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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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We're currently considering a budget trip to the U.S. in the summer. Since we want to do a road trip and won't spend too much time at the hotels/motels we'll be staying at, we don't want to spend much money on them.
So, which hotel/motel chains do you guys like?
I've compiled a list and so far I've got: Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Motel 6, Super 8, Best Western, Holiday Inn, Travelodge, Red Roof Inn, Ramada, Knights Inn. Any of these consistently good? Am I missing any?
We tend to do Hampton Inns they have free breakfast (waffles, hot items, cold items) and free wi-fi internet. They have been consistently good and the service has been nice. We had a minute issue one night of our last stay and the manager made it right and it wasn't anything worthy the compensation he gave us for it. He said that he wanted to not just make it right but make it up to us as well. We will always try and stay at Hampton Inns for the service!
We will never stay at a Country Inn and Suites again that was the worst service I have seen and the worst mattresses we ever had so I'd stay away from those.
Marriott's tend to have consistent service (residence inns, fairfield inns are the two we have stayed with ) as well and we would stay there if no Hampton Inns were available.
Have a fun road trip!
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stay away from super8 and motel6 good cheap rate motels good for a nite or2 but not longer
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I am a big fan of most of the properties in the Marriott and Hilton families. We started going to Residence Inns and Homewood Suites when we traveled as a family of 5-the two rooms worked well and we appreciated the cooking acilities on longer trips. Both offer good free breakfasts and which adds up when 5 are eating.
Besides Residence Inns in Marriott family, we have also stayed in Fairfield Inns, Courtyard Inns and regular Marriotts as well as some of their time shares which you can also do by the day. I have never been unhappy with a Marriott-always clean, updated and with good service.
Homewood Suites were great for us because they almost always have a sofa bed and two queens and 2 tv's which works well with 3 kids. MOst have evening snacks as well as breakfast. I love Embassy Suites, which has a great free cooked to order breakfast, and a microwave and fridge, but not stove top. I have also stayed in Hampton Inn and Suites, the "budget" line in this chain. They are still quite nice and always clean and well maintained.
My middle son, who has traveled a lot on a budget, is fine with the Choice Hotels-Clarion, LaQuinta, and a bunch of others. I have found these hit or miss, but I am older than 25 and a little fussier. The same goes for Best Westerns. I think they are better out west. I have generally had good luck with Holiday Inns.
Ramada Inns are individually owned and vary from great to pretty bad as do Days Inns. I would not stay in Knights Inn, because of reputation. Up here a lot of Motel 6's rent out units to the local welfare department.
One of the trainers my DD rides with judges a great deal and really likes Red Roof Inns, although that may be in part because of their pet policy.
Good luck.
One other option is to do Priceline. I've gotten good hotels for as little as $25. night and have never bid more than $50.
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Our first choices are Fairfield by Marriott and Holiday Inn Express. Both have free breakfasts. We love the cinnamon rolls at HIExpress.
We've always had good experiences at Country Inn and Suites, but they seem to cost a bit more money in the places we've checked.
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Last edited by Carousel96; 01-06-2011 at 11:19 AM..
I would not reccommend any of the chains you mentioned. Best Westerns and Holidays Inns are OK, with BW being the better of the two.
Holiday Inn EXPRESS however...it's a newer brand for them and they get better reviews.
Try the Choice Brands: Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, etc.
My personal preference: Marriotts and Hyatts. Marriott's entry level chain is Fairfield and we loved the one we stayed at near DTD last year. I've stayed in both a Hyatt Regency and a Hyatt Place and they are great.
I had a bad experience with a Red Roof Inn, just last night. The service was awful, the room literally smelled bad, it was like pulling teeth to get enough towels just for the people staying in the room, and the front desk acted like it was a crime to request an extra pillow. I would not recommend them. The price was cheap, but I guess we got what we paid for.
I agree with Marriott brand. Residence Inns and Fairfield inns tend to be a great value - nice, with free breakfast. Plus they have a really good loyalty program.
When we're on a road trip we tend to stay at Hampton Inns or Holiday Inn Express. Both have comfortable rooms and free breakfast and internet access. The one thing they don't usually have is an on site restaurant so - other than breakfast - you'll have to go out to eat. I do recommend trying to stay at hotels in the same frequent traveller group. That way you cam earn free nights and they tend to offer perks to their members - early check in/ late check out, special check in lines, free newspapers, free water - it varies, but they're nice extras. You can join any of them online before you make your first reservation.
I may be a little biased as my SIL hppens to be a general manager for Marriott Residence Inn here in our town but I love all the Marriott hotels. I have always had good service, clean room, and they do free breakfast as well. We do mini vacations usually in NJ, VA, MA, RI just to name a few and NEVER had a single problem. Now I have stayed in a few holiday inn and Hamptons and they have been okay. Never again will I step foot on much less sleep at a Motel 6 or 8. If I wanna sleep in filth I will get a tent! LOL
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We're loyalty members for both Holiday Inn and Hilton (which includes Hampton Inn that a lot of people have recommended). I'd strongly suggest going for a chain that offers a loyalty programme, so that you can get something back. We've had a number of free nights through Holiday Inn over the years and it's worked out great for us.
We're currently considering a budget trip to the U.S. in the summer. Since we want to do a road trip and won't spend too much time at the hotels/motels we'll be staying at, we don't want to spend much money on them.
So, which hotel/motel chains do you guys like?
I've compiled a list and so far I've got: Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Motel 6, Super 8, Best Western, Holiday Inn, Travelodge, Red Roof Inn, Ramada, Knights Inn. Any of these consistently good? Am I missing any?
Hi Sabine! I read your question "which chains do you guys like?" And I have to admit, if you're looking for a budjet trip, the Red Roof Inn is the way to go. Very consistent, clean, safe and always a great price.
I've stayed there many, many times mostly from Gatlinburg TN and East of there, from Florida all the way west to Madison, Wisconsin. You can visit their website www.redroof.com or call 1-800-red-roof. Easy site to navigate and the folks on the phone are simply awesome!!! That's been my experience. I've stayed at the others you have listed too, but in the end, I always wake up under a Red roof. Hope this helps, I look forward to hearing about your "budget" trip. - Paul
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Best Westerns and Holidays Inns are OK, with BW being the better of the two.
My choice
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