A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 26 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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.
Well it sounds like the portion that is missing was about relaxing. So it's good to know you were doing just that!
The dress up nights are fun - like you say, if for nothing else to just see what others wear! I wonder how they pack everything. Do people iron the tuxedos and such? Silly thoughts. Like your Titanic thoughts!
__________________
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.
Well it sounds like the portion that is missing was about relaxing. So it's good to know you were doing just that!
True!
Quote:
The dress up nights are fun - like you say, if for nothing else to just see what others wear! I wonder how they pack everything. Do people iron the tuxedos and such? Silly thoughts. Like your Titanic thoughts!
I think it was easy for a lot of people, as the majority of people on the cruise were British, so didn't have to worry about weight limits on their suitcases for flights - that does make a huge difference!
As Tanya said, no worries about the missing bit since we can all hope you were just relaxing! Too bad the massage was less than stellar, though.
It was a real shame. I wonder whether I've become too critical, as I regularly have lovely massages, but it was when Mark said the same as me, I figured perhaps it wasn't just me....
What a nice lounge, which looks so relaxing and love the decor! Too bad your massages weren't all that great! That's too bad that somehow part of your TR just vanished! At least it wasn't one of your photo heavy updates!
__________________
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!
What a nice lounge, which looks so relaxing and love the decor! Too bad your massages weren't all that great! That's too bad that somehow part of your TR just vanished! At least it wasn't one of your photo heavy updates!
In a way, the photo heavy sections would've been easier to recover, as I'd have had photos to remind me what we did!
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Ballston Lake, NY
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 46,162
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 94
Likes (Received): 241
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 139
Pixie Dust (Given): 3
Pixie Dust (Received): 4
Sounds like you had a relaxing morning and that was a great spread for lunch. More great pictures of the ship. Sorry that part of your TR went missing!
Monday 6 June – part six: an Italian signature dinner
We headed into the Tuscan Grille, and given the windows at the back of the restaurant, it is a bit hard to photograph the entrance, which is a shame, as it’s quite dramatic with all its mahogany colours in it…
Inside though, it’s much lighter…
We were seated at a sea view table, which worked for us, although obviously there wasn’t much to see out there, except for pretty much this view the whole evening…
This is an Italian restaurant, and the staff quickly worked out I can (theoretically!) speak Italian by the way I was pronouncing the menu. I did point out that, although I have a qualification in it, that was 20 years ago (actually almost exactly, as I would’ve sat my exams in May/June 1996 – where does the time go? ) and I barely get a chance to speak it these days. What made me laugh though was that there didn’t appear to be any Italian staff in here, and most were Eastern European – the assistant maitre’d was Serbian, the sommelier was Bulgarian, and our server was Croatian, and none of them actually spoke Italian.
One thing I do want to mention here are the name tags for the staff. They are ridiculously small and very hard to read as a result. You don’t want to appear rude, as if you’re staring at them, and I constantly found it easier to read the country, as that was at the bottom, rather than the name at the top, so that’s why so few staff are named in this trip report.
We started off with the bread service, which I felt deserved a photo to itself.
The focaccia was so good, we ended up asking for some more, and they brought us another four slices.
When it came to dining, we were both very predictable, and got exactly the same first two courses. We started off with fritto di calamari (fried calamari) with marinara sauce and lemon garlic aioli. I was a bit surprised by the presentation, as this isn’t what I’d expect to see at a fine dining Italian restaurant.
Despite that, the calamari was beautifully cooked, completely melt in the mouth, and the marinara sauce tasted exactly how it should. I like marinara sauce, and I know what’s it’s supposed to taste like. We differed on the aioli sauce. Mark said his was spicy, and had a real kick to it, whereas mine didn’t at all. He offered to let me try some of his, but I passed on that kind offer, as I don’t do spicy food.
For the soup and salad course, we both went for the Pomodoro i mozzarella di bufala (or buffalo mozzarella and tomato) salad with extra virgin olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, and garlic focaccia. I left most of my focaccia, given we were now on something of a focaccia overload from the bread selection.
At least when it came to entrees, we did differ. I had melanzane parmigiana – breaded eggplant, mozzarella, tomato sauce, fresh basil and parmesan. Again, this is another of my favourite Italian dishes, and this again lived up to my expectations.
Mark went for the filetto di manzo rustica or filet mignon, and chose to have some contorni (side dishes) with it, as just like a traditional Italian restaurant, it came on its own. He went for garlic mashed potatoes, and grilled Mediterranean vegetables, and it also came with a sauce, so it went from looking very lonely to a lot of accompaniments…
It was at about this point that I got our server to take a couple of photos of us…
Then it was time for the most important part of the meal, as our server told us – desserts. I knew I wanted tiramisu, but when I saw the Tuscan Grille signature pistachio marble crème brulee, I knew I wanted to try that as well, so I asked if I could have two desserts. Our server told us that they had a policy on that – and it’s called “go ahead”. Well, that was all the encouragement I needed!
It was a case of eyes bigger than belly, as I couldn’t finish either off, although Mark polished off the rest of my crème brulee, after devouring his. That was excellent, very unusual, and very flavoursome. It also came with something popping on top. I can’t describe it better than that. It was a bit odd, but it did work with the dish.
As for the tiramisu, that was excellent, although it had a slightly odd presentation again. It tasted how I expected though, although the coffee was stronger than I thought it would be. I wish I could’ve eaten more of it, but I was truly stuffed by now.
We also decided to finish our meal in a truly Italian way – with limoncello, even though Mark had already declared that he’d had too much to drink. It was very nice, and we just about managed to stagger back to our room afterwards.
We were very surprised to find out the limoncello was included in our drinks package, which was a nice bonus.
All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal here. We much preferred being able to see outside, which you can’t do in Murano. Mark did talk about coming back here, and I like the idea, but I figured maybe we’d wait and see what we made of QSine, as I know you’d have to have one meal more in each restaurant, and there’s no point if we don’t like the other restaurant.
On our way out, our server told us he’d really enjoyed serving us, and he’d had a real laugh with us. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but hopefully it was a good thing…
We got back to the room, and watched an episode of the Newsroom, which we used to love, and it brought back some great memories – it’s so well written, and having worked as a radio journalist, I can tell you some of it is very true to life as well.
We made it tonight until 9:15pm (real party animals, right? ) before we crashed, as we were again so tired.
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the mid 70s. The best thing today was dinner at the Tuscan Grille. The worst thing today was the problems I had with sunburn. Today we tried having a hot stones massage And the result was it honestly wasn’t as good as we’d hoped. The most magical moment today was sitting out on deck, sipping a glass of wine, and just taking in the scenery.
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: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Too bad your massages weren't all that great! 
At least it wasn't one of your photo heavy updates!
Alaskan Mom aka Bonnie
) and I barely get a chance to speak it these days. What made me laugh though was that there didn’t appear to be any Italian staff in here, and most were Eastern European – the assistant maitre’d was Serbian, the sommelier was Bulgarian, and our server was Croatian, and none of them actually spoke Italian. 
Linear Mode
