, which had some lovely views…
those are deer!
Our poor server was obviously disappointed when that was all we ordered and I felt sorry for him, but then again, at least some trade is better than none. However, in fairness, when it arrived, I couldn’t have eaten any more than this. It was just perfect for what we wanted…
We got the check and headed out, leaving some extra for our poor server, who thought we’d be much bigger spenders.
We wandered through a few more shops and finally I found one that had cow T-shirts in it for adults. Don’t give the kids all the good designs, that’s not fair. Make sure I have some as well! I also got a cow tea towel, pot stand, fridge magnet and I was definitely in cow heaven!
We wandered through the rest of the shops, but didn’t see anything else I wanted (you notice it’s all about me here? ), so we got a few final photos of this beautiful village…
How cool is this?
Then we headed back to our meeting point for the coach. We were about 15 minutes early and we managed to find a shady spot, as by now it was pretty hot outside. So much for bringing sweatshirts with us, but in fairness, it was cold first thing and you know if we hadn’t bought them with us, we would’ve been cold, so you can’t win.
Eventually, our guide turned up and I use guide in the loosest of terms, as literally all they did was make sure we got from one location to another, but that’s fine and was really all we needed. Suddenly the rest of our group was trotting behind him. It was like they’d all gone for lunch together. We all had had free time, but we’d seen very few of our group. We had assumed that they would all got to the chateau, especially as the entrance fee was included in our tour, but we barely saw anyone else in there, so where they went, I don’t know. We figured they made up for us and spent lots of time and money on lunch….
We only had to wait a few minutes and then the coach turned up. You have to love Swiss efficiency. We had a 10 minute bus ride over to our next destination, which was the Cailler/Nestle chocolate factory in Broc, which is a beautiful place.
We were split into groups and I did find it ironic that the groups were either English or German, but no French, given this is the French speaking area of Switzerland. We went in in five minutes segments, and the reason soon became clear. This is like a Disney attraction, where you pass through different scenes. At the entrance were adverts used for the chocolate in the past…
Yum! I love a caprese! Thank you for leaving extra for your server--that means a lot to us! The beginning of the chocolate factory looks lovely--I can't wait to see the rest!