You’ve researched and planned your vacation. Then, you’ve gone on your planned vacation with your family and had a great time! Now what? Returning from a fun vacation can be bittersweet - while it’s always nice to return home, the trip that you’ve been looking forward to and planning is now over. But, even though it’s over, there are ways to preserve your family vacation. Today on my blog, I’m partnering with a company called Magic Memories to suggest ideas as to how you can preserve family vacations. My family and I received complimentary tickets to the Grand Canyon Railway, and I also created photo products free of charge, in exchange for my review. All opinions are entirely my own, though. It turns out I’ve been purchasing photographs taken by the Magic Memories team for several years without even knowing it was them!
Creating photo products is a great way to preserve family vacations.
Preserve Family Vacations with Magic Memories
What is Magic Memories?
Magic Memories is a company that has photographers on site at several attractions and destinations throughout the world. I’ve bought photographs through them without even knowing it. For example, popular theme parks like LEGOLAND California and zoos like the San Diego Zoo use Magic Memories for their photo packages. I personally like using photographers on site because I’m rarely in photos. It’s nice to actually have family photographs that include me as well! I also like that many of the packages include printed photos as well as a digital download. Believe it or not, it takes me a while to print out photographs from our vacations. With the printed photos from Magic Memories, I don’t have to worry about it.
The Grand Canyon Railway
I was happy to see that the Grand Canyon Railway is one of the attractions that works with Magic Memories. My family and I love train rides. However, while we’ve been to the Grand Canyon several times, we had never taken the train ride via Grand Canyon Railway (other than the Polar Express).
We drove from Tucson to Williams, Arizona and took the train to the Grand Canyon for the day. A photographer from Magic Memories was on board the train and he took the photo below. The photographs are taken during the train ride to the Grand Canyon, and they are provided to the guests for purchase during the return back to Williams. My family and I love our family photo! Everyone is smiling, including my 5 year old son, which is no small feat 🙂 As soon as I saw the photograph, I knew it was going to be a keeper. And as for the train ride itself, we had a great time, including my son. The train ride itself is entertaining because there is a musician onboard, and there are also cowboys who pretend to rob the train!
A photographer from Magic Memories is on site at many attractions throughout the world. I loved how our family photo from the Grand Canyon railway turned out.
Personalized Photo Products
Magic Memories doesn’t end once the trip is over! Guests can create different photo products, like photo books, by using the Magic Memories website. I’m not a crafty person by any means, but I do love creating products, like mugs, calendars, and canvases, with pictures of our trips. My parents also enjoy receiving these as gifts, especially if it includes pictures of their grandchildren 🙂 Not only do these types of gifts come from the heart, but they are also more personalized, and definitely not something you can purchase in any store.
I decided to create a photo mug, a canvas, and a photo book with our pictures from our trip to the Grand Canyon. I was very pleased with how the products turned out.
For example, I created a collage for a mug, with pictures of the Grand Canyon, the train, my son, and my parents. It’s a great way to remember our trip together.
I also created a canvas, using the photograph that was taken by the Magic Memories photographer.
Canvases are another way to preserve family vacations.
And last but not least, I love the photo book that I created. I decided to put the photo book on display on one of our main bookshelves, next to a snow globes from the Polar Express and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Train. The photo book itself was very easy to create and there are different themes depending on the subject matter.
Unexpected Surprises
My family and I recently traveled to New York and some of us went to see the Rockettes perform the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. For as long as I can remember, my mom always wanted to see the Rockettes perform live. To our delight - and surprise - a photographer from Magic Memories was on hand to take guests’ photographs with a Rockette! Our family photograph turned out great. I actually bought this particular package, and it was worth every penny. It was approximately $55, and included the photograph in several different sizes, as well as a digital download and little picture frames. My mom, my sister, and I were all able to keep photographs for ourselves. Not only am I glad that I could experience it with my mom, my sister, and my niece, but I’m happy that we have a fun momento of our experience!
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Loved the photos. Very nice memories.
i LOVE YOUR PICTURES AND MY LITTLE FRIEND ISNT SO LITTLER ANY MORE. THANK YOU FOR SHARING