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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
I was wondering how much you guys have spent going to Universal Studios, total. Me, my fiance, and our best friend is going at the end of July. I have our hotel and flight worked out as well as the tickets and so far it is 3332.46 for the 3 of us. So either how much did you spend total or on food, "toys", nightlife, etc.?
We are mainly interested in the Harry Potter exhibit and will most likely spend our money on "toys" there, and possibly meals.
My friend figured we would spend (each) about 20 max for lunch (breakfast is complimentary at the hotel), and about 20 for dinner, along with 30 for drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) per day. Let me know what you think/know!!!!
If you know, what is the average for a meal/drinks at universal studios florida?
Lot's of questions but I am trying to find out everything before we officially book the trip! Thanks!!
PassPorter Guide Community Rank: Legend Extraordinaire
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Chapel Hill, NC USA
Concierge Level: 6
Posts: 36,592
Post Thanks / Like
You don't mention how long you are staying, so it's hard to tell if you got a good deal or not.
I've never added up how much we spent to go to Universal, but I was careful to get deals on all the components when I've been there. Once I bought the tickets through AAA when they were having a deal (and saved them for two years) until we were ready to use them. The next time, I purchased them online with a discount through Universal and picked up at Will Call. For the room, we always make sure we get some sort of discount. One trip we stayed off-site and traveled to US/IOA each day. The other trip we stayed at Hard Rock and used a Fan Club or AAA discount (not sure which we ended up using). I traveled by plane once and by car once. Plane tickets were purchased through Southwest Air on a Ding! code. As far as food.... we only ate one meal in the park each day (lunch) and had muffins or such for breakfast and then ate offsite or at the hotel for dinner. We don't buy many souveniers, so I think we set aside about $100 each and that was plenty.
Not sure if this was any help to you. Have a great vacation!
You can get an idea of the food costs by checking out the menus here: Universal Orlando menus
As far as budgeting for "toys" goes, whenever we go for a 10 day WDW trip, for instance, I will budget about $200 for "Miscellaneous". I sometimes will spend a bit more than that on souvenirs, sometimes a bit less. But I think that all depends on how much and what types of things you are planning on buying. Loads of souvenirs or certain collectibles are obviously going to cost a lot more than a t-shirt each, you know?
The most basic of Harry Potter wands at IOA start at about $30. Shirts will start about $20 and go up in cost from there. Here's a link to Universal's online Harry Potter store (that also has links to the rest of the store) so you can get an idea of how much the souvenirs and such cost: http://www.universalorlando.com/merc...isebasecatalog)
I think it all depend where you are going to eat. We´ve tried Emeril´s once - it is great but we spend almost 120$ for 3 of us (2 adults one child) and other restaurantes at Citiwalk. Loved Bubba Gump where the bill was around 70$ for the 3 of us with dessert.
We tippically ate a light breakfast at the hotel or starbuck (20$ tops for 3), snack something druing the day in the parks(ice cream, popcorn and water 20$) and one "decent" meal in Citiwalk in a restaurant that you can say as a either very late lunch or very early dinner around 3:30-4:30 pm (with two dessert, and either sparkling water or juice) (60 - 120$).
There are some toys (found the owl great!), Tshirts and so....We did not get the wand (the line was so huge all the times we passed by that it did not compensate). We ate at Broomstick (one breakfast) and it was fun! And tried the butterbeer (did not like it but need to try!) LOL
__________________
Tânia
Last edited by ferrazalves; 11-03-2010 at 08:36 AM..
We were just there and here's what we spent (approx. - cc statement hasn't arrived yet ) .
We got a package deal for 3 nites at off property hotel. Package included 2 day park tix + HHN & CityWalk Party Passes. Package was $706 taxes included. We tried the Meal Deal for one day which is $19.99pp per day - unlimited food. $6pp more got us dinner at a CityWalk restaurant. NOTE: you can eat all you want but only have 3 CS places to choose from at each park. Dinner was from a limited menu and again, only 3 places to choose from. Food was mediocre so we decided to go out of pocket rest of the trip. Average meal was $20 for 2 of us, we did use our AAA card to get this price.
Souvenirs are just as pricey as WDW. I picked up a Chocolate Frog from WWoHP for $10!!! Shirts start at $19.95 but most were $21-$24.95. A robe (very cool) was $99. Wands $30. We picked up some Butterbeer & an ale from Hog's Head for $15 (w/ tip). Waters are $2.75 but we just kept refilling them from water fountains. Refillable drinks are $7 initial purchase and $.79 for each refill. Beers and adult libations ran from $5 to $11 each. CityWalk drinks are a bit higher.
As far as food for the rest of the trip, we ate a lite lunch at the park but breakfast and dinner we ate off property (MickeyDs and Denny's were right next to the hotel) We got up to late every morning to enjoy the free breakfast!
About This Page: 
Total Cost
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
) .
Linear Mode
