Is Photopass worth it?

[magnanimous66]

Thinking about adding Photopass for my wife. She loves to scrap book and create shutterfly photo books for all events and vacations , but Im wondering if its worth it. How would and why would we benefit from having the Photopass?

 

[HoustonHorn]

If you are picture takers, it is absolutely worth it. In addition to the pictures you can stop and take with the photopass photographers (that you can always recreate yourself), you get all of the ride photos, animations and magic shots that you can't do yourself. I still took plenty of pictures, but they were more the spontaneous kind, and I never felt the need to get every shot. Also, if you want pictures of your whole group without having to ask a stranger to help you out, this is a great way to do it (see, e.g., my avatar).

Wow, I wish Disney would pay me to be a spokesman!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

How large is your party?
How long is your trip?
Will you ride all or most of the rides with on-ride photos?

The answers that make PhotoPass worth it are large, long, and yes.

 

[StarshipDisney]

Value can always be in the eye of the beholder. But I agree it definitely depends upon how much you use it and if you want the "extras" that come with it.

You need to look for the PhotoPass photographers and be ready stand in line for magical shots. The more the better. Lots of ride shots and such are automatically included so long as you have a magic band. We also tend to photo shop some pictures on the Disney website after the trip (yes, you can do some neat things with them after the fact) and then buy things like mouse pads and Christmas cards using our Disney pictures (a number of other choices like coffee cups, etc.). I think you can even upload your own Disney pictures if you want and use those to buy prints or other merchandise.

Anyway, like others have stated, value here depends on how much you get out of it. For us anyway, we try to maximize the number of photos during our days in the parks and then we like buying the special mementos and sending out Disney Christmas cards every year after a trip. So we are likely to always get it.

 

[magnanimous66]

How large is your party?
How long is your trip?
Will you ride all or most of the rides with on-ride photos?

The answers that make PhotoPass worth it are large, long, and yes.

3 people in my party. 7 night stay. we ride as many rides as possible and we stay in the parks as long as possible.

 

[Mainahman]

the photos the photographer took with my phone came out clearer and better than their fancy camera..... we ended up just printing one of them, and bought a nice frame at MK.

 

[stratman50th]

With anything Disney it's to each their own. We have never used it and never missed it. The photographers will take your picture with your camera, or at least they used to.

 

[zeebs758]

3 people in my party. 7 night stay. we ride as many rides as possible and we stay in the parks as long as possible.

With this information, I would definitely do it. Anytime you see a PhotoPass photographer, just stop and have them take your photo. Some photographers are very playful and let you have some fun when taking photos with you. I think it's absolutely worth it. I made a scrapbook for all of my groomsmen after we went on our bachelor party. They still talk about the book till this day.

I say do it!

 

[dreamfinder]

Quick distinction, PhotoPass is the photography service they offer, Memory Maker is the unlimited download product.

It really depends on you. Some people are happy with a single family shot in front of the castle to show they were there. Others want lots of pictures. If you did characters alot, it used to be a no brainer. The CM would be in a great spot to get those shots of your party walking up, those first hugs and such, while you still had your bags and stuff. But now they are switching some of the characters to the photos boxes, it's not the same. And I miss the ability to add the borders to the pictures.

If you are going to be there during the holiday season, I would definitely recommend getting Memory Maker. Taking night time shots with the castle or other decorations in the background won't work real well with your camera unless you are schlepping a tripod and such, while PhotoPass usually does a good job of night time shots.

I've usually done well with Memory Maker, but the last few trips it's been included in the AP, so I didn't have to pay extra.

 

[JIMINYCR]

Weve done trips with it and without it. DW is the family photographer, always buying different cameras & lenses, takes photo courses and turns out excellent photos of our trips. When we have opted to do Photopass weve been happy with the service and gotten wonderful results. I'd recommend it especially if you are not going to do many WDW trips or this is going to be a one time trip. Getting as many well done photos on your own and by Dis will be worth it. Better doing it and not regret not doing it later.

