Disney Photo Pass Discounts!!

Going to Disney? Been to Disney and Have a Photo Pass? 

Check Out These Deals!  If You Have a Trip Planned In the Future, Check This Out and Pre-Order Your Photo CD NOW to Save About 33%!

*Ok, first, what is a Disney Photo Pass? When you go to Disney, there are Disney Photogs EVERYWHERE. They happily take pictures of your family enjoying the sights and attractions and characters.. and then hand you a photopass card, or scan a card you already have. Once you get home, you can go HERE to the Disney Photopass site and link your account to all the wonderful pictures they took of you on your vacation. You can order the pictures and do all kinds of nifty things with them. It does get a little pricey, so I love finding the deals on these.  (Also, ask nicely, and the photogs will also use your camera to take a picture too!)

• Get one set of 28 FREE Address labels WYB One set of Stationary Cards Use code NFREELABEL by October 30
• Save 10% on a Photo CD when you use code FALLCDSAVE by October 30
• Save 25% on folded cards with HolidayCard25 by Dec 1
• Buy 2 sets of Cards, Get one FREE with BUY2CARD (exp unknown)
• Get $5 off PhotoCalendar with 5CAL2012 (exp unknown)
• Get $4 off Photomugs and Mouse Pads with MMP4OFF (exp unknown)

**Disney PHOTOPASS IN PARK FREEBIE!**

Have a Disney Visa? Call them and inquire about the free character meet n greet available only to Disney Visa cardholders. For example, in Epcot (at Imaginations West Pavilion, I believe) there is a meet n greet. You go at the time slot they post and show your Disney Visa. Then, you get about 5 minutes, depending on the day and line behind you, with some characters. When I went, we got Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy to ourselves in a private room with no other guests. Just the characters, their "friends" (handlers? what's the term they use?) and the Disney PhotoPass photogs.  We got to play with the characters and get signatures.  All the while, the photographers were taking candid pictures. They did pose us at the end of the session.  Then, as an added perk, we got to pick our favorite picture from the session to take home for FREE!   Ask a castmember for details, and/or call the number on the back of your Visa for more information.  The rest of the pictures were available for ordering from our PhotoPass account once we got home if we wanted them.

THE BEST BEST BEST DEAL IS TO PREORDER YOUR PHOTOS BEFORE YOU GO! 

Check out the deals HERE! 

Basically, instead of paying $150 for your photo cd, you will prepay $99.95.

OR

Get a really great package:

$149.95 for the CD plus a Souvenir Album that you create!  This is valued at just under $230. 

When you pre-order, only the photos added to your account AFTER you order this deal will be available for use with these items.  

The neat thing is that you get ALL the photos the photogs take of you while in the parks.. plus a copy of whatever edits you do on the site on the CD you order! They have all sorts of neat borders and such. I get sticker shock to think about this, but when you stop and think about how much an individual souvenir picture at Disney costs, I really think this is the way to go!

**WHY ORDER A CD?**

Your Disney PhotoPass Pictures only stay in your account a limited amount of time. Then, they go away, and/or become unavailable to you for ordering, etc. With a cd, you have them forever and have unlimited access and unlimited prints.  When you preorder a photo cd, you walk into the parks and can relax a little more. You can smile for the Disney photogs, let them take the pictures of the character encounters and just enjoy your trip a little more. Sure, still snap away with your camera. But know you are getting some really great professional pictures as well. AND, your family photographer can actually join you in more pictures!! :) Just make sure to keep up with your photopass card. And don't worry. If your group splits up and you end up with more than one PhotoPass, you can enter multiple PhotoPasses into your account.  I am not necessarily promoting the other pricey products on the site.. but the CD is almost a necessity!! I have ordered a book before and it came out really gorgeous too!

**HOW TO PAY** 

OK, DisneyPhotoPass.com takes Disney Gift Cards as payment. Why this rocks: Sam's Clubs Sells Disney Gift Cards. They run about $98 for $100.  AND they come with a bonus $10 gift card! Hooray! So, run out and track these down if you can! They stay sold out locally for me. I end up buying a few to help pay for this and my vacation when I go visit folks elsewhere.  I now have a small stack of $10 gift cards to use on souvies when we go! (The $100 cards have been used at Disney.com to pay off our vacation balance. Just as a reminder, I saved Disney Rewards for 5 years so now my family of 5 gets to go for 8 days and pay $500 out of pocket for the package! Yes, we are staying at a resort with a dining plan! yay!) 

