A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 98 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Wednesday 15 June – part two: is his name really Stroppy?
We headed back to the room, and saw the safety drill they were doing…
Now this is where I think it was badly organised. I heard a tannoy announcement, only because we had the door to the balcony open and it floated up from deck five, otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue they were about to do this. They set off the emergency warning system that they’d told us on embarkation day if we heard again, it was a real emergency. There was no tannoy announcement in the rooms, and if you were sleeping in, you’d have been very rudely awakened. The tannoy also doesn’t seem to work in public places, like the Oceanview Café or the Solarium, or even up on deck 14, so I wonder how many people were freaked out by this.
The weather was beautiful, and when the sun came out, it was really hot outside. The forecast had said around 60 degrees, but it was definitely hotter than that. We settled down on the balcony to enjoy the sun, and to watch the activity out in the harbour. They certainly have a lot going on here.
Meanwhile, outside the drama was continuing. The poor crew were standing there in their life jackets and had been for some time…
Then we saw a military helicopter coming into land at a nearby based, and I was able to get some great photos of it.
Then a navy frigate sailed past us…
We ended up heading inside for a while, as the weather, while now more cloudy, was definitely still humid. We watched another episode of Banshee, then we headed up to the Oceanview Café to get some lunch. I decided to go for the “make your own” pasta with creamy basil and pesto sauce, and got some Mediterranean vegetables to put on top of it.
Mark stuck with his usual of meat and vegetables, which is why there’s no picture, as really his doesn’t vary much from day to day. After some dessert, we headed back down to the room to get ready for our excursion.
We headed out about 1:30pm, as we were due to meet 15 minutes after that. We did have a momentary panic with everyone showing their passports, and we only had our driving licences, but I knew I’d read that national photo ID was fine, and so it was. I didn’t want to take the passport off the ship again if I could avoid it, as I found that really stressful in Russia.
There were already a lot of people on the bus, although quite a few came after us. They counted us up, and told us we were waiting for one person, then it went up to two people. The final couple got quite a cheer, but there were also some mean comments along the lines of “we’ve been waiting” which I thought were a bit nasty and uncalled for.
Our driver was Stroppy – and I am not joking, that was seriously his name! Our guide was Klaus, an older guy, who was nice enough, although he did have some interesting pronunciations of some words. I probably shouldn’t say this, as I know I couldn’t do his job and narrate in a foreign language, but my favourites were “wilderness” pronounced as “wild” and then “erness” and “storages” instead of “stories”. It was just so unusual to hear, given the rest of his English was pretty good.
We headed out of the port…
… and on the road towards Rostock, although this excursion wouldn’t take us in there.
We learnt that these tower blocks were all built when this was East Germany, or to give it its correct name the German Democratic Republic, although as Klaus said, there was nothing democratic or republic about it, although it was very German.
As you can see, the skies were pretty dark, and we knew rain was coming. It was just a matter of when…
We passed IKEA and I can’t remember the German, but basically they have a saying that IKEA stands for the German for English idiots buy everything.
Not long after this, the rain started, and my goodness, it really threw it down. It was absolutely torrential, as you can hopefully gather from these photos…
Every time our bus braked, a load more rain would cascade off the roof and go all over the front windscreen and the bonnet (as we know it) or trunk to you guys… It was truly appalling weather and I think all of us were dreading our first stop.
At one point, Klaus did lead us in a sing along of Singing in the Rain!
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.
I can imagine the emergency exercise could have worried a few people! Especially since the ship was just sitting in port!
Nice start to the day.... but warmth and humidity equals rain, I guess. Wow, it really came down!
__________________
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
Wow! That was a lot of rain!!
It was a little strange when we were there to realize it was formerly East Germany. We were also told Waremunde was going to be a Nazi beach resort in some of the plans.
Of course, emergency drills are necessary for the crew, but still, there should have been a better warning for those guests still on board. My, that rain was awful, but I love the thought of singing along with it. I hope it let up some by the time you made a stop.
Of course, emergency drills are necessary for the crew, but still, there should have been a better warning for those guests still on board. My, that rain was awful, but I love the thought of singing along with it. I hope it let up some by the time you made a stop.
You'll see as we go on, but I think it's fair to say that the weather was a bit on/off, but that downpour was thankfully the worse of it...
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.
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.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
There was no tannoy announcement in the rooms, and if you were sleeping in, you’d have been very rudely awakened. The tannoy also doesn’t seem to work in public places, like the Oceanview Café or the Solarium, or even up on deck 14, so I wonder how many people were freaked out by this. 
I am not joking, that was seriously his name! Our guide was Klaus, an older guy, who was nice enough, although he did have some interesting pronunciations of some words. I probably shouldn’t say this, as I know I couldn’t do his job and narrate in a foreign language, but my favourites were “wilderness” pronounced as “wild” and then “erness” and “storages” instead of “stories”. It was just so unusual to hear, given the rest of his English was pretty good. 
It was truly appalling weather and I think all of us were dreading our first stop. 
Linear Mode
