Passporter Walt Disney World Resort 2003: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake! :Leath Er With Pen (Passporter Travel Guides) [Hardcover]

Jennifer Watson (Author), Dave Marx (Author), Allison Cerel Marx (Author)

Book Description

Series: Passporter Travel Guides | Publication Date: February 2003

Design a first-class vacation with this award-winning travel guide and planning system in a deluxe ring binder. This Deluxe Edition features the same great content as PassPorter Walt Disney World 2003: expert advice, 14 organizer pockets, two full-color area maps, four fold-out theme park maps, planning calendars, timeline chart, detailed attraction information, eatery reviews, extensive coverage of Disney resorts, and comprehensive information for planning, traveling, and dining. Due to its production process and schedule, PassPorter is the most up-to-date guidebook available for Walt Disney World, and is the only 2003 guidebook to include the many recent changes. Many NEW FEATURES, including original photos of Walt Disney World parks, resorts, eateries, and events (the only unofficial guide to include extensive Disney photos!); an elastic band closure; two-color pages (including maps and charts) for enhanced readibility; details on off-property hotels and resorts, updated Allie's KidTips for attractions; age-appropriate ratings for rides; sneak peeks at new resorts and attractions; icons for attractions with age/height restrictions; actual resort room and park pass prices; new reader memories and stories;... plus the entire guide has been checked for accuracy by eleven expert reviewers! All Disney parks and resort hotels are described in depth, with ratings and resort maps. Comprehensive information for planning, traveling, and dining is also included, along with an entire section devoted to extra-special Disney magic... and the authors keep all their information up-to-date via their PassPorter Web site. Also unique is the ability to really craft your vacation with the help of seven planning worksheets and the organizer PassPockets: write your itinerary on the front of each pocket before you go, store guidemaps, brochures, tickets, and receipts inside the pockets while you're there, and record expenses and memories on the back to review and share when you return. Special features of the Deluxe Edition include ten interior pockets in the binder which store guidemaps, ID cards, and a pen (we even include a pen). The Deluxe binder is a tan, leather-like vinyl for the best protection and a snap closure to keep your plans and papers safe. The Deluxe Edition makes it easy to add, remove, and rearrange pages... you can even download, print, and add-in updates and supplemental pages from the authors via the PassPorter Web site. This IS the ultimate traveling companion for Walt Disney World!

Editorial Reviews

Review

A great resource, particularly for families planning their first Disney adventure. -- The Independent Traveler

A nifty travel guide that works overtime as a planner, organizer and journal -- Jacky Runice, Daily Herald-Chicago

Anyone planning a trip to Disney World who doesn't include this book in their planning shouldn't go. Invaluable. -- Larry Keller, AAA

Named one of Disney Magazine senior editors' "favorite sources" for planning a trip to Walt Disney World! -- Disney Magazine

The perfect solution to framing the perfect visit to Disney World... -- James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

THREE DISNEY FANS WRITE THE MOST HONORED DISNEY GUIDEBOOK!

When Jennifer Watson and Dave Marx wanted something that would help them plan, organize, and record the perfect vacation to their favorite spot -- Walt Disney World -- they came up with the idea for a new planning system. After years of research and writing, they ended up with an unique, all-in-one travel guide worthy of SEVEN national awards and honors: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AWARD Finalist (Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book by a New Publisher); LOWELL THOMAS Travel Journalism Competition Silver Award Winner (Society for American Travel Writers Foundation); BOOK OF THE YEAR Gold and Silver Award Winners (ForeWord Magazine); INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER Gold Award for Best Travel Guide, AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS ASSOCIATION BookSense 76 Pick for May/June 2002, and an AWARD OF EXCELLENCE (North American Travel Journalists Association).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Passporter Travel Pr; 5th edition (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587710110
• ISBN-13: 978-1587710117
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,542,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!! A must have for any WDW visitor., July 28, 2003

By 

Marcy Gomez (Kansas City, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Passporter Walt Disney World Resort 2003: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake (Passporter Travel Guides) (Spiral-bound)

This is by far the best Walt Disney World travel book I've ever read/seen!! I love it!!

I spend a lot (and I mean, A LOT) of time planning my vacations. My planning includes scouring the web, reading tons of books and watching travel shows months ahead of my travel date. I've browsed through many Disney World related books in my local bookstore but the Passporter is the one that impressed me the most.

If you are planning a vacation to Disney World, and particularly if you intend to spend most of your trip in the WDW property, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It is packed with information on the hotels, restaurants, theme parks, special activities as well as travel tips and planning info for your trip. At least 3 pages are dedicated to each Disney resort and even more pages on each theme park (along with some great maps). There is also a great rating system for each resort, theme park attraction and restaurant/eatery. My favorite feature (which I have not seen in other travel books) are the maps of each hotel resort which even shows where the pools, eateries, play areas and transportation location.

