Scrapbook Hints and Tips: Capturing Your Vacation Memories

When you go on your trip, you should think about what things you'd like to include in your MouseMemories Book. Here are some suggestions...

Get Pictures!
Other Sources for Images
Save Mementos!

Get Pictures!

First and foremost, get pictures with people in them! Pictures with your family and friends (as opposed to simply taking pictures of the scenery) will be treasured. The other pictures are fine, but the personal ones will be the most important in the long haul. Don't allow the reluctance of someone in the group to have their picture taken keep you from taking candid ones. You'll be very sorry if you have few or no pictures of any one that joined you on the trip.
Make sure that you take photographs "up close and personal." Rather than taking long distance shots of your children with a character, for example, get up close and get DOWN to the level of your child, when taking the picture. Then you'll have close-up shots that are much more personal.
Make sure to get several group photographs that include all of the people in your party.
Get pictures of everyone's favorite attractions and restaurants (with that person in the picture). Don't forget to include your children's favorites, especially since they might not speak up (but don't worry, their opinions will be pretty obvious).
Pictures of you, your family, and friends at your resort will remind you of where you spent a large portion of y our vacation time. Candid pictures in the room and about the grounds will really remind you of the trip you've experienced together.
Get photos of the unique times you spent together including meals, snacks, special things you did (including any tours). Stopping to listen to Rod playing the piano on a Wednesday evening at Coke Corner or watching the swing dancers on a Saturday night at Disneyland, playing that round of miniature golf at Fantasia Fairways, getting a hand "waxed" on the boardwalk....these are the events that will be special to remember.
Photos of the park and resort entrances and Disney transportation (i.e. the monorails, trams, boats) can be used to create great introductions and transitions within the album.

Back to Scrapbook Hints & Tips

Other Sources for Images:

Buy postcards! For a relatively small amount of money, you can get some great pictures that you might not be able to take yourself (You do comply when the Disney folks ask everyone to not use flash photography, don't you?)
Go ahead and buy that ride photo (such as Splash Mountain, Tower of Tower, and Test Track) if it's a good one. There's no other way to get a picture of you "voluntarily" dropping 60 feet into a briar patch, now is there? If you decide to get a nice frame, buy two prints so you can put one in your album, too.
If you think ahead, you can take a full album page with you and have the park portrait artists actually draw you on the page! If not, you can at least crop and mount an image if it's small enough. New Orleans Square at Disneyland, the Hall of Presidents at WDW's Magic Kingdom, and the France Pavilion at Epcot are all places where you may find a "starving artist."
One last resource that you might want to use for images is the official Birnbaum guidebooks. These books have some artwork and pictures (black and white, generally) that may be useful.
One thing to consider is taking some time one evening late in the trip for a photo hunt. Everyone in the group can point out where various things happened during the vacation (don't forget to take notes). You can even recreate some of those candid moments (sure, it won't be as funny as when it happened for real, but it will be a reminder and a fun addition to go along with your journaling).

Back to Scrapbook Hints & Tips

Save Mementos!

Keep copies of each park guidemap and special events handouts (the handouts from the International Flower & Garden festival, for example). The guidemaps have great illustrations that you may want to crop (bring home several clean copies, because you might want images from the front and the back). You also may want to keep an extra copy that can be kept in a pocket in your album.
Character autographs, especially if they are on separate pages, can be cropped and mounted right along-side photographs of the encounter. As an alternative, you might want to actually take a compact size (5�" x 7") album with you on the trip and use IT as the autograph book itself. You can have the characters autograph one side, leaving the other side blank for photos or journaling of the encounter.
You may want to pick up an Epcot World Showcase Passport. The cast member signatures and stamps will be a nice addition to your album. You can try to use that compact size (5�" x 7") album for your passport stamps and autographs, too.
Write a trip report or at least jot down some notes of what happened during the trip. If you write a full report, you'll be able to enjoy the narrative that goes along with the MouseMemories book. Even if you choose not to take that much time, your notes will prove invaluable as you journal (write the text into) your album.
Menus and wine lists from your favorite meals will look great with pictures from the restaurant. The idea of taking the menu isn't really that far-fetched. If you ask your waiter or waitress politely, they'll almost certainly allow you to take a menu (or at least the "printed insert" portion.) The descriptions of the meal, and the price list, will be fun to look over for years to come. If you choose to dine at Victoria & Albert's, the deluxe restaurant at the Grand Floridian Resort, you'll be given a personalized "menu" that describes your meal. Keep it!
Your admission media, receipts, resort room key card, and other little things can add some fun to your album, especially if they have some special significance to the trip. (For example, on one of our trips, our then-3-year-old son insisted on opening the door with our key card every time we returned to our room...a small explanation of that, along with the key card itself, bring smiles to our faces every time we see that page in our book.)

Disneyland and WDW are such a wonderful places for creating memories with family and friends. If you put a little effort into it, you'll have MouseMemories to last a lifetime!

Back to Scrapbook Hints & Tips