Disneyland - part 3 - misc

They have a great thing at Disneyland called Photopass, which I would recommend to everyone who goes there. They have photographers around the park who will take your picture in front of everything and with anyone. It doesn't cost anything to get the pictures taken and you are not under any obligation to buy anything. They give you a card, and you just give it to the photographer each time you get your picture taken and they scan the pictures to your card. You can view your pictures at stores in the park and/or when you get home. This alleviates so much stress for us. It is so much easier to worry about getting the kids to pose for the picture and having someone else take it than it is to try and get them to pose and take the picture yourself. Don't get me wrong, we bring our own cameras too, but we let the Disney photographers take the pictures whenever we can. They have a great deal where you can buy a cd with all your pictures (unlimited amounts - we actaully ended up with 2 cd's and over 500 pictures each trip) and the copyrights for $59.95. You can combine photo cards, which we did last October with my extended family and did again on this girls trip. You get totally different treatment from the photographers if you tell them you are going to buy the cd. They take so many more pictures (probably because they know their time isn't being wasted) and you get such great candid shots. It tells the whole story that way. For instance, we have a picture here of Benjamin refusing to see Pocahontas...
and then one of his sister making him stand there for a picture.
Normally they just would have waited for the pose, clicked and been done.

We were able to get one free 5x7 each day because we have Disney visa cards. (An $11.00 value each time. Well worth applying for a Disney visa. You also get an exclusive Character Meet and Greet just for your family each day and a discount on purchases over $50.00 - including the photo cd) On Saturday when I came in to the store to pick out my free picture for the day, the girl showed me this picture of Benjamin that they had printed out. She said that they thought it was so cute that they had picked it to use as a demo picture. When we left I asked Kim, "Don't they have to get my permission to use my kid in a picture or something?" She said she thought they owned the copyright until I purchased the picture from them. Who knows? I didn't mind, I just thought it was weird to have people show me a picture of my son that I hadn't even ever seen before. I was very flattered that they thought my son was so cute, though!
Later that day we saw Dopey the Dwarf when we came out of the exhibit they have celebrating the 7oth anniversary of Snow White. Benjamin posed for a picture with Dopey.

Then, while everyone else was getting pictures with Dopey, Benjamin ran around behind the cottage and was peeking out and teasing everybody.
So, Dopey crawled inside the cottage and took Benjamin by the hand and then led him out and posed for another picture with him. I imagine people really hated to be in line behind us on this trip. In fact, it got to the point that Kim told me that she and Haylie were going to start going before us to see the characters, because we took too much time and Haylie wasn't as cute by the time it was her turn. But, it did turn out better to have Benjamin go first, because Haylie would copy him and not be as shy when she saw Ben doing something.