-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Memory Maker...is it really worth it?
- Thread starter Mr Toad
- Start date
I've actually had a lot of clients add the memory maker package to their reservations when booking them since it came out. It's $149 for the pre-purchase compared to the price of $199 if you purchase it in the parks. Your photopass photographer, select dining location and ride photos can be uploaded to your my magic and you can view, download and share them with your friends and family linked to your my magic account. No more paying for individual photos. Plus it's now all digital My vote is yes it's well worth it.
Pam
Pam
Upvote
0
tink33
Active Member
I personally wouldn't pay the $149. When my in laws booked our rooms they were told by the Disney rep it was included in our package. My husband told his parents it's not free. My mother in law called back and talked to a manager. We are getting it for free for all three rooms. I can't imagine what that phone call was like for the people at Disney!
Upvote
0
dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
It all depends on your group and your touring style. I'd only consider Memory Maker if you like to go on the "thrill" rides, and have some character dining booked. If you do, then Memory Maker might be a good deal. But if you don't do the attractions with on-ride photos, then you would possibly want to be considering the Photopass Archive CD available for pre-order here -> https://mydisneyphotopass.disney.go.com/wdwsave/ for $119.
I recommend either package to people who like to meet with characters, don't mind stopping multiple times for photos, and want to have photos with their whole party. If you only want a single castle pic of your group, then don't bother, and just ask the photographer to take one with your camera. Or if you have someone who won't want to stop for a second set of Main Street photos because it delays their ride on Space Mountain an extra 3 minutes, you probably won't get your monies worth. But if you have people who like meeting characters, Photopass is usually ready to grab those spontaneous first hug w/princess type shots, while usually parents don't have their cameras ready. Or if you want the magic shots of your party holding Tink or baby Simba, etc.
At $15 per print/download, you can break even if you think you would want 8 pictures.
I recommend either package to people who like to meet with characters, don't mind stopping multiple times for photos, and want to have photos with their whole party. If you only want a single castle pic of your group, then don't bother, and just ask the photographer to take one with your camera. Or if you have someone who won't want to stop for a second set of Main Street photos because it delays their ride on Space Mountain an extra 3 minutes, you probably won't get your monies worth. But if you have people who like meeting characters, Photopass is usually ready to grab those spontaneous first hug w/princess type shots, while usually parents don't have their cameras ready. Or if you want the magic shots of your party holding Tink or baby Simba, etc.
At $15 per print/download, you can break even if you think you would want 8 pictures.
Upvote
0
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
It all depends on you.
I have a free service called "Take Your Own *&$% Camera," or "TYOC." With TYOC, I have unlimited access to CMs and Photopass photographers who use my camera to take pictures of me and my family, wherever and whenever I want, for nothing more than a polite request followed by a genuine "thank you." When I get home, I get immediate, free unlimited downloads of those photos to my home computer. I can print them, share them, put them on DVDs, and make charming musical slideshows and Shutterfly photo books out of them. I also get $150 of my own money, which stays in my wallet instead of going to WDW. My photos are never deleted unless I delete them. It's hardly revolutionary, but you can't beat the price!
The only thing I don't get is low-quality on-ride photos and the "magic shots" in which I get to pretend I'm holding Simba or getting attacked by Stitch or something. I do not miss them.
Still, if TYOC is bothersome to you and on-ride photos and magic shots are priorities for you, by all means invest in MemoryMaker with the $50-off buy-ahead option, and be sure to purchase it at least 3 days prior to your trip (since otherwise you'll have to pay extra for photos taken within 3 days of purchase).
I have a free service called "Take Your Own *&$% Camera," or "TYOC." With TYOC, I have unlimited access to CMs and Photopass photographers who use my camera to take pictures of me and my family, wherever and whenever I want, for nothing more than a polite request followed by a genuine "thank you." When I get home, I get immediate, free unlimited downloads of those photos to my home computer. I can print them, share them, put them on DVDs, and make charming musical slideshows and Shutterfly photo books out of them. I also get $150 of my own money, which stays in my wallet instead of going to WDW. My photos are never deleted unless I delete them. It's hardly revolutionary, but you can't beat the price!
The only thing I don't get is low-quality on-ride photos and the "magic shots" in which I get to pretend I'm holding Simba or getting attacked by Stitch or something. I do not miss them.
Still, if TYOC is bothersome to you and on-ride photos and magic shots are priorities for you, by all means invest in MemoryMaker with the $50-off buy-ahead option, and be sure to purchase it at least 3 days prior to your trip (since otherwise you'll have to pay extra for photos taken within 3 days of purchase).
Upvote
0
PrincessMia
Active Member
@"Weather_Lady," Do they ever give you any weird attitude? I like the ride photos a lot, but don't get a ton of the magic pictures anyway.
Upvote
0
dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Not @Weather_Lady, but I'll chime in anyways. The Photopass photographers will gladly take a picture with your camera. (As will most other CMs and many guests) However, they typically will only take one, and then take 3-5 with theirs.
