From the Authors: Front Page Facelift

Travel Feature: Lake Constance, Switzerland

Disney Feature: A Magical Wedding Day

Updates: What's New and Changed

Tips: Road Trip Take Alongs, Check Your Room Charges Early, Fireworks? One Flight Down

Captain's Corner: Personnel Only

PassPorter PhotoPick: Hollywood Studios - Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular

Q and A: Booking on Delta - now or wait??

Our Sponsors:  We Recommend...
   

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Cool Links:
Stuff and Services

We encounter many Disney- and travel-related products and services. From among those we try, a few are good enough to use ourselves and recommend to you:

MouseEarVacations.com - Family Travel Favorites - For all your family travel needs!

Owner's Locker - The Purple Place for Storing Your Vacation Stuff!

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Updates:
What's New and Changed

This week we have 4 news bulletins:

The Imagineers Apprentice Contest Ever wanted to be an Imagineer for a day? The Grand Prize winner of the new Sorcerers Wanted Sweepstakes will win a one-day apprenticeship with a Disney Imagineer as well as a two-night trip to Disneyland for up to four people. (The trip includes hotel accomodations and three-day Park Hopper passes.) Enter online!
Comments: 49
This updates page 999 of PassPorter's Disneyland Resort guidebook

Fatal Accident at ESPN Wide World of Sports Steven Snyder, an electrician, died last week after being shocked while working near an electrical transformer at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. OSHA (the Occupational Safety & Health Administration) is investigating the accident. Our sympathy goes to his family and friends.
Comments: 49
This updates page 999 of PassPorter's Walt Disney World guidebook

D23 Announces New Events D23 -- the "Official Community for Disney Fans" -- has announced a new event for Fall 2010. Destination D: Disneyland '55 will take place September 24-25, 2010 and includes two full days of presentations on the history of the park as well as guest appearances, screenings, and other events. Destination D and the D23 Expo will alternate years. Destination D in 2010, D23 Expo in 2011, etc. Tickets are available exclusively to D23 members and one guest (i.e. non-member) per member. Tickets are $125 per person and are available for purchase now on the D23 site.
Comments: 49
This updates page 999 of PassPorter's Disneyland Resort guidebook

Guided Treks to Harambe Reserve Disney has just announced that a new guided tour experience will be offered at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The news is so hot that the tour doesn't have a name, and reservations won't be available until "later this year." The "specially priced" (does that mean, "expensive?") activity will take small groups of Guests on "personalized, guided treks along some unexplored areas of the Harambe Reserve."
Comments: 3
This updates page 268 of PassPorter's Walt Disney World guidebook


Tip: Need more news? Read, sort, and search all the PassPorter news bulletins at the PassPorter News Desk!

Our thanks to AllEars.net and MousePlanet.com from which we get some of our news leads.

Hear some news? Be a 'PassPorter Reporter' and send it to us!

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Disney Tips:
From Fellow Readers

Our readers deliver a wealth of information! Send us your tips! You may see them in this newsletter and win a copy of PassPorter! And you never know -- your tip could even appear in a future edition of a PassPorter guidebook.

ROAD TRIP TAKE ALONGS
'Before we leave for each road trip to Florida, I make a binder for each child in the car. I fill it with different puzzles, coloring pages, scavenger hunts, and bingo, etc. I also incorporate historical and interesting things I know we will see on the way through each state. (We travel from Wisconsin.) I use my GPS or maps to put down landmarks, special streets that they must find along the way. There is also a daily journal for each to write their own thoughts in. When we get home, I copy there photos into a scrapbook page, so they can add it to the binder. Each year they have a new one, and special memories are kept together. I also arrange to have special prizes for each of them for working on the books all the way south.'
-- contributed by Linda C.
Save This Tip

CHECK YOUR ROOM CHARGES EARLY
'Check and pay your stateroom bill in the afternoon of the day before you disembark. We saved loads of time doing this, which meant we could enjoy our last breakfast without any hassle and disembark very easily. The queues to pay on the evening before and the morning we disembarked were very long and it seemed to spoil the magic. The very helpful staff remarked that they wished more clients would come and check/pay their bill the day before.'
-- contributed by Julie
Save This Tip

FIREWORKS? ONE FLIGHT DOWN
'As some people might already know, dining at the California Grill atop the Contemporary Resort entitles guests to view the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the restaurant's outdoor patio (even if guests dine much earlier in the evening and return later). This vantage point provides a spectacular (albeit different) view of the fireworks that is simply breathtaking. Often, however, this outdoor patio can become crowded, and the tall concrete wall at the end of patio can obstruct the view for little ones. Solution? Go just one flight down the outdoor "emergency exit" stairs at the end of the patio (near the concrete wall), and you'll have your own "private" balcony from which to view the fireworks! These stair landings (which go all the way down) also have metal railings instead of concrete walls, affording smaller children a great, relatively-unobstructed view of the show.'
-- contributed by Scott
Save This Tip


Want more Disney tips? Look for the concierge bell icon in future newsletters and throughout the PassPorter.com site. When you see the bell, tap it to view and save the tip to your personal tip collection!

