A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 103 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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That's too funny about the band following you! Hopefully they got off the ship and won't be following you anymore. Nice to see all those people come out to see you off.
Too funny about the German band following you! And yet some folks were enjoying it. I guess It's kinda like the bagpipes in that you either love them or hate them.
Very true - I hadn't thought of that. I love them (when played well ) but yes, I know others who can't stand it.
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Very interesting about all the people coming to see the ship depart. When we were kids my parents would take us to Buffalo airport to watch the planes take off and land. Just fun to watch people come and go I guess!
I guess - I suppose I understand the attraction of going to airports more, as I never get tired of watching planes take off and land, but I probably would go and see the Magic if she was over here when we were. But then again... maybe not, as I'd be so jealous and want to be on her!
So funny that you just couldn't escape the music! But I suppose it's pretty cool for those folks on board who hadn't already heard it for like 5 hours....
You mean the people not on our tour?
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The lighting outside is so odd. It's so late, yet still somewhat light! Very cool to have so many locals see the ships - and that your parents did the same thing in Liverpool!
My parents really shocked me. My mum is violently opposed to cruising. She travelled from South Africa to the UK in the 1960s and it was apparently such a horrendous journey, she swore she'd never board a boat again in her life... and she's pretty much stuck to that. She thinks all cruise ships look terrible ("like cut off boxes at each end"), but she did acknowledge that the Magic at least looked nice... praise indeed!
Thursday 16 June – part one: drama in the middle of the night!
Neither of us had a great night’s sleep, but it wasn’t our fault exactly. I heard a noise, and thought there was something wrong with the engines, as it was so loud. But it didn’t sound quite like an engine. In a sleepy state, I couldn’t work out what it was. Mark did though, and headed out on to the balcony to see if he was right, but he couldn’t see anything. Now bear in mind the time – just after 2:00am.
He couldn’t see anything, so went to the channel where you get the view from the bridge, and sure enough, he was right. He told me the noise was a helicopter. He continued to give me a commentary, as my eyes just didn’t want to do anything, like open at that hour of the day. He said someone had been airlifted down, along with a stretcher.
The helicopter hovered for the next half hour or so, then at least one person was stretchered off the ship, and Mark said a second person may have been taken off as well.
Eventually, the helicopter was gone, but my goodness, talk about drama. We eventually woke up properly about 8:00am, and we were approaching Copenhagen. The view we had from this side was of Sweden, whereas on the other side of the ship, we’d be seeing Denmark, a country new to us. Bummer, I wanted to see Denmark, as we’ve never been there before.
We headed up to deck 14, and I was to be very disappointed with the views of Denmark. I only managed to get this one shot, as it was so far away and frankly coated in mist.
We headed into the Oceanview Café to get breakfast, almost burning our hands on the hot plates they had out – another advantage to the crew serving you, as if they know something’s that hot, they’ll either give you something to hold it with or get a slightly cooler plate.
Once we were done eating, we headed back to the room, and I could see that it was becoming more and more misty and murky outside. I think it was probably raining, as typically for this trip so far, heavy rain showers were in the forecast for the whole day. Ugh! I was still able to grab a few shots…
We decided to pack one of the cases, as we already had a fair few souvenirs, along with lots of literature and things I’d picked up in each port of call. Add in the dirty washing to date, and soon one case was fully loaded.
On the subject of washing, I’m glad we decided to get by without doing laundry, as we honestly haven’t found any laundry facilities on board this ship. I have checked on the deck plans, and not seen anything, so I don’t know if they have anything or not.
Soon, we were starting to come into Copenhagen port, although my goodness, it was really murky outside now, and almost impossible to get photos as a result.
By the time we actually arrived in the harbour, I could hear and see the rain pelting it down outside. Oh well, as I always say about Disney, we’ll just have to make the best of it.
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Wow, airlift at 2 am? Must've been pretty serious. Hope the person was OK.
Too bad about all this rain!
I was really surprised to learn RCCL ships don't have self-laundry facilities, as I just assumed all ships had what DCL does. We had to rethink our packing when we learned that - after I'd commented to the friend we were traveling with about doing laundry onboard, and she looked at me like I was crazy. So then I looked at the deck map and realized no laundry. Can't imagine doing a long cruise without laundry.
Wow, airlift at 2 am? Must've been pretty serious. Hope the person was OK.
I hope so too, but we were thinking it must be pretty serious as well. We never found out.
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Too bad about all this rain!
I was really surprised to learn RCCL ships don't have self-laundry facilities, as I just assumed all ships had what DCL does. We had to rethink our packing when we learned that - after I'd commented to the friend we were traveling with about doing laundry onboard, and she looked at me like I was crazy. So then I looked at the deck map and realized no laundry. Can't imagine doing a long cruise without laundry.
Neither can I - and lots of cruise lines promote round the world trips, often from something like November to February. I just cannot imagine being on a ship for that long without self-laundry.
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Wow, that's kind of scary about an airlift in the middle of the night. I hope the person/people were OK.
Despite the murky weather, I think it's more like a "this-is-what-it's-like-in-real-life" experience! Like going to Paris. One must experience rain while in Paris. I think one must experience foggy, misty conditions while in Scandinavian countries.
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Hope whoever had to be airlifted off the ship is alright! The pictures aren't too bad coming into port. I will admit I have never seen wind turbines in the water before. Hope the rain doesn't totally ruin your day.
Wow, that's kind of scary about an airlift in the middle of the night. I hope the person/people were OK.
Despite the murky weather, I think it's more like a "this-is-what-it's-like-in-real-life" experience! Like going to Paris. One must experience rain while in Paris. I think one must experience foggy, misty conditions while in Scandinavian countries.
True about Paris... been there, done that before with the fog and mist in Scandinavian countries - so over that now!
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) but yes, I know others who can't stand it. 
I can't believe that band has it in for you!!
In a sleepy state, I couldn’t work out what it was. Mark did though, and headed out on to the balcony to see if he was right, but he couldn’t see anything. Now bear in mind the time – just after 2:00am. 
We eventually woke up properly about 8:00am, and we were approaching Copenhagen. The view we had from this side was of Sweden, whereas on the other side of the ship, we’d be seeing Denmark, a country new to us. Bummer, I wanted to see Denmark, as we’ve never been there before. 
I was still able to grab a few shots… 
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