Birthdays. Back Pain. Battlestar Galactica. - Our May 2024 WDW Adventure! *THE END! 09/01*

[Newsies]

We also really enjoyed our dinner at 1900 Park Fare. I was thrilled to get the original four characters (especially since we met Snow White elsewhere) - Mirabel and Aladdin were the standouts for us. Honestly, I think my daughter was more thrilled by the current character lineup than she may have been by the original dinner lineup. As much as I missed the Tremaines, they may have been a bit too much for her.

I agree that the food was REALLY good - I loved those mashed potatoes and mac and cheese and my husband loved that focaccia. We also enjoyed trying Tiana’s gumbo and I liked Aladdin’s couscous salad. And yes, that chocolate lava cake was delicious!

I’m so glad you had such a positive experience!

So glad you got to meet Aladdin while you were there and glad you loved the food as much as I did! So good -- can't wait to be back!

I think it was wise to return to your room and get ready for the next day. It’s tough to “miss out” on park time, but rest makes a difference!

With Genie+, I'm just so conscious of how much of a "value" I'm getting out of my park days! I kind of regretted not going back to MK that night, but you're right, it was probably the wisest choice to rest up after such a long day.

Joining in! I think MMRR is one of my absolute favorite rides. I would love to start a trip with it . And I'm glad to hear you enjoyed 1900 Park Fare. We haven't eaten there since reopening!

Thank you so much for joining along! We love MMRR too -- one of dad's favorites 1900 Park Fare was fabulous, highly recommend!

Loving your TR so far! I followed along with your PTR as well and enjoyed it very much. I've really been struggling with deciding which character meal to do for my 7 year old daughter. It's a trip with just the two of us and her very first trip ever and Tiana is her favorite princess. I've watched a few vlogs on youtube, but after your lovely review I think I've been swayed to choose 1900PF over CRT! I'm aiming for a late breakfast instead of dinner on our Magic Kingdom day (we don't have park hoppers). We have the Halloween party set for that evening and I don't want to rush through the meal to get to the party on time.

I'm loving all your honest reviews so far! Thank you!

K, you are too kind! This reply just made my day I'm so glad my review of 1900 Park Fare was helpful for you! I would definitely recommend 1900 Park Fare over CRT -- such a better value and the character interaction was a lot better here than it is at other princess dining locations. I love the idea of sleeping in, having a late breakfast here, and enjoying MNSSHP at night! You and your daughter are going to have a blast, it sounds like your trip is going to be great.

Thank you thank you again for joining in/commenting!

 

[RN_Mama_inFL]

Following along!
Great minds must think a like, we are checking in tomorrow to the Poly and our 1st dinner is also at 1900 Park Fare! Love your thoughts and photos so far.

 

[Newsies]

Following along!
Great minds must think a like, we are checking in tomorrow to the Poly and our 1st dinner is also at 1900 Park Fare! Love your thoughts and photos so far.

Thanks so much for following along! I hope you have the BEST TIME tomorrow and on your trip -- let me know how you like 1900PF!

 

[piglet1979]

It gave us some extra privacy, and we had a few cardinals visiting us throughout the week on the branches across from us, so I liked it.

You must have had some loved ones visit. That is what I was always told when you get a visit from a cardinal.

Your arrival day sounds like it was a nice day.

 

[Newsies]

You must have had some loved ones visit. That is what I was always told when you get a visit from a cardinal.

That's exactly what we thought, too! They kept visiting, so we got to say "Hi Grandma!" and "Hi Grandpa!" a few times throughout this trip

Your arrival day sounds like it was a nice day.

A bit of fun in the parks, a bit of fun in the pool, a great dinner... can't go wrong!

 

[Newsies]

Day 2, Park 1:
The "Wildest Ride in the Wilderness" Gets Even Wilder
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Mom was the first one awake, and that woke me up... at 6:50 in the morning, and we still hadn't purchased Genie+ for the day!

