Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

So, on with organzing for your Disney trip. You’ve purchased a system of some sort, you’re printed out all your travel documents - boarding passes, rental car confirmations, etc. Now what? 

If you booked with a Travel Planner, you should have received paperwork from them that you had to sign and send back. Make sure to print out a copy for your records. Then if you booked a package with Disney, about two weeks prior to your trip, you should receive a set of documents with all the details regarding your package, discount coupons, etc. Make sure to hang on to these!

Either you or your Travel Planner has likely made advanced dining reservations (ADRs). Be sure to write down or print out copies of the confirmation numbers for each one. Also be sure to note which have been ore-paid and which have cancellation penalties. If you have made reservations ofr Backstage tours, fireworks cruises, etc. it is also important to have these confirmation numbers in a safe place.

And finally, the last thing you want to be sure to keep is your travel planner’s phone number. While it rarely happens, problems do occur and your travel planner may be able to help smooth the way if the worst case scenario occurs.

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

So, on with organzing for your Disney trip. You’ve purchased a system of some sort, you’re printed out all your travel documents - boarding passes, rental car confirmations, etc. Now what? < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

Ok, so you’ve found something to keep all your paperwork in. But what to keep? Let’s start with everything you will need to get there!

Make sure to print out and keep copies of your air itineraries and boarding passes. Print out any rental car confirmations and airport parking confirmations or coupons. If you are taking Disney’s Magical Express, make sure to keep your shuttle vouchers and luggage tags. Other pieces of paper that you may wish to keep include a packing list, directions to and from the airport if you will be driving and any other e-mails you receive from your airline.

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

Ok, so you’ve found something to keep all your paperwork in. But what to keep? Let’s start with everything you will need to get there!

Make sure to print out and keep copies of your air itineraries and boarding passes. < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans! (And Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!)

So you book a trip to Walt Disney World with your favorite Mouse Fan Travel Planner. (You did use a Travel Planner, right?) Chances are one of the first things you get is paperwork to sign and to keep for your records. Then you probably book airfare whic requires printing out a confirmation and so on and so forth. Next thing you know you have dining reservations, hotel reservations, etc that you have to keep track of!

You need somehwere to keep it all. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you already know my first recommendation - Get Thee A PassPorter! This all in one guide book and travel planner has the perfect solution for all your paperwork. PassPockets are found at the back of the book and there is one for travel, one for your resort, one for each day of your trip, etc.

If the PassPorter isn’t your thing or you just can’t bear to mark up it’s pretty little pages (don’t laugh, I’ve heard this one before!) then you at least need to get yourselves some manila folders. Better yet - get the plastic folder sized envelopes that have some kind of closure. At the very least you’re going to need one central place to keep all of your paperwork. Then as your trip approaches, you can sort through it all.

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans! (And Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!)

So you book a trip to Walt Disney World with your favorite Mouse Fan Travel Planner. (You did use a Travel Planner, right? < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

Organization. A topic that is near and dear to my heart as I attempt to makeover my home office. The sheer volume of paperwork would make a colony of termites salivate! A trip to Disney brings with it a fair amount of paperwork from boarding passes to confirmations to check out receipts. So this week we will be discussing how to stay organized during the planning process!

In the meantime, I am off to tackle the first pile of paperwork…

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

Organization. A topic that is near and dear to my heart as I attempt to makeover my home office. The sheer volume of paperwork would make a colony of termites salivate! A trip to Disney brings with it a fair amount of paperwork from boarding passes to confirmations to check out receipts. < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

TGIF!!!! Phew, what a week. I need a vacation! Oh wait… I just had a vacation. Hmmmm… Back to the drawing board! Maybe I need a Disney Day!

What’s a Disney Day you ask? It’s a way to take a mental vacation and remind myself of my favorite place on Earth. A Disney Day can consist of a variety of different things - a Disney movie marathon, a trip to my local Disney store, or my all time favorite - meeting up with my "Disney" friends! I’m lucky to be part of the PassPorter Boards (little plug - I’m also co-host of the PassPorter Moms podcast: Disney & Beyond) and have made many close friends.

It always amazes me that my friends will go out of their way to meet up. WAY out of their way! We tend to meet here in Connecticut as it is a central location but they come from Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. We meet for lunch and shopping. It is the perfect meeting of the minds - friends who have so much in common but have bonded over a love of Disney. We have our next meeting set for April and I am already counting the days!!

