Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom (SotMK) is a fun and *free* activity in Magic Kingdom. *Free* is only mostly true, but we will get to that later on. To start the game you head over to the Firehouse in Magic Kingdom. The Firehouse is located on the left side of Town Square over near Harmony Barbershop and the restrooms. Once you get to a cast member inside they should ask you if you’ve played before. If they do not ask, tell them you’d like to start playing. They will set you up with the magic bands or park tickets for everyone that would like to play in your party. We have 3 magic bands for our family since Callen does not have a park ticket due to his age. Once set up they will give you some packs of cards (typically one pack per person) and take you to the practice portal within the Firehouse, so you can see how to play. That portal will tell you where your next portal is, but you will need the map to find it.

Portals work by scanning the lead person’s magic band (they will tell you who that belongs to at set up) to the key hole near the portal. Scanning the band “opens” the portal to play. There will be a video that plays and you will be told to “cast your spell.” When you are told to cast your spell you will hold up one of your cards toward the portal and the camera should pick up which card you are using and then play an action to go with the character. There are a total of 70 cards plus there are special cards that are only available at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. You will find cards 1-60 within the packs you are given over time, but 61-70 are found by buying booster packs

There are three difficulty levels of SotMK and you have to complete each one to move on to the next. We are still on the easiest level after 8 months of playing. We have not played on every single trip down, but we do play every time we go to Magic Kingdom. We finally completed cards 1-60 on our last full family trip. We have a few of the 61-70 cards that we have purchased the booster packs to obtain.

You can watch a video of a portal being played below.

I know this is kind of a vague post about Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, but we are also still figuring out a lot about the game. I wanted you all to know that the game exists and to stop by and start a fun game the next time your in Magic Kingdom. Your game won’t expire on you, so go, enjoy!

Our Park Essentials

If you look at Pintrest there are tons of packing lists for Disney. If videos are more your thing there are a bunch of packing videos on Youtube as well. Obviously, our essentials may not fit your family needs, so use this as a general guide. I’ll use broad categories for adults and kids and narrow them down from there.

Adults

Backpack
We really love this bag. It is a tech bag, so there’s a sleeve in the back that would be for a laptop for normal people. We use it for the kid’s autograph books. There’s an internal cord so we can plug the cord into the battery pack we bring and then plug our cord in to a port on the outside. It is able to be unzipped quite wide so it is always easy to be able to dig out anything. There are cup holding pouches on both sides.

Battery packs
Using My Disney Experience (MDE) all day can drain your battery. Trust me you will be using it! Mobile ordering food, checking Fastpass times, checking ride times, looking at your ride photos, and there’s even Disney Play that has games to play while in line are all encompassed within MDE. We also play Pokemon Go which drains our battery. I’m also taking pictures and video all day as well since I’m beginning to vlog. The battery packs have also come in handy for our drives down and back since Belle uses her tablet so much we’ve been plugging in her tablet to a battery pack so it doesn’t die on her and we can keep our sanity. Also our fans (which you will see later) are charged via USB, so we can charge them with the battery pack as well if needed.

Phone Cords
This could very well get covered in the battery pack section, but it’s part of my list, so it’s own section it gets. We usually bring two cords (one for each of our phones), but on occasion we do forget to grab a cord from the house, so we only have the one cord from the car. Usually my phone has a higher need to be charged since I do more on my phone than Andrew does.

Mineral Sunscreen
This is more for the whole family, but figured the kids section will have plenty of other sections. Typically sunscreen has a whole lot of nasty ingredients, but we try to keep as much nasty out of our house as possible, so we go for the Young Living Mineral Sunscreen. No nasty stuff, recommended by the Skin Cancer Foundation and is reef safe! We use either the 10 or 50 SPF depending on what we are doing that day. If we know we won’t really be in the sun much we go with the 10. Water park is definitely a 50 day.

