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Category Archives: Photos
So what’s this Disney Photopass thing?
If you are planning a Disney World vacation you may be asking yourself: “So what is this Photopass thing?”
The answer is both simple and complicated.
Simply photopass is a photography service set up by Disney throughout the parks as well as at some resorts where you can have a Disney photographer take pictures with a professional camera which are than uploaded to a “cloud” and scanned onto your Photopass card (a free credit card sized card with a bar code and unique number sequence on the back). You can have the card scanned multiple times and purchase pictures from your trip at Disney and off the computer once you get home by using the scanned card.
More complicated is factoring in the price- is it WORTH it to order your photopass CD or buy pictures? That is where it comes down to preference. What is great about the Photopass photogs is that if you let them take your pictures and scan your card they will almost always take one with your personal handheld camera as well. They are also at the best photo spots in the parks. Personally, I find that I NEVER regret pre-purchasing the CD. It saves you $50 off of the usual price of $150 and you can come home, add signatures and borders, and then create as many different variations of images as possible. In a four day trip my husband and I came home with over 300 pictures not counting the duplicates I created with borders!
Some rides (like Test Track) and on certain tours (like Animal Kingdom’s new Wild Africa Trek) you will have a photographer with you or be able to scan your card to add your picture to your account. Each park also has a “special” picture or two where you will be posed in a certain way and have animated friends added to your images when you look at them later (we’ve gotten Tinkerbell, Stitch, Simba, Mickey & Donald hang gliding, and a bunch of balloons carrying us away).
Here are examples of classic shots from each of the parks (I used Picnik to turn the 4 pictures into a strip and make them have a vintage look):
When push comes to shove the bottom line is that you know your family best and how you take pictures so think about what you would gain and how you would use those images later before you make your final call!
Related articles
- Disney’s PhotoPass helps Guests capture even more WDW memories (chipandco.com)
- Disney World Quick Tips – Don’t Visit Walt Disney World Through A Viewfinder (chipandco.com)
Disney in Pictures: Disneyland Paris at Christmas
The Disneyland Resort Paris has undergone its traditional Christmas makeover, with millions of lights, dozens of Christmas trees and a smattering of fake snow being employed to generate a festive atmosphere. The resort’s holiday celebrations are closer to those of Walt Disney World than the Disneyland Resort, with few of the holiday overlays for major attractions seen at the California park. However, a number of special shows, meet-and-greets and parades are laid on as part of the Enchanted Christmas events.
The Christmas celebrations are very much focused on Disneyland Park, with sister park Walt Disney Studios receiving only a few token decorations. The entrance to Disneyland Paris, which sees guests pass underneath the Disneyland Hotel, offers some clues as to what is in store. However, it is not until they reach the Town Square that the full effect of the holiday additions can be seen.
The area is dominated by an enormous Christmas tree, surrounded by oversized toys and presents. These offer visitors the chance to snap some impressive photographs, before they set off up Main Street USA towards Sleeping Beauty Castle.
For once, the view back down the street towards the entrance is almost as impressive as the one towards the hub of the park. A Christmas tree lighting ceremony later in the day attracts a large audience, and is worth the wait.
Sleeping Beauty Castle itself, though, is still by far the most beautiful element of a visually-stunning park. In addition to its usual surroundings of pretty waterfalls and novelty-shaped trees, during the Enchanted Christmas events a layer of “snow” adds to the appeal.
The castle is lit up at night during a ceremony hosted by Princess Aurora, which sees her godmothers illuminate it in three different colors. The ceremony itself is forgettable (and thankfully quite short), but the 400,000 lights look stunning. They are joined by 4 powerful searchlights, just in case anyone has failed to notice the spectacular display in front of them.
No Disney Christmas event would be complete without a visit from Santa himself, and Disneyland Paris has done a reasonable job of transforming the Woody’s Round-up area into Santa’s Village. Kids can queue up to make their Christmas requests surrounded by friendly snowmen, and joined occasionally by characters including Pluto and Winnie the Pooh.
Hosted in the nearby Chaparral Theatre is the Mickey’s Winter Wonderland show, a bizarre combination of an ice skating display, sing-along and western-style hoe-down. Adults may find the limited plot and over-the-top acting a little painful, but it’s difficult to resist tapping along to the festive tunes.
