As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I can't quite figure this out - I know that if you stay at a Universal hotel, you get a Universal Express pass to skip the lines, which would be very useful for me with my chronic fatigue, but if you stay for say one night, do you get a pass for two days and if you stay for two nights, is it valid for three days? That's the bit I can't quite work out from the website... anyone got any ideas?
It works like this - they day you check in you can use your room key all day long. So you can arrive early in the morning, check in, obtain your room keys, leave your luggage with the concierge desk (because your room will most likely not be ready), and head to the parks. The day you check out your room key is good for most of the day. The policy has varied over the years, it once was good until 3 or 4 pm the day of checkout but others have posted that they used theirs the entire day. So basically you can get 2 days worth out of one night's stay.
The room key is actually better than the Express pass you can purchase because you can use your room key over and over at the same attraction as many times as you want. An express pass is good once per attraction.
It would be ideal for you Cheryl, because it's such a short walk from the resorts to the parks. The Hard Rock in particular. Very easy to return to your room for a rest.
We stayed at the Hard Rock and it was ideal for me with Fibromyalgia and Rheumatoid Arthritis. The Express Pass made it a lot easier (no lines to speak of). The Express Pass is available on about 90% of the rides - the biggest exception, and a big disappointment, was that it wasn't available for Rip Ride Rockit. The hotel was an easy walk from the parks. If you don't want to walk, you can head over to City Walk (across a bridge) and get the water taxi, or right outside of Universal Studios (which is next to Islands of Adventure) you will find bike taxis. They hold 2 adults easily, and they work for tips only.
We stayed at the Hard Rock and it was ideal for me with Fibromyalgia and Rheumatoid Arthritis. The Express Pass made it a lot easier (no lines to speak of). The Express Pass is available on about 90% of the rides - the biggest exception, and a big disappointment, was that it wasn't available for Rip Ride Rockit. The hotel was an easy walk from the parks. If you don't want to walk, you can head over to City Walk (across a bridge) and get the water taxi, or right outside of Universal Studios (which is next to Islands of Adventure) you will find bike taxis. They hold 2 adults easily, and they work for tips only.
It's also said that The Forbidden Journey will not have the Express Line, but I haven't gone yet to check!
But staying on site at Universal is awesome. The key usable over and over for the express lines which is great and the hotels are super close and quite beautiful And when I went a few months ago they said nothing about it ending on the day I checked out!
Thanks so much for the answers guys. I think that, if we go back to Universal, which I'd like to do on our trip next year, staying at one of their resorts would definitely be the way to go.
We did that Aug 08, stayed in HRH one night, and got the benefit of 2 days of the pass benefits, then we moved across the street to The Doubletree. We were also going to Sea World & Aquatica. As we had the 7 day Universal ticket, we did go back to Universal some days at opening to re-do our favs, then left when crowds started to build.
While we had the on-site pass I think we rode Simpsons 4 times in a row, lol. Great ride.
Is this once per attraction for the entire day? so only shorten the line once a day?
Yes, the Express Pass that you purchase is good once per attraction. The Universal website states, "Valid for one (1) entry per participating attraction". However, you can use your room key for entry in the Express Pass line as many times as you like.
Yes, the Express Pass that you purchase is good once per attraction. The Universal website states, "Valid for one (1) entry per participating attraction". However, you can use your room key for entry in the Express Pass line as many times as you like.
KellyMarie, you might want to consider how much it would cost to do one day on site and compare that to buying express passes. You can get 4 room keys and use them on the day you check in and the day you leave. If you have four people, it might be pretty close in cost.
I have always been told the key is good from when you check in until the park closes the day you check out.
Universal hotels are also really beautiful and beautifully themed, although in a much more subtle way than Disney.
KellyMarie, you might want to consider how much it would cost to do one day on site and compare that to buying express passes. You can get 4 room keys and use them on the day you check in and the day you leave. If you have four people, it might be pretty close in cost.
I have always been told the key is good from when you check in until the park closes the day you check out.
Universal hotels are also really beautiful and beautifully themed, although in a much more subtle way than Disney.
We already booked the house and we are going in February so I don't know if I could justify the cost of a night's stay. There are 3 adults and 4 children (17yrs,11 yrs,11yrs,10 yrs) I think they would all be adult price too.
we have five people so we decided to book one night at the Hard Rock Hotel in order to have the benefit of the passes. We are going to keep our DVC villa throughout and head over to Universal on the morning of check-in day, pick up the keys, hit the park and the next morning get up for the universal version of extra magic hours and tour Island of Adventures.
It's seems extravagant to double up on accoms for a night, but I think the benefit of the express pass will be worthwhile and we'll be able to see and do everything we want to do.
we have five people so we decided to book one night at the Hard Rock Hotel in order to have the benefit of the passes. We are going to keep our DVC villa throughout and head over to Universal on the morning of check-in day, pick up the keys, hit the park and the next morning get up for the universal version of extra magic hours and tour Island of Adventures.
It's seems extravagant to double up on accoms for a night, but I think the benefit of the express pass will be worthwhile and we'll be able to see and do everything we want to do.
How much is a room for one night and can you rent one room for 7 persons?
How much is a room for one night and can you rent one room for 7 persons?
We are a family of 7 and had to get two connecting rooms.....Staying onsite is sooooo with it!! Having the express pass was incredible - there was a 50 minute wait for Jaws and we went on it twice with no wait - I actually felt a but guilty!!
I don't know about 7 people in one room. It's possible that some suites might accomodate that many people. One great thing about Universal's resorts is that they do allow 5 people in a standard room. Perfect for our family of 5!
As far as price, there are 3 different resorts with different price ranges. I think Royal Pacific is probably the cheapest of the 3.
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And when I went a few months ago they said nothing about it ending on the day I checked out!
I think that, if we go back to Universal, which I'd like to do on our trip next year, staying at one of their resorts would definitely be the way to go. 
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