Photopass opinions

[Occasional Guest]

My wife insists on getting lots of photopass pictures taken because "posing for them is free." She will then take 10 minutes in the morning at the resort to look through them. She usually ends up buying one photo per trip and putting it in a frame from that resort so we can remember how old the kids were when we stayed at the various resorts. It's really her only "thing" that she splurges on when we go.

 

[ExtinctJenn]

Until this trip (we leave Sunday) I would've agreed with the waste of money thing. The difference for us this time around was we had one of those "ah ha" moments and realized that I have spent the past 6 years living my WDW trips through a lens. I've always been the family photographer and took hundreds of pictures each trip. Sure that's great for the memory books but in the grand scheme it meant I was often missing out. I'd watch entire shows like Lights Motors Action and The Little Mermaid without ever moving the camera away from my face so I could capture that "perfect moment."

This time... we purchased PhotoPass+. We almost always buy our ride photos and those are around $15-$30 a pop by themselves so when you couple that with the cost of a CD to get all the PhotoPass pictures, spending the $149 (we got it 2 weeks in advance) just made sense for us. Will we do it again? Who knows! But I am happy to be going into this trip knowing that for the first time in a long time I'm going to be able to sit and enjoy the world around me and take in everything with my own eyes.

 

[Figgy1]

I get the card just incase but have never bought it. I give the cm one of our cameras and those pics always seem to come out better!

 

[thomas998]

Have done it in the past a few times, 2011 was the last year we thought it was even worth buying. Since then we have had more shots on it that were just plain bad than were worth having so we didn't buy it... We don't do the pre-buy because for us we take our own photos too and just keep the photopass card incase they are really good photos or if our camera happens to die on us (happened once where an entire chip somehow got corrupted and our only photos were the photopass ones).... so I would suggest you use the photopass card but also take photos yourself, then it is a form of free insurance that will only cost you if you use it... I wouldn't pre-buy though, not with the drop in quality of photographers they seem to hire.

 

[wdwstateofmind]

I've met some children that are better photographers...with that being said if you don't have the amt. of people to take pictures it is a sufficient method of getting the job done considering you can crop them afterwards before you order anything and make them look some what presentable...

Photopass is really hit or miss...sometimes your are wowed by a shot, others you are left wondering how they managed to cut the caste out of a picture when it's right behind you...I could almost guarantee you some of them don't even know how to use all the equipment...

The additions to the photos are really nothing to write home about and haven't changed (besides the date) in lord knows how long...you can really only take so many pics with tinkerbell in your hand as well...

 

[RandomPrincess]

We LOVE Photopass! My daughter loves meeting characters last trip we had almost 200 pictures. Last trip we joined a photopass share through another Disney site. 10 families that were going the same month all chipped in and we paid $16 each for the preorder CDs. One mom divided up each families pictures and sent us each a CD with our shots. It took about a month to get our pictures but it was worth it. You can't do a share with PP+ the time limit is two short.

I find if you tell them you pre ordered the CD they will take a lot more pictures for you to choose between. I've also heard the people with the PP+ cards have gotten special attention from some of the photographers.

Attractions + is good if you just want all the ride photos I think that one can be a great deal.

 

[wendysue]

Hey was just wondering what your opinions are on Photopass at the parks. It looks pretty good. Was just looking to get your opinions on this.

Overpriced. Last time we went, many of the photos were not good....

 

[Obi]

Until this trip (we leave Sunday) I would've agreed with the waste of money thing. The difference for us this time around was we had one of those "ah ha" moments and realized that I have spent the past 6 years living my WDW trips through a lens. I've always been the family photographer and took hundreds of pictures each trip. Sure that's great for the memory books but in the grand scheme it meant I was often missing out. I'd watch entire shows like Lights Motors Action and The Little Mermaid without ever moving the camera away from my face so I could capture that "perfect moment."

This time... we purchased PhotoPass+. We almost always buy our ride photos and those are around $15-$30 a pop by themselves so when you couple that with the cost of a CD to get all the PhotoPass pictures, spending the $149 (we got it 2 weeks in advance) just made sense for us. Will we do it again? Who knows! But I am happy to be going into this trip knowing that for the first time in a long time I'm going to be able to sit and enjoy the world around me and take in everything with my own eyes.

what all is included in the price for photopass+ ? does that include the photopass cd or do you have to purchase that seperately?