Another addition during the Christmas season at Disneyland Paris is Belle’s Christmas Village, located towards the rear of the sprawling Fantasyland. Although largely made up of stalls selling merchandise that can be found elsewhere in the park, it does add a holiday-themed element to a land that is otherwise left largely untouched during the holidays.
Disneyland Paris doesn’t offer a full Christmas parade, but it does tack on a couple of extra floats to the standard Disney’s Once Upon a Dream parade. These are barely worth the wait, but watching Santa’s sleigh pass in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle is admittedly a pretty sight.
Over at Walt Disney Studios, the celebrations are much more stilted. There are no special holiday events or shows, and none of the attractions feature holiday overlays. This year, the resort has given up entirely on decorating the interior of the park, instead focusing on making the entrance area look the part.
There is at least one great photo opportunity in the park itself, with Walt and Mickey welcoming guests as they exit Studio 1. Overall, though, Walt Disney Studios remains the inferior partner to Disneyland Park in almost every sense.
While it would be nice to see a few more holiday additions to Disneyland Paris (such as an overlay for the Phantom Manor), it is a great place to get into the Christmas spirit. Hopefully next year will see additional efforts made at Walt Disney Studios, as well as announcements of new attractions to bring the resort’s second gate up to the same standard as its magnificent neighbor.
Nick Sim is a lifelong Disney fan based in Suffolk, England. When he’s not daydreaming about a new dark ride for Disneyland Paris, he’s writing news and reviews for Theme Park Tourist.
Nick Sim
Lead Editor
Theme Park Tourist
http://www.themeparktourist.
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Disney’s PhotoPass helps Guests capture even more WDW memories
My husband and I are both BIG on taking pictures, and on our recent Disney vacation we took over 2000 pictures on 5 different cameras. So, when I heard about Disney’s PhotoPass, I wasn’t too interested, I knew we loved taking our own pictures and didn’t think it would be of much use to us
We were at Epcot last week, at the Epcot Character Spot (which is awesome by the way, a super smart thing Disney is doing – giving certain characters semi-permanent homes for people to come and meet them, and you can even get Fastpasses for it!), and as it was our turn to meet the fab five (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy!), the Cast Member handed us a PhotoPass, and we went through and had our pictures taken and each time, they scanned the PhotoPass and that was it, it was simple, easy, and I was hooked.
So a quick overview on how it works, you can get a (free!) PhotoPass card from any PhotoPass Photographer (they are all over all the parks, they are the Cast Members carrying the huge cameras), and you hand them the card, pose for a few pictures in front of the castle/Tower of Terror/and tons of other photo op areas, then they scan the pictures to the card and you are on your way. After your trip (or during, if you’re like me and can’t wait), you can go to the website DisneyPhotoPass.com, register the code on your card (or cards, in case you end up with multiple), and voila, your images are all there to view and purchase online (they even have a mobile version of the website the smartphone users out there!)
If you decide you want to order any prints, it can get pricey really fast…2 4×6 prints are $14.95, and an 8×10 is $16.95. They have some cool Photo Products to chose from on the website, from photo books (starting at $79.95), to photo stickers ($9.95 a sheet), to mugs, mousepads, greeting cards and more. If you have a lot of PhotoPass photos taken on your trip, it might be worth the splurge to order the Photo CD, a compact disc of all your photo pass photos. They photos come in high quality jpeg format, and you also receive a license to be able to reprint the photos as you choose. The price for the CD is $149.95, with additional copies at $19.95 each. If you are doing a big family trip or it’s your first trip, this could be a great souvenir for you to relive all those Disney memories.
The best part about it, in my opinion, is that they will take pictures with your camera too, so in case you aren’t thrilled about Disney’s PhotoPass prices, you can have something similar for free. The downside is, the PhotoPass pictures really are nicer, the camera they use is high end, and the ones at night in particular come out much better when the pros do it.
So for those of you who love having your picture taken (like me!) and want a way to capture even more Disney fun, try the PhotoPass next time you at Walt Disney World. It’s free, easy, and a great way to get that perfect family photo for next year’s Christmas card!
Related articles
- Capturing Disney in Pictures: 8th Day of Christmas Riding the WDW Monorail (chipandco.com)
- Interview with Hidden Mickeys Author Steven M. Barrett (chipandco.com)
Capturing Disney in Pictures: 7th Day of Christmas at the Magic Kingdom Flag Ceremony
Flag Ceremony at the Magic Kingdom
Every photo has a story.
