Disney PhotoPass

# of photos taken during our 3-day trip to Disneyland: 305
# of photos where Alfie appears: 28
# of photos where I appear: 23

Add in the fact that my photos are generally crap (i.e. I take 10 photos of the same thing and throw 9 away), and the grownups end up with 3 or 4 decent photos of themselves. Yes, I realize the kids are much cuter than we are, but honestly, you'd think the kids were vacationing all by themselves.

At Disney's mom blogger event last December 5, we were introduced to a new service -- the PhotoPass -- which helps even up the score a little. It's quite a good scheme: Disney has stationed photographers all around the most scenic spots in their parks, all ready and waiting to capture that priceless moment. No more stopping strangers and asking them to take the shot for you (ok, the Disney photographer is also a stranger, but he's probably a nice stranger. At least you'll have confidence that he isn't pressing the zoom button when he thinks he's pressing the shutter. And you're sure he won't cut your husband's head off the shot. Or blur the whole thing. Or run away with your camera.).

So you smile and pose with confidence, knowing that this Disney guy will take the perfect shot of you and your family, with better equipment than you'll ever be able to afford (or want to take into the parks, anyway). He will then hand you a PhotoPass card with a code on it. You hand this PhotoPass card to any Disney photographer who takes your photos so he can associate them with your card.

The next time you get on the internet, you can view your photos online at DisneyPhotoPass.com (you'll need to register and create an account). The site is similar to many of the commonly-known photo hosting sites like Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery, etc... You can upload your own photos and view them alongside the ones the Disney photogs shot, edit them, add borders and graphics, share them, order prints, calendars, cards and other creations. Except, of course, you get all the cool Disney graphics and borders to spruce up your photos and cards and projects.

My favorite feature? Their free snowglobe online greeting, that you can email to your friends or post on your blog (unfortunately you can't embed it in the blog, you can only link to it). Here's a screenshot of the one I did (the photo was taken by a Disney photographer at the blogger event):

Wanna see the real thing, with falling snow and all? Click on this link to view our Disney snowglobe:

http://disneyphotoshare.com/myglobe/1F26753DC051516172

Cost for Disney photographer's services: $0
Cost to create and send snowglobe greeting: $0
Getting a Disney photographer to capture all 5 of us (and get Alfie to smile and pose beside Goofy): priceless