A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 99 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
Wednesday 15 June – part three: this goes through the centre of the town…
Fortunately, when we did get to our first stop at Bad Doberan, the rain had eased off considerably, and we were heading straight for the Molli Steam Train.
We had already learnt that it was put in by the Dukes of Mecklenberg, as they wanted to be able to get over to the beaches of Kuehlungsborn. When we first boarded, we were all crammed in together, although Mark and I quickly got up to take some photos.
I found it fascinating that the train literally passed through the centre of the town…
It was certainly packed with beautiful buildings…
I managed to get some photos of all the steam the engine was putting out.
And then we were into the countryside, and look what we found in the distance!
Then we were into more like forest, which reminded me of the high speed train journey to Moscow.
We stopped at this station…
… and at this point, everyone in group 17 (we were group 18) got off, and that left the first couple of carriages pretty deserted, so we made our way to the front of the train, and got some pretty neat photos.
We waited some time there, and the reason was this was coming the other way.
Finally, we were off again, and getting some unique views:
Next: well, that’s quite a look for asking for strawberries!
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.
In that very first shot, is that the steam from the engine, way way down there? That's a looooong train!
No kidding - literally right through the middle of the town!! Wow, that's cool! I don't think I've ever seen something like that before. It's a very cute town too.
Cows!!
__________________
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
In that very first shot, is that the steam from the engine, way way down there? That's a looooong train!
Yes it is! And yes it was very long...
Quote:
No kidding - literally right through the middle of the town!! Wow, that's cool! I don't think I've ever seen something like that before. It's a very cute town too.
I've seen miniature trains running through towns before, but not full size ones.
Catherine's Palace is amazing with all the gold and loved the Great Hall and statue of Cupid. Nice photos in St. Petersburg of the historic buildings. Glad you were able to use the rest of your Rubles on some wine purchases, which I'm sure you made good use of!
I couldn't believe all the military boats, while you began to depart St. Petersburg. That was too funny with the elders dancing to Kings of Leon. You can't write this stuff!
Very strange with the onion soup as the Gruyere cheese layer looked way to thick and which made it so hot. Your meal at Murano looked amazing with every course and I know I'd love it!
Nice photos of the sunrise and glad you got some relaxing time on your veranda and at Solarium, which I'm sure you needed!
Not a great start in Germany with all the rain. Your train ride looks amazing and glad you were able to see your boys!
Where about in eastern Germany are you as far as some familiar cities?
__________________
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!
I love this train ride. The train is cool and the scenery around its route is beautiful! Definitely something Luke and I would love doing.
Oh of course, I'd forgotten about Luke's love of trains. If you ever do a Baltic cruise and stop at Warnemunde, this would be perfect for you guys, if you can tear yourself away from the traditional day in Berlin. Personally, I can't imagine you'd see much there in a day and I seem to recall it was a good couple of hours each way, so to me, this was a much better choice.
Catherine's Palace is amazing with all the gold and loved the Great Hall and statue of Cupid. Nice photos in St. Petersburg of the historic buildings. Glad you were able to use the rest of your Rubles on some wine purchases, which I'm sure you made good use of!
The wine went very quickly... it was excellent.
Quote:
I couldn't believe all the military boats, while you began to depart St. Petersburg. That was too funny with the elders dancing to Kings of Leon. You can't write this stuff!
No, you definitely couldn't make that one up...
Quote:
Very strange with the onion soup as the Gruyere cheese layer looked way to thick and which made it so hot. Your meal at Murano looked amazing with every course and I know I'd love it!
Oh you would!
Quote:
Nice photos of the sunrise and glad you got some relaxing time on your veranda and at Solarium, which I'm sure you needed!
Not a great start in Germany with all the rain. Your train ride looks amazing and glad you were able to see your boys!
Where about in eastern Germany are you as far as some familiar cities?
Full names coming up in the next instalment of where we were.
Wednesday 15 June – part four: well, that’s quite a look for asking for strawberries!
We got off at the next station Kuehlungsborn West, and made our way along the platform and outside…
I was not impressed when the bus wasn’t there waiting for us. Klaus even turned round to Mark to ask him if the bus over in a layby was ours. How would we know? We didn’t take that much notice when we boarded, but I’d have hoped our guide would. Klaus also told us Stroppy was not local to the area, which didn’t impress me either. Thankfully Stoppy pulled up a couple of minutes later, and we all boarded.
We were taken out to one of the hotels along Kuehlungsborn, which is home to something like five miles of beaches. We headed inside for a hot drink and a piece of cake. I already had an idea I may have a problem…
The hotel was nice enough…
This is what awaited us on the table…
Sure enough, it was apple. I explained to Klaus about my allergies, and he asked the waiter if I could have something with strawberries, and you should’ve seen the look he got in return. Ok, so I guess that’s not an option then…
I went to use the restrooms, finding some very weird things on offer in the vending machine outside. If you are of a sensitive nature, please scroll down to the next bit of text
Not what I expected to see here!
You can start re-reading here…
When I got back to the table, I had this waiting for me…
… although apparently first they’d bought out a meat version, which obviously wasn’t going to work either. It was nice enough, but honestly, I’d have preferred some cake instead. At least Mark benefitted from my allergy and got a second piece of apple cake.
When we were done eating, we headed outside. I got the impression from Klaus that was the done thing, and that the restaurant didn’t want us hanging around too much longer. We had an hour in total at this stop, and we still had 40 minutes left, so we went for a wander along the main shopping street…
I got a couple of fridge magnets, and Mark got a wallet that was very cheap, but very good quality, which he was very pleased with.
I was good and resisted temptation to buy these…
We made our way down towards the beach…
It looked like it would be a nice place in the summer, when the sun is actually shining. Thankfully, the light was still light and spotty, although the sky looked as if it could get worse at any minute.
It was quite calming to stand there for a while, and watch the Baltic Sea lap on the shore. I’m not sure I’d ever come here for a seaside holiday, given the changeable weather…
Cute buildings in town. But weird restaurant. I would think more along the lines of a cookie or brownie type thing. Not salad.
I imagine the beach view is pretty nice with sunshine, but the water is pretty cold!
__________________
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'm sorry the restaurant was such a pain about getting you a new dessert. The beach looks very nice, but I agree, not sure I would want to vacation there with the unpredictable weather.