March 15, 2007 * Issue 7.11 |
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In
This Newsletter
From the Authors:
PassPorter's Club
Travel Feature:
City Passes
Disney Feature:
Walt Disney World Railroad
Updates: What's
New and Changed
Tips:
PassPorter Scrapbook Pages, Honoring Our Veterans, Center of the "World"
Captain's Corner: Cuppa Cuppa
Q&A: Is
the free parking offered by hotels near Port Canaveral safe?
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Updates:
What's
New and Changed
Here are a few items of relevant news:
Tea drinkers, rejoice! A new tea stand, Joy of Tea opened last week in Epcot's World Showcase at the China pavilion. Offering eight hot and
iced teas ($3.79), non-alcoholic and alcoholic tea-based frozen slushes
($4.29-$5.99), Chinese beers ($4.79), plum wine ($4.49), plus green tea and
caramel ginger ice creams ($2.99), we're sure a few of you will be adding a new
favorite snack stop to your Epcot itineraries. Click here to see a photo of Joy of Tea. (By the way, I think we're the first to report this news on the Internet!)
Annual Passholder previews of the Monsters Inc.
Laugh Floor Comedy Club will take place March 30 - April 1, 2007 during
regular park hours. Each Passholder may be accompanied by up to three guests.
The Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom
will be closed for rehab from June 6 - September 12, 2007.
The 12th Annual Epcot International Food &
Wine Festival will be held this year September 28 - November 11.
CORRECTED: Thanks to all those who wrote
in to let us know that there is indeed a Partners statue at Disneyland. We
"Goof"-ed. What can we say, we were Sleepy, Sneezy and possibly Grumpy. But
above all else, we're also the eighth dwarf - Sorry!
Our thanks to AllEars.net
from which we get some of our news leads.
>Things To Do: Hear some news?
Send it to us at
news@passporter.com
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Disney
Tips:
From Fellow Readers
Our readers deliver a wealth of information! Here
are the winners in this month's tip contest:
PASSPORTER SCRAPBOOK PAGES
"It dawned on me that the fold-out maps from my "older" PassPorter editions
would be wonderful as background pages in a scrapbook! I could use these maps
behind photos, they are nice heavy paper stock. Can't wait to get back from my
next trip to put together some wonderful memory books!"
-- contributed by Ellen G.
HONORING OUR VETERANS
"Attention Veterans:
When we were at the Magic Kingdom we found out they honor a veteran every day.
You have the opportunity to lower the American flag located at the entrance of
the park. You have to register at Town Hall and you must be vacationing for at
least a week. My husband was so proud to be chosen for this honor. He protected
our country while in the Navy and now Disney was saying Thank You in their own
way."
-- contributed by Tracy C.
CENTER OF THE "WORLD"
"When you are in Epcot walk west from Innovations West towards the Land
Pavilion. Look for a circle shape on the ground that is surrounded by quotes
from scientists. Stand in the circle and you are in the geographical center of
Walt Disney World!"
-- contributed by Mary Jane K.
Notes: Send
us your tips ! You may see them in this newsletter and win a copy of
PassPorter!
Want more Disney tips? For
Walt Disney World fans, we've collected 500 of the best tips submitted
by readers over the past six years. All have been edited for accuracy and
categorized. For details, visit the PassPorter
Disney 500 info page or the PassPorter store. For Disney Cruise Line
fans, we have an e-book with 250 cruiser tips, as well as a special cruise
line comparison section and seven customized packing lists. For information,
visit the Disney
Cruise Clues info page.
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Captain's
Corner:
Treasure Hunting Game
Play our fun and quirky treasure hunting game, hosted
by Captain Jack Skatt from our book, "PassPorter's
Treasure Hunts at Walt Disney World."
The Captain makes a study of the delightful details
-- sometimes hidden, sometimes in plain sight but often overlooked -- at
Walt Disney World and aboard the Disney Cruise Line. Using notes from his
journals, he will lead you to this "treasure" at Disney with clues, questions,
photos, or riddles. Your challenge is to discover the answer by searching
your memory, visiting Disney, or even just looking really hard on the Internet.