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. (Please note: Players can win once every three months.)

Here is this week's journal entry:

"Having served my time aboard a ship, I know a thing or two about security. You gotta have it or the ship will literally sink! And you gotta trust your shipmates, most of all. I even thought about gettin' into security myself, but ... it wasn't until today that i'm actually considering it! A stroll through Studios today revealed something new. I just happened to spy a little sign labelled "DO NOT ENTER" and below that was printed "Muppet Labs Personnel Only." I wonder if they're hiring? Only problem is I've forgotten the name of the security company."

What is the name of the security company mentioned above?

For bonus credit, locate the photo in the PassPorter Photo Archive and post a comment with the photo!

Congratulations to Erin L. who was the winner of last week's trivia contest! Erin L. was the first person to identify the answer to last week's clue as soccer ball, football, and tennis ball in Sportsman's Shoppe sign at United Kingdom in Epcot. Bonus credit goes to Erin L. as the first person to locate the photo in our PassPorter Photo Archive. To view the original clue, see last week's newsletter.

Send your full answer to jackskatt@passporter.com -- the winner will be notified by e-mail and announced in a future newsletter, along with the correct answer!

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PassPorter PhotoPick
 
Each issue we choose a special photo from the PassPorter Photo Archive which highlights something beautiful, interesting, humorous, or timely at Disney or around the world. Here is this issue's PassPorter PhotoPick:

Hollywood Studios - Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Photo by LoveWDW71

(click the photo or link to see a larger photo with details)

You can nominate photos as a PassPorter PhotoPick by giving ratings in the PassPorter Photo Archive (you'll need to be logged in to do this). If you'd like to contribute your own photos to the Photo Archive and be considered as a PhotoPick, please read our Photo Upload Guidelines for details and benefits.
 
 

Top 5 Photo Contributors
chezp	6064 photos
WDW_Fan	2030 photos
Dopey007	1393 photos
home4us123	799 photos
Meggera	773 photos

 

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Q and A: With Jennifer and Dave


SDJen asks: "Hi everyone. I am hoping someone out there has some experience with this and can help me decide what to do.



My daughter (who will be 5) and I are booked on the Feb. 5th Disney Magic Cruise. I did have tickets already purchased by using my miles on Frontier Airlines but then last week Frontier announced they won't be flying to my city any more starting in September. :mad: I did manage to get a full refund and my miles credited back but now I have to get other flights arranged.



I have been watching the fares to MCO and they are running about $400 each right now. We are limited in South Dakota - I can only use United, Delta or American (no Southwest). I am wondering if it would be better to get tickets now or to wait awhile. In looking at the flight times, Delta seems to be my best bet. I am travelling alone with my daughter and really don't want a long layover or to have to change planes more than once.



Any advice?? Does anyone know of Delta will refund the difference if the fares drop like Southwest does?



Thanks in advance. "

Dave Marx answers: "You do have plenty of time to book your flights, and fares will fluctuate. However, $400 is about typical for longer flights these days (my point of comparison is Detroit to Los Angeles, for example - hardly low-traffic/low-competition airports). You do have time to set up a fare alert at a site like Kayak.com (which monitors all airfares). Watch the trends for a while. Most likely fares will hold steady for a while before moving in either direction. I'm a fan of "don't spend it until you have to," but other folks like to get things locked in. Different strokes...



The biggest unknowns for the airlines are fuel prices and near-term demand. So, at 6-7 months out, they have to pay it safe. If you think fuel will go up significantly, then you might want to lock in your fares soon. However, if fuel goes down... The airlines have also dramatically reduced the number of flights in order to keep the number of vacant seats scarce. While it's possible, I don't think the airlines will start adding flights in anticipation of an economic rebound (and increase in travel). More likely, demand will go up before the number of available seats rise. As a result, I wouldn't be surprised if fares don't fluctuate much in either direction. (I've been monitoring fare trends on a couple of selected itineraries, and I've seen movement up or down about $50, but no big slides or increases)."

Did our message board members agree with Dave Marx? To see other answers that SDJen received, check out the rest of the thread on the PassPorter Message Boards..

Have a question? 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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Our Sponsors:
We Recommend...

PassPorter only accepts advertising from services of the highest quality -- we recommend these companies because we use them ourselves. Please support our sponsors and, in turn, support this newsletter! This week's sponsors are (in order of appearance):

MouseEarVacations.com - Free Dining is EXTENDED at the Walt Disney World® Resort

Mouse Fan Travel - Free Dining has been extended!

ALL STAR Vacation Homes - Choose from more than 200 homes within 5 miles of Disney!

MouseEarVacations.com - Family Travel Favorites - For all your family travel needs!

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