IF you do pay for ANYTHING with these gift cards, do NOT throw them away. KEEP them. JUST IN CASE you end up needing a refund and they have to put it back on the original card or whatever. 

Ok, so I had a few folks ask about PhotoPass and deals. I hope this covered that. Please send me your emails to couponcouture@gmail.com if you have any other questions about this or any other deals! 

5 Years in the Making.. A FREE Trip to DISNEY!

OUR Family is Going to Disney Next Year

For "FREE"

True Story.

This is like the ultimate couponer's dream, right? Well, it took 5 years of saving Disney Rewards Points/Dollars, but we FINALLY got enough saved up to be able to go during the "off season" and stay at  a "Value Resort" for 7 nights for FREE! All 5 Members of my family! That includes a FREE Quick Service Dining Plan and the basic theme park tickets.  Whew!

Of Course! I had to upgrade the trip to get the FULL dining plan, because we want to eat with some characters! And, after some other upgrades I threw in, the out of pocket on the vacation plan we are getting will be right at about $500. For 5 people! That is just amazing. It took years and years and lots of patience. No, there were no insider tips or tricks. No saving "found money" in a separate account.. just straight forward saving our Disney Rewards Points until we could cash them in for this trip.

The lesson there is PATIENCE. You can get what you want through hard work and patience.

But mostly, I am a planner. I have been throwing things in a "Disney Trip Bin" for a couple years now so that when we were ready to go, we would be READY TO GO!  And on the cheap!  

Things I have been watching for sales on and couponing for and will be taking with us:

Disney Fruit Snacks:  Bought the boxes of 10ct packs using rare coupons for about 75c a box... grabbed Phineas and Ferb, Princesses, Cars, Tinker Bell, you name it! Hello cheap in park and road trip snacks!

Disney Cars Juicy Juice Juice boxes: Can we say Back to School Clearance time??! Yeah!

Glow Sticks for the evening shows: Bought at Michael's crafts stores using 40% off one item coupons, making them 60c for about 15!

Every time I see a clearance for Crayola Color Wonder, Those get snatched by me and thrown in for the car ride... I have gotten quite a few of these sets for FREE after coupon and sales... and a few for $2.50! (Reg up to $8 ea)... Also, found a Melissa and Doug Travel wooden Hang Man set for $3 instead of $20! My Friends Tigger and Pooh compact Magnetic travel book/games that will be great for while we are sitting waiting for a parade to begin, Highlights activities kits on clearance for 75% off, etc etc etc.

Walmart has Disney Color/sticker activity sets near the check out for $1 ea. Grabbed a few of those.

Went to VistaPrint and Ordered T-Shirts for FREE (shipping only, about $4 a shirt).. and used a 40% off coupon to buy fabric markers so that the kids can get SHIRTS signed instead of autograph books. These will last longer and the kids can wear the signatures from their fave characters!

Stocked up on $3 shirts from the Disney Store to take with us to wear...

Ditto on $1 Disney Sunglasses, $1 Disney Flip Flops, $4 Disney Crocs, etc.

Found $9 (reg $40) Disney Store Princess Dresses, $3 Crowns, and $3 light up wands.. each girl will get to wear a full princess costume and be fancy for our fancy (and free ) dinner at California Grill atop the Contemporary Resort...

Bought a "Lot" of Trading Pins on Ebay on the super cheap. (about $1 a pin!)  They come as an undescribed mixed lot. Bought 99c Disney Lanyards from Party City for the kids to keep the pins on.. they can trade for the ones they really want once they get to the parks...

AND, I wont forget to stop by the FREE Character Meet n Greet at Epcot's Imagination's West Pavilion. Show a Disney Visa there, and you get a private session with 3 characters and the Disney World photogs. Then, you get to pick out your favorite picture to keep for FREE!

Also, I made sure to include on all my dining reservations that it was the FIRST TRIP to WDW for my kids... they tend to make a big deal when they know these things! We might get free confetti decorations on our table, or free cupcakes, or...?? You never know!

What I do know is that as I go along and find things super cheap for the trip, it goes into the bin.  IF you are planning a trip next week, next year, or a couple years from now, I suggest starting a bin of your own. It helps focus what you have, what you need, keeps it all in one place so you can pack more easily when it is time... It is a lifesaver to me! And prepacking things like snacks and "souvenir" type stuff now will save soo much time and money later. Who wants to wait in line for a bottle of water when you could be on Space Mountain???

Special shout out to the folks at Chip and Company for all their great dining suggestions for me! They will take the time to give personalized advice. They are super great and have awesome Disney Giveaways all the time. Go like them on Facebook and tell them I sent you! :)