A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 89 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Oh boy, I wonder what's in store for your tour today that you must be in shape for it! The boat cruise is a nice way to start it out though. Always nice how cities look different from the water.
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Looks like a great water tour with some amazing scenery and photos from along there!
__________________
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!
Monday 13 June – part two: braving a second hydrofoil ride…
Our St. Petersburg cruise then turned down one of the city’s many canals, and we got a very different perspective of the city from the water, as suddenly we were so much lower than the buildings we were seeing…
It really did remind me of Venice and I could see why this city is called the Venice of the North.
One turn we had to navigate was particularly tight – look at how close we got to the wall!
We finished off back on the main river…
They were having a competition for building sand sculptures on the beach beneath the St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress that we’d visited a couple of days earlier…
As you can see from some of these photos, it was now raining again.
When we docked, Elena advised to use the restrooms. Jay already had, but the rest of decided to as well, after her warning, and as there was only one, that took quite a while, during which time, the crew were shooting us dirty looks. Elena had already told us to take our time, as it wouldn’t be that warm waiting for the hydrofoil, which was due in a few minutes’ time. When we were all done, she said to the crew that we’d be staying on board (at least I guess that’s what she said) and we found out the reasons for the dirty looks. They apparently were getting ready to go out on another cruise, so we needed to get off. Ok then…
We made our way over there…
… and found seats on board:
Jay, Stephanie and Ethan took the three seats in front of us, and we grabbed the row behind, assuming Elena would be coming to join us. She didn’t. This was the only thing I found a bit odd. Every time we had the opportunity to sit together, at lunches for example, she would avoid doing so. I don’t know if it’s something they’re told to do and, if so, that’s fair enough, but I found it a bit of a shame, given we were a small group and had built up a good rapport with her.
Anyway, it meant that we unfortunately ended up with one of the last passengers to board, and he plonked himself next to Mark, who immediately turned around to me and said “I think I’m going to be sick”. I asked him why and apparently the guy stank of cigarette smoke. Ugh!
I think we were both apprehensive about this hydrofoil ride. We’d only ever taken one before and that was the doomed journey from Naples to Sorrento on Disney’s inaugural Med cruise all the way back in 2007. For those of you who perhaps weren’t with me on trip reports that long ago (and my goodness, it is almost a decade ago now – where the heck does the time go? ), a bit of background.
We’d booked the Capri, Sorrento and Pompeii all day tour from Naples. We were told when we gathered to be escorted off the boat that we wouldn’t be able to go to Capri today, because the water was so rough, the boats weren’t running, and that didn’t bother me at all, so I don’t like rough boat rides. Well, that should’ve given us an indication that we might have a problem, as the first element of the trip was a hydrofoil ride to Sorrento. We were told however that this would still be running as it was all in “sheltered waters”….
Let’s just say that approximately 70% of the boat were physically sick during that trip through not-so-sheltered waters, and the smell, as you can imagine, was appalling. I had taken some new seasickness medication that sadly is no longer available and it was like a miracle. Somehow I wasn’t physically sick, although I felt terrible. We saw people turning literally green, including someone who’d worked in the navy for 20 years, and said it was the worst sea they’d ever encountered.
Remember how Pope Jean Paul II used to kiss the ground whenever he arrived anywhere? Well, that’s how we felt when we got to Sorrento. It was just an appalling experience. So that’s our experience with hydrofoils to date…
The announcements they had scrolling round kept us entertained. It was a case of how many mis-spelt words and bad grammar we could spot!
We set off, and I got a few photos as we headed out…
As you can see, they’re not the greatest, given that it had been raining, and we had a lot of spray on the windows.
However, soon tiredness overcame me, and that was it, I was asleep, along with Mark, and apparently Jay, Stephanie and Ethan ended up doing the same. I did wake up a couple of times and saw there was nothing to photograph, so I promptly went back to sleep again.
As a result, I have no idea of how rough or not the crossing was, but all I know is that when we arrived at Peterhof, it felt as if we were literally pitching from one side to the other, and that was moored up!
That seems like a good way to avoid getting sick - sleep through the whole thing!! What a fun way to get to Peteroff, though!
I always say I'm going to volunteer to live someplace I really enjoy visiting, to be employed as the English sign editor. As you can imagine, there's lots of that kind of thing in China. Cracks me up. And then I wonder how bad the grammar may be to visitors to the US on our signs with translations!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
A tale of two water journeys. The first one looks wonderful! The view from the water is so different. You really see the detail on railings and bridges that you don't necessarily see from the ground. It's slightly more peaceful too, somehow.
The second one though.... perhaps it's best that you fell asleep!! The seats did look comfy, so that sure helped. And I agree, that is strange that Elena doesn't chat with anyone on her tour. Not confident in her English? I wonder.
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT UPDATED 10/11
When I read "hydrofoil" I immediately recalled your first med cruise and began to feel queasy myself! I'm glad you survived this one in a better state.
I think I assumed a hydrofoil was more like a speedboat but this looks more like a commuter style?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
__________________
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow, for all you know, tomorrow, the dream that you wish will come true.
I have no idea what a hydrofoil is but at least the seats on board look comfy!
Hmmm.... now there's a good question. I looked on Wikipedia, but it was very complicated. It's a fast boat and they sort of skim across the water, if that helps?
That seems like a good way to avoid getting sick - sleep through the whole thing!! What a fun way to get to Peteroff, though!
I always say I'm going to volunteer to live someplace I really enjoy visiting, to be employed as the English sign editor. As you can imagine, there's lots of that kind of thing in China. Cracks me up. And then I wonder how bad the grammar may be to visitors to the US on our signs with translations!
Yes, that thought has often crossed my mind too - let's face it, they're only as good as the person who translates them...
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
This was the only thing I found a bit odd. Every time we had the opportunity to sit together, at lunches for example, she would avoid doing so. I don’t know if it’s something they’re told to do and, if so, that’s fair enough, but I found it a bit of a shame, given we were a small group and had built up a good rapport with her. 
At least you fell asleep for this ride and you made it!
Linear Mode
