Tips about PhotoPass and Souvenirs

I recently returned from a Disney trip and wanted to let everyone know about a souvenir I brought home. It is the littlest photo album I have ever seen! It is on a key ring and holds 12 pictures, sized about 1.5" X 1.5". It has a cover with a picture of Mickey on the front and the castle and fireworks with Tinker Bell on the back, and it says "My Disney Vacation." It was very reasonably priced at about $4! There was at least one more style with Stitch on it. What a great way to keep 12 of your most magical memories with you all the time! - Kimberly Lawton

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

Disney character toys are so expensive. We have found a great way to save money on our trip and let the grandchildren enjoy the characters on the way to Disney. We buy the toys on eBay for a fraction of the price, sometimes for as little as 99 cents plus shipping. I know it gives us more spending money and our grandchildren are just as happy. - Susan Smeltzer

ALL PARKS - When visiting the Disney parks, I usually like to pick up an extra guide map or two. I use them to decorate my cube walls at work and will also give extra copies to friends and family who may be planning their own trip in the near future. This helps them get a better idea of the park layout and make plans. - Kerry Kollasch

ALL PARKS - When visiting the Disney parks, I usually like to pick up an extra guide map or two. I use them to decorate my cube walls at work and will also give extra copies to friends and family who may be planning their own trip in the near future. This helps them get a better idea of the park layout and make plans. - Kerry Kollasch

I made a scrapbook of a WDW trip and on the book itself I used the road map that we used to drive there. At the starting and stopping points I put car stickers, traced the route in a red marker, and added interesting sites along the way. It makes a beautiful cover! - Michelle

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.

A favorite stop for my 9-year-old daughter and me is the Basin bath shop in the Marketplace. Basin has very few locations around the country and has some of the best bath products. Our favorite is the "Mix Your Own Bath Crystals" section. For around $3.50, you receive a tube (1.25" x 5.5") that you fill with the bath crystals of your choice. They have a "buffet" of colors and scents for you to mix and match. It's a fun souvenir for "Mom and Daughter." They also sell an array of made-on-premises soaps cut straight from the bar, massage oil cakes for all ailments, and tons more. This shop should be a definite quick stop. - Maria Heuskin

I personally think Disney pins are a bit too expensive (and the clothes, too). Well, the answer to my problem was found on a trip to the Belz Outlet Mall right outside of WDW. We decided to stop at a shop called Character Warehouse. I ended up finding a few cheap shirts for about $5-$6 that sold for about $13 at WDW! And I also found Disney Pins for $.99! Some were even LIMITED EDITION! So, if you are a bargain hunter, this is a must-see! - Rachel
http://allears.net/btp/cware.htm

Use your camera phone to take pictures of items you think you want. First, take a picture of the sign of the store where it is located. Then take pictures of the item and the tag of the item. Review nightly or at the end of your trip. Best of all, you can buy it from Disney Mail Order Merchandise when you're back home if you forget! - Crissy Stout

My husband and I were getting married at Disney World and wanted to have one of our wedding photos framed with all the character signatures -- as if they were our guests at our wedding. We went to a local frame shop at home and had the person make a photo mat large enough to fit a 4x6 and all the characters' signatures. It worked perfectly and we carried it in a huge Disney shopping bag that a Cast Member had given to us. We were able to fit Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Cinderella, Belle and Beast, Mary Poppins and Bert, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Snow White, Aurora, Minnie and many others on the back of the mat (and only my husband and I know they are there). It was a challenge to get all of them and a goal magical to accomplish! They usually have these types of mats at any craft store as well, and you can have them cut the way you want -- small or large. - Rob and Amy

On our last trip to WDW, my husband and I quickly tired of our 5-year-old son asking for every fascinating souvenir he saw. We came up with the idea of having our son keep a list of all the souvenirs he liked, and we promised that at the end of the trip we would go back for the one he finally decided was the best. While we still had to stop at a lot of souvenir stands, there was no whining or begging from the time we started the list. Charlie happily added to the list each day, and at the end purchased a wonderfully noisy blaster from the Star Wars shop at the Studios. - Cari Allyn Brooks

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

We have accumulated so many Disney photo keychains over the years that I decided to use them to decorate our Christmas tree. I crochet around the keyring with red and green yarn. I make a loop and it is all set to hang. Now I have my own Disney Memories ornaments. - Joanne Dillon

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.