Thieves
People are GROSS! I see so many people complain about how they got sick after (or while) Disney. We attempt to combat this with preventative care all the time and then when we are at Disney we use Young Living Thieves hand sanitizer, Thieves Spray, and Thieves wipes. We wipe down tables, ride bars, door handles, pretty much anything we touch. We use our sanitizer before eating and after bathroom breaks or any time we see a need.

Straws
Recently Disney has pledged to be more eco-friendly, so they have done away with plastic straws (if absolutely needed you may request a plastic one, but they may not be able to accommodate). Our kids are straw munchers, so the provided paper straws do not fly. We bring metal straws for our straw uses. The biggest issue we’ve had was that we forgot them at a restaurant once. We were lucky they were slow to clear the table, so once we remembered and made it back the straws were still there.

Cooling Towels
We have a towel for each of us. These towels you take and run under cold water, ring them out, and snap them to have them cool down and then you can put them where you want. Andrew and I usually choose our necks. The kids mostly hold theirs or will rub their faces or arms.

Tissues
Yes, we keep two different kinds of wipes in the bag, but having a pack of tissues has come in handy on more than one occasion. Whether it be for Disney induced tears (thanks Happily Ever After!) or that mid-day nose blockage, tissues come in handy almost every trip.

Enhancements
I bring Lemon Lemon packets and Stevia to flavor water and un-sweet tea if I choose to use them. It’s my way to not drink as much pop even though there is Coke Zero in most places around the park. It’s not the best drink, but it is still zero points for my WW points. Again, I bring the flavorings to avoid the pop (remember the nasty stuff I talked about with sunscreen, pop has it too, so we try to limit it).

Electronics and Accessories
Since I’m trying to dabble in vlogging I bring my Gimble which is a device to stabilize my cell phone while walking and holding it. I also bring an action camera (think GoPro type camera) and some accessories that go with that.

Camelback
We’ve been caught a time or two without the Camelback and regretted it every time. There’s days we say “it’s just one more thing to carry” and yet we always seem to suffer through or buy a small fortune in water bottles. If we don’t feel like carrying the pack around we can toss it under the stroller or throw it on the hook (which you will hear about shortly).

Stroller
We switch up which stroller we bring. Sometimes we bring the City Mini double and other times we’ll bring the City Mini Micro single. City Mini strollers can be rented from various companies in Orlando such as Kingdom Strollers.

“Mommy Hook”
We keep a “Mommy Hook” on the stroller. It is basically an industrial hook that can hold purchases, our backpack, or the Camelback.

Stroller Pouch
We have a stroller pouch that can hold various items for us. Typically you will find my phone and kid’s drinks in it. Sometimes it has magic bands for us to play Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. Sometimes my glasses can also be found in the pouch while I wear my sunglasses.

Rain Guard
We have a rain guard for our double stroller, but not the single. The rain guard goes over the stroller so that the kids can be protected from the rain or the stroller can be protected from the rain if it is parked while we are eating or riding a ride.

Fans
We use some super awesome clip on fans that we found on Amazon! They are charged via USB, have an oscillation button, and a turn dial to choose your air speed. We love these! We clip them to the stroller and I will also clip them to the backpack or baby carrier for us adults too!

Kids

Diapers and Wipes
Our youngest is still in diapers and our oldest still doesn’t wake up in the night if she has to use the bathroom, so we have diapers for Callen and we keep a “sleepy diaper” for Belle when we are only there for the day and will be driving back late at night. We’ve got our Young Living Seedlings wipes that we use for Callen’s diaper changes, but we also use them to cool down a bit as well. They have Lavender in them and are obviously damp, so it’s a nice way to having some calming aroma and cool off.

Diaper Cream
We keep a bottle of Young Living Seedlings diaper rash cream in the bag since you never know when you may need it. There’s no need for a possible rash to pop up and keep getting worse during the day.

Snacks
We aim to have snacks that will keep easily in the bag. We usually have fruit or apple sauce pouches and fruit snacks of some sort. Occasionally we will have some extra things that we’ve acquired from meals such as bags of apples or a krispy treat.

