stay on site or shuttle it from wdw for a day - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
hi everyone, we are planning a trip to wdw in april2012. i am planning on spending one day at universal. our main goal will be to see WWofHP, for those of you who have been, do you think the excitment of it or the newness will of died down a bit by then. I hate to ask a crowd question because honestly i don't think you can go to these places and not expect them to be crowded but I am contemplating spending the first 2 nights at universal to get the on site guest benefits if it will fit in to our budget rather than taking a shuttle from disney for the day. My kids are 15 and 18 so alot of it they are not interested in. what are the pros and cons of this?
We are also planning on going in April 2012. We have decided that we are going to spend our first night on site at Universal and then we will be able to do two days with the front of the line pass (day of arrival and next day). Then we will head to Disney for the rest of our trip. I think that the price of one night it justified when you get to get in 1 hour early and have front of line pass for almost everything. We should keep each other posted if we come up with a decent rate on site for the time period.
__________________
DisneyDeva
1989+1993 Carribbean Beach,1996 ASS+Dixie Landings,1998 DL,2000 CB Hurricaine Floyd!!,2001 DL,2003 CS,2004 WL,2005 POR,2006 seven night eastern carb. disney cruise!!!,2006 Halloween Liki Tiki,May 2007 off site Orange Lake,May 2007 AKL,Sept 2007 CS,Oct 2008 Halloween ASM,May 2009 PC+ a seven night eastern carb. cruise,Feb 2010 GCV,BCV + BLT Sept 2011; OKW 8/12;Kindani 9/13: POR 3/13; Jambo Club Level & SS 6/14; Poly studio 8/15, GF villa July 2016;Blt + AKK June 2018
We are going to Universal for the first time this year. We plan to spend 2 days in the Universal parks and will book 1 night in an onsite hotel (you get the front of the line privileges from the time you check in until closing on the day you check out. You can check in before your room is ready, so we'll be checking in bright and early before the parks open to make the most of that perk
Disneydiva, thats a great idea! I would love to stay in touch with you/ I see your from vermont, i am in NH! One night might be better and more affordable, where will you keep your luggage though on the day you check out. Are you going to book everything yourself or are you going through a travel agent. i'm undecided on that just yet,
We are going to WDW for 14 days on June 13th. Plan to take shuttle to Univ. Studios on 2 days. Have heard nightmare stories on3 - 5 hour waits to get in to
Harry Potter park and ride...Teens in group...must see.....any updates on whether this has improved or not? Also heard they don't accept any form of "fast pass"? OMG
...One night might be better and more affordable, where will you keep your luggage though on the day you check out.
We drive down to FL, so we'll store our luggage in our car. WDW hotels will hold your luggage for the day, so I'd assume Universal hotels will do the same.
We always stay 1-2 nights at the Royal Pacific Resort when we do Universal. The perks are totally worth it. We were there last August, and we appreciated the early entry into the WWOHP and the express pass is awesome. The Royal Pacific is gorgeous.
We've had them hold our luggage on check out day, we just left it with bell services until we were done in the park.
Disneydiva, thats a great idea! I would love to stay in touch with you/ I see your from vermont, i am in NH! One night might be better and more affordable, where will you keep your luggage though on the day you check out. Are you going to book everything yourself or are you going through a travel agent. i'm undecided on that just yet,
Sounds like a great idea!! I will keep you in the loop. I am going to book everything myself. I actually have a certification in travel, but never have done anything with it. So I am very comfortable with booking. Disney is a no brainer for us we are members of the vacation club, lets keep in touch. Oh and I will have bell services hold our bags for us the last day.
