A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 55 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What an interesting story about the marzipan! That poor boy, having to taste medicine for a living. Ick!
Such pretty buildings and I love the sunken terrace looking building you found on your walk. Were there many of those? I did quickly wonder how many people (drunk or not) stumbled into it every week.
Hoping you don't get too wet in your next update.
What an interesting story about the marzipan! That poor boy, having to taste medicine for a living. Ick!
I know, that's got to rank as one of the worst jobs going.
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Such pretty buildings and I love the sunken terrace looking building you found on your walk. Were there many of those? I did quickly wonder how many people (drunk or not) stumbled into it every week.
That seems like a dangerous job, being a taste tester for medicine?!
Too bad Town Hall was closed. We climbed the tower there, and had some nice views. The square looks so different with the market - it was wide open on our visit.
And I just noticed your countdown! The weather report isn't sounding great, but I know we'll have a great time regardless!
I could totally see that as a German marktplatz - including some of the architecture too. I can't get over how quaint this city is! I could sit on a bench there and just watch the world go by.
The bit about the boy and the medicine is funny though, poor kid!
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That seems like a dangerous job, being a taste tester for medicine?!
Yes, I can imagine you'd get through a few people doing that job. "Ok, so he seems to be dead... I guess that medicine wasn't good then..."
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Too bad Town Hall was closed. We climbed the tower there, and had some nice views. The square looks so different with the market - it was wide open on our visit.
I bet that was nice, but then again, with the turn in the weather, I don't think I'd have wanted to have been stranded at the top of the tower in a downpour!
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And I just noticed your countdown! The weather report isn't sounding great, but I know we'll have a great time regardless!
I know - nearly time! I haven't even looked at the weather forecast for the weekend, as frankly it's been dry and sunny and not too hot here for... well, honestly about the last two and a bit weeks... Oh well, it's still a few days out and plenty of time for it to change. Lets think positive thoughts!
I could totally see that as a German marktplatz - including some of the architecture too. I can't get over how quaint this city is! I could sit on a bench there and just watch the world go by.
It had that feel to it and I think on a day when there wasn't a market and not a bunch of cruise ships in port, you could probably easily do that...
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I truly appreciate not only the beautiful architecture of Tallinn, but that it is so clean and beautifully kept. Too funny that there is only one McDonald's. our midsize town has four.
I truly appreciate not only the beautiful architecture of Tallinn, but that it is so clean and beautifully kept. Too funny that there is only one McDonald's. our midsize town has four.
When we did our national parks trip in the States, we ranked towns in terms of civilisation as to whether they even had any type of store (a lot didn't and some in Wyoming were a half hour drive to even the most basic of store ), then whether they had a McDonald's, and finally if they had a superstore, like a WalMart!
We decided to look in some souvenir shops for fridge magnets, and the first one we went in had a surprising amount of Russian dolls. I wasn’t necessarily planning on buying one, but I was very taken with the selection they had here, and the woman who came over spent a long time explaining to us about all the various sets. Some showcased places, which were the ones I liked, while others told fairy stories, and there were others too, but I don’t remember the details now.
She told us they were all hand painted and unique, and I did point out that the ones with Angry Birds and Winnie and Tigger (no Eeyore ) probably weren’t, and she did admit that. She was lovely, and I did want to buy there, just because she was so nice, and not at all pushy, which is such a pleasant change, but I wanted to check out some other places, just in case they were a lot more expensive.
We headed back into the square, and got a Christmas ornament from one of the stalls and then we tried a few more souvenir shops. We found one where we were the only ones in there, and the staff were more pushy. They had an Estonian cow, but it was €15 ($16.50) and given it looked cheap, I thought that was a bit much. We tried another couple of places, but there were none that appealed as much as the first place, so we made our way back there, and purchased a set of Russian dolls, along with a fridge magnet.
While we were in there, we heard a massive clap of thunder, and I think we all jumped, both staff and customers. One of the staff said to us that they had never heard thunder in Estonia, so I guess it’s unusual.
We quickly paid up, and made our way over to McDonald’s. Mark told me he’d seen a flash of lightning on the way, but thankfully I missed that, as I’m not so great with storms.
On the way we found this guy…
… outside a steakhouse.
We found some more of the old city walls…
Look at how black it now was!
We headed inside McDonald’s…
It was busy, and we nabbed one of the last seats going, and settled down to enjoy a hot chocolate each. My goodness, our timing was spot on! The heavens opened literally about five minutes after we got in there, and it was a complete deluge. All of a sudden, the place was packed, with everyone desperately looking for seats.
We stayed put as long as we could, but eventually it was time to head outside to meet up with the rest of our group. We found a tree to shelter under and away from the downpour.
Our guide found us a few minutes later, and led us to where the coach was. My goodness, it was just torrential out there. So much for Accuweather’s prediction of it being sunny everywhere we’d be going. I was really wishing I’d bought my proper waterproof with me now… oh and my waterproof covers for my jeans, as the water was running down the back of them from the knee down to the ankle. Ugh!
I grabbed a couple of photos in the rain, although really they don’t show how bad it was…
I was so glad when I found our bus, as it was about the third one we came to, and I was really wanting to get aboard and get into the dry. As we drove out, I got some photos and these do give you more of an idea as to how bad the weather was….
Yuck, that was a lot of rain! Hoping that's not what London looks like Friday!
I have a set of matryoshka dolls that are a Russian fairy tale (I just don't remember which one!). I much prefer those to some of the more trending ones, but I was so surprised about the vast selection of them - political figures, cartoons, even US basketball teams!
Glad you got your fridge magnet, and the Russian dolls to boot. Estonia is pretty far north, I'm not surprised they don't get too many thunderstorms! I'd say that was pretty lucky of you to be there for some thunder. Even if it came with an absolute downpour.
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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
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The weather report isn't sounding great, but I know we'll have a great time regardless!
I haven't even looked at the weather forecast for the weekend, as frankly it's been dry and sunny and not too hot here for... well, honestly about the last two and a bit weeks... Oh well, it's still a few days out and plenty of time for it to change. Lets think positive thoughts! 
Too funny that there is only one McDonald's. our midsize town has four. 
The heavens opened literally about five minutes after we got in there, and it was a complete deluge. All of a sudden, the place was packed, with everyone desperately looking for seats. 
I was really wishing I’d bought my proper waterproof with me now… oh and my waterproof covers for my jeans, as the water was running down the back of them from the knee down to the ankle. Ugh! 
Estonia is pretty far north, I'm not surprised they don't get too many thunderstorms! I'd say that was pretty lucky of you to be there for some thunder. 
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