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Portico User Conference

April 13–15  |  Orlando, FL
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Co-creating the ultimate student experience

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Join us for a three-day experience designed around the complete student lifecycle. From recruitment, enrollment, financial aid, student success, retention, graduation, and career placement - Portico's got you covered. We'll have hands-on breakout sessions that dive into workflows, reporting, and tool tips as well as peer-to-peer roundtables where you’ll swap candid insights with professionals facing the same challenges. Momentum is built for collaboration and real-world problem solving. Explore the product roadmap, uncover best practices, and get one-on-one time with our experts. 

Last year's vibes

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Schedule of events

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To help with travel planning, event registration kicks off Monday, April 13th at 4:00pm followed by our Welcome Reception at 6:00pm. Sessions wrap by 5:00pm on Wednesday, April 15th. 

4:00 pm

Event Registration

6:00 pm
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Welcome Reception

Join like-minded professionals for a networking event that allows conversations (and possibly some drinks) to flow.
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8:30 am
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Kickoff to Momentum 2026 & Welcome Message

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Doug Kaplan
CEO, Portico
9:00 am
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Fearful to Fearing Less: Recharged for What Comes Next

This 60-minute, high-energy keynote gives you space to do something you rarely get to do: talk honestly about fear and uncertainty in your work. We examine the real pressures career education professionals face every day and how those pressures can lead to hesitation, shutdown, or loss of confidence in the work you care about. But this isn't just about naming what's hard. The experience helps people see fear differently. Instead of something to hide or push through, we explore how it can actually guide growth, support better decisions, and remind people they are not alone in what they feel. By the end, you'll leave with more confidence, more connection, and a renewed sense of purpose for everything that comes next at Momentum and beyond.
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Darryl Bellamy
Founder of Fearless Inside
10:00 am
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CRM 101: An Introduction to Portico's CRM

Curious about Portico’s CRM and how it could help support your enrollment initiatives? Join us for a live demonstration of the platform as we walk through its core features, workflows, and reporting capabilities. This session is designed specifically for partners who are not currently using the CRM and want a clear, practical understanding of how it can streamline lead management and improve visibility across your organization.
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Dale Scott
Solutions Engineer, Portico
10:00 am
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From FAFSA to Portico: Mapping the Aid Lifecycle

Follow a student’s journey from FAFSA submission all the way through disbursement and beyond, then see exactly where Portico FA supports each step. This session is a perfect on-ramp for the full track, blending plain‑language Title IV concepts with a live walkthrough of key screens. You’ll leave with a clear mental map of the aid lifecycle and how Portico helps you manage it.
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Rosha Harrison
Senior Director of FA Processing, Portico
10:00 am
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Externships Will NEVER be the Same Again: How Portico Changed Student and Faculty Experiences

Externships are high-impact learning experiences, but tracking attendance, verifying hours, and managing documentation has traditionally been manual, reactive, and time-consuming. In this session, we’ll share how implementing Portico to digitize externship attendance eliminated paper timesheets and verification forms, increased accountability for students and faculty, and significantly reduced administrative burden. With real-time visibility into attendance, faculty and program leaders can identify at-risk students earlier, streamline outreach, and intervene before minor issues become retention risks. The results: improved externship retention, faster outreach to students missing clinical hours, less time spent chasing documentation, reduced compliance stress, and higher student satisfaction driven by clearer expectations and faster communication. Join us to see how Portico didn’t just modernize a process—it strengthened accountability, efficiency, and student success across externship education.
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Ryan Barnhart and Karen Ferguson
Education Affiliates
11:00 am
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SIS 101: Overview of Portico's Student Information System

Join us for an eye-opening demonstration of our comprehensive Student Information System. Discover how our intuitive, all-in-one platform empowers educational institutions to effortlessly manage everything from admissions to graduation and beyond. This session will showcase how our SIS supports any academic and institutional structure - whether clock or credit hour, modular or nonstandard - while delivering holistic reports.
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LeighAnn Bailey
SIS Product Manager, Portico
11:00 am
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Dashboards, Navigation & Roles: Working Faster in Portico

Stop hunting for information and start having it surface for you. In this session, you’ll explore the Institution Home, Workflow Dashboard, and Student Lookup to see how Portico FA can be tuned to match your daily work. Through a guided tour, you’ll learn how to customize views, understand permissions, and build a “conference‑ready” workspace you can recreate back on campus.
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Valerie Bloomer
Sr FA Processor, Portico
11:00 am
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Modernizing Tuition Collection: CHCP’s Journey to Integrated, Mobile-First Payments