If you think you've found the answer, e-mail it to jackskatt@passporter.com
-- the first person to correctly submit the FULL answer will receive a
free PassPorter enamel pin or PassPorter name badge pin.
Here is this week's journal entry:
"With the possible exception of a good rum punch, nothing
satisfies my thirst quite like a good "cuppa" tea. So I'm especially happy to
learn of that new watering hole over in China. I never was one for dainties like
scones and cucumber sandwiches, but I did manage to find a more adventuresome
outpost a while back that served a mighty nice silver needle white tea. I'll
have to return there when next I visit...." (remaining text obscured by gigantic
footprint)
Where can this tea stop be found, and what is its name?
Send your full answer to jackskatt@passporter.com
-- the winner will be notified by e-mail and announced in the next newsletter,
along with the correct answer!
Congratulations to Kimber Appleton who was the winner of last week's treasure
hunt game! Kimber correctly answered that the giant soda bottle "holds" 8 oz.
(According to the bottle anyway!) To view the original clue, see
last week's
newsletter.
In the March 1, 2007
treasure hunt Captain Jack really stumped us with
those photos!
But Michelle Heisler came closest by answering that the photos were taken in the
"building on the left, where all the mosaic tile is" - otherwise known as the
Gallery of Arts and History in Morocco. Congratulations to Michelle!
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Q
& A:
With Jennifer and Dave
Mormadsmom asks: "I was looking around the
internet for some possible hotel stays in the Port Canaveral area. We will be
driving up from Fort Lauderdale on the Friday before we sail. I saw that some
hotels are offering free parking during your cruise and shuttle services to and
from the ship. Is it better just to drive ourselves to the port from the hotel
and pay the daily fee to park our car? It seems there may be a catch or
something could go amiss. Any info would be great!"
Dave & Jennifer answer: "I think the "catch" is that the
hotels near the port are competing with the hotels in Cocoa Beach (as well as
with each other). They can't offer a beach within walking distance, so they're
offering something that has real value to the people most interested in being
close to the cruise terminal. Even when the Radisson was the only hotel close to
the port it offered free parking, so the newer hotels certainly have to match
that in order to be competitive.
While I haven't heard of anyone having
problems using the hotel free parking offers, it's probably worth noting that
usually, it's just plain, outdoor hotel parking. Security is pretty light. On
the other hand, the parking lot at the port is fenced and guarded. Is the extra
security worth an extra fee? That's your call."
Have a question? Check out our "Ask PassPorter" Q & A blog at
http://ask.passporter.com. We're still working on getting the blog ready
for prime time, but we welcome your comments and questions! You can also post questions at
http://www.passporterboards.com
-- and if you're lucky, you may find that folks have already asked and
answered the same question that's on your mind!
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Future
Newsletters:
Want
To See Your Name in Print?
PassPorter News is published
weekly, and this means we're always in need of articles! We're on the lookout
for guest columnists who want to contribute articles to this newsletter.
No professional writing experience is necessary, just a desire to share
your experience with others! Not only is this a great way to give something
back to the PassPorter community, but you get to see your name in "print"
and receive a $25 gift certificate for use at
www.passporter.com.
For details and our article submission guidelines,
please e-mail news@passporter.com.
Articles about Disney and general travel are welcomed!
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From
the Authors:
PassPorter's Club
Hi, {{user("firstname")}}!
We're excited to announce the availability of a brand-new PassPorter service,
PassPorter's Club! This is a subscription-based service that delivers unlimited,
no-extra-cost access to our growing library of e-books (four at last count), exclusive access to a
library of customizable, interactive vacation planning worksheets (13 at last count), our
best-ever discount on PassPorter's (printed) guidebooks, special club-only
offers, advanced access to limited offers like our $1 book deals, and expanded
features at the PassPorter message boards, like larger graphics allowances, longer "sigs,"
and unlimited uploads to our server.
