Our tips from our 1st family vacation at WDW

[nikkers]

On the budget board, people will post for photopass share groups. Disney offers photopass, they have photographers all over every park to take your picture. You will get a photopass card, and each photographer will scan your card each time they take your picture. You can order the pictures from Disney. You can also get a CD for $150 with all of your pictures, or you can pre-order it for $100. I have not checked for a while, so the prices may have changed. Some people organize photopass groups. Several families will go in together and split the cost. One person organizes each group, and is in charge of getting the CD's to everyone in the group. I hope that explains it a little better. I am very glad we did it. It saved us a lot of money, and we have some great pictures.

 

[earthiejen]

Thanks for sharing your experience! We will be first timers in a few weeks. I am definitely following the link for the autograph book and passport!!

 

[aprilmommy]

Sorry, I'm just confused about the photopass sharing. When you get your cd, does it have all the other families pics on it too? Did you prepay or order after your trip? Some friends of ours are going 2 weeks after us and I was thinking about asking them to share since we know them, but I don't know how it works. I'm just nervous to photopass share with a bunch of people I don't know, but I know it can save a ton of money. Thanks!

 

[chefgirl96]

As a mom planning our first trip for early 2010, I loved reading all your tips! Just curious if your 5 yo used a stroller? My girls will be 5 and 8, so was debating about renting a stroller for 2 days or bringing an umbrella stroller.....

 

[nikkers]

Sorry, I'm just confused about the photopass sharing. When you get your cd, does it have all the other families pics on it too? Did you prepay or order after your trip? Some friends of ours are going 2 weeks after us and I was thinking about asking them to share since we know them, but I don't know how it works. I'm just nervous to photopass share with a bunch of people I don't know, but I know it can save a ton of money. Thanks!

It depends on the person running your photopass group whether they separate the family pictures. The original CD has all of the pictures. The group I was in ended up having a total of 7 original CDs, and the person running the group was kind enough to separate each family's pictures onto their own CD. I am very glad we found a photopass share group. It worked out well for us.
The person running the group pre-ordered the CD. Each person participating paid her. You can order a CD after your trip, it just costs more. I think it is $100 to pre-order and $150 to post-order. If you are interested check out the budget board. There is a lot of great info posted there about photopass.

As a mom planning our first trip for early 2010, I loved reading all your tips! Just curious if your 5 yo used a stroller? My girls will be 5 and 8, so was debating about renting a stroller for 2 days or bringing an umbrella stroller.....

We brought an umbrella stroller for our 2 1/2 year old. When she would get out my 5 year old would sit in it. It was a lot of work to push him. We have a very nice Britax umbrella stoller, it was not once of those cheap ones. Honestly, he did really well walking until our last couple of days. So, we rented a stroller our last 2 full days. It was so much easier to push him in the Disney stroller. It was $15 a day. If you are park hopping they will stamp your stroller ticket, and you can get another stroller in any park.

 

[writermommy6]

I love, love, love the passports and stuff. I noticed that there were journal pages also. I may try those for my kids. I think they'd love to have their own journals.

 

[natentab]

Great first trip for the entire family! 9 days! Great tips and hope you get to go back very soon.

 

[natentab]

Oh, and ChefGirl, bring the umbrella... We have a 7,4 and 1 yr old. When our daughter was 6, we still took one for her. Very easy to keep up with... but could be hard to push if you have the small wheels.

My wife is wanting to do an entire blog just on strollers as we've done several ways and settled on bringing our own.

http://www.earlywise.com/search/label/Disney

 

[MrsMoncrief23]

Wow, all the information I need for traveling with my 3 year old all in one place, thanks!

 

[nikkers]

Wow, all the information I need for traveling with my 3 year old all in one place, thanks!

 

[idrivealumina]

As a mom planning our first trip for early 2010, I loved reading all your tips! Just curious if your 5 yo used a stroller? My girls will be 5 and 8, so was debating about renting a stroller for 2 days or bringing an umbrella stroller.....

Disney strollers have big wheels that roll much better than an umbrella stroller. They much easier to push in the parks and if you get a double both kids can ride. Our kids 4 & 7 made great use of the stroller plus you have a spot to put your bags (on top).

HOWEVER...

We have in the past used an umbrella stroller. Although not as easy to push in the parks, our 4y/o often fell asleep on the bus back to the resort and having our umbrella stroller was quite nice when going back to the room to pass out from exhaustion.

HAVE A GREAT TRIP!

 

[turtlebean]

thanks for sharing all these great tips. my boys are the same ages as your kids. we will be heading to wdw for the first time in may.

 

[Disneynut5]

I am a little worried about our feet. We went to Sea World last Saturday and my legs were fine but the bottoms of my feet were another story. Guess I will be looking for more comfortable shoes.

I was thinking of renting a stroller and letting my 4 year old use it. I wonder if my 7 year old would be able to sit in it with his sister on his lap if he got tired? He only weighes 48 pounds right now and she is 38!

 

[nikkers]

thanks for sharing all these great tips. my boys are the same ages as your kids. we will be heading to wdw for the first time in may.

Have a great vacation!

I am a little worried about our feet. We went to Sea World last Saturday and my legs were fine but the bottoms of my feet were another story. Guess I will be looking for more comfortable shoes.

I was thinking of renting a stroller and letting my 4 year old use it. I wonder if my 7 year old would be able to sit in it with his sister on his lap if he got tired? He only weighes 48 pounds right now and she is 38!

They do have double strollers to rent. I am not sure how much? We only rented the single stoller for our last 2 full days. A couple of times they sat together in it. I don't remember any issues when they did that. But it definately was for a very short time.

Good luck with your feet. I ended up wearing my Crocs the entire trip, and luckily had no blisters.

 

[naomi78155]

Great tips!

 

[nikkers]

Great tips!

Thanks