Sport Bottle Cap
We keep a sport bottle cap for water bottles because it’s easier for Callen to use if we have to use a water bottle and keep moving. If we know we are going to be sitting we will give him a metal straw, but if he is keeping the bottle with him we use the sport cap.

Change of Clothes
We mostly keep a full outfit to change Callen if need be. Sometimes we will have something extra for Belle, sometimes we won’t. She’s pretty good about keeping herself clean. If we bring something for her it is either a cotton dress that can be folded to itty bitty size or we’ll just pack an extra shirt.

Magic Bands
We have a few magic bands we keep in the bag. For Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom we have a specific set of bands that we need, so we keep those in the bag. We also currently keep an extra band in the bag for Callen even though he doesn’t need one since he’s under 3, he does some time want to wear one like the rest of us.

Autograph Books
We have an autograph book for each kid and a pen to go with both of their books. I know the picture only shows one, and that is due to the fact that Belle needs a new book. She has filled up two books since we got our annual passes last August. When picking autograph books at the parks, don’t get the ones that store pictures in them. There are so many less pages than the standard books!

Extras
There are a few things that we bring that are more dictated by what we are actually doing that day than always bringing them.

Baby Carrier
I do bring the carrier pretty much no matter what we are doing, but I don’t always use it. Callen is a huge cuddler, so if he is getting too defiant or I can tell he is getting tired I will throw him up in to the carrier and away we go.

Popcorn Bucket
We don’t always bring a popcorn bucket with us. We usually will if we are going to Hollywood Studios because frankly there is not a whole lot for Callen to do, so he hangs out with whatever parent isn’t riding a ride with Belle and munches on popcorn. Having the bucket makes popcorn $2 to fill it and we are good to go for hours.

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom
This is a game that can be played in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. There are 70+ cards that go with this game. We have a zip up binder for our current cards and a separate binder for extras (in hopes to trade for something we don’t have yet). We only bring these cards if we know we are going to Magic Kingdom since they are only of use there.

VIPassholder Events

One of the perks to being certain level of annual passholders lately has been VIPassholder Events where usually Gold and above get to be in a park for some after hours fun! Since we’ve been passholders we’ve done two. The first one we had to option of going to Magic Kingdom or EPCOT. I chose Magic Kingdom. The second one was the option of Magic Kingdom or Typhoon Lagoon. Again, I chose Magic Kingdom.

Ashley and Belle on Space Mountain during a VIPassholder Event.

During VIPassholder Events basically all rides in the park is open. There are usually a special dessert to purchase if desired. There are also some fun photo locations in the parks as well.

Ashley and Belle on Haunted Mansion during a VIPassholder Event.

Crowds can vary drastically. The first one we went to it rained a few hours before and was sprinkling the first hour or so, which kept a lot of people away. The second one was warm and really overall good weather. The lines were not terrible, but there were definitely a lot more people!

If you get an invite to attend a VIPassholder Event you need to be quick. Each time reservations have been filled within a few hours. When we get Galaxy’s Edge emails it will be even worse. If you get the chance to do an event go for it!

‘Ohana

On occasion I will do an entire post about a restaurant! We LOVE to eat at Disney (note the Tables in Wonderland and Kid’s Nite Out posts, we do those because we love food!). The first restaurant we are going to highlight is ‘Ohana at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. I’m not saying this is our favorite restaurant, but it is the first one we’re going to cover.

As I said, ‘Ohana is located at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. It’s on the second floor of the Great Ceremonial House (the main lobby area). To get there you can take stairs or elevator. The elevator is in the back right area of the lobby if you can from the parking lot side. There is also a set or stairs behind the elevator. There’s a second set of stairs to the left behind The BouTiki. Once on the second level there is a check in line next to the elevator along the railing outside of Moana Mercantile.

Disney, at least in the last few restaurants we’ve been to, has done away with the pager type of telling you your table is ready. Instead, they will take your phone number and text you when your table is ready. Once you’ve checked in you can wait for your text. If you are having breakfast you can head over and take a picture with Pluto while you wait.

