A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 37 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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I'm always surprised at some of the big ticket items they have for sale on cruises. Our last DCL cruise, I found a bracelet I liked, but then found out it was more than $10,000! Nope, not this time.
Oh my goodness, that's insane!
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Glad you found some shirts. 2 for $30 seems very reasonable - at least I think that was what the sign said.
Yes, that was what the sign said... there were even better deals later on in the cruise.
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Glad you were able to find some t-shirts and fridge magnets you liked. We enjoy looking at the art onboard but we don't usually participate in the auctions.
Glad you were able to find some t-shirts and fridge magnets you liked. We enjoy looking at the art onboard but we don't usually participate in the auctions.
Having seen the prices on our cruise, I can understand why!
Wednesday 8 June – part four: these are comfortable!
We headed up to deck 6, where we visited the Celebrity iLounge, but we weren’t impressed with it.
We headed up another deck, and visited Team Earth, which was a nice enough area, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was supposed to be, if you know what I mean?
We headed upstairs, and back to our room:
Where we were…
I briefly managed to get Wi-Fi for a few minutes, so I quickly checked my emails and posted an the boards, in between losing the signal a couple of times.
We’d seen yesterday that they had pay-per-view movies, so we decided to settle down and watch one. Let’s just say it was getting increasingly cold and grey outside, and at one point, we thought it might rain. It certainly wasn’t an afternoon to be sitting out on deck, let’s put it this way…
Love my zoom!
We spotted London Has Fallen, which we were going to watch when it was out at the cinema, but we never got round to it, and after seeing some appalling reviews of it, we gave up. However, for $12.95, we figured we’d give it a go. We enjoyed it, and it certainly wasn’t as bad as the reviews had claimed. It was a shocking film that really made you think, particularly when you see the depth of the various attacks across London. Because most films are based in America, you don’t get to see landmarks you’ve grown up with getting blown up.
We were soon catching up with, and then overtaking the Emerald Princess…
We made our way up to deck 14 and to the Sky Lounge, and appropriately enough, acquired one of these loungers…
Oh my goodness, I cannot begin to tell you how comfortable these were. We sat there for ages, with drinks in hand, just enjoying the view out to sea. The water was so blue, and now calmer than earlier, when we had had a few white caps breaking the surface. Once again, as we sat there, relaxing, I felt how small we are in the world with such massive oceans.
We were soon passing land, an island that’s home to Visby that I know quite a few cruise ships do stop at. Sadly the windows in here were quite dirty, and therefore not that easy to photograph through, so my apologies for the quality of some of these shots.
We stayed there until about 6:45pm, when basically we were kicked out. We were told the lounge would be closing for a senior officers’ party, and when they turned the music off, we could take the hint.
Next: the home of “pick it up, and dump it on the plate”…
Still exploring new areas! And it's always cool to see other cruise ships when you're out there in the big blue ocean. Cool!
That Sky Lounge looks AWESOME!
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The Sky Lounge does look like such a comfy spot to watch the world go by. You mentioned they turned off the music to encourage you to leave. What kind of music did they play? I'd prefer a spot like that to not play music, as music is such a personal choice, especially as it pertains to relaxation. I'd rather use headphones to select my own soundtrack. Of course, I guess I can still do that if there's background music already playing. Oh that would be an idea - music stations at each lounger with lots of good options, and nice noise cancelling headphones! I'll have that when I build a cruise ship.
Love just cuddling up and watching a movie when on a cruise - it's important to have that down time on vacation and just relax! The Sky Lounge looks like a great place to hang out for some time, too bad they kicked everyone out!
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That is the one thing I loved about this cruise above our Disney ones. With those, you're already familiar with the ships and even though you might find new areas, like after a refit, you're not going to get much of that.
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And it's always cool to see other cruise ships when you're out there in the big blue ocean. Cool!
That Sky Lounge looks AWESOME!
The Sky Lounge does look like such a comfy spot to watch the world go by. You mentioned they turned off the music to encourage you to leave. What kind of music did they play? I'd prefer a spot like that to not play music, as music is such a personal choice, especially as it pertains to relaxation. I'd rather use headphones to select my own soundtrack. Of course, I guess I can still do that if there's background music already playing.
It was light background music at quite a low level - generally the sort of "safe" songs, if you know what I mean, that everyone would know and that weren't too fast paced. Does that make sense?
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Oh that would be an idea - music stations at each lounger with lots of good options, and nice noise cancelling headphones! I'll have that when I build a cruise ship.
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Nope, not this time.
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I was wondering if you'd ever find a normal store with more normally priced stuff. The t-shirts look cute. 
Oh that would be an idea - music stations at each lounger with lots of good options, and nice noise cancelling headphones! I'll have that when I build a cruise ship. 
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