My shocking wake up call got me to jump up out of bed and buy Genie+ for the four of us for what would be our most expen$ive Genie+ day in history -- $25pp for Genie+ service and we paid an additional $22pp on this day only for Tron ILL. So we spent about $200 on services that used to be offered for free just 4 short years ago. This would also be a day where I personally wouldn't have purchased G+, but I'll reserve my rant on Genie+ for another day, or maybe at the end of this TR.

The rest of my family ended up ready to go before I was, so they went down to Captain Cooks for breakfast while I finished getting ready. Selfie time!

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Eventually I headed down to Captain Cooks myself, and skipped breakfast so we could make it on the next boat launch over to Magic Kingdom and enjoy some Early Morning Entry fun. Sure enough, a near-empty boat pulled up to the Polynesian Marina as we approached the dock and it was time for another beautiful (hot) morning sail to the Magic Kingdom with the wind in our hair It really is my favorite way to get to MK!

Here we go!

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When we got past the tapstiles, we noticed the double-decker bus was out and taking guests on a one-way trip to the Castle! I've never been on the double-decker before (and have really only seen it being used for the rainy day cavalcade, I think!) and the rest of the family was keen to get on it, so we boarded the bus and sat on the bottom level with a solo traveler who told us about her life as a newly-retired nurse traveling the entire world and spending some quality time at her favorite place, the Magic Kingdom. Soooo epic -- I want to be her when I grow up!

Here come the mouse tears:

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We didn't really have time to admire the castle today, and headed right for Winnie the Pooh as our one (1) early morning entry attraction this day. We were on in less than 10 minutes and then we spent a few minutes shopping around in the Thotful Spot for some baby clothes for my cousin's baby shower.

After Winnie the Pooh, I took a quick detour into Sir Mickey's for a bit of pixie dusting in my hair, and then we headed on towards our second ride of the day, Haunted Mansion!

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I THINK this was our first time seeing the Hatbox Ghost in Magic Kingdom. Dad, Mom and I have all previously seen him at Disneyland and I'm just a little underwhelmed by the addition of the Hatbox Ghost here. It really just feels like they just slapped a random animatronic in a random spot and it doesn't add anything to the show.

As we started making our way to our true first Genie+ selection of the day (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), I wanted to take a quick detour in Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.

You may know that Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe sells customized ornaments, featuring hand-drawn/painted designs by an artist in house. But did you know you can also get a plain black pair of Mickey ears customized here now? That's exactly what I was here to order! After picking a pair of plain black Mickey ears off from the wall, I went up to the register to let them know I'd like to buy and personalize the ears. They filled out a form that was similar to the one you fill out when you order a personalized ornament, but you have a few options on different designs and drawings you'd like on the ears. I filled out the form, gave them some information, paid, and was told I'd get a text within 2 hours letting me know my ears were ready to be picked up!

Then, finally, it was time for us to head to BTMRR! And look who we ran into on our way over!

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I don't think anything makes dad happier than the country bears!

Then we tapped in to BTMRR and I made our next selection for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Now, looking back on this moment... this could have ended up being my biggest mistake on this trip. As we were on BTMRR, I noted to myself that it seemed a lot more rough and bumpy than it has on years past. Obviously, nothing has changed about the ride myself, but as I got off and waddled towards the exit, I joked about "getting older" and how I "definitely felt 27." I didn't think anything about it at the time, but now I'm wondering -- could I have had a back spasm while I was on BTMRR and not realized it in the moment?

It sounds crazy because if you followed my Aug 2019 PTR, I'm not a stranger to a lower back muscle spasm. In fact, I'll link the post where I talk about that experience here as a comparison -- When I had my first one, I DEFINITELY knew I was in a lot of pain, immediately, and had a real hard time moving for several days. But that was a pretty major spasm, and this one seemed to not be as disruptive as my 2019 one was.

Either way, we got off of BTMRR and I'm really hungry at this point, so I say I'm going to preorder a Dole Whip. Open the app. Aloha Aisle not accepting Mobile Orders. UGH. I settled for Citrus Swirl and the rest of the family did, too. We all got the classic orange/vanilla swirl except for Grace, who wanted Strawberry, and then we started making our way over to Sunshine Tree Terrace.