__________________
DisneyDeva
1989+1993 Carribbean Beach,1996 ASS+Dixie Landings,1998 DL,2000 CB Hurricaine Floyd!!,2001 DL,2003 CS,2004 WL,2005 POR,2006 seven night eastern carb. disney cruise!!!,2006 Halloween Liki Tiki,May 2007 off site Orange Lake,May 2007 AKL,Sept 2007 CS,Oct 2008 Halloween ASM,May 2009 PC+ a seven night eastern carb. cruise,Feb 2010 GCV,BCV + BLT Sept 2011; OKW 8/12;Kindani 9/13: POR 3/13; Jambo Club Level & SS 6/14; Poly studio 8/15, GF villa July 2016;Blt + AKK June 2018
i am leaning towards booking everything myself also, we have always used a travel agent in the past. we will be traveling with my parents and inlaws as well so a total of 8. i would love to spend a night at universal, so i guess i will work on that. i wish next years rates were available, i am not good at being patient! Linda, you will have to let us know how the waits are, i have heard the stories too of the hours long waits just to enter HP area, i'm hopping it will lessen a bit by April. Have a great trip! oh, by the way, does universal have a shuttle from the airport to the resorts like disney does? we are not renting a car
Just wanted to comment that I was surprised that your kids at 15 and 18 wouldn't be interested in a lot of Universal. I think Universal is much more geared to teens than Disney. when my kids were teens, they would pick Universal over Disney any day- IOA has lots of thrill rides. My kids loved Men in Black and thought Buzz Lightyear was a kiddie ride compared to it.
We just did Universal March 31 of 2011 and i absolutely recommend staying onsite if you can fit it into your budget. We were able to enter the park at 8 am with early access and do Harry Potter by 9 am. At that point the waiting lines were already 2 hrs long.
We had a reservation for one night at Hard Rock Hotel and checked in at 8 am and received our fast passes, leaving our bags at Bell Services. We toured all of Universal Studios, returned to the hotel and our room was ready. The next morning we awoke, left our bags at Bell Servies again and did Islands of Adventure and Harry Potter. We spent the afternoon poolside at Hard Rock Hotel and then picked up our bags and returned to our rooms at BWV.
Sounds a little busy, but we saw everything with no waiting, so I highly recommend it.
The WWoHP doesn't take the "fast passes" but it does help to have the early entry option. You can get that by a stay onsite, or at one of the "partner hotels"
We stayed at a Fairfield by Marriott so we could get the early entry tickets -- I'm too cheap to pay Universal's onsite hotel prices.
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.
Last summer, I spent one night at Universal at their least expensive hotel. That got us two days of early entry. It really helped to get into the park early. Since you plan to go in April, you probably want to stay there. Remember that many schools will be on spring break and it could be mobbed. We got two day park to park passes so that the kids could ride whatever they wanted in either park. They rode pretty much everything and got to go on Wizarding World five times before leaving around noon on the second day. I'm not sure if they offer it anymore, but for the one night two days we had a HP package which got us breakfast one day at Three Broomsticks (just OK...nothing special). The big HP ride is really cool though. If you don't like rides, go through the castle anyway (separate line) to see the detailing. It's amazing. Also, they have a single rider line.
hey everyone, i haven't been on in a while. i hate when life gets in the way of my disney planning! Norm&Linda, that is exactly what i want to do. spend one night at one of the hotels on site, spend the day we arrive and the next day there then head to wdw that afternoon! i hope i can make it work, plus it would be a nice added something different. Belive it or not, my kids have looked through the attractions and besides a few of the thrill rides and Harry they aren't interested in much else, so i think that would give us more than enough time.
Location: w/future ex husbands tommy lee, robert downey jr, adam lambert in NJ planet poptart
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 10,563
Post Thanks / Like
Likes (Given): 0
Likes (Received): 0
Thanks (Given): 0
Thanks (Received): 0
Pixie Dust (Given): 0
Pixie Dust (Received): 0
We normally just go to US/IOA, and april is NOT a busy time, even easter weekend we were on HP in 45 mins, and walked right on rip ride rockitt
So I say if its in your budget and you want to stay on site, you should, as for us, we are cheapies haha and just take mears from our disney resort for 17.00 r/t
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
NYC-Canada Cruise Sept 2012
Linear Mode