Readers can get a pass to the Club on
a month-by-month basis for $4.95 a month (the same price as just one of our e-books!), while annual passes cost
$44.95, a 25% savings over the monthly rate. Annual subscribers get the ability to commission a custom, interactive worksheet at no additional cost, too. Read the full list of Club benefits and all the details, and take a peek inside the PassPorter's Club.
To support this project, we've embarked
on a major new e-book initiative to make sure our Club passholders get a great (and
growing) value for their money. As always, all our e-books are available at
regular retail prices in our online store, but as our e-book library continues
to grow we think membership in PassPorter's Club will be a no-brainer. We invite
you to drop into the Club and read-up on all the details!
Disney Speed Planner E-Book Updated: Our popular e-book, "PassPorter's Disney Speed Planner: The Easy Ten-Step Program to a Perfect Walt Disney World Vacation has been updated with interactive worksheets and calendar templates, as well as 2007 prices, attractions, DDP eateries, and some new photos. If you already purchased this e-book, or are a PassPorter's Club passholder, you can simply re-download the e-book to get the latest updates. If you don't yet have a Speed Planner, check it out and see a sample page
Our latest page-by-page book updates are online for both PassPorter Walt Disney World 2007 and PassPorter's Disney Cruise Line (5th Edition). You'll find our book updates in our Customs Office, along with updates for all our previous editions. Many thanks to our office managers Chad and Nikki for their efforts to keep these lists up-to-date!
In this issue of the newsletter, feature columnist Cheryl Pendry
describes the ins and outs of various City Pass programs
around the world, and message board Guide Dianne Cook takes us for a ride on
Disney's steam trains. Enjoy!
Jennifer and Dave
PassPorter Publishers and Authors |
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Travel
Feature:
Your Pass to City Life: Making the Most of City Pass Cards
by Cheryl Pendry, Feature
Columnist and PassPorter Message Board Guide
Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles -- these are some of the most glamorous and most visited cities in the
world. The number of tourists they receive means they all share something else
in common. Each of them has their own city pass, created especially for
visitors. They all have different names and the programs vary slightly, but the
idea is the same wherever you go. They're designed to give you free or
discounted access to some of the main attractions in each city and usually also
include free travel on public transport such as subways and buses for the
duration of your pass. They may also offer discounts for particular restaurants
and shops. But are they good value for money and will they work for you?
That's the dilemma that we quite often face. Cities are one of
our favorite destinations -- outside of Disney of course! Where else can you find such a range
of things to see and do in such a small area? Most cities have more than enough
to occupy you for two or three days and in many cases, you could easily spend a
week in the bigger cities and still not cover everything. That's why most city
passes are available in different durations, ranging from a single day for
those who are just taking a day trip, up to a week for those who plan to take
their time.
The first thing to consider if you're planning on buying a city
pass is how long you're going to need one for and the most important thing to
find out is how each pass works. Some, such as the Helsinki Card, are activated for periods of 24, 48 or 72 hours from the
first time they're used. That means you can first use it early on a Saturday
afternoon and a 48 hour card would then be valid until early Monday afternoon.
Unfortunately, they don't all work that way, as we discovered when we tried out
the London Pass recently. We had to buy a two day pass, as this one works on
calendar days, so if you activate it on a Saturday afternoon and want to use it
on Sunday morning, a one day pass won't be enough.
Once you've worked out how many days you're going to need, you
can start to work out whether a city pass will actually represent good value for
you or not. Before you can make that decision, you need to have a good idea
about what places and attractions you'd like to visit during your city break.
For example, most of the main attractions are included in the
London Pass, but there are a couple of significant omissions, namely the London
Eye and Westminster Cathedral. If you're planning to visit during its summer
opening, Buckingham Palace isn't included either. That means you'd have to pay
for each of these out of pocket. If they were in your top three of places to
visit, the London Pass may suddenly not work that well for you. Equally, the Go Los Angeles Card only includes admission to Universal Studios Hollywood if you purchase a three, five or seven day card. If you've only got two days to
spare and that's one of the places you want to visit, then again this may not be
the best way to go.
