A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 71 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Saturday 11 June – part twelve: these were put up in just 40 minutes
We headed off again, seeing some more sights on the way, and everyone was very taken by the name of this restaurant. Elena told us it was a vegetarian restaurant (sounded good to me), so of course the jokes related to the idea that you were an idiot if you came here expecting to eat meat.
Our next stop was the St. Isaac’s Cathedral that we'd photographed from some distance earlier, and I was glad we had, as we were literally dropped right off by the door. It was quite an imposing place from outside...
Elena told us that these great columns were put up in just 40 minutes... Inside, she explained how, with the use of this model. It was basically a pulley system, from what I could gather, with heaps of men turning the wheels on one side to bring the columns into place. I bet that was something to see, and I doubt we could columns of such magnitude in that quickly even today.
It was once again beautifully decorated, and Elena had warned us that you couldn't judge any building in St. Petersburg from the outside, as often the interior wasn't what you expected, and I was starting to see what she meant...
St. Issac’s is one of the world’s largest cathedrals and was designed in 1818 by a then unknown architect. I have to confess I still don’t really know the name – Auguste de Montferrand. The building work was obviously a massive piece of work, as it opened 40 years later in 1858. During the Communist era, it survived, which was a surprise, given their views on religion, but it was used as a museum of atheism during this time. Ironic, huh?
Elena explained that these doors are normally supposed to be closed, and only opened during services, as the priest emerges from here. However, as there's now very rarely a service in here and it's mainly open for visitors, they just keep them open all the time, so you can see the stained glass window behind them.
We headed off again, and passed the Admiralty building once more...
... and went over the River Neva..
It may not have been a live one, but I saw a Russian cow.
As you can see from some of these shots, the rain was now getting heavier, which was a shame, but at least it had been dry for the majority of the day.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I had to go back and look at what doors you were speaking of to see the stained glass.... I didn't even see doors the first time I looked! Again, so overwhelming! Completely true - you don't know what the inside looks like based on the exterior!
Any cow sighting is legit.
__________________
Tanya
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
I was so happy that we could take photos in all those churches in St. Pete. When I was in Moscow 10 years earlier, photography was strictly prohibited in all churches. You just can't do justice to them with words, can you? Oppulent is the word that first comes to my mind whenever I see the pictures.
I had to go back and look at what doors you were speaking of to see the stained glass.... I didn't even see doors the first time I looked! Again, so overwhelming! Completely true - you don't know what the inside looks like based on the exterior!
Any cow sighting is legit.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
I was so happy that we could take photos in all those churches in St. Pete. When I was in Moscow 10 years earlier, photography was strictly prohibited in all churches. You just can't do justice to them with words, can you? Oppulent is the word that first comes to my mind whenever I see the pictures.
you can't and photography is still prohibited in the one church we went into anyway, which was a great shame.
Sorry about your experience at the palace! At least it was very beutiful inside and St. Isaac's Church even more so!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Sorry about your experience at the palace! At least it was very beutiful inside and St. Isaac's Church even more so!
I definitely preferred the church to the palace and that wasn't just down to the problems we had getting in there. I just felt it was nice, but it was probably the let down of the whole day, compared to everything else.
Beautiful cathedral! Incredible process for erecting the columns.
I know, right? I always look at things like that and think "how did they come up with those ideas back then?" I think, if we were presented with that sort of problem today, we'd probably even have our work cut out solving it today with all our modern technology....
Saturday 11 June – part thirteen: visiting the tombs of Russian emperors
We made our final stop at the Peter and Paul Fortress, and when we got off, I was very glad of the ponchos the tour company had provided. As well as these, they also offered umbrellas, which was excellent customer service.
We headed into the square and made our way over to the cathedral...
Once again, from the outside, you really would not believe what you found inside...
This was the last burial place for a various of Russian Emperors and Empresses, and if this tomb looks new to you...
.. it's because it is. It was apparently only put here in the 1980s. I think she was the only one to escape the massacre as part of the 1918 Revolution as she was in Crimea at the time. She fled to Holland or Denmark, I think, died there, and was buried there, but she always wanted to be returned here to be buried with her family, and eventually many years after her death, she finally got her wish.
More sadly, those murdered in the revolution are also buried here, but not in some great individual set of tombs. They're all buried together, along with the faithful servants that stayed with them until the end - the only time Royalty and peasants were ever buried together here. Apparently, that decision to rebury them here was only taken in 1998, and was very controversial. I’m not sure why, but I thought it was nice that they were finally buried where so many other members of the Royal family have their final resting place.
At the front of the church were more graves of famous Russian emperors...
I did find it weird that they were all buried here, rather than a more central location in St. Petersburg. This seemed a bit way out, and although there were tour groups here, it was nowhere near as busy as some of the other places we'd visited today.
It's certainly worth a visit, as it's very ornate. Elena told us everything you see here is gold, including these tassels, which I found hard to believe. The work that must've gone into creating these!
We headed out, and thankfully by this point, it had stopped raining.
Elena explained that they fire these cannons every day (with blanks thank goodness)...
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Elena told us it was a vegetarian restaurant (sounded good to me), so of course the jokes related to the idea that you were an idiot if you came here expecting to eat meat. 
The building work was obviously a massive piece of work, as it opened 40 years later in 1858. During the Communist era, it survived, which was a surprise, given their views on religion, but it was used as a museum of atheism during this time. Ironic, huh? 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
At least it was very beutiful inside and St. Isaac's Church even more so! 
]
Linear Mode