When students already rely on your app for attendance and updates, why send them elsewhere to pay? Join CHCP for a behind-the-scenes look at how they integrated Portico Payments with Anthology to modernize tuition collection, strengthen payment plan controls, and boost student engagement—without adding hardware or complex systems. They’ll share why they pursued a third-party integration, why Portico was the right fit, what the implementation and reconciliation process actually looked like, the challenges no one talks about, and the early results. CHCP will also preview what’s next, including expanded nudges, additional campus rollouts, and continued mobile-first communication to drive greater financial clarity for students.
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Anne Bourgeois and Deidra Roberts
CHCP
1:00 pm
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The Executive Exchange: Leading Career Education Through Transformation

Career education is at an inflection point. Regulatory compliance is increasing. Student expectations are shifting. Technology - including AI - is reshaping how institutions operate and serve learners. In this exclusive executive panel, C-level leaders from leading career schools will share candid insights in a strategic, peer-to-peer conversation about what it truly takes to lead institutions into the next decade.
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Margaret Smith (ICT), Pedro De Guzman (HCI College), Ragheb Milad (Legacy Education)
2:00 pm
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Student Intake, ISIRs, Comment Codes & Verification

ISIRs, comment codes, C flags, and verification can feel overwhelming, but they don’t have to. This session shows how Portico FA organizes incoming records, flags what needs attention, and supports compliant verification workflows. In a guided case study, you’ll practice resolving issues for a sample student and documenting your decisions clearly for auditors and reviewers.
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Armando Rios
Director of FA Processing, Portico
2:00 pm
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Payments 101: Overview of Portico Payments

In this session you will learn how our cash/gap payments tool allows you to easily manage payment schedules that feature autopay and access to real-time payment data/reports.
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Danny Schwantes
General Manager of Payments, Portico
2:00 pm
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Financial Aid 101: Overview of Software & Managed Services

This demonstration of the CORE system will explore the key functionalities. Attendees will have an opportunity to see all aspects of the system. It is an interactive session where new users can gain clarification and insight.
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Noel Suarez
VP of Business Development, Portico
3:00 pm
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Student-Centered Enrollment Online: Designing Digital Admissions Pipelines for Domestic and International Recruitment, Conversion, and Retention

As institutions expand online programs and global reach, converting digital inquiries—especially from domestic, international, and non-traditional students—into enrolled and retained learners has become increasingly complex. Too often treated as a marketing function, online recruitment is actually the first critical stage of student success. This session reframes recruitment and admissions as a leadership-driven, student-centered strategy built on intentional decision-making, cross-functional alignment, and evidence-informed practices. Designed for institutions serving students across cultures and time zones, we’ll explore how to cultivate readiness, confidence, and belonging from the very first digital interaction, and share practical, scalable models to increase online conversion while strengthening retention and long-term success, without adding cost, complexity, or staff burden.
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Juan Sanchez
Grace School of Theology
3:00 pm
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OB3 Impact & Changes within FA Software System

Details coming soon.
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Nan Murray
Product Manager, Portico
3:00 pm
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Attendance 101: Overview of Attendance Functionality & Key Features

Unlock the full potential of your attendance system in this quick-hit overview designed to showcase its most powerful features and functionalities. Whether you're new to the platform or looking to optimize your current setup, this session breaks down everything from streamlined check-ins and real-time tracking to reporting tools and automation options. Join us to see how you can make attendance management smarter, faster, and more effective.
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Jackson Batchelder
Director, Key Accounts, Portico
4:00 pm
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Portico’s Clinical Management Solution – Unlocking Its Full Potential for Nursing and Allied Health Programs

Discover how our purpose-built Clinical Management System fits within the Higher Education technology ecosystem to support Nursing and Allied Health programs. From skills check-offs and competency tracking to compliance and evaluations, our platform serves as a centralized source of truth — enhanced by our patented SPE Tracker for powerful, measurable outcome assessments.
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Cara Heinrich
VP, Customer Success, Portico
4:00 pm
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Interventions 101: Overview of Smart Nudges & Their Impact on Student Success

Early alert systems only work when someone acts on the data. Many institutions track attendance, grades, or financial risk but struggle to translate those signals into timely, meaningful student support. This session explores how to design practical, manageable early alert systems that connect high-impact academic, financial, and engagement indicators to clear, human-centered intervention. Participants will learn how to set realistic alert thresholds, define ownership of follow-up, and structure outreach so students feel supported, not monitored. We’ll also address the leadership alignment required to make alerts effective, showing how admissions, financial aid, academics, and student services can share expectations and responsibilities to create consistent, sustainable intervention without adding new layers of work.
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Shannon Weitz
Product Manager, Portico
9:00 am
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Portico Product Roadmap, Part 1: Progress on Our Journey

