A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 57 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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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"!)
Oh my goodness, that's classic! No, I don't think I could come up with a title for that either...
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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.
Lunch looked so delicious with the make your own pizza! My mother could be soundly asleep while snoring so loud that everyone else had trouble sleeping. We once had to share a room with she and Dad when we went to Ohio for her mom's funeral (my grandmother). I kept whispering to Luke that I was going to throw a shoe at her. I'm a good daughter and would never have done that, but she was making sleep nearly impossible.
Lunch looked so delicious with the make your own pizza! My mother could be soundly asleep while snoring so loud that everyone else had trouble sleeping. We once had to share a room with she and Dad when we went to Ohio for her mom's funeral (my grandmother). I kept whispering to Luke that I was going to throw a shoe at her. I'm a good daughter and would never have done that, but she was making sleep nearly impossible.
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 kept an eye out for any late comers, as it got closer and closer to our departure time, and we saw a few…
We also watched some of the ferries come and go…
This is a busy port, busier than I’ve have thought. However, I guess it’s not that much of a surprise, as we know from our visit to Helsinki in 2006 that they operate a direct ferry link across here.
Finally, everyone was aboard and we were pushing away…
I waited and waited and waited for us to turn enough, so I could get some shots of the Old Town, and finally it came into view – wow, what a sight!
Ironically, once we got out to sea, guess what? The sun came out!
About 7:00pm, we headed upstairs to the Oceanview Café for dinner, as we were both starting to get tired, and we wanted an early night, given the next three days would be long days in St. Petersburg. We were a bit disappointed to see that the selections for dinner were almost the same as at lunch. Thank goodness for the sushi bar, at least that was something different.
I was bold and daring, and went for some fish curry with shrimp fried rice, and while the fish curry tasted beautiful, frustratingly, there was a lot of heat in it, so I was left with a mouth on fire after eating it.
The solution? Well, there’s only one. Head for the ice cream counter, and get some of that to cool down your mouth!
It was about this time that I got a shot of the shoreline…
… and I saw a tiny black spot that appeared to be hovering, and it was a bird.
A crew member saw me and suggested I could go outside. I told him I was just being lazy, and she started to admire my camera, and asked me all about it. I explained it was a 50 times optical zoom, then told her how much it cost, and she nearly fell over in shock. She kept saying how much she liked it, and I told her the model number. She said she’d love to get it, but she never seems to have much time off. Working on a cruise line, I can believe that.
We also heard another crew member say that they’d be doing an early breakfast over the next three days, and an exceptionally early one on the second day they were in port, because they had 60 people going on their tour to Moscow. Ok, so I guess we’re not the only crazy ones then. Thank goodness we spoke to her and discovered that they’d be starting breakfast that day at 5:00am, as they would only be telling those booked on the cruise line’s tour, which is fair enough. At least now we don’t have to worry about where we get breakfast from that day…
We finished off our dinner, and grabbed a glass of Bailey’s on the way out. We headed down to guest relations to ask what had happened to our Celebrity umbrella, as the announcement this morning had warned off of rain, and had told us to take our umbrella with us, but we didn’t have one. I wondered if it was certain staterooms only, but everyone on the tour seemed to have one, so we figured we’d find out. We asked, and they said we should’ve had one, and they’d have one sent up.
From there, we caught the elevator back to the room, and by the time we got there, an umbrella was waiting for us on our bed, very impressive!
We settled down to watch another episode of Banshee, and had an early night, given we’d have a relatively early start tomorrow morning, at least compared to the rest of this cruise so far.
The weather today was a real mixture – some sunshine, some cloud, light rain, and then heavy and at times torrential rain, with temperatures in the high 50s. The best thing today was visiting Tallinn. The worst thing today was the rain. Today we tried taking the walking tour of Tallinn Old Town And the result was we really enjoyed it, and it was well worth doing. The most magical moment today was seeing the views over the Old Town.
Of course the sun comes out when you are all done with your day. Never fails! At least it made for some great photos. The lighter sky illuminated Tallin a bit too, especially those bright colored buildings! Such a cool place, glad you got to explore it!
Bummer dinner wasn't anything exciting, but it's good you got some insider info on breakfast.
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Of course the sun comes out when you are all done with your day. Never fails!
Yep, it always happens... it'll probably happen tomorrow as well in Southampton.
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At least it made for some great photos. The lighter sky illuminated Tallin a bit too, especially those bright colored buildings! Such a cool place, glad you got to explore it!
It was a lovely place and I really enjoyed visiting it.
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Bummer dinner wasn't anything exciting, but it's good you got some insider info on breakfast.
Sounds like you made the right choice calling it early tonight! I know you have a few big days ahead and I can't wait to hear about them, but that teaser does not make it sound good
Sounds like you made the right choice calling it early tonight! I know you have a few big days ahead and I can't wait to hear about them, but that teaser does not make it sound good
Yes, the next three days of this cruise were real killers in terms of lengths of days - worth it, but absolutely exhausting.
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Great pictures of Old Town as you were leaving port. Sorry there was a poor selection of dinner options. Sounds like it was a great decision to have an early night. I'm really looking forward to your Russia updates!!
Your pizza looked very good and must have been fun to create one! It figures the sun comes out when your departing! Nice photos of departure in the port and of Tallinn. I can't believe how busy of a port it is!
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Sorry to hear the curry was too hot for you to enjoy. I have yet to find curry that I link (and so many of them have coconut milk so I can't eat it). 0500 for breakfast?? yep - its gonna be some long days!!
Great pictures of Old Town as you were leaving port. Sorry there was a poor selection of dinner options. Sounds like it was a great decision to have an early night. I'm really looking forward to your Russia updates!!
That was my favourite part of the cruise. I know I won't get the whole Russian section before we head out on our trip to the States, but we'll get through a fair bit....
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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No, I don't think I could come up with a title for that either... 
Thank goodness we spoke to her and discovered that they’d be starting breakfast that day at 5:00am, as they would only be telling those booked on the cruise line’s tour, which is fair enough. At least now we don’t have to worry about where we get breakfast from that day… 
I wondered if it was certain staterooms only, but everyone on the tour seemed to have one, so we figured we’d find out. We asked, and they said we should’ve had one, and they’d have one sent up. 
At least it made for some great photos. The lighter sky illuminated Tallin a bit too, especially those bright colored buildings! Such a cool place, glad you got to explore it!
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