A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 83 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT UPDATED 10/2
I kept my arms and hands inside the whole time [emoji12]. Whenever we leave a Wdw ride and we hear "take small children by the hand", we say "won't that upset their parents?!"
Isn't it something being a voyeur to another life? To think that 2-car limo deal is someone's "normal".
Enjoying seeing the truly unusual stuff like the star-shaped building.
I could not eat looking at that disturbing image, nor can I imagine who thought it was a good design idea [emoji849]
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Sunday 12 June – part eleven: "well how can we deprive you?"
Once we were all done eating, our guide told us we had an hour before we'd be heading to the Armoury at the Kremlin, which thankfully was still open today, and what would we like to do? She didn't get past the first option, as I leapt on that, then guiltily asked the others if it was Ok. Jay looked at my face, filled with joy, and said "well how can we deprive you?"
So what was it that been suggested? Anyone who knows me will probably already know - our guide had said we could go into the Moscow subway system. Now this is the only thing I'd been disappointed about with this tour, as this hadn't been on the itinerary. I know some of our group weren't overly enthused with the idea, but once people discovered it was tipping outside, they became more enthusiastic. As I said to them, "at least it's in the dry". Look at how the rain was now coming in sideways outside!
We headed inside, and I have to be honest, our first glimpse of the system wasn't what I was expecting. Where were all the over the top chandeliers etc. that I'd heard so much about?
We headed over to the cash desk to buy our passes, and I shelled out for everyone's, as they were only 0.5 rubles each, which equates to just 50p or about 70 cents. Heck, that was hardly going to break the bank. That gave us one of these cards...
At least I'd have a nice souvenir of our time underground. As we headed down the escalator, again I wasn't bowled over, and I was starting to worry that I might be disappointed. Had it been over-hyped?
When we got to the bottom of the escalator, I could see it hadn't been. Ok, so they didn't have chandeliers, but my goodness, they had some wonderfully ornate lights down here.
Romance in Russia! Nope, that’s way beyond my basic Russian skills…
Our guide told us that this station was built in the 1950s, which really shocked me. Don't ask me why, but somehow I always thought that the subway system was a lot older, and had been something the Communist regime had inherited, given the grandeur of it. Not a bit of it. They actually built the whole darned thing, complete with all the opulence. I still can't quite equate that in my mind with the doctrine they had.
We took the train one stop, and alighted here at Ploschad Revolyutsii. The name gives you an idea of immediately of when it was built, and this was one of the original stations, dating from the early 1930s, created as part of Stalin's first five year plan. Our guide explained to us that the statues represented all sorts of things, like sports, fatherhood, engineering etc.
However, it was when you got a bit further down the platform that I personally found it a little more freaky. These statues represented those who protected the motherland, complete with weapons.
As we stood there, our guide told us about this particular statue, and how many travellers touch the dog's nose...
We were a little sceptical, but literally in the few minutes that we were there, we watched about three or four people walk up and do exactly what she'd said.
When we got to this part of the platform near the escalator...
... a guy actually apologised, as he wanted to move forward and touch one of these statues. As Mark said, they all seemed to have their favourite...
Wow! I can totally see why you wanted to visit here!! That is the most unusual subway I have ever seen!! Weird about the people touching the dogs nose but I suppose we all have our karma issues!
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The Dory ad is so cute! Really neat to see that. Not so neat to see that backdrop painting though. What the heck? Some kind of insider Russian joke? That's just weird. I'm glad you enjoyed the desserts though!
Holy rain, Batman! Good choice with the subway tour. I guess even Stalin had his softer, stylish side. That's a lot of statues! I didn't see a hockey one, I wonder if it's there somewhere?!
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That restaurant was something else. I don't even know what to make of the mural. Glad you finally made it to the underground and it was exactly what you were hoping it would be. It's just beautiful!
Wow! I can totally see why you wanted to visit here!! That is the most unusual subway I have ever seen!!
I had heard it was one of the most beautiful in the world and I'd agree with that.
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Weird about the people touching the dogs nose but I suppose we all have our karma issues!
No different to people touching the statue in Harvard - gosh, I feel terrible, but I've forgotten the details right now about which one, but I remember Dave, who's now a professor there, telling us not to do it, because of what the students do to it. You do not want to know!
The Dory ad is so cute! Really neat to see that. Not so neat to see that backdrop painting though. What the heck? Some kind of insider Russian joke? That's just weird.
I can honestly say I have no idea!
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I'm glad you enjoyed the desserts though!
Holy rain, Batman! Good choice with the subway tour. I guess even Stalin had his softer, stylish side. That's a lot of statues! I didn't see a hockey one, I wonder if it's there somewhere?!
Hmmm.... I didn't actually see hockey represented in there...
So glad you got into the subway! You can see a few statues have shinier spots, indicating they get a lot more interaction - the dog's nose, the one guy's knee, etc. every culture seems to have their own superstitions!
So glad you got into the subway! You can see a few statues have shinier spots, indicating they get a lot more interaction - the dog's nose, the one guy's knee, etc. every culture seems to have their own superstitions!
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!!! Glad you were able to enjoy this meal.
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Weird about the people touching the dogs nose but I suppose we all have our karma issues!
That's a lot of statues! I didn't see a hockey one, I wonder if it's there somewhere?! 
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