Tips about Photography and Souvenirs

After dinner at Chef Mickey's, my son accidentally deleted all the photos off my memory card that I had taken in the parks the previous three days and our photos from our just completed character dinner (about 400 images). After a few tears and moments of panic, I called my brother who is an amateur photo buff. He advised me there are programs to retrieve the deleted photos, BUT you must NOT take any more photos on that memory card! We purchased a new memory card that night and took the old memory card to a camera store and for about $42 dollars all my photos were retrieved and put on a disk. It was so tempting to run back into Chef Mickey's and snap more pictures of the kids with the characters, but thank goodness I didn't! - Vicky

During our most recent trip to Disney we brought a little backpack for our camera and video camera. We weren't sure if it would rain and we didn't know what to do if we got stuck in the rain. We decided to put our cameras and batteries in a zipper top bag. Sure enough, two days after we arrived, we got hit hard with a thunderstorm and were forced to wait for a bus back to our resort in the rain. Needless to say if it wasn't for the zipper top bag our cameras would've been ruined. - Brandon

I save the black, plastic Mickey-shaped "dishes" you get food on at some of the quickie eateries (like the eat-on-the-street Rosie's All-American Cafe in Hollywood Studios) and take them home. Every night I put out fresh veggies for our girls with ranch dressing in the ears for dipping. They get a kick out of it and we've been using them literally for years! We think it's neat that we recycled them all the way from Disney. I wash them on the top rack in the dishwasher with no issues. - Shanlee Ginchereau

If you have a digital camera, take advantage of uploading your photos at one of the Photo Centers for downloading when you get home. It frees up your memory stick for more pictures and you will not have to worry about losing them if you lose your memory stick or the camera (as we did on our most recent Disney trip... with all the special one-of-a-kind photos and videos). - Linda Harrop

On our last trip to the world we were pleasantly surprised upon check in at our resort to be stopped by a family asking if they could give our 3-year-old princess their princess balloon as they were leaving and wouldn't be able to take it with them. They explained that they had been given the balloon in the same fashion upon their check-in and was passing on the favour! What a great idea! We continued the balloon's travel upon our check-out in the same fashion with no tears from our princess of having to leave it behind! What a great way to spread a little magic to incoming guests and teach our children about sharing! - Karen

If you purchase the foil balloons for your children, but do not have space in your car (or the plane) to transport them home, there is a quick and easy solution! All you need is a regular drinking straw. Undo the knot that ties the balloon to the string. Insert the straw into the hole and push it a few inches up into the balloon. That releases the valve and you can deflate the balloon, fold it and pack it in your suitcase. Ideally, you can hide it away, and then when the kids' birthdays come around, you can bring it to the local dollar store or party supply store and have them refill it with helium for you!! You won't believe the looks on your kids' faces when the Disney balloons re-appear! (And if you don't want to go that far, you can simply blow it up with your own lung power, and the same straw, when you get home). - D. French

Most of the Disney balloons have a Mickey weight on them. When it was time to leave the balloon couldn't go with us so I quickly took the Mickey plastic weight off of the bottom and added it to my camera strap as a souvenir. Imagine my delight when I realized not only did I have a constant reminder of a a wonderful trip, I no longer had to search for my little camera! The Mickey is distinctive enough for me to always spot -- unlike the camera strap -- and easy to grasp. The camera has made two more trips back to Disney with us and people always comment on the Mickey. It would work on anything that has a narrow strap. - Sherry Huff

Most of the Disney balloons have a Mickey weight on them. When it was time to leave the balloon couldn't go with us so I quickly took the Mickey plastic weight off of the bottom and added it to my camera strap as a souvenir. Imagine my delight when I realized not only did I have a constant reminder of a a wonderful trip, I no longer had to search for my little camera! The Mickey is distinctive enough for me to always spot -- unlike the camera strap -- and easy to grasp. The camera has made two more trips back to Disney with us and people always comment on the Mickey. It would work on anything that has a narrow strap. - Sherry Huff

Another great way to help someone reconnect you with your lost camera: write on a piece of paper, "If found, please call... " with your phone number. Then take a picture of the piece of paper and "lock" the image on your internal memory and each memory card you might be using. This way if either your camera or a separate memory card is misplaced, someone could take a look and hopefully give you a call! - Laura Conner

After frantically trying to figure out how to identify our camera if lost, I walked past a pet ID tag engraving machine and immediately thought, "Wow, that will work!" I got the smallest tag I could find, engraved our name and cell phone number on it, and hung it from the wrist strap. Problem solved and it was simple and cheap! - Lisa Bufo

Only purchase things once. We repack the light-up toys we bought a few years ago. Same with the water bottle lanyards, pin lanyards, etc. Anything that you will repeatedly need each year, SAVE IT. We have a small container that is decorated as the "Disney Box." Since we drive to WDW, it goes with us every year. As soon as we get home, the autograph books, lanyards, light-up toys, etc. go in the box for the next trip. Taped to the underside of the lid is a list that I start replenishing with the very next grocery trip. I choose one or two things each trip, that way it doesn't eat into our budget (extra batteries, rain ponchos, refills for the first aid kit, and snacks closer to the trip). - DShealer

Birthday souvenir idea for Epcot: When we recently went to Epcot for my husband's birthday, I made him a birthday tag (4x6 size) which I laminated and attached to a lanyard (you can find those at a craft store or make your own). On one side, it had his picture superimposed over a picture we had taken from an earlier trip at Epcot, and it said "I'm Celebrating My Birthday at Epcot!" On the back, I listed all the countries in order on the left side, leaving a space between. Then on our visit, as we traveled to every country, he asked a Disney Cast Member to wish him Happy Birthday in their native language! It is one of our favorite keepsakes ever, and we've prominently displayed it in our vacation scrapbook. - Beth Adams

On our last trip to Walt Disney World, there were three families traveling together. My parents, my brother, sister-in-law and nephew, and my husband, three children and myself. We took almost 900 pictures among all of us. I am attempting to organize them in a timeline fashion. I thought I could just load them and then organize them by date/time taken. Unfortunately, all our cameras were not in sync. My sister-in-law lives in another time zone and my mom's camera was about five minutes off from mine. Needless to say, it is an organization nightmare right now... though I am enjoying looking at all the pictures! My tip would be, if you are travelling with a group and will be sharing all your photos, synchronize the times of your digital cameras at the beginning of the trip to make it easier to organize all the photos when you get home. - Elizabeth Doda

When we leave Disney with all of our souvenirs, they seem to go by the wayside once we get home, so I have started putting all of the "Disney stuff" away in a bag. When we go back to the magical land, it's ready to pack and take back with us. My kids have usually forgotten about everything, so it seems like new and I don't have to repurchase all the stuff. This also works well with Disney plush toys, hats and light-up gadgets. I also like to purchase Disney-related things throughout the year as I see them and add them to the bag. - Deb Gorman

To save on impulse souvenir purchases-shop online and at your local Disney Store ahead of time. I pack a new Mickey item for each child in our luggage and they wake up to a gift left by... Tinker Bell, Mickey Mouse, etc. Throw on some glitter and they'll definitely believe the fairies were there. Trading pin sets can also be purchased this way and save you a ton of money. - Angela Manzi