Very disappointed with Photopass Plus

[luv]

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. If they'd had this when my son was younger, I'd have done it - especially for the ride photos. I'm always saying on the boards that I think it's a great idea. Maybe I should stop that!

 

[ExtinctJenn]

I sort of had the opposite experience (happily) when we used it for the first time in March. We'd never done any PP before simply because I was always the family photog and didn't see the need in paying someone else to be. I realized though that I have very very few pictures of us as a family together in the parks as a result and wanted to change that. We are huge fans of the ride photos so those being added in was another plus for us. We stopped at every PP photog we could find and there were a good bit of them. Every picture came out clear and they shot two or three at each spot.

The only complaint I had is only three of the photogs did anything special... anything more than just standing together and saying cheese. One was at AK and he had my son do the holding of baby Simba pose. Another was at Epcot at night and he had my son hide his face while my husband and I smooched behind him. The last was at DHS where they had us do the arms out (tadaaaa) type of pose. Beyond that it was click click click and not much more.

It was worth it for us in the end BUT we aren't doing it again for this trip in December simply because a second set a photos from 9 months later won't be all that much different. That said, I expect in another year or two as my son gets older we may again. I guess we'll see.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Well we had a great time using Photo Pass Plus. They where 21 people in are group and we had a great time each night looking at the photos we had taken each day. It became somewhat of a contest to see who could get the best photo each day. Some of the photos that had balloons, birds, teacups, etc. added where just great. We always have a book made from each trip and these photos added to that effort.

With that many people splitting the cost and the difficulty of getting lots of photos of a big group, I think your situation is the best possible use of Photopass!

 

[taz0162]

Sorry with your experience but with ours we were in the parks 11 days and had over 950 photos attached to our photopass plus. All excellent.

 

[Tom 55]

I pre-ordered my Photopass Plus package months before our trip, & I was very excited to use it. The excitement started to dwindle when we were actually on our trip. We made it a point to look for all of the Photopass photographers to try to get as many photos as we could, and there simply wasn't enough around to make it worth the money we spent. We hit as many as we could, and honestly I could probably count on my fingers how many we found.

The biggest disappointment was getting back home from the trip and viewing the pics online. The amount of shots we got were a disappointment, but I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for, was the quality of what I received. We got other people's photos in our package (our card had our name written on it with a sharpie, and I watched every photographer like a hawk the entire time they held my card to make sure it wasn't switched), we had blurry photos, we have photos where the icon (hat, castle, tree, ball) are so off center that all the cropping in the world isn't going to make them look normal, & we have duplicated shots. With us getting the photos of others in our package, I'm sure our photos are in someone else's as well.

I realize that every photo isn't going to be perfect, but for the amount of money paid for this package, I would expect much better quality and a better caliber of photographers taking the original pictures. At the very least, how hard is it to center a photo? It's the first thing your parents show you when you are a kid using a camera for the first time.

I did like being able to play with the photos to zoom in and add nice borders, but the excitement wasn't really there because I hated the photos so much, but they were all I had to work with.

I think the product is an awesome idea! It has so much potential to be an excellent product, and would be completely worth the money spent, if it got some major improvements on the front end with the photographers. I'll never use it again, and just continue to rely on our cameras and smartphones as we have done in the past.

Just thought I would share my experience to maybe save someone some money they could use for other things for their trip.

I have used Photopasss+ the last 2 visits. I was saying the same thing to my wife that there were less Photopass photographers around and the quality of the photo was lacking. We were at meet and greets and there were no photopass photographers there to take picture. We had to hand our cameras off to the CM there to take our picture. I waited an hour to have my picture taken with all seven dwarfs together and both pictures taken are out of focus. 2 of the meet and greets we were at the photopass photograper was having camera problems and was not able to take pictures.

 

[Britt]

That totally bums me out, we'd thought about it a few times. But this last trip, we had several moments where a CMPhotog would come up to me and let me know they got some shots of our family enjoying the sprinkler or the coin crusher thing or something and when I got home to check, they looked like cell phone pics. Nothing special and definitely not worth any kind of money to me. That had made me rethink ever using it, but this has definitely made me decide to not even consider it in the future. I take way better pics with my own cell phone.

 

[Hot Lava]

We were at meet and greets and there were no photopass photographers there to take picture. We had to hand our cameras off to the CM there to take our picture. I waited an hour to have my picture taken with all seven dwarfs together and both pictures taken are out of focus.

This is very bad, and I think I would have asked for a manager and complained. Probably would not have done any good, but i would have anyway. It is crazy for them not to have at least one at a M&G area.

Some of the negative stories - missing pictures, other people's pictures - seem to indicate the necessity of a computer with you. It sounds like it is important to check the photos on your account at the end of every day. A pain for sure, but less so than being disappointed after getting home and finding this all out. I had asked several months ago about the ability to view the photos on a Kindle Fire, as that the device with which I travel (laptop is too much of a pain) just because it seemed important to check regularly.

It also sounds like this is yet another way Disney is cheaping out. No training and using people with little or no interest. giving the college programs, is it that hard to find CMs that are getting a degree involving photography, or that have an interest in photography? And to give some decent training? It is all very disappointing to hear the bad stories.

 

[Betsyboo]

I've purchased the PP CD in advance for our last three trips. We had the PP+ last January. I agree with the comments about the picture quality going downhill but if you want pictures with everyone together and you want to take advantage of ride pics the PP+ is the way to go. I'm debating the purchase for our Feb 14 trip but will probably take advantage of the service again. This time I will take the advice given of reviewing the pics each day while at the parks. We had pictures missing from our trip last year. It was disappointing, especially since we waited an hour to meet Gaston and we really looked forward to the pictures. PP help desk was unable to locate the pictures.

 

[bethram]

Do they have PP photographers out at MVMCP? We are taking a quick 3 day trip in December and I've been debating whether it was worth it to get PP+ for only three days. I've begun thinking that if they have photographers at the party it would more likely to be worth the cost.