The biggest short coming with the TYOC model Weather_Lady proposes is for night time and other similar situations. Most P&S (or even high end DSLRs) won't do a good job during night time and other situations where there is special lighting. If you lug a tripod with you, and preset the proper night time exposure, then your pics will be fine. For instance, otherwise you will tend to end up with properly exposed family due to the flash but a very very dark castle on Main Street at night. You need to set a flash, along with a slower shutter speed, which you typically cannot do with a hand held camera.
Upvote
0
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
@dreamfinder is right -- obviously pictures taken with your own camera will only be as good as that camera allows. While Photopass photographers will generally only take 1 or 2 pictures with your camera (meaning you'll only get 1 or 2 with you in it on such occasions), you can still take as many of your own as you want, everywhere. Our best photos from our last trip were ones in restaurants and in front of Cinderella Castle that were taken by nearby CMs rather than Photopass photographers. We did have a Photopass card and had some Photopass pictures taken, but they weren't as good so we didn't purchase them.
And no, no one ever batted an eye when we asked them to take a picture -- they all said yes and did it cheerfully (as they are trained to do).
And no, no one ever batted an eye when we asked them to take a picture -- they all said yes and did it cheerfully (as they are trained to do).
Upvote
0
tlev
Well-Known Member
We have purchased Photo Pass Plus which is the former name of Memory Maker for our last two trips and plan on purchasing it again for my upcoming trip in March. To me it is well worth the $150. We love being able to get the ride photos as well as the photos offered from some of the character dining spots. I love the fact that I'm actually in the photos. (My husband cannot take a decent picture so I am hardly in any photos unless we use the Memory Maker.) True some of the photographers are not that great and some of my photos have been lost before (some were recovered, but others were not). However, this is why we stop and take numerous photos. Photographers and Cast Members have always been nice about taking photos with my camera, but they typically only take one and who knows if it will even turn out. I think its a great purchase!
Upvote
0
Wildflower
Well-Known Member
Depends on length of trip, party composition, and balancing the equation of how many pictures you might buy that would pay for the package... First is self-explanatory. Party comp thoughts: if you have kids that are impatient/not camera-cooperative, you have the benefit of multiple pictures being taken so hopefully at least one works. Same goes if there are a bunch of you. New/infrequent visitors might be more likely to buy ride photos, make photobooks, etc and this could make it easier especially since there are a lot of "park" photos for you as well? On cost, figure it only takes buying 10 pictures to break even on it (ignoring of course if you want paper versions, you do still have to pay for whomever you use to print em).
We DID buy and use on our 1wk trip last year. Picture quality was good, and when the photogs saw one that didn't look right on their screen actually took another pic or two beyond (happened twice). Also during a character meet/greet, the CM/photographer disappeared right around our turn (problem with his camera) so we took pictures with IPhones and walked away. Suddenly got called BACK...the handler/CM had noticed the lanyard w/ (then) photopass+ on it and had us come back to have them taken by the returned photographer (waited for the current people to finish up of course) Sidenote: Was very glad we had it, especially since I dropped and broke my camera during the trip...hence the phone pics!!
Last trip of 4 nights (January) we did not, and only purchased 3 pictures.
We DID buy and use on our 1wk trip last year. Picture quality was good, and when the photogs saw one that didn't look right on their screen actually took another pic or two beyond (happened twice). Also during a character meet/greet, the CM/photographer disappeared right around our turn (problem with his camera) so we took pictures with IPhones and walked away. Suddenly got called BACK...the handler/CM had noticed the lanyard w/ (then) photopass+ on it and had us come back to have them taken by the returned photographer (waited for the current people to finish up of course) Sidenote: Was very glad we had it, especially since I dropped and broke my camera during the trip...hence the phone pics!!
Last trip of 4 nights (January) we did not, and only purchased 3 pictures.
Upvote
0
MissingDisney
Well-Known Member
Love it. Ended up with 400+ pics from last trip....totally worth it to us. And I use them in our photo book I make after every trip.
Upvote
0
UberMouse
Active Member
We always use the photo-pass and per-purchase a package. It works for us because we always have about 200 photos by the end of our stay. 90% of them are usually pretty good. I did buy memory maker for my upcoming trip. It seems like a good deal overall. It's like DVC, it isn't for everyone.
Upvote
0
UberPlannerMom
Well-Known Member
I seem to recall at one point that if you didn't like your pictures from pp+ you could return your prepurchase... is my memory right there? And if it is can you do it with memorymaker as well?
Upvote
0
TheMouseFan
Well-Known Member
They all say no refunds now! At least they did when I prepurchased the CD for our November trip last year.
Upvote
0
dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
The refund was only with the Photopass CD. But as the @TheMouseFan said, they no longer do that for any of the image packages.
Upvote
0
PigletIsMyCat
Well-Known Member
this is a great breakdown. we've never been big fans of buying overpriced photos, but on our last trip when my brother proposed to his fiancee, we ended up buying SO MANY photopass photos. i alerted the photopass cm about the proposal and he got some very very very excellent photos. they're actually using some in their save the date cards.
our trip in october will be a special one... i'm thinking that photopass may be a good idea this time.
our trip in october will be a special one... i'm thinking that photopass may be a good idea this time.
Upvote
0