The Citrus Swirl was okay, but nothing is better than pineapple Dole Whip! Grace was the only one who got something different, she got a strawberry Dole Whip and THAT was really good, actually. It was nice and tart, not too sweet. Grace liked my swirl better than she like her strawberry whip, and I liked her strawberry whip better than I liked my swirl, so we ended up switching treats after a few spoonfuls!

Finally it was time to tap into Pirates. Yo-ho, yo-ho! The file size on this ride image is huge and DISboards is angry with it, so I can't post it here, but I'm doing a cute little heart-hand in this photo, too.

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Yay-yap-yap. This has been a super yappy update, so I'm gonna cut it here and we'll come back later with a reveal of my custom ears and our first ride on TRON!

Click here to Continue​

 

[alohamom]

we'll come back later with a reveal of my custom ears

I didn't know you could do this...I cannot wait!!!

 

[jump00]

Really enjoying your trip report!! Great read!!
Brenda

 

[TinkHappy]

Day 0 + Travel Day: Faith, Trust, and Pixel Dust​

Our story begins, as such stories often do, on a Friday morning – about 14 hours before we left for Disney and 48 hours before we’d arrive at the Poly!

I woke up around 6 in the morning and went on a quick walk in my neighborhood like I always do on my WFH days. I listened to the new Zayn album, did a few laps around the park, and then walked back home so I could take a shower before I started my workday. I still had time after drying my hair, so I ran out and grabbed coffee before logging on for the day!

I normally take the day before we leave off from work so I can help my family get our affairs in order before we leave, but given that I was going to be out for longer than usual, and that I needed to put a few meetings down with some team members before I left, I worked until 2:45. And man, it was the longest workday of my life! While I was working, my family ran some errands, including dropping our dog off at the puppy hotel.

After several productive meetings (a productive day, actually!), it was time for me to set my “away” message on GMail, set my status to “away” on Slack, and step “away” from my work laptop for 10 magical days!

As soon as I finished my work day, it was time for mom, Grace, and I to head to the nail salon for our very favorite pre-vacation tradition: mani-pedis! I normally do a matte purple or light blue, but this time, I really wanted sparkle and I settled on what was basically a transparent, very light-pink glitter color. I swiped a peek at the bottle while my nails were being done and it turns out the color was called Pixel Dust! How perfect is that?

Dad turned in for a few hours of sleep before the trip, but mom, Grace, and I grabbed some pizza for dinner. Once I was finished eating, I tried to go upstairs to get some sleep, but Grace stopped me. Unbeknownst to me, she ordered a birthday present for me and she wanted me to open it before we left.

She actually got something very sweet for me based off of a conversation we had a few weeks ago. See, I’m a huge record collector and I pulled a few of my mom’s old records from the basement earlier this year so I could spin some for Grace and I. While I was spinning them, I mentioned that I wish I still had a CD player for my large collection of CDs, and a way to play cassette tapes so I could start collecting those, too.

So Grace went on Amazon and found a combination CD/Cassette player.

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It was a really sweet gesture and it made me emotional because she knew it was something I wanted, but it wasn’t something I would typically buy for myself

Not much happened for the rest of the evening – we did go back out to the grocery store to visit the Coinstar machine and cash in the pocket change we’ve been collecting for the past year, which came out to $123. Then we watched a little Full House, a bit of Roseanne (the episodes where they visit WDW, naturally!), and then at around 10:30, we heard the unmistakable jingle of dad’s car keys in his pocket, which meant it was almost time to hit the road!

I got changed super quickly into my outfit for the car ride and took this giddy selfie.

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With the car loaded and our hearts full of excitement, we officially said “Good Trip!” and started our vacation (and 20 hour drive) at 10:59 PM EST!

We didn’t get too far before our first stop, which was Wawa to load up the car with some gas and grab a cup of coffee. I also grabbed a bag of Hello Panda cookies with strawberry filling. We already had a salty snack (Newsies Sisters’ Trail Mix!) in the car, so we needed a sweet one, too. Life is all about balance, right?

