The Best Disney Souvenir You'll Ever Buy!

 Prior to our family's recent Disney World trip, I invested in an add-on called "Memory Maker." My husband and I had this for our previous trip, but didn't figure out how to really use it until the last day! This time around, though, we got our money's worth 😁!

 Memory Maker is offered through Disney either as an add-on to your Resort vacation or even just by itself. If you purchase it at least three days before your trip, it is only $185 at today's prices (things change quickly on that so YMMV). If you wait and purchase it after you arrive, it is still just $210, and I'd still call it a bargain - which is something I hardly ever say about Disney! You do have an option of purchasing a one-day Memory Maker for $75 if you're just there for a quick trip. If your whole group is linked together in My Disney Experience, any photos they take will be connected to your account as well, so you only need one Memory Maker package per group. A little vocabulary here. Memory Maker is the name of the package you purchase which gives you digital access (no prints) to all your Disney Photo Pass pictures taken on your trip. Going forward, I will reference Photo Pass, as this is the program used in the parks and on the app.

 Why do I think this is such a great purchase? Well, pretty much everything on your trip is temporary. You may stand in line for two hours, but the ride is only two minutes. The food is delicious, but you can't take it with you. Thankfully, the blisters and sore feet are usually temporary as well! The primary thing I have after the trip are the memories, but for me, those are foggy and fleeting as well. Thankfully, I have over 4,800 pictures to help me! Of these, the 603 Photo Pass pictures done by the park photographers are some of my favorites. Yes, the cute selfies of our group of 10 are fun, but you can really see everybody so much better when the person taking the picture isn't also trying to be in it.

 We made a point to maximize our investment on this. Prior to our trip, I put together an itinerary for our park days and I pointed out the photo spots I wanted to make sure to stop at. No, we didn't get to all of these, but it made it a priority. I coached our group on the importance of these pictures for me, and they were all great sports when I wanted to stop for One. More. Picture. They even pointed them out to me as we went along! The fun part was when they stopped at the photographers even when I wasn't with them.

 Sometimes when our group was split up at the park doing higher and lower intensity activities, the separate groups would still stop at the photo pass spots and take pictures together. This made for a fun mix of pictures with different groups of people. In addition, my husband wanted to use it on the rest days. Our trip plan had us alternating park days, where we would be in the park from open to close and busy pretty much the whole time, and rest days, where we might sit by the pool and read or go to a park for part of the day, but the priority was to have a lower impact day. 

 On Thursday, he and my oldest son headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios to experience the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge area of the park with fewer crowds and a few other places. They took advantage of every photography opportunity they could and came out with some hilarious results!

 Meanwhile, several of the other members of our group were imbibing in a traditional adult Disney World activity at Epcot (IYKYK). While there, they made sure to hit up a few photo opportunities along the way.

 Then, on Saturday, my husband set out alone for the Magic Kingdom in search of photographers where he alternately amused and traumatized them with his antics!

 My daughter saw the photos being posted online (they go up almost instantly) and just had to join in on the fun.

 And the group that hit up a park for last minute shopping made sure to stop by a photographer as well.

 A great, and highly under utilized opportunity with the Photo Pass are the portrait studios. Here they have photographers and backgrounds just waiting for you to pop in. You can find these in the following locations:

• Magic Kingdom: Inside Sir Mickey's in Fantasyland

• Disney Springs: In the Marketplace Photo Pass Studio

• This studio also had a green screen where you could get different backgrounds
  
  
• Disney's Grand Floridian (We didn't make it to this one)

 A really fun opportunity with the Photo Pass program are the magic shots. Most of the photographers have them available. They usually offer them, but if they don't you can always ask. Typically, they have you look surprised in a certain direction, or point, or, on one occasion, look really cold. These add Disney magic into your pictures and definitely give you something you couldn't get on your own!

 Finally, with the Photo Pass, you have access to the photos taken of your group on rides. Typically, you just need to stop by the photo station on your way out and scan your magic band or park ticket to add it. These are fun, and my crew got really good at being able to identify where the ride pictures were taken and goof it up!

Here's the Thing: This trip was all about making memories for me, and these photos are literally priceless! My next step, putting them into a photo book - I'll hopefully have a post for that in the future 😍