I initially bought 2 other Disney-related travel books but returned those and kept just this one. Unless you're planning to spend a lot of time outside the Disney property, this really is the only book you will need. And for those who will be dividing their time between Disney and other Orlando theme parks, be sure to get this book and check out one of the following: "The Unofficial Guide to Florida with Kids" by Pam Brandon (if traveling with children) or "The Everything Travel Guide to Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Greater Orlando" by Jason Rich. Happy travels!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth It's Weight In Gold!, August 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Passporter Walt Disney World Resort 2003: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake (Passporter Travel Guides) (Spiral-bound)

I love this book! If you want a book that will really help you plan your Walt Disney World trip from start to finish then this is it. It's full of fresh, useful information in a well-organized, easy-to-read format. And unlike other guides, Passporter provides you with worksheets (which are indespenible to planning your trip) and "organizer pockets" to help you keep all your trip information together in one place.

I bought Birnbaum's WDW guide and Walt Disney World with Kids for a trip 3 years ago and they pale in comparison. Passporter gave me new ideas and insights and the authors don't miss a trick. Passporter has a ton of money-saving and sanity-saving tips that the other books don't have. There is also a Passporter website with updates and other useful information.

If you buy only one WDW guide, let this be the one!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A last-minute planner's life-jacket!, September 30, 2003

By 

"sacha4cs" (Lebanon, NH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passporter Walt Disney World Resort 2003: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake (Passporter Travel Guides) (Spiral-bound)

I just returned from a week-long trip to Disney World with my entire family (parents, sister and her family, etc.) - that's seven adults and two children under five. Somehow, I was unanimously elected trip planner. (Maybe because I'm still single and childless, they all figured I'd have more time and energy to plan...grrrr) I was floored.

Sure, it was no problem calling and making the actual reservations, getting airline fares, etc. The problem came when I needed to start actually scheduling meals, deciding which parks we would visit and on what days, where my brother-in-law could golf, which rides would be suitable for the kids and which ones would scare the stuffing out of them...I couldn't just keep surfing the Disney website, and there were just too many websites created by people who had already been to the park - information overload! Then, inspiration struck! A travel guide!

I looked at some of the other manuals that were available - Frommer's, Birnbaum's, the guide for Dummies - all very informative and helpful, but not quite what I needed. Then I found the PassPorter. I don't want this to sound like one of those corny infomercial testimonials ("This product changed my life! I look and feel like a teenager again. And those pesky rings around my bathtub are gone, too!") but I can count on one hand the number of times I have come across a book that has so perfectly filled such an immediate need.

The PassPorter starts out as a very helpful travel guide full of tips on planning transportation, what to pack, what times of year are busiest at WDW, that kind of thing. Then it moves on to very lengthy and insider-tip-filled sections on all of the Disney resort hotels, including layouts of the average room and a diagram of the resort. (I would have liked to have known the layout of every type of room, because I'm the kind of person who likes to know my options. This means I'll never truly be satisfied unless the hotel provides a full 3-D schematic of their lodgings. I'm pesky like that.)

The most extensive sections of the guide are the park overviews. Here, the authors discuss each attraction in detail, including a series of ratings and a child's take on the ride or show in question. This proved to be indispensable when plotting our course through each park. We had a four-year-old who had a really hard time with most of the 3D attractions, and after trying one with no success, the guide helped steer us away from most of the other potentially frightening rides. (We just came back later after Grammy had the kids tucked in for their afternoon nap and rode or saw whatever we had missed.) The dining guide was incredibly helpful, and the priority seating worksheet sent me into paroxysms of joy. We were using a vacation plan that covered all of our meals, so price was no concern, it was just a question of narrowing our options. Again, the PassPorter proved beyond useful here.

The last portion of the book is a series of heavy yellow envelope-style pages, each one specific to a part of your trip. There's one for recording transportation details, one for lodging, and more than a week's worth of day-planner envelopes, each with a blank time-sheet to help you schedule the meals and big events for the day. And on the back of each are prompts and places to record memories of each day, budget info, etc.

Overall, the PassPorter proved to be an invaluable planning tool. What really makes it work for me, however, is the fact that it's such a personal piece of work when everything is over. I carried this book with me every day of vacation, and each night when we returned to the hotel, I spent a few minutes recording some of the day's special memories in the pages at the back. The PassPorter stored our meal receipts, our baggage claim tickets, our shuttle boarding passes, maps of each park, and our Fastpass ride tickets.

I've been home three days now, and I'm already anticipating using the PassPorter as one of the major tools in making a scrapbook of our trip, something I've never done before for a single vacation in my life. If you're looking for a unique tool to help you plan your Disney vacation, something that offers a personal take on your vacation that goes beyond a rote listing of major lodging and attractions, order this book right away. I'm planning on getting the Deluxe edition the next time I want to go to Disney!