Then we were finally southbound for real. The first leg of the drive down (11 PM-7 AM) was the worst. It rained like crazy. I slept on and off. I snacked on trail mix and Hello Panda cookies. We stopped at several rest areas.

At around 7:00 AM, I woke up from a pretty deep nap. With Grace and Mom both awake too (and, yanno, Dad, being the one driving… he was also awake), we decided to pull into Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We end up at the same Cracker Barrel in North Carolina almost every year!

I got a half-and-half to drink and the country biscuit platter for breakfast, with country ham and two sides: fried apples and hashbrown casserole.

It was pretty good! But service was sloooooow this morning, so we were there for a pretty long time.

We got back on the road around 8:00 but didn’t make it very far. Mom & dad pulled into a rest area around 8:30 and we all slept until around 9:30. Then it was back on the road and we drove until noon, where we were greeted with the sight of our all-time favorite gas station/brisket mecca…

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BUC-EES!

Since opening their first location on the east coast in 2021, we’ve enjoyed stopping here for brisket sandwiches, jerky, assorted snacks and tchotchkes on our journey to and from the mouse. If you’ve never been to Buc-Ees, it’s crazy. It’s like a TJ Maxx mixed with a Wawa. It’s the biggest gas station you’ll ever see in your life… and you’ll never have brisket quite like the brisket sandwiches here!

I got an iced tea, a chopped brisket sandwich and a bag of dill pickle potato chips. AND I got to meet Buc-Ee. I was a happy, happy girl!

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The brisket sandwich was lovely as always, but very sweet with an abundance of BBQ sauce. The dill pickle potato chips were amazing – so crispy and fresh-tasting with a spicy, garlicky dill flavor!

We kept trucking on through on-and-off rain, appreciating the sun whenever it poked out from behind the clouds (we had just had 12 straight days of rain in NJ). Around 5:30, we arrived at our stop for the evening: Kingsland, GA.

We’ve been stopping at a motel in Kingsland for many, many years as a family. This is the last exit in Georgia before Florida, so you can get through 75% of the drive from NJ, sleep for a few hours, wake up in the morning, and still potentially make it to the parks for rope drop if you wake up early enough.

We’ve not always enjoyed the restaurant scene at the exit in recent past, but we noticed this year that there were multiple new restaurants on this exit – one of them being a Freddy’s Steakburgers, where we stopped for dinner. You would think I’d get a burger, but no – I ended up getting a hot dog and fries.

It was a pretty good hot dog! The bun was like Texas Toast and the hot dog was just a regular ol’ Nathan’s frank. Real simple, real good. Fries were shoestring – they were good but I wasn’t “wow”ed by them like my family was. The rest of the family got burgers and loved them.

When that was over, we headed to Fairfield Inn and Suites closer to 6. Fairfield Inn and Suites Kingsland is our absolute favorite place to stop overnight en route to Disney – super clean, friendly staff, nice rooms. After a quick shower, we all settled in for a few hours of sleep… well, it was really more like a few hours of laying down in the dark and wishing we were able to sleep!

Coming up next: our 4 AM wake up call and our first morning at Disney!

Click here to continue​

Loving your trip report so much! From someone from Texas, I would agree 100% - Buc-ees is the BEST!!!

 

[LoveToDisney]

I rarely read trip reports but your title got my attention and I’m glad it did. Once I began reading, I was hooked! I hope you return to this thread soon to fill us in on the rest of your trip! It has been a blast to follow along from the faraway Midwest as I wait to enjoy my own Disney trip later this year. I love your energy and desire to enjoy the moment! You have a great Disney family!

 

[Newsies]

I didn't know you could do this...I cannot wait!!!

I found out about it on TikTok a few weeks before our trip -- it ended up being so worth it!!!

Really enjoying your trip report!! Great read!!
Brenda

Brenda, thanks so much!!

Loving your trip report so much! From someone from Texas, I would agree 100% - Buc-ees is the BEST!!!

Hello hello from NJ! Thanks for checking in, Tracy!

