What's the best thing about Passporter?

[susnoahchris]

Hmmmm...we're planning a 5-day WDW trip this coming January, and I'm wondering if investing in a Passporter book would be worth it. We've been to WDW once before and did a fairly good job, I think, with the park maps and our own itinerary. But now I'm investigating Passporter & Tour Guide Mike and wondering if they can really do a much better job than I can in planning!

AND...can anyone tell me the most useful thing about Passporter to them?

THANK YOU!

 

[kmccain]

I like the Passporter because it gives you an approximate time each attraction takes and it gives you touring plans.

With this information, I made my own itinerary. I figured out what attractions I wanted to do and what ones I wanted to skip. I put them in a spreadsheet in the order that Passporter suggested and then I put the time each takes. I was able to pretty much figure my entire day. I could figure in meals and breaks.

Hope this helps!

 

[Kim1964]

The Passporter maps are very good....I think they're better than Disney's maps. However, the touring advice on TourGuideMike is great.....I've done 2 TGM trips and I'm never going back to doing it any other way. If you are trying to decide between the 2, I'd go with TGM.

 

[Christmas-in-Disney]

I bought the Passporter for my upcoming trip and I love how it's so compact and yet filled with SO MUCH info!

 

[kimsuenew]

Hmmmm...we're planning a 5-day WDW trip this coming January, and I'm wondering if investing in a Passporter book would be worth it. We've been to WDW once before and did a fairly good job, I think, with the park maps and our own itinerary. But now I'm investigating Passporter & Tour Guide Mike and wondering if they can really do a much better job than I can in planning!

AND...can anyone tell me the most useful thing about Passporter to them?

THANK YOU!

I recently bought mine and while I like the maps, I didn't really find any other info that I did not know (I have been reading, posting, and searching WDW for a year now). I think the pockets are nice, but know that I will not take the time to use them. I will not purchase one again, I do know that. As far a TGM, I have heard "good things" about planning what days to go where (crowd level wise) but have never used it myself. Whatever you decide... have a magical trip!

 

[castmemberb4]

I love my Passporter, and I don't even use their tour guides. I like that everything is organized and in the same spot, before PassPorter I'd have a piece of paper with the resort confirmation, a piece of paper with my ADRs..... you get the picture. The pockets are great for writing down every days activities, stuff not to miss, food suggestions, ADR confirmations numbers. At the end of the day I store misc. stuff in the pockets, a napkin p/u at F&W or a receipt, I also write down things from the day, it helps me keep track of things when I start my photo journal and looking back at previous years is like having a Disney diary.

I just got a 2007 from them for $1 to use on my upcoming trip, I don't feel I'm missing anything by using a 2007 b/c I know about all of the new attractions by reading the DISboards. They have removable tabs for marking your resort page and specialized and blank lables for personalizing some of the pockets. I just used one of the blank ones on the from of the book and wrote 2008 on it. We have 9 people on this trip and I plan to have each person sign the character autograph page, it will be a good keepsake.

 

[NWOhioAngela]

Eventually somebody will jump on this thread and say you can get all that info for free here, so why pay for it. As a prememptive strike let me say, yes you can, but WILL you? With either Passporter or TGM its nice to have all the info together in one place. I have used both and prefer TGM. Passporter has the advantage in that its a book you can carry around, but the TGM you would have to print out all your info. I still vote for TGM.

 

[loopner67]

I like Passporter a lot and I've read/owned other books (BirmBaum Guide, Unofficial Guide, etc...).

For me, The Passporter is the easiest one to read. All the info I need and easy to reference. I like the maps. I love the pocket pages in the back & I *do* write on them every day while in WDW. During our planning process, I need a book to reference and not just stuff on the internet, so I love having my Passporter handy!

 

[wezee]

I love my Passporter, and I don't even use their tour guides. I like that everything is organized and in the same spot, before PassPorter I'd have a piece of paper with the resort confirmation, a piece of paper with my ADRs..... you get the picture. The pockets are great for writing down every days activities, stuff not to miss, food suggestions, ADR confirmations numbers. At the end of the day I store misc. stuff in the pockets, a napkin p/u at F&W or a receipt, I also write down things from the day, it helps me keep track of things when I start my photo journal and looking back at previous years is like having a Disney diary.

I just got a 2007 from them for $1 to use on my upcoming trip, I don't feel I'm missing anything by using a 2007 b/c I know about all of the new attractions by reading the DISboards. They have removable tabs for marking your resort page and specialized and blank lables for personalizing some of the pockets. I just used one of the blank ones on the from of the book and wrote 2008 on it. We have 9 people on this trip and I plan to have each person sign the character autograph page, it will be a good keepsake.

I figured on doing what you did and using a 2007 edition for our upcoming trip, since the 2008s are sold out........but I placed my order on 8-14-08 and have still not rec'd it. I have emailed them twice with no response. I like the idea of having all the WDW info compacted into one book, plus I really like the pockets. Sure hope mine shows up in the next 11 days.

 

[castmemberb4]

Eventually somebody will jump on this thread and say you can get all that info for free here, so why pay for it. As a prememptive strike let me say, yes you can, but WILL you? With either Passporter or TGM its nice to have all the info together in one place. I have used both and prefer TGM. Passporter has the advantage in that its a book you can carry around, but the TGM you would have to print out all your info. I still vote for TGM.

You're absolutely right.
That's why I use mine more as an organizer and keepsake.
I usually think I know all I need to know about the parks, until I get there and don't have my laptop with me.

 

[castmemberb4]

I figured on doing what you did and using a 2007 edition for our upcoming trip, since the 2008s are sold out........but I placed my order on 8-14-08 and have still not rec'd it. I have emailed them twice with no response. I like the idea of having all the WDW info compacted into one book, plus I really like the pockets. Sure hope mine shows up in the next 11 days.

Mine shipped the day after I ordered it but it took a little over a week to get here, I just looked back at my ship notice it says 4-14 days for delivery. Hope you get yours soon.

 

[licountrygirl]

I ordered mine about the same time in August and I just got mine yesterday. I also used one of the blank stickers and put 2008 over where it says 2007.

I am still undecided about what touring plans I am going to use. I had subscribed to Tour Guide Mike but requested a refund because even as a completely computer literate person, using his website gave me a headache and everything was out of date.

I also subscribed to touringplans.com and it's very similar information. My husband is extremely anti-touring plan. He thinks I'm wasting my time with them because we've always been fortunate with the times of year we go and we have never had much of a wait for the rides. He's really annoying me about this. I told him - let's try the plan for the first day - if it's a pain and really isn't working, we will ditch it - he's such a baby.

We're also traveling with another family who haven't been there in like 9 years. I feel "responsible" for making it a great vacation for them, too. We're going December 2-8th.

Anyone familiar with that time of year and have a suggestion as to whether touringplans.com is a good bet?