Meeting Pluto outside of ‘Ohana while waiting for our table for breakfast.

‘Ohana means family. The restaurant ‘Ohana therefor serves their food “family style” which means most of it comes to your table for everyone to share. ‘Ohana serves breakfast and dinner only. There is no lunch here.

Breakfast
Breakfast is a character meal called Best Friends Breakfast Featuring Lilo and Stitch. Every time we’ve gone in the past we have always seen Lilo, Stitch, Mickey (in special Polynesian inspired clothes), and Pluto. As shown above, Pluto is seen outside of the restaurant currently. Once seated your table will receive a skillet of food filled with Mickey and Stitch waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage links, ham slices biscuits, and potatoes. There is also a plate of fruit and a sweet pineapple bread which is amazing. If you have any food allergies make sure to let the host know when you check in and also make sure your waiter is aware. You can have your skillet refilled as needed. They actually refilled ours well before we needed it, but we were happy with it since we got more of the stuff we really liked.

Dinner
Dinner is not a character meal. It is still served family style, but slightly different. They bring out the sides family style, but your proteins are brought around on skewers much like you’ll find at Brazilian steakhouses such as Fogo de Chao or Texas de Brazil. Sides currently include dumplings, vegetables, noodles, the same delicious bread you get at breakfast and salad. Proteins currently include chicken, shrimp, and steak. Dessert includes a delicious bread pudding. Dinner is delicious, but can be pretty difficult to get a reservation for, especially the coveted dining time during Happily Ever After, the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom.

Cinderella’s castle is right behind the giant rock, which is why people enjoy watching Happily Ever After from here.

We do enjoy ‘Ohana. We haven’t been for dinner in an exceptionally long time due to our plans are usually last minute and can’t find a reservation. The last two times we’ve done breakfast we have waited such a long time past our reservation time (30+ minutes) that it is a place in the back of our mind when decided if we actually want to eat there or see what else is available.

Kid’s Nite Out

I know this can be a trigger topic for some, but we love this service so much I just need to share! I know, what kind of person just hands their kids over to strangers, let alone in a place such as Walt Disney World?! Hear me out, our oldest was not out of my care until she was 18 months old and even then she was at our home, with a checked referenced babysitter, and Andrew was 6 miles away and I was 4 miles away, so it’s not like we just hand our kids over without any research. That being said, it was her second birthday trip that we first used Kid’s Nite Out!

Kid’s Nite Out was established in 1998. They offer in-room babysitting, wedding babysitting, convention kid’s room, kid’s camps, in-room pet sitting, elder care/ companion, equipment rental, and mother’s/father’s helpers!

We have only used the in-room babysitters, but all four of them have been wonderful! Caregivers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are a few restrictions on what time the service can start, such as after 6:30am and before 11pm. There is no restriction on how many hours you may use the service. The price per hour is based on how many children you have. There is also a $12 transportation fee for each reservation.

Kid’s Nite Out is the preferred provider of child care services at Walt Disney World and Loews Hotels at Universal Orlando! You can find all the info you need about Kid’s Nite Out here!

We first started using Kid’s Nite Out when Belle turned 2, but Callen was 5 months old the first time we used the service including him. *Let’s not get super crazy about this one, we stayed at the same resort our room was at for dinner* We fully intend on using this service as often as we need to (which is really only for super special date nights, like our anniversary and sometimes our birthdays).

Harmony Barbershop

Not many people know that Walt Disney World has a working barbershop right in the Magic Kingdom! We have taken both kids to have their first haircuts at Harmony Barbershop.

Belle really not enjoying her first haircut in 2015!

Harmony Barbershop offers first haircuts, child haircuts, and adult haircuts. There is no shampoo bowl within the barbershop, so hair needs to be clean upon arrival. There are only 3 chairs in the barbershop, so it can be difficult to get a reservation for a haircut depending on the time of year. They do allow walk ups, but remember that will be a first come, first serve based off availability. That being said you may be if you can not get a reservation, but NEED to go you could have a long wait.