Reviewing updates since last year in major categories w/ short zoom-in's on specific segments impacted in the room.
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Daphne Dor-Ner and Ahmed Hafeez
Portico
9:30 am
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Portico Product Roadmap, Part 2: What's Ahead

Join Chief Product and Technology Officers at Portico for an inside look at what’s ahead for Portico’s products. In this session, we’ll unveil the combined product roadmap and share how we’re evolving, improving, and thoughtfully integrating our offerings to create a more unified and powerful experience.
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Daphne Dor-Ner and Ahmed Hafeez
Portico
11:00 am
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Packaging & Awarding in Portico FA

Turn clean ISIRs into smart, compliant award packages. In this session, you’ll walk through Funding Estimates, packaging tools, and award letters in Portico FA, with an eye on rules around Pell, loans, and over awards. A step‑by‑step lab will have you packaging a sample student from estimate to award letter so you can apply the same process with confidence at your institution.
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Sarah Scott
FA Processing Team Trainer, Portico
11:00 am
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Workforce Leakage in the AI Era: The Hidden Cost of Policy Change & a Strategy to Protect Retention

As career education institutions invest in AI to drive efficiency and student outcomes, a critical workforce variable often goes unexamined: the hidden retention cost of women’s health. Women make up a significant portion of the sector’s faculty, compliance, student services, and executive roles, yet factors such as infertility, pregnancy loss, chronic hormonal conditions, and caregiving strain rarely surface in strategic planning—despite measurable impacts on burnout, absenteeism variability, ADA complexity, leadership disengagement, and turnover. While AI can streamline operations, it cannot fix workforce instability rooted in human capital blind spots. This session equips leaders with a practical framework to identify retention risk during AI transformation, align policy and manager readiness, and implement structured safeguards that protect leadership pipelines and workforce continuity. Attendees will leave with actionable tools and a 90-day roadmap to reduce hidden cost exposure and ensure AI investments strengthen long-term institutional stability.
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Dr. Latazia Stuart
1:00 pm
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How to Win on TikTok in the Gen Z Era

TikTok is no longer just social media, it’s Gen Z’s search engine, career research tool, and income engine. In this high-impact session, we’ll show how your institution can leverage TikTok in three strategic ways: building organic brand authority, driving lead generation, and creating monetization pathways that extend graduate success. Learn why search intent now matters more than follower count, how organic content can prequalify prospects before admissions conversations begin, and how monetization strengthens your value proposition. You’ll leave with a clear, practical blueprint to turn TikTok into a powerful driver of discovery, enrollment, and revenue.
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Darius Goldman (Career Bond) and Jenn Lyles (Beauty School Marketing)
1:00 pm

Portico Product Lounge

If you haven't already stopped by the Portico Product Lounge, you can meet the Portico team, learn about solutions your school doesn't yet have and how they might benefit your operations - or talk about solutions you do have and how to leverage them even more. You should also stop and meet our sponsors at their tables set up in the common area: Alvarez Mendoza & LaBounty, Tech Holding, Sikich, and EDUTECHLoft.
1:00 pm
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OB3: What it Really Means for Career-Focused Schools

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has become a cultural and political flashpoint, but its real implications for education funding, workforce development, taxes, and regulation are often misunderstood, leaving administrators in need of clarity, not talking points. This session breaks down what the Act actually does versus media narratives, examines potential impacts on federal funding priorities, workforce pipelines, student affordability, employer hiring incentives, and training demand, and highlights where institutions may feel indirect effects even if education isn’t the headline. We’ll also discuss how to equip admissions, financial aid, and leadership teams with clear, confident messaging when students ask, “How does this affect me?” Designed for all institutional roles, this session translates policy noise into practical strategy.
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Panel: Karen Martin-Brown, Nan Murray, Siana Stewart
Portico
2:00 pm
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Disbursement, COD, G5 & Reconciliation

Disbursements and reconciliation are where compliance, finance, and operations all collide. This session demystifies disbursement batches, COD files, G5 comparison, and reconciliation tools in Portico FA. You’ll follow a guided mini disbursement cycle, creating a batch, working through a mock COD response, and reviewing reconciliation results, so you can spot issues earlier and close out cleaner.
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Cassandra Lee and Andrew Douglas
Portico
2:00 pm
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Empowering Your School: From Legacy Products to a Lasting Legacy