It's also worth not taking everything you read on the official
web sites for granted. We discovered that some of the attractions listed for the
Helsinki card, for example, were actually free to everyone, but the official
literature promoted that you could get free admission with the card. It's always worth checking out all the information for yourself, just to
be on the safe side.
Once you know where you want to head for and whether the city
pass you're looking at includes those places, then it's time to start doing some
simple calculations. How many places do you realistically think you're going to
be able to visit during your time in the city? Come up with something that will
be achievable for you -- after all, you know how much you can pack into your
days. Then have a look at each of those places and what their full admission
cost. Add it all up and then compare it to the price of a city pass for the same
period. If you're not planning on visiting particularly expensive places, you
may just be better paying out of pocket.
Let's look at the New York Pass as an example. A three day pass is currently $102 for adults.
If, during your three days, you think you're going to be able to fit in visits
to the Empire State Building and experience the Skyride
there, see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, take tours of
Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center and NBC Studios, head out one night for a harbor lights cruise and visit the Bronx Zoo, then those attractions would otherwise
cost an adult something like $137. If you think that's too ambitious, then the
pass may suddenly not be such an attractive option.
Something else worth looking at is whether your pass includes
free access to public transportation during your stay. Some passes include this
automatically but for some it is an option. For example, the London Pass gives
you the option of buying a pass just for attractions or one that includes travel
on buses and the Tube. Again, look carefully at these. We found that the one day
pass with travel was great value, but it was cheaper to buy travel passes for
two or more days than pay the price charged by London Pass.
You may now be
thinking that the decision about whether to buy a pass on your next city visit
isn't that straightforward after all. That's certainly true, but a little bit of
research can tell you whether it's going to save you a lot of money or be a bad
deal. Only you know what you can achieve during the time you're in a city and it
certainly does pay to do the math before you get there and work out exactly
which option is best for you.
[Editor's
Note: Some cities and regions have more than one city pass program available.
For example, Go Los Angeles and
CityPass both have pass programs for Los
Angeles/Southern California, each offering different combinations of attractions
and features. The Southern
California City Pass includes admission to Disneyland, while
Go Los Angeles does not.]
About the
Author: Cheryl and husband Mark live in England
and love to travel, particularly to America. They're now looking forward to
setting sail on Disney's first cruise around the Mediterranean in May.
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Did you enjoy this article?
Have questions? E-mail us at news@passporter.com or visit http://www.passporterboards.com
to discuss your travel plans. Also check out our
Article Collection for more great information!
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Disney Feature:
Walt Disney World
Transportation: The Walt Disney World Railroad by
Dianne Cook, Guest Columnist and PassPorter Message Board Guide
This week's transportation focus is on the Walt Disney
World Railroad. As I mentioned in my
last article, Walt Elias Disney's love of railroads and trains is well
known. His uncle, Michael Martin, had been a steam locomotive engineer. As a
teenager in Missouri, Walt Disney had a summer job selling newspapers, candy,
fruit and soda on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He loved the uniform, the
trains, the candy, and the chance to see the country.
In 1949, Walt Disney moved his
family into a new home on a large piece of property in the Holmby Hills district
of Los Angeles. Walt had friends who had their own backyard railroad. Walt
developed his own blueprints and with the help of his friends, created a
miniature steam railroad for his backyard. He built most of the engine
himself. He named the railroad the Carolwood Pacific Railroad. This name came
from the name of the street on which they lived, Carolwood Drive. The
track was a half-mile long and included a 46-foot long trestle, loops,
overpasses, and gradients. Mrs. Disney put her foot down and made it clearly
known that she would have nothing interfere with her rose flower beds (her
passion). So Walt Disney had a 90-foot tunnel built underneath Mrs. Disney's
flowerbed. Walt Disney even had his lawyer draw up right-of-way papers giving
the railroad a permanent, legal easement through the garden areas, which Mrs.