I rarely read trip reports but your title got my attention and I’m glad it did. Once I began reading, I was hooked! I hope you return to this thread soon to fill us in on the rest of your trip! It has been a blast to follow along from the faraway Midwest as I wait to enjoy my own Disney trip later this year. I love your energy and desire to enjoy the moment! You have a great Disney family!

Thank you VERY much! This is so kind of you to write Appreciate all the comments and kind words and so happy you're here!

 

[Newsies]

Day 2, Part 2:
My Review of TRON Lightcycle Run (Plus Some Other Things)​

After we were done Yo-Ho-ing, I got the text that my ears were ready to be picked up! I asked dad to get in line for Cheeseburger Egg Rolls while I headed up the bridge to Liberty Square so I could grab my ears.

And now, the grand reveal (taken from the Peoplemover later on in the trip)...

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TA-DA! I love them SO much. Squealed with delight when I saw them. These ears and my "Sweet Niblets" necklace were my two most complimented accessories on the entire trip -- I seriously could not love these any more than I already do! If pink isn't your jam or you're not celebrating a birthday, have no fear: with so many different designs and colors, there's no doubt you'll be able to make a dream pair of ears that match whatever you're celebrating!

I put on my brand new ears and made my way back to the family, where there were Cheeseburger Egg Rolls waiting for me. I sadly didn't take photos of these, but they looked exactly as they've always looked: like Egg Rolls, with a cup of what I'm sure is Russian Dressing on the side. These are very tasty, especially as a lunch option at Magic Kingdom. We ate these pretty quickly, as we wanted to get to the pool before dinner but we still had to go to our TRON reservation!

We lugged ourselves all the way over to the very far back of Tomorrowland and then headed to TRON for our ILL.

If you're still not familiar with the set up of TRON Lightcycle Run, the seats are designed to look like the vehicles in Tron, which are a bit motorcycle-esque and the set up is a bit reminiscent of Pandora: Flight of Passage. This means that larger bodies may have a hard time fitting into most of the seats, but there are modified seats that can accommodate larger bodies in the back of the ride vehicles and they're set up just like normal roller coaster carts. Now, I don't have trouble fitting on Flight of Passage, but I do know a few people who can fit into FoP but not TRON, including people who have similar body types to me, so I was going to try out a tester seat for the cycle carts.

When we got to the entrance, there were a lot of people taking photos on the tester seats. Which is like, whatever, I truly don't care, but given how many people were using them as a photo op, I didn't even attempt to get close to them to see if I'd fit on the cycle. Dad didn't need to test out the seat to know he'd need the modified seat, so I would just chill in the back with him.

We scanned in and were in the pre-show room very quickly. Plus, I love that TRON's pre-show is very short. Also! The free lockers for TRON are CHEFS. KISS. I love the "magical transporting" lockers. So much better than the locker set up at Universal Studios. We ended up making it to the boarding platform very quickly, less than 5 minutes after we scanned into the ILL entrance. I would personally say that the $22/pp was worth it for this experience given how quickly ILL lane was prioritized at the merge point here here, but I know not everyone will agree with me here.

In any case, we get to loading CM on our side, and we let her know we're a part of four, with two people who need the modified seat. We were then directed to another friendly CM, who brought us to the other side of the ride immediately so dad and I could get on the next modified cart and Grace & mom were right in front of us!

Different Disney news sites prepped me to be waiting a bit of a longer wait at the boarding dock if we needed the modified cart, as multiple people could be needing it at one time and there aren't that many modified carts on TRON. This was not our experience at all -- I don't know if this was a "unicorn" moment or if TRON has just gotten significantly better with boarding guests who need this accommodation, but it was a really pleasant experience for us.

Anyway, TRON was a LOT of fun! Its so fast and smooth and fun, and I don't feel like I missed out on any part of the ride experience by being in the modified cart -- they did a great job with this ride. I only have one complaint, and it's about the ride photos:

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This was the only one that showed up in MDE and I fear it's because dad and I were in the modified cart I LOVE this photo of mom and Grace but dad had the time of his life on this ride and I would have loved to see our photo from the ride!