 

[DisAl]

It has been well worth it to us in the past, but if they go ahead with replacing real photographers with the idiotic automated photo systems we will NOT be purchasing Memory Maker in the future. From what I have seen if you have young children to deal with the automated systems are going to miss the best moments and are next to worthless for capturing a child's interaction with the characters.

 

[magnanimous66]

Whats the difference between Photopass and Memory Maker

 

[DisAl]

Whats the difference between Photopass and Memory Maker

Photopass is the process of getting your photos made and linking them to you magic band or ticket. Anybody can do that, and you can buy individual photos (very pricy) if you like. Memory Maker is an "account" that you purchase in advance (minimum 3 days in advance) that allows you to download ALL your photopass photos no matter how many there are. For our trip in 2016 we had over 600.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Generally I say no; but I'm a photographer. On-ride photos are uninteresting to me regardless. But the one place it shines is if you have small kids; the pictures of the meet-n-greets are worthwhile. So too are the occasional family pics in front of _whatever_ because other than asking a stranger to take the picture for you or fiddling with propping up the camera and using a self-timer, they ain't happening.

So - great for families with kids and people who just want "a couple of nice pics in front of the castle."

All that said, the photographs, on a technical level, are largely horrid (most are crooked, ill-timed, have wonky angles, yada yada).

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I had never done it before this last trip and kinda wish I had always done it! We didn't get 600 pics but hot plenty that we loved.

 

[disneygirl76]

Thinking about adding Photopass for my wife. She loves to scrap book and create shutterfly photo books for all events and vacations , but Im wondering if its worth it. How would and why would we benefit from having the Photopass?

I love the Memory Maker and always order it as a souvenir for myself! For the amount of pictures I have taken and not having to carry around my big camera, it is a huge value!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

It all depends on you.

For us, in most cases...no. We travel with a couple of DSLRs and take a ton of our own pictures...more than we've ever had Disney take. I'm also willing to hand off my camera to Disney photopass photographers if I must have one of their staged shots. Ultimately, I don't like magic shots, I don't really need ride videos, and I prefer more candids. Every now and then, I'll see a couple of pics that are worth buying, but that's usually it. It pains me to do it, but I will be buying into it for my upcoming runDisney trip because I think it would be easier to rely on Disney for race pictures and don't really like the photo quality on my phone. I took a similar approach when my kids were younger and doing BBB each trip. It was too much for me to deal with that and pics, so I bought into Memory Maker so they could do all the photography while I did what I needed to do. Still, I think we averaged 250 photopass pics to my avg 2500 personal camera pics.

I've also seen from the various forums and Disney groups I'm in that I'm in the minority. Most people seem to enjoy being camera free and waiting to take all of the staged shots at the photopass spots.

 

[Stitch in Wonderland]

If your wife loves Scrapbooking, then I think she will like having the pictures so I would say Memory Maker is worth it. She can download all the pictures for the week from the app and do what she wants with them!
My MIL didn't get it and just carried around her big camera. But I got it the last time and I have some really great pictures of our family with Characters, my daughter in Bibbity Bobbity Boutique and many other places. They even have a place in the My Disney App that will let you search out where the PhotoPass Photographers are. You get decent pictures, you can ask if they can do Magic Shots and add a little something extra to the pictures if you pose for it....It just worth it to me to have the memories and not have to really think about it.

 

[magnanimous66]

Quick distinction, PhotoPass is the photography service they offer, Memory Maker is the unlimited download product.

It really depends on you. Some people are happy with a single family shot in front of the castle to show they were there. Others want lots of pictures. If you did characters alot, it used to be a no brainer. The CM would be in a great spot to get those shots of your party walking up, those first hugs and such, while you still had your bags and stuff. But now they are switching some of the characters to the photos boxes, it's not the same. And I miss the ability to add the borders to the pictures.

If you are going to be there during the holiday season, I would definitely recommend getting Memory Maker. Taking night time shots with the castle or other decorations in the background won't work real well with your camera unless you are schlepping a tripod and such, while PhotoPass usually does a good job of night time shots.

I've usually done well with Memory Maker, but the last few trips it's been included in the AP, so I didn't have to pay extra.

I had no idea. Sounds like Memory Maker is the way to go. Thank You