Highlighting how tools such as Verity Dialog, CourseKey, and Campus Ivy (now all Portico) helped build and scale HCI College's operations. Learn best practices and insights into how we expanded our physical footprint, team, student population, program offerings, programmatic accreditation, and more.
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David Shelpman
HCI College
3:00 pm
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Withdrawals, R2T4 & Capstone Case

Withdrawals and Return to Title IV (R2T4) decisions carry high stakes for both schools and students. In this capstone session, you’ll work through a real‑world style case: from a student’s withdrawal through an R2T4 calculation and documentation in Portico FA. Along the way, you’ll connect everything from the earlier sessions into one end‑to‑end storyline you can take back to your team.
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Diane Williams
VP, Fiscal, Portico
3:00 pm
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Help Shape the Future of Portico

In this interactive session, we’ll review some future concepts from the Portico product roadmap. Join us to share your feedback and perspective to help shape our tools.
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Moderators: Daphne Dor-Ner, Mark Fuller
Portico
4:00 pm
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Empowering AI: Incorporating Efficiency and Compliance Into our FA Ecosystem

Details coming soon.
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Nan Murray
Product Manager, Portico
4:00 pm
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Closing Statements & Prizes

Our final session will cover insights we gleaned from the week, next steps for follow-up, and prize winners from any special contests throughout the conference.
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Doug Kaplan
CEO, Portico

Conference tracks

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General Sessions

Get inspired by keynotes from inside and outside our industry with topics relevant to our day-to-day but not as niche as the breakouts.

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Financial Aid & Compliance

Stay ahead of regulations, get tips for accreditation, and understand how to run your financial aid processes more smoothly.

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Admissions & Marketing
(CRM)

Recruitment and enrollment help fuel the growth of your institution – and adding more qualified learners into your programs isn’t a given. Learn strategies for reaching students where they are as well as hands-on training for our CRM, marketing automation, and document management tools.

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Student Success & Retention
(Attendance & Mobile App)

Experiential learning is on the rise, so we need to make sure these students stay on track. With attendance, skills tracking, clinical management, and interventions, see how other schools are boosting their retention rates.

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Student Data & Records
(SIS, Payments)

Explore how to manage the full student lifecycle in one place, from enrollment through graduation. Learn how to keep your systems in sync across departments and how schools are making payments easier for staff and students alike, with tools for automation, transparency, and real-time reporting.

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Clinical Management

Discover strategies for tracking evaluations, managing placements, and staying audit-ready with centralized tools like Trajecsys. You’ll also get updates on nursing program requirements and best practices for staying compliant, organized, and student-focused.

Conference tracks

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General Sessions

Get inspired by keynotes from inside and outside our industry with topics relevant to our day-to-day but not as niche as the breakouts.

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Financial Aid & Compliance

Stay ahead of regulations, get tips for accreditation, and understand how to run your financial aid processes more smoothly.

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Admissions & Marketing

Recruitment and enrollment help fuel the growth of your institution – and adding more qualified learners into your programs isn’t a given. Learn strategies for reaching students where they are as well as hands-on training for our CRM, marketing automation, and document management tools.

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Student Success & Retention

Experiential learning is on the rise, so we need to make sure these students stay on track. With attendance, skills tracking, clinical management, and interventions, see how other schools are boosting their retention rates.

Portico Pathfinder Awards

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Know someone who’s pushing boundaries, exploring better ways of working, and opening doors for others? Nominate a colleague for the Portico Pathfinder Awards to celebrate the individuals powering progress across the career ed community.

Submit your nomination by March 10, 2026.

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Thank you to our sponsors

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Reserve your hotel room

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Conveniently located 15 miles from Orlando International Airport (MCO), the Hilton Orlando blends modern comfort with resort-style amenities, including a lazy river, multiple pools, on-site dining, and easy access to everything Orlando has to offer.

To make your reservation and/or extend your stay beyond the days of the conference, call the hotel directly and mention "Momentum 2026": 1-888-488-3509.

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Things to do in the area

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From iconic theme parks to unforgettable dining and entertainment, Orlando offers something for everyone. Hilton Orlando is a Universal Partner Hotel, with a complimentary shuttle (reservation required) that takes you straight to the action. You’ll also be close to great shopping, outdoor adventures, and local experiences that make exploring Orlando easy and fun.

Stay in the loop

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