A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 21 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Dinner looked delicious! I know I'm just looking forward to some new menus, as the DCL ones feel old to me by now (I think the Pirate night menu has been the same for 10 years).
Glad dinner turned out so yummy! They have wonderful specialty dining on their ships don't they? Surprised us the major difference between the main dining room quality
Dinner looked delicious! I know I'm just looking forward to some new menus, as the DCL ones feel old to me by now (I think the Pirate night menu has been the same for 10 years).
They haven't changed in some time have they? Well, with the exception of Palo, which they did update and then removed my favourite dish, although usually they're still able to do it for me. But yes, those menus could do with a shake-up.
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Glad dinner turned out so yummy! They have wonderful specialty dining on their ships don't they? Surprised us the major difference between the main dining room quality
They do. There was a huge gulf between the quality in the specialty restaurants and the main dining room.
I can only echo what others have said - great looking meal! Well, except for that soufflé, which wouldn't have been for me as I'm not a fan of meringue. Other than that, though, the restaurant seems like a real winner!
I can only echo what others have said - great looking meal! Well, except for that soufflé, which wouldn't have been for me as I'm not a fan of meringue. Other than that, though, the restaurant seems like a real winner!
Monday 6 June – part one: where else in the world can you get views like this from your room?
I woke up, and wondered what time it was, having slept exceptionally well all night with no disturbances at all. That’s the kind of night I like. It was light outside, so I figured it had to be past 5:30am, which I think is when the sunrise was. I lay there for a while, half wanting to drift back to sleep, but half curious to get up. Eventually, the curious side won, especially when I figured out the ship was still moving, so I knew it couldn’t be 7:00am, as that’s when we were due to go ashore. I got up, found out it was just past 6:00am, and was greeted by this beautiful sight when I looked outside…
You see, this is why I love cruising. Where else in the world can you get views like this from your room?
As we came into Zeebrugge, I grabbed a few more shots…
Directing operations from the bridge
Eventually, we got going around 8:00am, and I decided to play elevator roulette, as we couldn’t decide between going to Moonlight Sonata, the table service restaurant, or the Oceanview Café, the counter service one, for breakfast. We pressed both up and down, and when down arrived first, it was the Moonlight Sonata restaurant we headed to.
We were asked if we wanted to be seated alone or share a table, and we opted to share, as it’s always fun, and you never know who you might meet. This place is spectacular.
I still find it hard to register that they only have this one massive restaurant, and that’s it. The other alternatives are your cafés, counter service, and speciality dining. This is the only standard restaurant for dinner, hence why it gets so busy. We ended up sitting with two other British couple, one from just by the southern entrance to Wales and the other from the Midlands. One said they showed up around 6:15pm last night, and were given a pager, so went to one of the lounges, and as soon as they got there, and got a drink, the pager went off. Figures!
I went for the smoked salmon omelette, which frankly wasn’t great. The smoked salmon was lovely, but the omelette was pretty poor and I thought a bit burnt.
Mark went for the side dishes, consisting of eggs, hash browns, and bacon, and I didn’t think this looked particularly appetising. He agreed.
Thankfully, my vanilla flavoured French toast redeemed breakfast a bit for me, as this was pretty decent. I hope this doesn’t set the tone for the rest of the food from the standard restaurants this cruise.
At least we had some nice company. It turned out the other two couples were both getting off the boat, but neither of them on official Celebrity tours. One couple were meeting friends, and then exploring Zeebrugge, while the other couple were planning to take the bus into town, then get a taxi to Bruges. I personally thought they’d left it a little late, given it was now 9:00am, and we only had until 2:00pm for all ashore.
From there, we went for a wander, and this time I was able to get a few more shots around guest services, which was thankfully a lot quieter than it had been last night. At least that was a good sign.
They had some fascinating images of the Eclipse being built, and I’m sure any Disney Cruise Line fan will recognise the name of the ship builder…
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What a beautiful sunrise! Sorry breakfast was disappointing. It looked like the food was just plopped on the plates. Not all that appetizing. Glad the French toast was good.
Sort of funny that you drove home again... But it turned out in your favor with the extra things you needed anyway. Loved those close up owl photos, wow! The otters are cute, but those giant ones are kind of creepy - knowing they're so dangerous! Who knew?!
Very peaceful lunch and early afternoon, and then followed by a very crazy boarding procedure and such! Wow. That certainly didn't give you a good first impression of Celebrity. Wasn't it delayed due to cleaning? I wonder if that just messed up everyone's schedules and they just couldn't get back on track to make it an easy boarding process (as it should be)?
Well I'm glad that the dinner sort of made up for that. It looked delicious! And I"m not surprised you slept so well. You were exhausted! Beautiful sunrise photos.
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Last edited by disney_duke; 07-13-2016 at 08:13 AM..
Mark's hash browns actually appear to be corned beef hash. Everyone in my family loves that, except me. I can't get past the appearance (which looks too similar to dog food, in my opinion). No attention to plating going on at breakfast, was there? Glad the French toast tasted good.
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There was a huge gulf between the quality in the specialty restaurants and the main dining room.
It was light outside, so I figured it had to be past 5:30am, which I think is when the sunrise was. I lay there for a while, half wanting to drift back to sleep, but half curious to get up. Eventually, the curious side won, especially when I figured out the ship was still moving, so I knew it couldn’t be 7:00am, as that’s when we were due to go ashore. I got up, found out it was just past 6:00am, and was greeted by this beautiful sight when I looked outside… 
But it turned out in your favor with the extra things you needed anyway. Loved those close up owl photos, wow! The otters are cute, but those giant ones are kind of creepy - knowing they're so dangerous! 
Who knew?!
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