Everyone needs a break once in a while. And Disney can provide the perfect escape.

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

TGIF!!!! Phew, what a week. I need a vacation! Oh wait… I just had a vacation. Hmmmm… Back to the drawing board! Maybe I need a Disney Day!

What’s a Disney Day you ask? It’s a way to take a mental vacation and remind myself of my favorite place on Earth. < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

The Main Street Electrical Parade is returning to the Magic Kingdom this summer! A perennial Disney favorite, the parade is relocating from Disneyland to Walt Disney World as part of the Summer Nightastic celerbation Disney has planned. But best of all, my personal fave Tinker Bell will be leading the parade on a brand new float!

Disney has other tricks up their sleeve for this summer - Wishes is being replaced with a new fireworks show (no name announced yet!), Tower of Terror is getting an upgrade and a new drop sequence and much more. Best of all, Walt Disney World has extended the travel dates of the current "Gift Card offer. So book now because this summer is going to be Nightastic!

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

The Main Street Electrical Parade is returning to the Magic Kingdom this summer! A perennial Disney favorite, the parade is relocating from Disneyland to Walt Disney World as part of the Summer Nightastic celerbation Disney has planned. < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

It’s snowing. Again. Is it just me or are the weather people getting LESS accurate? Last week schools and businesses shut down in Connecticut for an anticipated blizzard and got…about an inch that came 8 hours later than expected. Today they predicted this storm would not amount to much of anything and I have four inches and counting and it is still coming down! 

So here’s my first tip for WDW weather planning. Check www.weather.com for the forecast for your trip. But don’t put too much faith in it! Even if they are predicting fair weather for your entire trip, into every trip a little rain must fall. So plan for changes in temp and precipitation. Layers are key! My single favorite item to bring to Disney is a pair of khakis - long to keep me warm but light weight so they are not too warm! Does the forecast show 65 during the day? Great! But keep an eye on the overnight temps as it can still get pretty chill once the sun goes down.

I’m off to go entertain my snowbound Kindergartner. Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

It’s snowing. Again. Is it just me or are the weather people getting LESS accurate? Last week schools and businesses shut down in Connecticut for an anticipated blizzard and got…about an inch that came 8 hours later than expected. < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

Happy President’s Day! Florida is experiencing cooler than normal temps this winter. So what does this mean for a trip to Walt Disney World?

I’ve been to WDW multiple times when the temps have ranged from cool but pleasant to downright frigid. Cooler temps are one of the reasons why I love to visit WDW in the Fall and Winter months but even I have my limits. Temps in the 60’s are perfectly do-able for this New Englander but any lower than that and it’s going to require some planning.

So for those of you planning trips in the coming weeks - what to do? We’ll be discussing planning and packing for cooler temps this week. Stay tuned!

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

Happy President’s Day! Florida is experiencing cooler than normal temps this winter. So what does this mean for a trip to Walt Disney World?

I’ve been to WDW multiple times when the temps have ranged from cool but pleasant to downright frigid. < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

Sorry for my absence, my son’s strep and my own ear/sinus infection was the one-two punch that kept me away. 

But I return with great news! Disney announced today that the Main Street Electrical Parade will be returning to Walt Disney World. Beginning in June 2010, the Main Street Electrical Parade will appear in the Magic Kingdom featuring upgraded LED lights, a new sound system and new floats. The parade will be part of an expanded entertainment line-up - Summer Nightastic! More details in the coming days…

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

Sorry for my absence, my son’s strep and my own ear/sinus infection was the one-two punch that kept me away. 

But I return with great news! Disney announced today that the Main Street Electrical Parade will be returning to Walt Disney World. < more... >

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

I am excited to let you in on an announcement that has not been released to the general public yet. PassPorter is starting our own weekly podcast! The first episode is up now, and the second episode will be released tomorrow with our newsletter! The podcast is hosted by Jennifer Marx and myself, the mama hens of PassPorter, and is thus known as "PassPorter Moms Podcast: Disney & Beyond!"

Check us out at http://www.passporter.com/podcast/home.php

Let me know what you think!

Be well and make magic wherever you go!

Sara Varney
Travel Planner

Greetings fellow Mouse Fans!

I am excited to let you in on an announcement that has not been released to the general public yet. PassPorter is starting our own weekly podcast! The first episode is up now, and the second episode will be released tomorrow with our newsletter! < more... >