Scrapbooking Disney Vacations

Scrapbooking a Disney vacation may just be one of the happiest things on earth. After the joy of your trip you get to practically relive it by spending hours looking at the pictures and journaling your memories! Since there are so many great photo opportunities at all of the Disney parks that I thought a post about Disney albums was much needed. 

My first really large scale scrapbooking endeavor was scraping our 2010 Disney World Vacation. It ended up being 4 3-ring albums filled to the brim and took me over 3 years to complete. In the end I had 171 2-page layouts (including back and front covers for each book), for a total of 342 pages! I had 1 album for Magic Kingdom, 1 for Epcot, 1 for Animal Kingdom/Hollywood Studios, and 1 for travel, the hotel, and Downtown Disney.

  

When you’re at Disney, there is so much to see and do, but as a scrapbooker you always have to be looking for more – you have to be looking not only to capture those great memories, but be on the lookout for maps, brochures, times guides, and anything else you might want to add to your scrapbook once you get home.

Great photos are an important part of your Disney album. While in the parks, be sure to take photos of:

• Park Icons - the Castle, the Tree of Life, Spaceship Earth - any main feature at the park.
• Ride Signs - before hopping in a ride, snap a photo of the sign.
• Pictures on the rides - I cannot stress enough how fun taking pictures on the rides is. I have literally captured my most favorite photos of my children’s faces while on the rides. In addition, I’ve taken some great shots ascending the roller coasters and during the rides themselves. Just pull your camera or phone, hold it up and snap away!
• Pictures from the queue lines or from around the ride. There are so many details in each of the rides, as you are standing in line take look around and photograph some of these small details.
• Character Photos - if you meet characters, be sure to get photos with them!  The PhotoPass folks will take photos with your own camera as well as theirs.
• Food & Menus - Disney is known for great restaurants and food, so take a quick picture of your meal or of the restaurant menu. It'll make a fun addition to your scrapbook page.
• Fastpasses - before handing over your Fastpass, take a photo of it (for parks that still use the paper tickets.) These tickets will show the name of the ride, the date, and the time that you rode it!
• Disney Photos on Rides - after some rides there are screens that show photos of you on that ride. Some of these will link to your PhotoPass account, but some have to be purchased. Take a photo of your photo on the screen! Take multiple shots just incase you get some glare. I've done it many times and they've turned out great.

While you are at the park, you may want to collect certain mementos and keep an eye out for things to add to your album, such as: 

• Park Maps & Times Guides  - pick up a couple of each, you may want to leave one intact in your scrapbook, and cut other parts out of an additional one. They are also good reference once you are home for names of rides, shows you saw, and restaurants you ate at.

• Park Tickets - be sure to save your park ticket or swipe card and put these in your book!

• Autographs - if you or your children collect autographs, collect them in the parks and when you get home take photos of them. Then print them out and you can add the autographs to your books!

• Kids Discovery Club booklet and stamps from Animal Kingdom. If your kids pick up the KDC booklets and compelete any of the activities, they can get a stamp in the booklet. Pick up a spare booklet for the scrapbook if your kids want to keep their own original booklet!

• Magical Express tickets and vouchers. If you use Disney Magical Express you should get a packet with your vouchers - these can be another nice addition to your book.
• World Showcase Stamps from EPCOT Passports - each country has a station where you can get a stamp in your books (or on a sheet of paper) and your name written in that countries language. Again, you can photograph these at home and add them to your books if you don't want to use the originals.
• Disney Animation Academy - participate in the academy drawing class and add your drawing to your book.
• Redwood Creek Trail Challenge at Disney California Adventure - pick up the map and complete the challenges! Save the map for your book - and get a sticker from the attendant upon completion.

These are just a few of the fun Disney ideas that you can add to your scrapbook. Things are always changing at Disney Parks and there may be many other great ideas of things to add to your scrapbook. Please comment below with any ideas you've used in your Disney albums!

For additional Disney page ideas, please see the Gallery for trip albums from Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.