I'm going to answer a couple questions I recently had e-mailed to me from readers. One reader asked if it's worth it to get Disney's Photopass. My answer was yes!
When you enter any of the parks in Disney you'll likely see a Photopass Photographer somewhere near the entrance taking pictures. You can walk up to one of the photographers and get a card with a bar code on it and then all the pictures you have taken by the Disney Photopass Photographers will go onto that card. Before leaving Disney you can go to the camera shop in the Magic Kingdom and view all the pictures taken and even add the photos you've taken to a CD.
Now there's 2 ways you can do this. First is to buy the Photopass CD which costs about $100. That allows you the rights to reprint your Disney photos as you wish when you get home. The other way is to take the card home with you, login at www.disneyphotopass.com create an account, enter the bar code number on your card and view all the pictures the Photopass Photographers took. From there you can choose to order and pay for the prints you want. The photos aren't terribly expensive ($12.75 for a 5X7) and sometimes you'll find some added features to your photos that were not there when you had the picture taken! (I'll leave the rest be a surprise).
Another question I was asked this week was from someone who was leaving for Disney this weekend and had never been there. She was looking for suggestions on what not to miss. I told her to make sure she sees the Spectromagic Parade in the Magic Kingdom. It's a parade that doesn't occur every night but on nights that it does, it's often twice. The lights are turned down and all the parade floats and characters are drenched in lights. This is a must-see in the Magic Kingdom! She had also asked about the Fast Pass system in Disney. That's the best way to get on more rides in less time. Kiosks are located near the entrance of the most popular rides. If you insert your park pass into the kiosk, it will spit out a ticket which will have a time range to come back to the ride and enter via the Fast Pass line. That line moves quickly! One quick little known secret for those using Fast Pass. You'll get a time range to return to the ride. If it's after the end time on the ticket, my experience has been that they will still allow you in the Fast Pass line right through the end of the day! But don't try to go in before the time starts, they watch it and monitor it to the minute. A cast member is posted at the entrance to the Fast Pass line.
I'm sure there are other questions out there and if you have one, feel free to e-mail me at disneydiva1@gmail.com