Other than the photo, I was really happy with our TRON experience -- it was a fun ride, everything was run efficiently (to the point where I felt satisfied we paid $88 to ride it), and I was really satisfied with our experience needing the modified carts. We will 100% be back soon, likely with the use of ILL again versus Virtual Queue.

We got off Tron and we were ready to head to the pool! We made our way back to the front of the Park, and I told the family to go on without me, as I was just going to buy a few things at the Emporium and pick up some popcorn from the Confectionery.

I went into the Emporium and purchased three things, a white Magicband+, a magnetic Squirt from Finding Nemo plush, and this pink sweater.

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(Please excuse the stock images -- just needed to show you what I bought!)

I had seen this little Squirt plush on every single bag every single member of Gen Z was wearing throughout Walt Disney World so I knew I had to buy him. You'll see very soon that he appears in every photo with me going forward! He latched perfectly onto the pink belt bag I had and was just soooo chic there. Loved him.

I knew the pink design with the characters was super trendy, and while I normally would have sprung for the T-Shirt instead, I just liked the color pink better on this sweater and they only had one left in the Emporium and it was in my size, so it just felt right.

After I made my purchases, I went to the Confectionery to make some popcorn. I don't have photos of the experience (I know, I'm the worst!), but if you didn't already know this, you can go to the back room in the Confectionery (where the hats used to be) and there's a station there where you can make a bowl of popcorn with drizzled chocolate and toppings. I chose a plain buttered popcorn base (they also have caramel corn, rainbow popcorn, and cheddar) and drizzled it with milk chocolate and topped it with oreos and nilla wafer crumbs. It was so good! We tried this in 2022 and it wasn't very fresh but it was great this year. I had a really fun conversation with both the girl who made my popcorn and the girl who rang me up at the register, where we talked about my Sweet Niblets necklace and Hannah Montana.

Before leaving the Park, I wanted some photos on Main Street. As I was going back up Main Street to find a photographer, I ran into a Character Attendant that I worked with once on my DCP -- I didn't think she'd remember me, but as soon as she saw me, she opened her arms for a big hug It was really sweet. I miss my Cast mates!

Then I got some photos taken and I really loved these!

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THEN it was time for me to get back to the Poly for real for some pool time before dinner. I took the next boat launch from MK to the Poly, threw on my bathing suit, and joined my family at the quiet pool. We swam for a few hours and enjoyed some drinks there. I know I got a new drink at the Poly called the Coconut Mocha, which features vodka, rum, Joffrey's cold brew, cream of coconut and vanilla. It is really sweet and heavy on the Coconut taste, which means I couldn't taste the alcohol, so I was all-in on this one.

Then it was time for a shower and a nap before our dinner at Steakhouse 71!

Click here to continue​

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Those ears are seriously so cute!

 

[Paulaparm]

LOVE those ears!!

 

[alohamom]

LOVE THE EARS!

 

[kclark9830]

Yep, those ears are FABULOUS! I'm definitely going to check out that option!

 

[lulu2121]

I love the design on those ears!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love the ears, really cute! I also love the pictures on Main Street! Your bag is really cute
Is it comfortable having the pack across your front? I have seen so many of these and I am not sure I would like that!

 

[GoldenAfternoon]

What a great trip report! I’m really enjoying reading along and look forward to hearing more

 

[ak517]

I am looooooving this trip report!! Thank you so much for detailing your family trip to the parks, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

This was the only one that showed up in MDE and I fear it's because dad and I were in the modified cart I LOVE this photo of mom and Grace but dad had the time of his life on this ride and I would have loved to see our photo from the ride!

I would email photopass and see if you can get the photo. It could take some time for them to respond after the fact, but for future reference you can stop at photopass locations in the parks to find any missing photos. It’s easiest if you know like the twenty minute window you were at the ride or photographer. I am basically always making a pit stop to photopass on my way out of the parks to retrieve missing photos, and it’s way quicker to do in person than emailing them afterwards.