Callen getting his hair pulled into a ponytail to get it chopped off!

Child haircuts start at $18.
Adult haircuts start at $19.
The first haircut package is a phenomenal price of $25 considering it includes the haircut, a bag with a hair lock in it (or in our case with Callen an entire ponytail!), a littler certificate and Mickey ears that have “My 1st Haircut” embroidered on them!

The stylists do know how to deal with a wide range of behaviors of children. Belle was not about her haircut at all, which resulted in her sitting on Andrew’s lap. Then Callen, the one afraid of water, sat in the chair without saying one word or crying or really caring at all!! Crazy!

We can’t speak for adult or child haircuts as we’ve never had one there, but if nothing else the first hair cut package is amazing and I will always tell people to do it if they can!

I had to show how much was actually cut off of Callen!!!

Bippity Boppity Boutique

This is a girly post, but if you have boys, fear not because they are not excluded! Walt Disney World has two locations for children to visit Bippity Boppity Boutique (BBB). You can visit BBB in Magic Kingdom inside of Cinderella’s Castle or Disney Springs on the Marketplace end. When we took our daughter the only available place was Disney Springs and I was perfectly alright with that since presently Disney Springs is a newer, bigger, and less popular venue. Plus the five year old knew no real difference.

Each location offers the same packages varying in price. The lowest price package for princesses is currently $64.95 plus tax and can stretch up to $450 and up plus tax. I say and up because there are other options that can be added that would be an additional price. Knights are a bit more reasonable at $19.95 plus tax starting and go to $79.95 and up plus tax. You can see the package list here https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/shops/disney-springs/bibbidi-bobbidi-boutique-marketplace/

We opted for $64.95 plus tax option since I found all the pieces of the costume Belle wanted on sale. We brought with us a Tinkerbell costume, Tinkerbell shoes, and Tinkerbell wings. The $64.95 package got us hair styling, nail polish, make up, a cinch bag to hold all of her unused makeup and nail polish, and a BBB sash, plus the whole experience. The Mickey bobby pins seen in the picture above were included in the hair style as well as the pink and purple colors.

There are multiple hairstyles to choose from and from what I could see they all included hair accessories whether it was a clip, bobby pin type, tiara plus for some colorful hair extensions. Belle opted for about the most low key one they offer (and I’m not going to lie I was so thankful for that because some of those styles are a bit tacky in my opinion).

The whole experience took about an hour, even with a photo shoot afterwards! Each child has a Fairy Godmother in Training that does their hair and make up. There is a PhotoPass photographer that goes around to each person and takes pictures throughout the whole experience. This is done by a card that stays on the stylist’s station, so you’re not ending up with a bunch of pictures of strangers like you do at other attractions (Jedi Training and Enchanted Tales with Belle). Participants must be between the ages of 3 and 12. I believe this may be a every 2-3 years experience for us if it is something Belle would like to do again. Callen turns 3 this year, so she may get to do it 2 years in a row or we may just wait another 2 years until Callen is a bit older.

As stated above, if you have a Princess and dress up loving child this is a great addition for your trip. If you could pair it on a day with a Cinderella’s Royal Table or Akershus meal I think it would make it extra special. We did not do this, but it was more for lack of planning ahead than anything else. We went to Magic Kingdom at night after her makeover.

Belle in front of the castle. Bring backup shoes, the princess shoes are usually not very comfortable.

She wanted to ride Splash Mountain in her Tinkerbell costume.

H2O Glow

On occasion different parks will have special pre-opening or post closing special events that are separate tickets than a standard day admission. We recently attended the H2O Glow after hours event at Typhoon Lagoon.

As a family we haven’t been to Typhoon Lagoon at all, despite having water park passes. The last time I went to Typhoon Lagoon was in 2008 on my high school senior trip, so it’s been awhile.

Special meet and greet with Jesse and Woody. There was one family ahead of us when we got there.