 

[JillC LI]

I'm in that minority, too! I see no reason to pay money for something that is free. Taking your own pictures is free. Having CMs take them for you is free. Asking some nice passing tourist to take a picture of you is free. Downloading stock photography of the parks from many available online sources is free. Uploading your photos to Shutterfly or a similar site later and having memory books and memorabilia made is... well, not free, but it's a fraction of the Disney price! Insofar as I know, the only thing Photopass gets you that you wouldn't otherwise have is the Photoshopped shots of you or your child holding Pumba or Tinkerbell, etc., and the on-ride photos.

I was going to mention this about the Shutterfly photo books being a fraction of the price of the Disney photo books, but I felt like I had been critical enough in my original post already! LOL. But I definitely agree.

I love photopass as well. We make a memory book every trip we take. The book cost $100. We love the Disney layouts and covers. We upload about every photopass pic offered as well as our own pics. It comes down to what you want to spend your money on.

I make a photo book after every trip as well. For our trip last December, I made a 45 page photo book on Shutterfly for less than $20 with various discount codes and coupons. Granted I could not get the Disney cover, but if you're savvy enough with Shutterfly, you can make a photo into your page background, and if you've taken photos of character images and signs during your trip with this in mind, you can use them in your photo book.

We always take photos with the photopass card just in case there's an amazing shot we have to have. However, I found that for most of the pictures we took (excluding the magic shots obviously) my camera took equally good if not better shots. We had a really grumpy Photopass guy in AK the first day (it was cold- 60ish) and the photos on the card he took were AWFUL- the lighting was bad, etc. The ones he took on my camera were so much better!

We've had that experience as well, surprisingly.

Until this trip (we leave Sunday) I would've agreed with the waste of money thing. The difference for us this time around was we had one of those "ah ha" moments and realized that I have spent the past 6 years living my WDW trips through a lens. I've always been the family photographer and took hundreds of pictures each trip. Sure that's great for the memory books but in the grand scheme it meant I was often missing out. I'd watch entire shows like Lights Motors Action and The Little Mermaid without ever moving the camera away from my face so I could capture that "perfect moment."

This time... we purchased PhotoPass+. We almost always buy our ride photos and those are around $15-$30 a pop by themselves so when you couple that with the cost of a CD to get all the PhotoPass pictures, spending the $149 (we got it 2 weeks in advance) just made sense for us. Will we do it again? Who knows! But I am happy to be going into this trip knowing that for the first time in a long time I'm going to be able to sit and enjoy the world around me and take in everything with my own eyes.

Using Photopass would, unfortunately, not cure me of this problem - I want to take my own photos throughout the day too much! LOL

It is interesting to see how many people agreed with me. Last time I entered a thread on this topic, almost nobody agreed with me. To those that enjoy it for special occasions or just in general, I'm glad it's an option for you.

 

[BrianTheMute]

I think photopass is completely worth it, especially since there's no need to pay the entire fee yourself for the CD. Photopass sharing is the way to go, I got my photopass cd last year for about $20 because me and few other people I found on a forum split up the cost. Definitely the way to go.

 

[thomas998]

We LOVE Photopass! My daughter loves meeting characters last trip we had almost 200 pictures. Last trip we joined a photopass share through another Disney site. 10 families that were going the same month all chipped in and we paid $16 each for the preorder CDs. One mom divided up each families pictures and sent us each a CD with our shots. It took about a month to get our pictures but it was worth it. You can't do a share with PP+ the time limit is two short.

I find if you tell them you pre ordered the CD they will take a lot more pictures for you to choose between. I've also heard the people with the PP+ cards have gotten special attention from some of the photographers.

Attractions + is good if you just want all the ride photos I think that one can be a great deal.

You are fortunate. I have heard of some people that did what you did only to lose the money they sent to the person in charge of sending out the photos along with any chance to get those photos. If it were only $16 or even $20 bucks I would pre-order myself, but I'm not nearly as trusting as you.

