Disney Photopass a failure

[Ridge]

Some brain decided the old regular picture taking method at the parks had to go. For the last 10 years we had a family tradition of going to one of the parks and have a formal family picture taken in front of a different scene in one of the parks. Our hallway is lined with year after year of photographs. This year we went to the Animal Kingdom and the chap gave us a Disney Photopass. Take it home and see your pictures online within 24 hours he claims. Two weeks later and numerous complaints online I discover the contract is with Kodak and their system over loaded and lost thousands of pictures. I asked Disney Guest services what to do. No one knows. Contact Kodak they say. I pointed out that even though the blunder was at Kodak’s end the system is named Disney’s Photopass. We’re so sorry but just come back to the park and we’ll comp you new pictures. I said great and who is going to pay for the airfare for the extended family ? Better yet how did they plan to put up Christmas decorations for this special picture.

So far all I get is perky replies like Greetings from sunny Florida and How Ya doing Mr.Oakley.We are really upset with Disney on this one. They’ve ruined a decade long family tradition for a system with no back up. They didn’t even offer to try and make amends by saying next year we’d get some extra special pictures. All we get is the run around and they apparently have no phone number I can use to complain to. Everything on their www.disneyphotopass.com website is online related.

I wish someone could advise me what to do.

 

[Razor Roman]

Man, what a bummer. I feel sorry for you guys. I guess every time I get a CM to snap my picture I am going to hand him my Rebel and ask him to please snap a second one for me on my own camera as well.

 

[luvtoall]

That is SAD... I am going to remember and take my own photo, too...

 

[jennymouse]

I don't think there's anything you can do. If they're lost they're lost. Did you take pictures on your own? Maybe you can have one of those blown up for your wall. Sorry that happened to you, I would be bummed too.

 

[bdcp]

Photos that can't be redone get lost everywhere. When my youngest son was 3 months old I had pictures taken at Sears. Went back to get them a couple of weeks later (this was 18 years ago before digital) they had lost them. I had to retake in what he had on at the time since he'd already outgrown the outfit he had on in the first one. I missed that "moment in time". It bugged me at the time, but now, it really doesn't matter. I've got lots of pictures of my boys and they're grown now. Lesson learned, I always take my own pictures as well as those being done professionally, because accidents happen and you can't make them magically reappear.

 

[we3disneygo]

Just a question-do they give you the option of buying your pic's while still in the park?

 

[Frozenfingers]

IMHO, photopass is an evolving service and when the bugs are out it will be a huge moneymaker for Disney. During our Dec Stay, we had several photos taken both using photopass AND with the photographer using our camera. We ended up purchasing a number of their photos on line and therein lies the snag..

Although the 5 x 7's arrived in great condition, the 8 x 10 came seperately and in poor shape. Disney is partially at fault, but the main blame must fall on the USPS. The envelope used just isn't strong enough to prevent carriers from mushing it into mailboxes. And yes, "Photos, DO NOT BEND" is written all over the place. Guess when the temps drop below zero, our mailman's vision dims and the greymatter is unable to process simple commands. (In fairness, I wouldn't take off my gloves to manipulate a handfull full of letters and such either).

I contacted Disneyphotopass via email and explained that my photo arrived creased and requested they reconsider the packaging to keep the gorilla's at USPS from trashing the larger prints. I didn't rag on them, just explained that they can keep the $17, but I wouldn't use the service anymore until I knew my purchase was better protected. They replied prompltly, like within 12 hours, stating if I send pics of the picture and envelope so they could understand the problem, a replacement would be mailed to us. Fortunately, I hadn't thrown the envelop or the print away yet, so I snapped a few and sent them off via email.. That was just a few days ago, we will see what happens.

In the future, I would not hesitate to order smaller prints, but until I know the larger prints are better protected, I won't waste the time, effort, or money.

BTW, we have had our pics taken many times at all the parks, but have never bothered to even look at them on the way out.. I think Disney ID"d folks like us and came up with this service. Well, they managed to get another $70 that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

 

[tenaseewalker]

Yes, You can still view and purchase your pictures before you ever leave the parks.. The benefit is once you get home, you can view the same pictures with the PhotoPass and even order more from their site.. I think this is a great option...

PS.So sorry that you lost your pictures.

 

[floridagirrl2]

Disney photopass also lost some photos of DH and I in front of the Epcot Christmas Tree on DH's 50th birthday. Luckily there were other photos taken on the same day that they didn't lose.

