Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Disney Vacation: How to help your kids remember their first visit

I'll be the first to admit it, ours kids are spoiled when it comes to Walt Disney World. We love some Mickey Mouse by all accounts, as this year's Disney vacation was the third year in a row we've gone.

The main Mouse, Mickey Mouse at Walt Disney World
My oldest (now 7), has been to Walt Disney World four times and my youngest (almost 4), has been three times. And while there are varying opinions on when the right age is to take your children on a Disney vacation to meet Mickey Mouse for the first time, I've found a way to somewhat safeguard against younger children forgetting their visits.

The first time we took our oldest to Walt Disney World, she was 3 1/2. We did a long weekend piggybacked off of a conference that I was in Orlando for and while she was tall enough to ride everything we wanted to go on with her (she is tall for her age), we had concerns that she wouldn't remember much of her first Disney vacation. So, when we got back, I decided to make a photo book to recap her first visit to Walt Disney World.

I saw that you could make a Disney photo book through the Disney Photopass service, but it was awfully expensive. So I searched around and found Shutterfly*. I uploaded a bunch of pictures and put them in a logical order.

What's really fun though is that it's turned into one of her favorite books because each time we read it, we make up a story to go along with the pictures. Whether Mickey Mouse is the hero or Cinderella finds her glass slipper, it always ends up sparking her memory to talk about what she remembers from that visit, which is great.

More importantly, having the photo book allows her to look back at that trip anytime she wants and because of that, she remembers meeting Cinderella, going on Space Mountain, hugging Mickey Mouse, and everything else that we did on her first Disney vacation.

So, when we decided to take our youngest to meet Mickey Mouse for the first time (about 2 years old at the time), we weren't concerned with her remembering the trip because we made a Disney photo book for both of them when we got back and like her sister, she remembers much of that trip as well (despite being so little).

The Disney photo book has become a cherished souvenir because the kids never know which pictures I'm going to choose and with us purchasing the Disney Memory Maker this year, I had even more pictures to select from.

Going to Walt Disney World is a significant investment and when you spend that kind of money on a vacation, you want your kids to remember it. For us, creating photo books has become a great way to remember those magical Disney moments over and over again.

* - there are a variety of photo services that can do this, I just happen to like Shutterfly.

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