A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 56 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Yuck, that was a lot of rain! Hoping that's not what London looks like Friday!
I'm hoping so too. I'm seriously thinking lots of good thoughts for the weather for you but so far, it doesn't seem to be working. Typical, as the garden does desperately need the rain...
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I have a set of matryoshka dolls that are a Russian fairy tale (I just don't remember which one!). I much prefer those to some of the more trending ones, but I was so surprised about the vast selection of them - political figures, cartoons, even US basketball teams!
I was really shocked by that - I expected it to just be traditional ones, but not at all.
Love the outdoor markets, even though they seemed in a pretty small area and not that diverse...am I right? Too bad the sales people were so pushy as that's something I don't like! When it comes to buying always best to do it on your terms and not theirs' as you are the consumer.
Most of Europe, I've found to be good when purchasing items in various stores, but this again is an outdoor market, so the rules change a bit and also more Eastern Europe, which tends to be a bit different. Although, much different than Morocco, which I experienced and got ripped off once, but not too bad!
Can't believe that rain and so much for Accu Weather as I use them often and hence their name!
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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!
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Quite a few updates.... marizpan, cobblestones and drowning cats so much going on. I have a set of Russian nested dolls that I got when I was a little girl when we lived in Germany. Still have them at my mom's house (I think....)
Love the outdoor markets, even though they seemed in a pretty small area and not that diverse...am I right?
To be honest, I didn't look that closely at what they were offering in the market to say for certain. Mind you, that wouldn't surprise me. We have a lot of French and German markets over here in the run-up to Christmas and I used to find they had very diverse items, but now I tend to find they have a lot of similar things.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
We were soon back at the cruise terminal, and as we walked back to the ship, you can see how heavily it was lashing down with rain!
I do not know how fast I power walked my way back to the boat, but it was fast! Of course it just figures that boarding would be at the back of the pier…
Two drowned rats were finally back on board, and we headed back to the room to hang up our wet things to dry.
A few minutes later, we headed up to the Oceanview Café. I found this…
It’s make your own fresh pizza! Oh yes please… I went for my favourite combination of prawns, pineapple and mushrooms, and was told to come back 15 minutes later, so I got this to pass the time.
Mark had managed to find something he liked the look of…
My pizza was well worth the wait.
Then it was time for dessert. As I stood in line, I was convinced I wasn’t going to get what I wanted, as there were only three coffee eclairs left, and the woman at the start of the line took two. The woman in front of me then took the second to last chocolate cappuccino dessert, but thankfully that left one of each for me.
Mark opted for the sticky toffee pudding, and seemed to be very happy with it.
As we headed back to the room, I noticed something very unusual – the library was deserted, which has to be a first.
We went back to the room to get changed. We toyed with the idea of going into the hot tub in the Solarium, but given there were people in both, we decided not to. We’ve become hot tub snobs, and are only happy when we have it to ourselves. Instead we made our way into the spa and the Persian Garden.
I was first inside, and there were a couple of other people in there, including a woman who I’d guess must be in her 40s and an older gentleman. I set about putting towels down on two of the hot stone chairs for myself and Mark, and as I did, I heard a familiar snoring noise. Oh not again! I slyly looked at the elderly guy, and he was very much awake. I sneaked a look over at the woman, and realised it had to be her.
This is how things then went on from there… The place got busier and busier to the stage where every single hot stone chair was taken at one point. I went into the steam room a couple of times and the aromatic suite, as I was having problems breathing, and wanted to try and clear my sinuses. Sadly neither fully did the trick. I had to pick my times, as I didn’t want to leave my chair for too long, as otherwise it might have gone, it was that busy.
People came and went, but still the snoring woman lay there. At one point, Mark said something, and the couple in there (the only other people at this point) were chatting as well, and I think we all got louder and louder in the hope of waking her up, as it was getting a bit beyond a joke by now. I was tempted at one point to throw a towel at her, but thought better of it.
Anyway, the time went on, and I reckon we’d been in there about an hour. I was starting to feel I was roasting, even with a towel under me, so I said to Mark I’d head back to the room and see him there. He told me snoring woman was still there when he left, absolutely out for the count. Now when I got into the changing room and looked at my back, it was bright red. She had no towel underneath her and had been there longer than me, so I dread to think what sort of state she was in!
Fortunately, although the Persian Garden was packed out, the changing room was empty, so I was able to grab some photos of it to show you….
Here you go – these are the showers I was trying to describe!
When I got back to the room, I discovered the World ship next to us had disappeared…
Mark told me later that the second I left the Persian Garden, it started to move. That just figures.
While we’d been in the Persian Garden, this vulgar coloured ship turned up. We believe it was a local ferry…
About an hour before we left, the Emerald Princess also headed out. I tell you what this looked like a monster ship, even compared to the size of ours.
We settled down to watch another couple of episodes of Banshee, especially as the ending to one of those was one of those cases where we felt we just had to watch the next one…
Now that's the way to recover after getting soaked in a downpour. Delicious lunch and time in the spa! Love the idea of make your own pizza.
I have to laugh though, I can't believe that woman fell asleep. And that deeply too! Maybe she doesn't sleep at night due to her husband snoring.
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At least Mother Nature was kind enough to let you finish your walking tour before opening up the skies on you Seems like you really lucked out when all was said and done. Love the sound of your purchases and lunch looked super yummy! What a great way to warm up once you got soaked!
New book title, "The Snorer's go On a Cruise!" (At least it wasn't the elderly gentleman that was "playing music" the other day. Don't know if I could come up with a title for that "book"!)
I could definitely tell that the rain was coming down hard, as many people (those without raingear) were running for the busses. Sounds like you had a very busy morning, but a warm, relaxing afternoon and early evening.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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Great pictures from Town Hall Square. The stalls definitely remind me of German market stalls. Looks like you finished up just in time! The weather certainly looks nasty. Your pizza looked delicious, definitely the right choice! The spa sounds like a nice way to warm up after the rain!
Now that's the way to recover after getting soaked in a downpour. Delicious lunch and time in the spa!
Well, why not? We were on vacation....
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Love the idea of make your own pizza.
I have to laugh though, I can't believe that woman fell asleep. And that deeply too! Maybe she doesn't sleep at night due to her husband snoring.
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but so far, it doesn't seem to be working. 
Typical, as the garden does desperately need the rain... 
When it comes to buying always best to do it on your terms and not theirs' as you are the consumer. 
Although, much different than Morocco, which I experienced and got ripped off once, but not too bad! 
so much going on. I have a set of Russian nested dolls that I got when I was a little girl when we lived in Germany. Still have them at my mom's house (I think....)
Mind you, that wouldn't surprise me. We have a lot of French and German markets over here in the run-up to Christmas and I used to find they had very diverse items, but now I tend to find they have a lot of similar things.
Instead we made our way into the spa and the Persian Garden. 
Seems like you really lucked out when all was said and done. Love the sound of your purchases and lunch looked super yummy! What a great way to warm up once you got soaked!
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