H2O Glow is a Toy Story themed party. On the main beach at the wave pool you will find a dance party going on all night complete with a DJ and Partysaurus Rex! If you read our family intro you saw that our youngest child is afraid of water, so we were a little apprehensive about heading to an extra cost water thing, but he LOVES Buzz Lightyear and has done relatively alright at Blizzard Beach in the past.

Special meet and greet with Buzz Lightyear. There was a family leaving as we walked up and a couple walking up on the way that we let go ahead of us since we know our kids like to take their time if they can.

All of the rides are open (unless it is temporarily broken for some reason). We honestly didn’t do a whole lot of rides. Partly because we had never been so we had a lot of exploring to do, partly because ride height requirements are higher in general at water parks, so there were a few things our oldest couldn’t ride, partly because we were doing more than just rides (eating and seeing characters), and partly because Callen was still having some issues with water at certain times.

We spent about half an hour in their kiddie section. We played in the wave pool for probably an hour throughout the night. Belle and I went on Mayday Falls twice and Andrew and Belle went on it twice. Andrew and Belle went on all three Storm Slides. We also spent a good amount of time in the “lazy river” Castaway Creek.

Ashley and Belle enjoying the DJ Dance party!

H2O Glow Nights offer special food and drinks to purchase. Sadly we did not try much of any of the special food. What we did get was the Bathtub Party Sundae. We also got the Buzz Blaster drink for both kids, which was literally Sprite with apple boba bubbles with a light up Buzz Lightyear clip on the cup. They loved it, and I said it wasn’t too bad. Andrew and I shared the Adult Root Beer Disco Float. I did not enjoy it much. Andrew said it wasn’t bad, but it wouldn’t be one of his favorites. If you’d like to see all the special food and drinks offered you can do so here https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2019/05/foodie-guide-to-h2o-glow-nights-at-disneys-typhoon-lagoon/

H2O Glow Nights are on select Thursdays and Saturdays May- August. Ticket prices are $59 per adult ($54 child) if purchases ahead and $69 per adult ($64 child) if purchased the day of the event. Tickets are not required for children under 3. The event runs from 8pm-11pm, but you may enter at 6pm if you are not already in the park. If you are in the park you can pick up your event wrist band at Singapore Sal’s after 6pm. To find all the dates you can click here https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/typhoon-lagoon/h2o-glow-nights/

I would absolutely say spending the money on this experience is worth it as long as your party enjoys water/ waterparks. Even with the apprehensive to water member of our party we all had a great night!

Minnie Van

I have planned a post with all Disney Transportation to be covered, but thought it would be fun to do a little more detail in to all of them individually. Today we’re going to cover the Minnie Van service.

The Minnie Van vehicles can be summoned via the Lyft app. You can also start in the My Disney Experience app and it will take you to either use the Lyft app or have you download it. Unlike normal Lyft vehicles you can not schedule a Minnie Van, but I believe they have plenty of vehicles to use for demand. We waited about 15 minutes beyond our initial estimated arrival time due to the fact that the main road used to get to our resort was shut down due to a bus fire, so our driver had to find a safe way to turn around and go a different route.

Minnie Vans have 2 complementary car seats to use. They seat 6 passengers (with the exception of the ECV accessible ones; I’ve heard those are only 4 passengers). Some are bigger than others. There are a few sizes of vehicles such as the ECV accessible van, Chevrolet Suburban, and Chevrolet Traverse. They don’t ask for how many people are traveling, so other than the EVC vans it can be a toss up as to witch vehicle you’ll get. The one time we used the service there were two of us and we got a Suburban.

Our first Minnie Van ride from Disney’s Polynesian to Disney’s Yacht Club for our celebratory dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse.

Minnie Vans are equipped with phone chargers. Some drivers might have different “magic” to spread in their car since they are Disney cast members (employees), but it wasn’t really sometime we had. Our driver was great. We would take another ride in a heart beat if need be.

