I think I've mentioned it before, but Disney has a free photography service in the parks called Photopass. You walk up to a photographer that is stationed at one of hundred of spots throughout the parks, and they'll take your picture. Sometimes they are candids, but often they are posed shots. They then scan the image onto a plastic card, which you then input the code from onto the Photopass website when you get home. Sometimes, depending on where the photographer is, they will add a surprise to the shot, like Tinkerbell or baby Simba.
You can pay for each image separately, or you can buy a CD that will hold all your images. We opted to buy a package before the trip to get a CD with our pictures; doing it this way saved us $50. There is no limit to how many pictures you can get for this price, so it's MUCH cheaper than buying each image separately. You then get the images and the release to have them reprinted by a store like Walmart, Shutterfly, etc. if you buy the CD.
The nice thing is that you can add borders characters, etc. to the images when you get home. You get the original shot plus the enhanced one. It's a great deal - we got 182 pictures of the trip on our CD. Here are some of my favorite shots.
First group shot of the trip!
Love Jack's face here.
Jack's got the best facial expressions in these shots!
Notice whose nestled in Gracie's hands...
Hannah was asleep during this part of the day, so we opted not to wake her to get these group shots. Still, they're nice shots of the three of us!
Funny shot while Hannah was getting her makeover!
This was the day many of us (not me) bought a sweatshirt, only to have it warm up literally about 2 minutes after we walked out of the store. The sun came out, and that's all it took!
I look like I have no neck, but I love Hannah's pose in this shot.
I love this candid shot of Hannah running to meet Sorcerer Mickey!
Doesn't she look so happy here?
I LOVE Hannah's bashful, excited pose here, too! :)
I think it was Missy's idea, but this was our last night - Saturday - of the trip, and Miss thought it would be funny to get a picture of us looking exhausted. Matt is not one to be silly, so he stood this one out. The girls obviously didn't get it, and ironically enough, this is the ONE shot this trip where Addie looked at the camera AND smiled at the same time. I don't think the photographer quite knew what to think of us...
Well, that's it! Thanks for coming along on this adventure! We had a great trip, and it was definitely an experience planning a trip for 10 people!
Miss, Hannah, and I are headed back for a 4-day weekend over Cedarville's fall break this October to attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary-Halloween-Party (our favorite seasonal event at Disney).
In other exciting news, we are planning a Disney cruise for May, 2012!!!! Miss and I haven't cruised since 2005; that was our "last hurrah" of adults-only Disney vacations since she was on the waiting list for a referral at her adoption agency. This will be Hannah's first cruise, and we think she's at the age where she can enjoy being on the ship. We'll also be able to do some shore excursions, which will allow us to get out on the islands we stop at in the eastern Caribbean to see the sights. Admittedly, we had some nervousness about taking a small child on the ship (fears of her falling overboard were enough to make us nauseous and back away from the idea) in years past. Now, we think Hannah is ready and SO EXCITED for the cruise. She repeatedly asks to see pictures of "the boat" and the various pictures of the ship I can find online. Disney built a new ship this year, the first in over 10 years, and the second newest ship will sail next summer - the Disney Fantasy. That's our ship, and we'll be on it about 6 weeks after it's maiden voyage.
Anyway, we have some exciting Disney plans coming up, but we're grateful to have made the memories on this last trip, too. That's really what these trips are about - making memories and strengthening our bonds as a family. :) I'm a sucker for Disney commercials, especially this new ad campaign of showing real families' videos of their trips. The ones showing the families laughing or smiling so big that their joy is visible get me every time. One of the commercials has a line that says, "Hold on to the love. Hold on the laughter. The memories you make now, you'll hold to... forever." That's the best description I have for what Disney means to us. :) Thanks for reading along about this last memory-making trip!
2 comments:
I love how you described the picture of you all looking tired. Of course that's when the kids would give then best, "I'm awake!" smiles:)
That photo service is really cool! whenever jamie and i see the disney commercials we talk about our dream of surprising our kids with a disney trip some day. those princess makeover look so fun - i know sophia would really get into that! thanks for sharing all the pictures and memories!
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