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.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

At Mouse Fan Travel you get our
Signature Services & No agency fees!

Last Call! Book by 3/16/07

Walt Disney World Resort® - 4 Nights
Apr 18-22, 2007 -- From only $202 pp
Includes a Disney Gift Card too!

If this doesn't quite fit your needs,
ask us about customizing your stay!

Visit us at:   www.MouseFanTravel.com

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.


- - - - - - - - - - - -

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!