MEMORY MAKER..AGAIN

[Laurichi]

HI EVERYONE,
i'VE READ A FEW POSTS ON MEMORY MAKER BUT IM STILL NOT SURE WHETHER TO GET IT OR NOT...
I'm also still not sure how itw orks...we're six but we pay the same that only two people would pay?
What do i have to do when our picture is taken?

SHould i stilll take my camera or just not worry about it?
Sorry never been to WDW before and i'm a bit lost here
thanks!

 

[Jon81uk]

Memory Makers gives you downloads of all pcitures in your Photopass and/or My Disney Experience account.

When you are in the park your MagicBand, ticket RFID card or a photopass card is scanned by the photographer, this makes sure photos appear on My Disney Experiance/Photopass. For ride photos, MagicBands are picked up automagically, RFID cards need to be touched on the readers under the monitors after the rides. Except Seven Dwarves which is magicband only.

When you get back from the park, redeem your Memory Maker entitlement on the photopass website and you have 30 days to download your pictures.

If friends and family are linked on My Disney Experiance and they tick the box to say you can view and purchase their photopass photos (or you added them as family instead of being seperate accounts) then you can download their photos using your Memory Maker too (check here to see if you can view friends and family photopass photos https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/profile/family-friends/).

You can get photos taken and view them on MDE without purchasing memory maker, but if you want to keep photos you need to pay $15 per download, or get memory maker for $169 for unlimited downloads.



Also I would still take a camera as of course the PhotoPass photographers are only in certain areas (in front of castle etc), if you want pictures of scenery then you need to do it yourself.

 

[WDWVolFan]

It's worth it...you get tons of pictures at the marquee spots at the parks but you won't have a Disney photographer taking a picture of your kid in line making a funny face or dabbing.
Last year we had MM and our iPhone cameras and it worked out perfectly.

Just tap your magic band to the photographers equipment and it's in your account and when you leave a ride, tap your band on the sensor that is assigned for your party's picture on that ride.

 

[dreamfinder]

Memory Maker is just a product that Disney Photopass offers. It entitles you to 30 days of downloads of every picture that is active in your account at the time you do the downloads. It is a great deal for some people, those who stop for photos, see lots of characters, etc. Others, not such a great deal because they never stop for pictures. I've had trips for a party of two, and ended up with 4,000+ pictures on my account, so party size doesn't really matter.

Taking your own camera is up to you. The photographers will gladly take a picture with your camera as well if you ask. Some people prefer the ability to take their own pictures when/when they want, but others are fine with just the ones Photopass takes. The photographers are typically in set locations, so you can't get pictures wherever you like. At the same time, they are setup and ready to take pictures and may be more likely to get the "moment" picture, especially at character greetings where parents may be juggling jackets, autograph books, etc and not have their camera ready for that first hug.

 

[Chef Mickey]

I THINK YOU SHOULD TAKE YOUR OWN CAMERA.

 

[cdeev8690]

I loved my Memory Maker Experience!

This past September was my first attempt at Memory Maker, mostly because I wanted some decent cheesy picks of my partner and I on one of our last visits for a few years. If you visit the parks sparingly, then I'd highly recommend it, especially if you are attending during a separate ticket event, i.e. : Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. The CM would scan my MagicBand and almost immediately we could look at the photos on the My Disney Experience app and even save it to my phone's camera roll so I could post it online or send it to family. To get your money's worth, make sure you stop as often as you can at as many photographer locations you can find (they should be on the MDE app), even the unlikely spots, like the areas around the World Showcase that aren't with a view of Spaceship Earth dome or the fountains (although, they're really beautiful pictures). Also, if you're as picky as I am about angles and getting a "good" photo, you're much more likely to get the perfect shot eventually! I have 188 photos, including the attraction photos, from my trip that I downloaded. I wouldn't have them printed from Disney directly but I will eventually bring them to CVS or Walgreens to be printed.

So in closing : It's absolutely worth it if you are celebrating a special occasion while on your trip, or there's a special ticketed event you are attending, or if you don't visit the parks very often and would like some nice professional photos (as opposed to your amateur-at-best iPhone photos - depending on your photo-taking talent). Just beware of taking photos during the evening. I have plenty of nighttime photos and only one or two that actually came out nice. The others are very blurry since they had to set a long exposure time. The best photos are during sunset, AKA the golden hour for photo lighting.

