Tips about Epcot and PhotoPass

ALL PARKS - I mistakenly left my video camera in a locker after Fantasmic last April at the Studios. The following morning, after a harried cab ride and security escort back to the locker rental (I was checking out and flying home that day), I was surprised to find out that they do not clean out the lockers each evening. It is up to the next rental guest to turn in left packages, etc. It was even more difficult, as the manager could only open one locker at a time (there was no master key) and I couldn't remember the exact locker number.TIP: Take a digital photo of your locker number in case you lose your key or, like me, leave articles in it overnight. That way the manager can go directly to that locker and find your personal belongings. The next guest DID turn in my things, the manager called my cell phone immediately, and WDW shipped my articles back to me at no charge. I am very grateful for this service, but could have saved everyone a lot of confusion if I had just snapped a quick photo. This is helpful if you jump parks and have different lockers to memorize every day. - Elizabeth Marsh

A big part of our trip was the amazing pictures taken by the Disney PhotoPass photographers. I wanted to share with everyone something that Disney just started. As many of you may know, if you want to buy a 5x7 of one of the photos taken of you and your family by a Disney photographer, it will cost you about $20-$25 for ONE photo! Well, we bought one on our first day. By our fourth day, we had taken more than 50 photos with Disney photographers. Fortunately, that day we went to Epcot and stopped in the Camera Center to view our pictures... A very nice Cast Member named Joe advised us that for $99.95 we could purchase a CD with ALL of our Disney photos on it. They would also give us the license so that if we take the CD to a Walgreen's, Wal-Mart or anywhere else, they would know the pictures now belong to us and we can make as many prints in whatever size we want. By the time we left, we had close to 70 pictures, all beautiful, and all taken by Disney photographers. So, if you are picture junkies like we are and love the high quality photos Disney takes, it may well be worth your money to purchase the CD and have ALL the photos Disney took of you during your vacation, rather than spend $25 to get just one. It sure was worth it for us! - Jonathan Young

Epcot - Just returned from our annual Thanksgiving trip to WDW. At Epcot there is now the Character Connection (by Innoventions and Club Cool). This is replacing the Double Decker bus that used to travel through Epcot with multiple characters. At the Character Connection we found Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Chip & Dale. This is all inside and kids can get to see all of them and get autographs, too. While I loved the bus, the Cast Member said that they had a lot of complaints that the bus took off too quickly and kids did not get enough time to see their favorite characters, and also it is very hot outside in summer and the bus would not come out in the rain. This area was not very busy; my kids waited about two minutes to frolic with the characters. My tip would be go get a FastPass for Soarin' and go to the Character Connection! - Amy G.

Epcot - Just returned from our annual Thanksgiving trip to WDW. At Epcot there is now the Character Connection (by Innoventions and Club Cool). This is replacing the Double Decker bus that used to travel through Epcot with multiple characters. At the Character Connection we found Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Chip & Dale. This is all inside and kids can get to see all of them and get autographs, too. While I loved the bus, the Cast Member said that they had a lot of complaints that the bus took off too quickly and kids did not get enough time to see their favorite characters, and also it is very hot outside in summer and the bus would not come out in the rain. This area was not very busy; my kids waited about two minutes to frolic with the characters. My tip would be go get a FastPass for Soarin' and go to the Character Connection! - Amy G.

We just got back from two weeks at WDW. It was our first time to use the PhotoPass and it was great! By the end of our first day at the park, I had saved our photo card number on my cell phone, just in case the card got lost anytime during our vacation. That way, I could get a new card from the photographer for new photos but still be able to access my earlier photos with the card number I already stored. I also saved on my cell phone the confirmation numbers for all our character dining... very easily accessible. - Maxine B.

Epcot - Here's a tip for getting on Test Track with little or no wait: show up right before Future World closes, then get in the Singles Line. We waited less than 10 minutes on a Saturday night. - Jen

Epcot - Here's a tip for getting on Test Track with little or no wait: show up right before Future World closes, then get in the Singles Line. We waited less than 10 minutes on a Saturday night. - Jen

ALL PARKS - My husband and I just returned from our honeymoon at WDW and had a MAGICAL time! One thing that I would like to share concerns the "Magical Wishes" pins that you can pick up from Guest Relations at the theme parks. My advice is that everyone celebrating a special event -- honeymoon, anniversary, birthday -- pick up one of these buttons. Everywhere we went in WDW we were warmly congratulated by Cast Members! We had an incredible time! I would recommend WDW to any couple who wants a truly special honeymoon! - Christina Church

EDITOR'S NOTE: There are many styles of buttons available at Guest Relations. Among the more popular: "Best Wishes,""Congratulations," "1st Visit", "Happy Anniversary" and "Today is My Birthday."

I learned this tip the hard way when I lost my Disney PhotoPass this past May. I have since returned this past October and what I did with my Disney PhotoPass was place a return address label on the front and hand write my email address in case I lost my card. My hope was that if it was lost, someone would email me or send it back to me via the mail. Many, many Disney photographers made comments to me on what a great idea I had! - Michelle

Epcot - I have a tip for keeping children occupied while waiting for the fireworks at Epcot. On our last trip to Disney, we wandered into the Toy Soldier at the United Kingdom before we went to get a place to sit for the fireworks. While we were in the store our 3 1/2-year-old son saw a Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle he wanted. We bought it for him and let him put it together while we waited for the fireworks to begin. It completely occupied his time and by the time he was finished, it was almost time for the fireworks. We are planning another trip in November 2005 and this time I am going to pack some of his puzzles into Ziplock bags to take with us. He will have something to do while we wait and we won't have the box to take up a lot of room in our bag. - Tiffany Lueck

Epcot - I have a tip for keeping children occupied while waiting for the fireworks at Epcot. On our last trip to Disney, we wandered into the Toy Soldier at the United Kingdom before we went to get a place to sit for the fireworks. While we were in the store our 3 1/2-year-old son saw a Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle he wanted. We bought it for him and let him put it together while we waited for the fireworks to begin. It completely occupied his time and by the time he was finished, it was almost time for the fireworks. We are planning another trip in November 2005 and this time I am going to pack some of his puzzles into Ziplock bags to take with us. He will have something to do while we wait and we won't have the box to take up a lot of room in our bag. - Tiffany Lueck

I wanted to expand on a tip given this week from Alea Laughery in regard to taking pictures of your kids in each country in Epcot. We do this every year and some other ideas we have done: playing an instrument, waving a flag, eating a candy or treat not from a restaurant and taking a picture with a cast member from that country. My son gets excited every time and is always coming up with what he wants to do. (He came up with the instrument idea!) Next trip... Toys! - Lisa H.

I wanted to expand on a tip given this week from Alea Laughery in regard to taking pictures of your kids in each country in Epcot. We do this every year and some other ideas we have done: playing an instrument, waving a flag, eating a candy or treat not from a restaurant and taking a picture with a cast member from that country. My son gets excited every time and is always coming up with what he wants to do. (He came up with the instrument idea!) Next trip... Toys! - Lisa H.

ALL PARKS - While spending the day in Epcot in the hot weather, when my feet are hot from the pavement, I always change to another pair of socks and sprinkle on some baby powder. It's a quick refresher. - Claire Rozzi

EDITOR'S NOTE: this works great at all the parks!

ALL PARKS - If you are not going to ride an attraction with your family, meet them in the ride's air-conditioned gift shop. Most rides have a gift shop into which the ride will exit, so it's a convenient place to meet up with your family. - Angela H. Nisbett