Quality/value of Disney's Photo Books?

[ggauthier82]

Hi! We are 33 days away and I am about ready to pre-order the Photopass CD. But this time, I am offered either the PhotoCD for 99.95 or the PhotoCD + Photo book for 149.95. Can anyone tell me if the photo book is worth the extra 50$? Is the quality good? Is 20 pages enough for 12 days' worth of WDW pics???

I tested out the whole thing and it was fairly easy to customize and it looks interesting on-screen, but I'm wondering if I should go for it or not? :shrug:

Thanks! :wave:

 

[timeman]

I don't know if it is worth it, but a friend of mine bought the Photopass CD last year when she went and instead of buying a Photo Book from Disney she uploaded her pictures from the CD along with the ones she took to Snapfish and made a book there. She ended up creating a 45 page book and that was just for three days of Disney. The cost was higher than what she could afford at the time, but the other month she found an offer for 50% off a photobook from Snapfish and ended up buying the book from them. The book turned out really well and wasdone well.

 

[ScoutN]

The photos generally come out great. Way better than a standard theme park photoset usually does. It is going to come down to if you want to incorporate your own photos and whether or not you want to compile the book on your own.

 

[mike45248]

We love it

We did it last time. The book is great, you can use your own pictures in the book and add pages to it. We made our book like a story book nad look at it a lot. We are probably going to order it again this year.

Mike

 

[ggauthier82]

We did it last time. The book is great, you can use your own pictures in the book and add pages to it. We made our book like a story book nad look at it a lot. We are probably going to order it again this year.

Making it like a story is a great idea, like the story of our vacation. I think I'll try to convince my husband... he thinks it'll be too "babyish" but I like the vintage layouts, they look great.

Thanks for your input!!

 

[powlessfamily4]

I am doing the photo book this trip also. I am assuming it is 10 pages front and back, hence 20 printed pages. Does anyone know if this is correct?

 

[mickeysshoes]

Yes that is how it is...we got photo books made up from our Adventures by Disney trip to Hawaii. I made 2 one for us and one for the Father-In-Law....he gave us the trip for a Christmas gift. The lots of fun to create the album and you could use the photos Disney had on the site and could up load your own. So any photos you get on your Photo CD should be there to add. I found it very easy to do. I like the idea of telling a story with the photos!

 

[powlessfamily4]

I like the idea of telling the story also. I can't wait to do this.... what fun!

 

[BigRedDad]

I am getting the photobook as part of the promo going on. If I am going with a larger group, I will buy the PhotoPass CD. Since it will just be my daughter and I, I doubt I will get it.

 

[lostpro9het]

We did it on our last trip in December and get a "free" one the next go around in September. We liked it, the pictures where good and it was nice not having to be concerned about taking pictures as much. One thing I wish they would do is allow the ride photos to be put on the pass. I mean you're already forking out $150 would it really kill them to let us toss them on too, I suppose I'd pay even more of a premium for this option but it seems like it should be something that is included.

 

[imahistorygeek]

What I really like about the photo pass are the extra pictures the include. We had over 150 taken and they added more to sort of round out what we had. We're excited (I'm married to lost prophet) to be getting the book this time around.

 

[DizneyPryncess]

I love the photobooks - the one I got done turned out great! Customizing it is a lot of fun too. If you have more pictures than pages (I definitely did!), you can add pages for an extra fee. It adds up if you add a lot more, but a few more isn't too much extra. It's much cheaper than scrapbooking the whole thing yourself - that always costs me a ton with pages, stickers, glue, protectors, etc.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

I wouldn't make the photo book on the Disney site- it's much cheaper to use another site. We typically buy the CD, which grants you the rights to the photos, and then use them in the photo book. Walgreens is the photo service we use and they're always running specials for photo books (typically something like 40 percent off).

 

[nolatron]

I wouldn't make the photo book on the Disney site- it's much cheaper to use another site. We typically buy the CD, which grants you the rights to the photos, and then use them in the photo book. Walgreens is the photo service we use and they're always running specials for photo books (typically something like 40 percent off).

Agreed. I'd make my photobook elsewhere. For example, Winkflash has a 20 page photobook for only $25 instead of disney's $80 (ot $50 prepaid). Shutterfly has several styles of photobooks for around the same price too.

 

[yankspy]

We did it on our last trip in December and get a "free" one the next go around in September. We liked it, the pictures where good and it was nice not having to be concerned about taking pictures as much. One thing I wish they would do is allow the ride photos to be put on the pass. I mean you're already forking out $150 would it really kill them to let us toss them on too, I suppose I'd pay even more of a premium for this option but it seems like it should be something that is included.

You could always scan the on-ride photos and then use it in the book.

 

[mrsdanalind]

We did it last time. The book is great, you can use your own pictures in the book and add pages to it. We made our book like a story book nad look at it a lot. We are probably going to order it again this year.

Mike

My eldest daughter scrapbooks,she and her husband and daughter went down about two years ago, and she got the c.d and then made her own story book. Her daughter now 4 uses it as a bed time story. :xmas:

 

[meekoman]

I always make my books through Walmart.com. MUCH cheaper through them, although you don't have the same page themes to choose from when putting it together.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

I did one photobook and I have to start working on another one (soon!). The books are really nice; I would probably suggest trying it once just to see how you like it. The appeal for me is the photopass pictures already uploaded online vs. uploading them manually at another site, the Disney clipart, and the extra "postcard" type pictures available to use in the book. I think you can add on two pages for like $7, so it's not too steep if you want more space. My only real complaint is that while I like the quantity of clipart, there isn't very much variety. There's really just Fab 5 and princesses. No Pooh, no Toy Story characters, no pirates, no Figment, hardly any park-related art. There are some backgrounds of the park icons, but the only park-related clipart I found was Minnie building sand castles shaped like the park icons. And I thought that was awesome... but it was the only one. I ended up re-purposing Adventures by Disney stickers for Animal Kingdom and World Showcase, which worked pretty well. Don't they know this is primarily a theme park product?

If it sounds like I'm complaining too much, I really do like the books. I think it would get old after a couple times since there aren't that many different characters to decorate with, but you should definitely try it.

Here are my tips:
1. I think the most photos per page on a pre-set layout is 4, but you can definitely fit more than that on a page and still see them well.
2. Try taking some pictures of your own to use as backgrounds. Leave a lot of "empty" space, like sky, water, or crowds so you can cover it up with pictures instead of covering up, say, the Castle.
3. The photobook builder will steer you away from putting pictures too close to the edges, but you can make it do it if you really try. This is good for the edges on the outside of the book, but follow their guide on the inside edges, so you don't lose half of your picture in the binding.
4. I made one group picture where I put one of the characters' clipart hats on everyone. Minnie's bow, Donald's hat, etc. People really like that picture.