Picture this…there are 8.5 million lights decorating the resorts, theme parks and down towns of Walt Disney World. If you purchase a ticket to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, there is a 100% chance of Disney created snow flurries. If you’ve braved the holiday crowds to make it to the Magic Kingdom, it’s hard to miss the epic-sized Christmas tree in Town Square. Every day at 5:00 p.m., there is a Flag Ceremony in the square at the entrance to Main Street. For visitors and armed forces Veterans alike, this is a touching ceremony that is accentuated by the lights and decorations of the Christmas season.
During the Flag Ceremony, the flag is taken down for the night. If you are a Veteran, you can inquire about participating in the ceremony. Daily participants include Walt Disney World Security Officers and the Main Street Philharmonic marching band. The Dapper Dans barbershop quartet sing “God Bless America”, and announcements are made by The Mayor of Main Street. A veteran chosen at random carries the folded flag while the Philharmonic band plays John Philip Souza’s “The Liberty Bell” on the march down Main Street.
Disney vacationers report that the daily Flag Ceremony is an emotional event any time of year. However, with thousands of holiday lights and the Town Square Christmas tree in the background, this may become a new annual tradition for your family. God bless all who have, are , or will serve our great nation.
Thanks for stopping by for a photographical Disney ride!
Do you have any fabulous Disney vacation pictures you’d like to share? Drop by and share your photos on facebook at Mouze Kateerz. Take a virtual Disney vacation twice a day in photographs. Or shoot me an email of your favorite Disney location at mouzekateerz@chipandco.com.
Capturing Disney in Pictures: Haunted Mansion, Florida Style
Every photo has a story.
People enjoy being scared for fun, and what better place than a haunted house? Studies show up to 40% of Americans believe in house-haunting. So nearly one in two people believe, more than they believe in any other paranormal actitity, that spirits haunt houses. Your buddy standing next to you right now? He probably believes. He’s listening for rattling chains.
So of course Walt Disney incorporated a haunted house into plans for his new theme park. His initial concept for the Haunted Mansion was a retirement home for ghosts. Disneyland’s original 1969 Haunted Mansion was installed in an antebellum plantation house located in Frontierland. This building, built years prior to the ghost’s inhabitance, is detailed with a columned portico and ornate filigree railings. Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion appears to have lept straight out of “Song of the South.”
But for Disney’s second shot at spooky residential scares, Imagineering’s John Hench dreamed up a much darker-themed design for Walt Disney World’s Florida version of the Haunted Mansion. The end product, a gothic manse made of stone and brick located in Liberty Square, appears straight out of an old horror movie. Ghosts grim or grinning, I’d still move in this mansion, since there’s always room for one more. But I’d need some cleaning supplies.
Picture this… five pound bags of theatrical dust, called “Fuller’s Earth,” are used to decorate the 200 props at the Haunted Mansion. Pound for pound, that’s likely enough dust to have buried the Mansion completely by now. With your Doom Buggie, officially known as a 160 OmniMover, plugging along a 1.4 mph, there seems little chance of a Doom Buggie draft disturbing the dust. This OmniMover technology was first used by Disneyland in the 1967 attraction Adventure Thru Inner Space.
The Haunted Mansion offers fun entertainment for adults, and you’ll leave with one of the most memorable Disney songs of all time ringing in your ears. But some young children can be frightened. This attractions isn’t a Disney-cute ride like you would have expected to see in the now-deceased Toon Town. Hanging corpses, coffins, axes, spooky portraits, loud shreiks, and DARK rooms abound, and that’s once you make it past the tombstones by the side door. Not to mention those Cast Members perfectly in character… it’s time to take small children by the hand and enjoy a good Disney scare.
Either way, California’s antebellium plantation or Florida’s gothic mansion, “Beware of Hitchhiking ghosts!”
Thanks for stopping by for a photographical Disney ride!
Do you have any fabulous Disney vacation pictures you’d like to share? Drop by and share your photos on facebook at Mouze Kateerz. Take a virtual Disney vacation twice a day in photographs. Or shoot me an email of your favorite Disney location at mouzekateerz@chipandco.com