 

[ThankstoMOM]

They do all the work all you gotta do is SMILE!! We love photopass!!!!

 

[erasure fan1]

I am not a big fan of photo-pass for a few reasons. First off, the quality is fair at best for the price you have to pay. The majority of my pictures come out better than the photo-pass pics. I also don't think they have enough photographers, except in the same old places. In front of the castle, check... in front of spaceship earth, check... in front of the hat, check....... Photo-pass plus was a nice improvement but the cost is still too high for the amount of rides that have pictures. The times we have found that photo-pass works best is when there are multiple families with us, that way we can divide the cost by 3 or 4 and its not too bad. Otherwise we just pick out 1 or 2 pictures from the photo-pass if they are really nice.

 

[fireworksandfairytales]

I honestly think it's kind of annoying because they try to give you one at every single character meet and greet and anywhere else. I think it's a nice idea, but you should be able to say no. They always give me one even when I say I don't need one. But, the system itself is nice for people who buy their vacation photos.

 

[RandomPrincess]

You are fortunate. I have heard of some people that did what you did only to lose the money they sent to the person in charge of sending out the photos along with any chance to get those photos. If it were only $16 or even $20 bucks I would pre-order myself, but I'm not nearly as trusting as you.

It's a small board with mostly the same members for years and I have "known" the woman who was leading the share for years. Also we did everything through Paypal so at least you can make a complaint and get your money back. We also each had access to the Photopass account so if worse came to worse you could pay full price and get your pictures ordered.

 

[dkosdros]

I was hesitant to use the PhotoPass+ when we went last year. We decided to take the plunge and splurge and see how it goes. I can tell you that it was money well spent. I am weekend photographer and I can take great shots myself. But it is nice to be able to put the camera away and let another professional do it. As someone else posted I was the guy with my face planted in the camera trying to catch the perfect moment. It was nice this last trip to hand someone my card and let them go to town so I could take in all the sights and sounds happening around me. They captured some special moments with M&G that I wouldn't have been able to achieve and again in the BBB, and I do feel that some of them went above and beyond when they saw we had the PhotoPass+ card compared to the regular ones. They spent more time with us. We came back with hundred and hundreds of photos. The ride photos were some of the best. The expressions on my families faces are priceless and if I didn't have the card I would have maybe not justified paying $20 per picture to keep those. It was so nice to now not have to worry and know I had every memory captured. And as far as them being in front of the Castle, front of SSE, well if you look around 90% of the people are stopping in these spots to get their own pictures anyways. So they are scouting the most popular spots. Sure not all of them are as enthused as others. But that is with anything in life. Take it for what it is worth and hope the next one is more creative and better at it. Would we do it again? possibly. My fear is we will get the same pictures in the same spots wearing different clothes looking a little older. It will be something we seriously consider for our next trip though and my guess is we will buy it and enjoy this round of pictures just as much if not more.

 

[popcenturylover]

We pre-payed for photo-pass+ this past September & loved it! I love the special borders & Magic shots! Just make sure to ask for the Magic shots cause' they don't take many unless you ask for them. They also give you all of the ride shots & character meal photos in that price. We took our own photos but, we got some great shots of our DD interacting with some of the characters from Photopass+ that we didn't capture because we were too busy watching her! Totally worth it!!!

 

[PhotoDave219]

Hey was just wondering what your opinions are on Photopass at the parks. It looks pretty good. Was just looking to get your opinions on this.

The quality of the photographers vastly differs. Some are excellent and know what they're doing. Most are just button pushers who just dont know what theyre doing and dont care.

 

[PhotoDave219]

How can you purchase the "on ride " photos?

They are separate and must be purchased at the ride.

 

[AswaySuller]

It's a nice idea, especially for couple like me and my GF who have a bunch of pictures of just one of us as the other is taking the pic. It's nice for nighttime shots as I've never mastered taking night pics and their's look good.

However as previously mentioned the photogs are happy to take pics with your own camera.
I found the character shots cheesy and repetitive and the disc/pics is really expensive!