A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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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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Just getting caught up. I was going to say what a great start to your trip, getting to see all those cows. But then I read about the passports. OMG! Thank God you realized when you did that they had been forgotten. What I can sense the anxiety you must have had when you realized they were still at home.
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Oh my goodness - I would have been freaking out! Luckily you were within driving distance so that you could go home and get them, as opposed to having flown somewhere.
Hopefully that's the only hiccup of the trip and it'll be smooth sailing the rest of the way!
Just getting caught up. I was going to say what a great start to your trip, getting to see all those cows. But then I read about the passports. OMG! Thank God you realized when you did that they had been forgotten. What I can sense the anxiety you must have had when you realized they were still at home.
That's why I always write as I go along, as there's no way you can convey something like that after the event.
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Oh my goodness - I would have been freaking out! Luckily you were within driving distance so that you could go home and get them, as opposed to having flown somewhere.
Hopefully that's the only hiccup of the trip and it'll be smooth sailing the rest of the way!
We certainly had no big scares like that again, thank goodness...
Oh my goodness, I would have been horrified if I'd forgotten the Passporters, but than goodness you all could return and get them without too much hassle. So sorry!
Saturday 4 June – part two: we surely can’t be catching the 8:00am ferry, can we?
We found the ferry terminal easily enough, and pulled up at 7:35am. I knew you had to be there half an hour before a sailing, so I knew the 8:00am was out, and sure enough, we were handed tickets for the 8:30am sailing, which was still half an hour earlier than we were booked on.
I went for a wander to get some photos…
I headed back to the car, and got the laptop out, as I figured I’d work on the trip report, and a magazine, because I thought I’d catch up easily enough, and then get bored. Little did I know…
We watched the lorries come off the ferry that had just come in…
… and then we watched the vehicles boarding. Suddenly we noticed that the cars in the lane in front of us were moving. Now hang on a minute, we surely can’t be catching the 8:00am ferry, can we?
We moved forward, then the car in front of us was stopped, and we figured that was it, we’d just missed boarding, but then they took that guy, and we were the last ones to board the 8:00am ferry. Now how neat is that?
The scene in our car was quite hysterical, given we weren’t expecting this. Mark had to quickly put his book away, I had to turn off the laptop, and grab the camera, but what a great surprise.
We were the last car on board, with one lorry after us, so we really did luck out. Well, heck we needed some luck, after the start to the day we’d had.
We headed up towards the passenger lounge…
… and I will confess I was like a little kid with some new toy. I was so excited to be on board. The last time we visited the Isle of Wight, it was almost 20 years ago, and we’d taken the hovercraft, meaning we had no car with us, and had to rely on buses and trains to get us around the island. I’d always wanted to go back with the car, and have a bit more freedom to explore wherever we wanted to, and now we were getting that.
We headed out on to the outside deck, and discovered we were already moving. My goodness, they don’t hang around!
I got lots of photos of Portsmouth as we sailed away…
… and we saw the next ferry coming in to take the position we’d just left. No wonder they need to get away so promptly!
We also saw the hovercraft we’d taken all those years ago…
… and there was still plenty to see as we sailed along, as we were still passing by the mainland. I was amazed at how long it went on…
With my super zoom, I was able to zero in on these, and see what they were…
I don’t know whether it’s these forts, but I know some have been turned into unique places to stay. It’s a nice idea, but knowing our luck, if we did it, we’d have a storm whip up that night!
I had to zoom in on this, as Mark very knowledgeably told me that this was one of the Navy’s latest ships. How he knows, I do not want to know…
I did also get a couple of shots of on board life…
Very cool experience being on the ferry! Nice that you just made it on the earlier one! You got some nice photos along the way.
Funny that, in reading both TRs at once, I'm getting a little mixed up. I was thinking your meal at DLP that I just read about was breakfast, but then when I got here, realized that it was morning on this TR!
Just found this last night and was able to get caught up this morning.
I HATE that visceral response when one realizes that an essential piece of documentation is missing! Thank goodness you were able to get a plan in place quickly to solve the issue.
Nice cows--I think several were waiting for you as if they heard (herd?) you would be coming by.
Tell Mark that when Mike saw that picture, he immediately said it was new as well. It's the newest class of ship that can avoid radar detection, due to the updated design. (Now I can go back to bed, as I've learned something new today already....)
Hope the rest of your ferry trip is smooth sailing!
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How great that you were able to catch the 8:00am ferry! I've always thought ferries were the coolest thing. We took one to Martha's Vineyard when I was muuuch younger (I think I'm remembering correctly) and I was like THE CAR DRIVES ON THE BOAT?! And I haven't been on one since lol.
Very cool experience being on the ferry! Nice that you just made it on the earlier one! You got some nice photos along the way.
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Funny that, in reading both TRs at once, I'm getting a little mixed up. I was thinking your meal at DLP that I just read about was breakfast, but then when I got here, realized that it was morning on this TR!
Yes it is hard to keep up - I don't think there are that many instalments left on the Disneyland Paris trip report now, so in a week or so's time, you shouldn't have that problem any longer.
Just found this last night and was able to get caught up this morning.
I HATE that visceral response when one realizes that an essential piece of documentation is missing! Thank goodness you were able to get a plan in place quickly to solve the issue.
Nice cows--I think several were waiting for you as if they heard (herd?) you would be coming by.
Oh very good!
Quote:
Tell Mark that when Mike saw that picture, he immediately said it was new as well. It's the newest class of ship that can avoid radar detection, due to the updated design. (Now I can go back to bed, as I've learned something new today already....)
I've just passed that on - my goodness, they will have plenty to talk about when we see you guys in September - we still plan on calling you to let you know when we'll be stopping off at the lighthouse, so hopefully we can catch up then.
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Now hang on a minute, we surely can’t be catching the 8:00am ferry, can we?
then they took that guy, and we were the last ones to board the 8:00am ferry. Now how neat is that? 
)
Yes it is hard to keep up - I don't think there are that many instalments left on the Disneyland Paris trip report now, so in a week or so's time, you shouldn't have that problem any longer. 
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