I don't think there is anything you can do about it except be happy for your magical memories.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Sorry to hear that Photopass did not work for you. We just love it ourselves. We had around a dozen pictures taken while we were in the parks and they were all on line when we got home. We just recieved the two we bought in the mail yesterday. It was so great to be able to look at our pictures and take our time decideing which ones we wanted to buy .

 

[MissionMouse]

" photopass is an evolving service and when the bugs are out "

Actually the concept of what they are doing is old news in the IT field. It appears they didn't make the necessary capital investment by not purchasing additional hardware to ensure their system was mirrored. This allows continuous system availability when one component fails, while protecting against loss of data being manipulated and data in transmission.

A good service oriented system is mirrored will probably have hot back-ups occurring throughout the day. Consumers should definately have concern about a service system process that losses data, since there are numerous methods to avoid these situations starting from day one of business.

If the photo is important...take it yourself. To no surprise, we found all of our photos to beat their photos anyway. You can also get a lot of the Disney logos and fonts on-line and make your own finished photograph if you want all the graphics surrounding your family.

 

[JustLoveDisney]

What a bummer. I'll keep that in mind for our trip

Tks for the info

Debi

 

[zurgswife]

We were told that photos on photopass were lost when we wanted to view them in the park and there was nothing they could do.....well when we got home 10 days later the pics were there.....fun thing though the pics that were "lost" were park opening pics and we were supposed to get a 5X7 free...but once we got home no FREE pic....

Maybe the pics will show up.....

 

[MommyBoo!]

The envelope used just isn't strong enough to prevent carriers from mushing it into mailboxes. And yes, "Photos, DO NOT BEND" is written all over the place. Guess when the temps drop below zero, our mailman's vision dims and the greymatter is unable to process simple commands.

Our post office has told us that "Do not bend." does not mean that they cannot roll the envelope to fit in the mailbox. Unfortunately, rolling can also damage the photos.

 

[jeancbpugh]

Just a question-do they give you the option of buying your pic's while still in the park?

Yes. The photographer said they would be ready for viewing about 60 minutes after they were taken. (maybe 90 minutes?)

All of our pictures showed up at the photopass site. We had three pictures of strangers in our album.

I am waiting for them to add in the Tinkerbell they forgot before I order any pictures.

 

[jeancbpugh]

" photopass is an evolving service and when the bugs are out "

Actually the concept of what they are doing is old news in the IT field. It appears they didn't make the necessary capital investment by not purchasing additional hardware to ensure their system was mirrored. This allows continuous system availability when one component fails, while protecting against loss of data being manipulated and data in transmission.

A good service oriented system is mirrored will probably have hot back-ups occurring throughout the day. Consumers should definately have concern about a service system process that losses data, since there are numerous methods to avoid these situations starting from day one of business.

If the photo is important...take it yourself. To no surprise, we found all of our photos to beat their photos anyway. You can also get a lot of the Disney logos and fonts on-line and make your own finished photograph if you want all the graphics surrounding your family.

I suspect some of the lost photo issues involve operator error by the photographer or scanner error on the camera. Thus the photos taken of the people right before us were erroneously associated with our photopass id card.

 

[Mainebound]

Ugh. This reminds me of the time I bought high speed film and reuined it all by putting it through the airport scanners. Hope it will work out!

 

[Ridge]

....compounded by no back up system. The real problem for us was the photographer encouraged us to avoid the long lines at the gate where they had the photography distribution. On the way out we wanted that picture but sure enough one clerk and probably 20 people ahead of us. So long a line a staff member came out and gave us a coupon so that the picture would be half price if we went home and collected it from their website. With several machines not in use I figured what a time saver. Well I would have preferred to stay in line then to fall for that blunder. As it is that coupon will be their downfall. In the spirit of the day ( Martin Luther King ) we plan to openly protest this afternoon at Guest Services. They designed the system , built in the flaws and I expect to get those family pictures and ful gate admission for the family at no cost to us. Breaking our decade long tradition does not come easily to our family.

 

[floridagirrl2]

In the spirit of the day ( Martin Luther King ) we plan to openly protest this afternoon at Guest Services. They designed the system , built in the flaws and I expect to get those family pictures and ful gate admission for the family at no cost to us. Breaking our decade long tradition does not come easily to our family.

Yikes! Sound like a very unpleasant encounter. Is this really what you want to teach your kids about how to deal with petty difficulties in their lives? In the great scheme of things....this is pretty small stuff.

 

[Chuck S]

Hmmm, while those photos may be a tradition...life happens, mistakes are made, electronics fail...that is life.

You really want to teach your children that materialism is what is important? Gosh, if I lived in Celebration, FL and recently went through hurricanes where I could have lost everything, I don't think I'd be sweatin' it over a photo. Of course, that's just me.