Tips about PhotoPass and Resorts

Be sure to look at your pictures taken by the PhotoPass photographers at least 90 minutes before you leave each park, even if you want to wait until the end of your trip to purchase them. We didn't look at them until our departure day (we went to the Grand Floridian to view them) and none of the pictures taken at Epcot turned out well. By then, it was too late to have them retaken. - Deb Ruscitelli

I knew that we could view our PhotoPass pictures at home after our trip was over, but we discovered that you can purchase the copyright to the PhotoPass photos and they will send you EVERY picture that you had taken on a CD so that you can print as many as you want! The cost of this is only $99.95, and you can order the CDs from home. This program has its own special web address that can't be found on the regular PhotoPass website. - Jamie Chappell

EDITOR'S NOTE: As we have previously reported, you may also purchase the CD with all of your PhotoPass photos while you are still at Walt Disney World. Locations that offer this service are in Epcot's Camera Center, and the Grand Floridian's M. Mouse Mercantile.

All Resorts - I'm sure that many people, like myself, are light sleepers and wake up at the slightest noise. As you may well know, even the Deluxe resorts at Disney World are plagued with their share of noises, and for me nothing ruins a vacation more than not getting enough sleep. What I've found to be extremely helpful in getting a good night's sleep is to bring along a cheap pair of foam earplugs. I put them in right before bed and sleep soundly the whole night. I've found them in stores such as Target, but you can also get them at your local pharmacy for only a few dollars. - P.F.

We have just returned from a stay at the Art of Animation Resort, in a Little Mermaid room. It didn't have any tea- or coffee-making facilities in it, so if you want to make a hot drink in your room or warm a baby bottle, you'll want to bring a travel kettle (or something similar) with you. - Katy Hand

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

ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE - During a recent stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we walked outside to enjoy a warm evening, seeing if we could see any animals. Well, being nighttime, there wasn't much to see. One of the guides stationed at the observation posts offered us his night vision goggles. It was absolutely incredible. Each of us got to see the animals moving around. It was literally like opening my eyes when looking through them. There were lots of animals where we thought there were none. We have been to the Animal Kingdom Lodge before, but this was a first for us. I highly recommend this experience. Ask the guides; they are always so helpful. It's just another reason tolove this resort, and Disney! - Linda Waltz

ALL STAR RESORTS - We stayed at All Star Music Resort during a "value" or low attendance time period for WDW. As it turns out, due to the lower volume of people, the transportation buses tend to make stops at All Star Sports, All Star Music and All Star Movies -- in that order. The end result is that by the time the bus gets to Movies over 50 percent of the time it's standing room only. This may not apply during the regular season and I'm sure it does not apply during the peak or holiday seasons. I developed a saying midway through the vacation: If you want to sit and ride, stay at All Star Sports. - Michael Dodson

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.

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

All Resorts - In the room at the hotel, there typically isn't any place to store your bathroom stuff. Toothbrushes, makeup, medicines, shaving supplies, or whatever else ends up sitting on the counter where it either gets moved or is subject to cleaner overspray when the staff comes in to make up the room. My wife found this tip on a cruise ship website and it worked great for our Disney trip over Thanksgiving. She found a clear plastic hanging shoe holder, the kind that has pockets for holding individual shoes. We hung this in the closet and put all our bathroom stuff in there. It was out of the way, but easy to see where individual items were. The holder went down to the floor, too, so we could put things our 5-year-old needed towards the bottom so she could get them herself. Everything had a place so the bathroom countertop was completely clear when we left for the parks each day. - Pete Johnson

Contemporary - Though you can't just go to the top floor of the Contemporary to watch the fireworks, you can go to the third floor lookout (or the stairwells of the 4th-14th floors). Also, remember that the monorails stop when there are perimeter fireworks. - Kenny

Fort Wilderness - We seem to arrive at Fort Wilderness late in the afternoon after driving for several days. After setting up, it's too late to visit any of the parks. What we do is take the boat over to the Wilderness Lodge for some minor shopping (the Orlando paper) and then over to the Magic Kingdom. We don't go in, but exchange our vouchers for the park tickets. By that time of day, there's no line but a couple of Cast Members are still on duty. If we time it right, we can watch the fireworks from the boat on the way back. - David and Dayle Youngs

Grand Floridian - We found that the Gasparilla Grill at the Grand Floridian Resort provided decent food at just a small premium over counter service in the theme parks. The food available poolside at the waterside pool was very expensive; however, you could get a tray from Gasparilla's and bring your food out to the pool. - Michael Gizzi

When we travel to the World, we make sure to purchase as much as we can on our Magic Band. On one hand, there's no need to carry cash around, but the real benefit for frequent visitors is that at the end of your stay you get an itemized list of all expenditures. We still pay for it all with cash when we check out. After we get home and are settled in from our trip, we go through the list and use it to track exactly where we spent our money (dinner, lunch, toys, etc.). Doing this allows us to budget almost exactly how much money we will need for our next trip and there's no need to save all of your receipts to do it. - Fred Block

Port Orleans Fench Quarter - We had several problems with our room at Port Orleans French Quarter, the worst of which was being locked out three straight days due to a malfunctioning lock. Readers should know that there is a courtesy phone in the vending areas at each hotel that can be used to reach the front desk. This could have saved us the long walks back to the lobby had we been told! - Andrew from Boston