Disney agreed to and signed. The miniature steam locomotive was built by Roger E. Broggie of the Disney Studios. Walt Disney named the engine Lilly Belle
in his wife's honor. A live steam engine like this one is large enough for the
engineer to ride behind sitting on the tender, and can take passengers around
the track, which he so often did for his daughters and their friends, as well as
adults they entertained.
When Walt
Disney was developing the concept of Disneyland, he told his friend Herb Ryman
that he wanted the park to, "...Look like nothing else in the world and it should be
surrounded a train." This idea was inspired by the rides he gave on the
Lilly Belle. He never wanted to lose control of the railroad to the
financial backers of Disneyland, so he placed the steam train and the monorail
attractions into a free-standing company called "RETLAW", which is
"Walter" spelled backwards. All five Disney resorts around the world
include a steam railroad.
For the
first eight months after the opening of The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World
(until February 1972), The Walt Disney World Railroad had only one station serving park
guests-the one in Main Street, USA. During that time, a "D" ticket was required
to ride and you needed to take a "grand circle trip." The steam engines were
built between 1910 and 1920 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia.
They were purchased from the United Railways of Yucatan, where they carried both
passengers and freight. They were taken apart bolt and bolt, shipped to
Tampa, Florida and then rebuilt. The passengers cars were built from scratch in the same place
the engines originally were. Originally the engines burned wood for fuel, but
were converted to and currently burn oil.
Around May
1972, the Frontierland Railroad Station opened a few feet northwest of the Pecos
Bill Café. It marked the westernmost point of Frontierland for nearly 19 years.
This station provided the only alternative point for boarding or disembarking
until a third station opened in 1988 in what was then called Mickey's
Birthdayland (now Mickey's Toontown Fair). The entire ride covers one and
one-half miles and now takes about 20 minutes to complete.
Just north of the Frontierland Railroad Station, was a vast area of grass between the
railroad tracks and the Rivers of America. This land was the intended location
of the "Western River Expedition." Plans for this fell through and the northern
part of the land became the site for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (one of my
personal favorites).
In November
1990, the Frontierland Station was taken down to make way for Splash Mountain. The new station was built directly over the area of
grassland that contained the parade's old exit road. The new parade exit
route was located south, directly through the center of what used to be the old
station.
One of the
steam locomotives at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida is named the
Lilly Belle, in honor of its Carolwood Pacific namesake. On October 21,
2003, the Walt Disney Railroad Steam Engine #3, the Roger E. Broggie, was
re-dedicated in honor of the late Roger Broggie, who was named a Disney
Legend in 1990. The other engines are called the Walter E. Disney and the other
is the Roy O. Disney, for a total of four. At Disney's Wilderness Lodge
and Villas at Walt
Disney World, there is a mini-museum devoted to Walt Disney's love of railroads
in the DVC villas building.
It is called the Iron Spike Room. It is a wonderful, quiet place to just
relax. The room has railroad memorabilia and a very special exhibit on loan from
the Disney family, which include a piece of the original railroad track used to
build the Walt Disney World railroad and two of Walt Disney's scale-model train
cars. It is one of my favorite places to relax when we stay at the Wilderness
Lodge.
While
at Walt Disney World, take time in the early morning to take
advantage of the "Disney's the Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour"
at the Magic Kingdom. You
follow the Walt Disney Railroad engineers as they get the trains ready for the
day, tour the backstage roundhouse where the trains are stored, ride the trains, and hear about Walt Disney's love of trains and the history of
the Walt Disney World Railroad.
About the Author: Dianne has taken over 25 trips to Walt Disney World and is taking her first
Disney cruise in April 2008 for her 25th wedding anniversary. She has two sons
who she "raised on Disney" and a husband she "converted." Dianne is a Registered
Nurse and Certified Diabetes Educator.
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Did you enjoy this article? Have
questions? E-mail us at news@passporter.com or visit http://www.passporterboards.com
to discuss your Disney vacation plans. Also check out our
Article Collection for more great information!
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