 

[jhastings74]

I second what cdeev8690 said. We just returned from our Honeymoon week and this was my first experience with Memory Maker. I was just talking with a coworker this morning and told them that I felt it was one of the best decisions I made in planning our trip. We had over 200 photos from the parks, many of them were 'Magic Shots' with static characters, videos, sound effects, etc. added onto our photos. Just like others have said, we made sure we stopped just about every photographer we saw to take our photos. (The only ones that did not turn out very good were the ones at night by Under the Sea in MK...too dark to see ANYthing in the pics...) We also loved that we got the cool ride video from Mine Train without having to even touch a Mickey for it and we also loved that there were photographers in the different Resorts that we went to (AKL, GF, WL, etc.). We still took a TON of photos with our phones and camera, but there were great shots that we just would not have been able to get without MM. Overall, we had a VERY positive experience with it and will totally do it again. The instant availability and the good quality along with the 'Magic Shots' made it worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Laurichi]

Thank u so much for all the info!
Will definitely get memory maker and bring our camera

 

[mouse_luv]

What everyone else said, but also want to add to take a camera of your own if you can and if there are shots that you don't want to possibly not have that a photopass photographer took, hand them your camera and ask them to take the same shot on it too. Because sometimes shots taken by photopass on the Disney cameras don't show up in your photopass acct when you get home and I would hate for you to not have something you really wanted to be there.

 

[thomas998]

HI EVERYONE,
i'VE READ A FEW POSTS ON MEMORY MAKER BUT IM STILL NOT SURE WHETHER TO GET IT OR NOT...
I'm also still not sure how itw orks...we're six but we pay the same that only two people would pay?
What do i have to do when our picture is taken?

SHould i stilll take my camera or just not worry about it?
Sorry never been to WDW before and i'm a bit lost here
thanks!

Take your own camera and have them use it at every place where they are also taking your photo for the memory maker because some times the photos they take are down right bad (cutting the top off head and bad exposures have happened to us) and sometimes the photos they take never show up on your account (we had photo with Tinkerbell that never showed up on one trip)... If they are using your camera you can see what the photo looks like and if its crap ask them to do it again, though we've found that even photographers that give you bad results with their own camera will often give you much better results when using your camera...

Also if you do the memory maker make sure to download the photos as soon as you return from your trip so you don't forget to do it. If you wait too long it will cost you extra to have them resurrected from computer heaven, and if you wait even longer they are gone forever even though you've paid for them.

As for whether it is worth it, that's a question only you can answer. If you like ride photos it is good for that because you will get those instead of having to buy them at every ride... Also if you like the cutesy photos where they stick Tinkerbell in your hand and things like that it is good for those things too.... We just do it as insurance in case our camera is lost or stolen on the trip we will still have some photos when we get back... But honestly don't expect great quality photos, I would say on a good trip a little over half the photos are what I would say acceptable... the others will have cut body parts, a horizon that isn't straight or exposure that is bad.... On a bad trip we've had maybe as few as 25% that were acceptable... So in short don't expect professional photographs you are only getting a college kid as a photographer with sometimes limited skills and sometimes very little dedication to the art of photography.

 

[jackson2005]

We love it, I do spend the extra 30 after I get home and order all my pictures and videos on a DVD. You can add borders and other little things to your pictures before you download or order the cd. Enjoy!

 

[bjlc57]

we are ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS.. we do it all the time.. and both of my kids have done it FOR A LIVING.. that being said.. because there were two couples and we both could be on ONE MEMORY MAKER.. it was more then worth it.. and we really were disappointed that WE DIDN"T DO IT 18 months ago when all 6 of us were there.. I still took 500 photos.. that's just me.. My wife did about the same.. and Memory maker was more then worth the price.. HOWEVER pick and choose.. there were times were the photog was shooting with shadows on the clients faces.. those photos weren't going to look good ever.. know the correct angles.. and the lighting.. if the sun is at your back.. ITS NOT GOING TO BE A GOOD PHOTO unless you want a silhouette..

 

[smbarr]

I love Memory Maker! We have so many cool photos we wouldn't have otherwise. It is well worth the money.

 

[Monty]

I suspect that since you've never been before it's not likely, but no-one's mentioned that Memory Maker is included with an Annual Pass. If you live close enough to WDW or are like me and get hooked once you're there, it might be worth considering an AP for at least one of your party.

Depending when and how long you're going for and the size of your party, it can even be beneficial on a single trip. For example: My son and I did a 9-day/8-night stay at Beach Club with an AP discount on the room. The discount was enough to pay for an AP for me, a 9-day Hopper for him and the Tables in Wonderland card. With the TiW, all of our food for the whole trip also came within the money the AP discount had saved on just the room. That was with a 42% AP discount, which I haven't seen that high since, but even at 30%, it would have been worth considering, particularly now that they include Memory Maker.

Just something to think about...

 

[Laurichi]

I got memory Maker and will bring own camera too. We are so excited!!!
no annual passes for us. It is a 9-hour f light!