A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Friday 17 June – part three: so now we know why there were so many police in Copenhagen!
A few minutes later, Stephanie saw us and came across to say hi. We told her we’d seen them coming back last night, and apparently they were so later because they ran into problems at Tivoli Gardens. The reason we’d seen the helicopter circling is because John Kerry had been in Copenhagen. I did a Google search later, and he was over for official talks, but from what I found, he also decided to visit Tivoli, complete with his whole retinue. No wonder they had issues…
Jay joined Stephanie and she said she was going to give us a call and invite us for drinks. We explained that we had dinner booked at the Tuscan Grille for 6:30pm, and their dinner was 8:30pm, so she said it would probably be either 5:00pm or 10:00pm. We opted for the earlier timing, as we knew at least we’d still be awake by then. Also, I knew Dancing with the Officers would be taking place in the Sky Lounge at 10:00pm, and I figured it would be chaos up there then…
We headed back to the room via deck 15. It looked like the lawn was having a bad day…
… as was the canvas above it…
Once back there, we decided to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We did have it with us on DVD, but we figured we’d pay to watch it on our stateroom TV, as it’s much bigger. On that subject, we’ve been very impressed by how big those screens are – much bigger than on Disney.
Watching it second time around was very interesting. I was surprised at how much of it I remembered, bearing in mind we hadn’t seen it since it was released in December. I still marvel at the two lead actors, given they were such unknowns, yet they both put in amazing performances. They really are talents. We also commented again that we still can’t believe how much one of the leads in the original movies (trying not to give away too much here) got paid for such a short appearance. I’m sure if you’ve seen it, you know who I mean.
We finished watching it about 4:50pm and made our way up to the Sky Lounge, where we found Jay and Stephanie. We got some drinks and chatted away, although it wasn’t long before we ended up moving. Stephanie kept asking me if I was Ok with it being so sunny and bright there, and I was, as I had my back to the sun, but she ended up squinting with the sun in her eyes, so we moved.
We tried various tastings that were brought round, and it was only tonight that I actually realised they’re from the likes of QSine and the other speciality restaurants. How many times have these come round and I never twigged that? If it’s supposed to be advertising, it’s not very good…
The time flew by and before we knew it, it was coming up for 6:30pm, so we had to say our goodbyes and head off. Jay and Stephanie had said they were keen to eat at Murano tomorrow night, but they understood it was already full. We said we’d enquire on our way to dinner, given we already had a reservation there, so we headed down there. As we walked along deck 5, I did comment to Mark that we’ve barely seen any of this part of the ship…
We headed into Murano and Marko, the maitre d’ stood there for ages, at times with his head almost in his hands, trying to work out if he could accommodate our request or not. He did confirm that Murano is full tomorrow night and they already have a waiting list, so I wasn’t hopeful, but eventually he did some magic, and told us he could get us all in if we were Ok with a 6:00pm booking, rather than a 6:30pm one. Yep, that works for us! I am convinced that there is no way we’d have got in had we not already had a reservation there.
When we arrived at Tuscan Grille, we were given a window table…
As we sat there, we saw a Royal Caribbean ship go past us, presumably heading out on a Baltic cruise, whereas of course we were now returning from one.
I got some more photos of the restaurant, although in fairness it hadn’t changed much from the last time we ate here, nearly two weeks ago. Where has the time gone?
We had the bread arrive first, although we didn’t eat as much as last time, as we were already quite full.
Then the appetiser trolley turned up, and we both picked what we wanted…
For appetiser, I decided to try something different, despite how much I’d loved the fried calamari last time. This time, I went for polpette di Granchio or crab cake with roasted pepper caponata and basil emulsion. It was very good…
Mark decided to try the carpaccio di Manzo or filet mignon carpaccio with sun-dried tomato and Kalamata olive tapenade.
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We told her we’d seen them coming back last night, and apparently they were so later because they ran into problems at Tivoli Gardens. The reason we’d seen the helicopter circling is because John Kerry had been in Copenhagen. I did a Google search later, and he was over for official talks, but from what I found, he also decided to visit Tivoli, complete with his whole retinue. 
Also, I knew Dancing with the Officers would be taking place in the Sky Lounge at 10:00pm, and I figured it would be chaos up there then… 
If it’s supposed to be advertising, it’s not very good… 
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