A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 78 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Nice photos of Moscow. Love some of the buildings but not the concrete ones from the communist era. There was quite a bit of this in Berlin, when I visited there back in the mid 90's.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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Nice photos of Moscow. Love some of the buildings but not the concrete ones from the communist era. There was quite a bit of this in Berlin, when I visited there back in the mid 90's.
That's really interesting, as we didn't visit Berlin until about 2007 or 2008 (I can't remember which now ) and certainly by then, you didn't see much of that in the city...
Sunday 12 June – part five: a glimpse of the backside of some Red Square’s famous buildings
Our first stop was in Theatre Square, which looked beautiful...
I didn't think to ask our guide whether these floral displays were permanent or just for Russia Day. I suspect the latter, but I guess they'll be staying for more than a few days, perhaps a few weeks.
This square gets its name from the famous Bolshoi Theatre, which is home to the ballet company of the same name. The first theatre on this site was built in 1780, but it didn't last long before it burnt to the ground just 25 years later. Its successor was completed in 1825, but guess what? Yep, you got it - it also burnt to the ground a couple of decades later. Thinking this place was cursed? I know I am! The current building dates from 1865. Our guide told us a story about a famous composer, I want to say Tchaikovsky who conducted here, and was so freaked out by appearing here that he completely forget to conduct, but fortunately for him, the orchestra carried on without him!
At this point, our guide's nerves (at least that's what I think it was) showed, as she asked us if we wanted to photograph first, then listen to her, or listen first. As I knew by now Jay was also quite a keen photographer and I wouldn't be alone in this, I told her we were good to multi-task and to do both.
We then learnt about the Hotel Metropole that has been home to lots of famous names over the years. I remember JFK and George Bernard Shaw, but there were others.
We made our way across the square...
Now remember how beautiful the weather looks at this point, that's all I'll say right now...
We headed over towards Red Square, catching a glimpse of the backside of some of its famous buildings - sorry I couldn't resist that Jungle Cruise reference.
Our guide told us that all the stalls you can see here were literally for the long weekend. Tomorrow is a holiday, because Russia Day falls on a Sunday, although frankly from what we could see, everyone seemed to be working today as normal. There is a heck of a lot of construction going on in Moscow. Our guide told us a lot of it is to do with widening pavements (or sidewalks to you guys ) and apparently that's causing gridlock on usual days. We were lucky not to have the jams. Anyway, we saw workmen at all the sites, which really surprised us.
We did ask our guide about Russia Day, but she was very vague about it. We'd heard that it wasn't really celebrated as a holiday, and certainly our observations and her remarks backed that up.
Our guide told us she was taking us on a short cut to see Red Square, which sounded good to us.
It brought us out on to Nikolskaya Ulitsa, also known as one of the main shopping streets in Moscow. It's actually named after the Kremlin's St. Nicholas Tower. Here again there were various stalls for Russia Day. I didn't manage to get any photos of them (mainly because I didn't want to give them any money ) but they also had characters, dressed up as famous people from Russia's past. Now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure a couple of them were Communist party leaders, which I found a bit odd.
Everyone was disappointed this sign wasn’t lit up…
It started to rain a bit lightly at this point, but it got a bit heavier, and we ducked underneath a shop's awning to hear more about the next sight we'd be seeing. I knew it must be bad, as the street entertainers also sought cover.
Beautiful flowers in the square! I would hope they'd keep them alive for longer than just the weekend too.
For a place that doesn't really celebrate the holiday, they sure have a lot of little booths set up for it. Maybe they're trying to change that and want to celebrate it more?
The backside of Red Square. hehehe...
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Theatre Square is amazing! And I like both the backside and the front of the area! Bummer about the Krispy Kreme sign!! I love the universality of that!!
KRISPY KREME??? I can't get a Krispy Kreme near me and there is one in RED SQUARE in MOSCOW...Oh, the inhumanity!!!!
Loving the buildings...I'm a frustrated architect. I wanted to be an architect but two things stopped me. No money for school...and I can't draw a straight line!
So Russia Day is a holiday nobody observes? Interesting.
Great pictures so far. Amazing how much better things look in the sun. I don't think I ever saw sun in my few days in Moscow so my memories are of a gray, depressing city (of course the tanks that were on the street didn't help)
Beautiful flowers in the square! I would hope they'd keep them alive for longer than just the weekend too.
For a place that doesn't really celebrate the holiday, they sure have a lot of little booths set up for it. Maybe they're trying to change that and want to celebrate it more?
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KRISPY KREME??? I can't get a Krispy Kreme near me and there is one in RED SQUARE in MOSCOW...Oh, the inhumanity!!!!
There isn't one near you? That's nuts!
Quote:
Loving the buildings...I'm a frustrated architect. I wanted to be an architect but two things stopped me. No money for school...and I can't draw a straight line!
Mark always tells me I should have studied to be an architect, as I love buildings too!
Quote:
So Russia Day is a holiday nobody observes? Interesting.
Great pictures so far. Amazing how much better things look in the sun. I don't think I ever saw sun in my few days in Moscow so my memories are of a gray, depressing city (of course the tanks that were on the street didn't help)
Oh wow! Good grief, that reminds me of the tail end of our holiday in Egypt, the mention of tanks...
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) and certainly by then, you didn't see much of that in the city...
The current building dates from 1865. Our guide told us a story about a famous composer, I want to say Tchaikovsky 
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Good grief, that reminds me of the tail end of our holiday in Egypt, the mention of tanks... 
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