Minnie Vans do cost a significantly higher amount than a standard Lyft vehicle. It cost us about $40 (including a tip) for what would cost about $12 for a standard Lyft vehicle. You can also get a Minnie Van for trips to Orlando International Airport for $150 each way.

Overall I would consider a Minnie Van a splurge during Disney trips, but if you can do it, go for it! It is most useful when going from resort to resort since there is no direct bus. If we used Disney transportation for our Yacht Club dinner we would’ve had to take a monorail (that would make 3 stops before we would get off) *we also could have walked over to where we would’ve got off*. If we took the monorail we would’ve had to get off and get on a different monorail to go to EPCOT. We would then have to go through security for a second time. Then we would have to walk to the International Gateway entrance/exit of EPCOT to then either walk to the Yacht Club or take a boat over there. $40 to save over an hour of travel and so many more steps, I’ll gladly take it!

Disney PhotoPass®

Disney PhotoPass is one of the things I love most at Walt Disney World. Ok, who am I kidding, I love everything, but really PhotoPass is great. There are PhotoPass photographers all over all four theme parks and at certain times the water parks. There’s even a PhotoPass studio in Disney Springs!

Taken by a PhotoPass photographer on Main Street in Magic Kingdom. Belle had been to Bippity Boppity Boutique earlier in the evening.

PhotoPass allows for everyone to get in the picture! You can even give them your own phone or camera to take pictures if you wish. Once you have had your picture taken the photographer will scan you magic band or if you do not have a magic band you can obtain a PhotoPass card to have your pictures scanned to. You can then link the card to your My Disney Experience app. People with magic bands will have the pictures automatically load into My Disney Experience.

Taken by a PhotoPass photographer on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood Studios. Belle was doing Jedi Training this day, so we were all in our Star Wars attire.

Memory Maker
Memory Maker is the easiest way to make the most of the PhotoPass service. You simply purchase Memory Maker and go take pictures! After your trip you may download all of them to use. If you do not purchase Memory Maker and wish to obtain pictures you have taken on your vacation with PhotoPass you would have to pay for each picture individually, which adds up quite quickly.
Memory Maker can be purchased online at a minimum of three days before first use for a discounted rate of $169. If you do not pre-purchase and choose to do so later is is $199. There is currently a discount for military for $98. For this discount you can not pre-purchase, you will need to purchase at a Guest Relations counter. Memory Maker is included for certain annual passes.

The PhotoPass photographer catching the moment I told Paige O’hara that Callen was a boy, not a girl.

Ride Photos
Memory Maker will also include your ride photos. For this it is best to have a magic band as some of the newer rides don’t have a photo viewing area where you’d be able to scan your PhotoPass card. If you happen to know you rode a ride at a certain time on a certain day and maybe know what your party was wearing, you can email Photopass if you are missing pictures. Sometimes they can retrieve them, sometimes they can not. We’ve had to do this a few times.

A ride photo of Ashley and Belle on Space Mountain.

Character Dining
Some character dining places have PhotoPass photographers to take pictures with a certain character. ‘Ohana is Pluto, Storybook Dining is the Evil Queen, Akershus is Belle, Cinderella’s Royal Table is of course Cinderella, The Beast at Be Our Guest dinner. There’s more I’m sure, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

Taken by a PhotoPass photographer before we headed to our table at Cinderella’s Royal Table.

How to Find a PhotoPass Photographer
You will typically see them standing in prime spots near park entrances and in front of some landmarks, such as the Partner’s Statue at Magic Kingdom or the Toy Story Land entrance. There is actually a drop down menu in your My Disney Experience App that will show you where Photopass photographers are at.

This is called a Magic Shot and was taken in front of the Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom. You can ask a PhotoPass photographer if they have any magic shots they can do.

I hope this helps you wade through the idea of purchasing Memory Maker/ using PhotoPass. We love it! We always purchased it prior to having it included in our annual pass. We have over 500 PhotoPass pictures from our time as annual passholders so far this year.