Disney Photopass Photo book?

[mykidslovesdisney]

I am sitting here ready to pre-order our Photopass CD. I see that you can get a discounted price on the photobook when you pre-order too. Has anyone done a photobook from Photopass?

We typically take close to 1000 photos on our own cameras and a 100 or soo from the photopass cd. I have recently done my 1st photobook by shutterfly. It was easy to put together. Plus had a 50% off coupon that made the book inexpensive.

For those that have done it - is it easy to use? Can u upload ur own photos to use also??? I love the idea of disney backgrounds and their stock of photos that can also be used.

Last yrs trip was the 1st time we haven't had a photo album put together. It is sitting all on shutterfly waiting to be put together. I have always done the tradition photo album. Last year we could not find the larger 3 pic per page photo album they use to have in the parks. The yr before was the same - couldn't find it. I ended up buying 2 of the smaller albums to put my book.

Seeing I normally spend somewhere around $50 for photo albums and then still have to pay for printing my pictures. I think that the photobook would be the way to go. Just not sure if I should try a photopass book or shutterfly book.

Any input would be great!!
Ordering our Photopass is the last thing on my to do list before we leave in 10 days. Well besides still having to pack.

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

Their books are nice, Disney themed pages of course, but not worth the $$ I think. We did it for our first trip since we didn't want to spend the money on the CD and we didn't have a lot of photopass photos. It's limited as to how many pics can go on a page though, so if you have a lot you'll end up with more pages... costing more. I'd stick with Shutterfly, or even better artscow (you can make your own layout so you can put as many pics on a page as you want... and they're cheaper than pretty much anywhere else)if you are already getting the CD. But then again, I digi scrap so I make my own pages and the Disney theme isn't so important for me since I have my own.

 

[DaniB]

I would love some more information about these as well.

Does anyone have some photos of pages they did with the Disney photopass book? I'm curious what kind of layouts and # of photos on a page.

TIA!

 

[ktlm]

We do one for every trip. It is my favorite souvenier. We never get around to doing anything with our Non-Disney pictures- they just sit on the computer and back ups. You can upload your own pictures and use them for the photopass book. I always use a combination of the photopass pictures, our own pictures, and a few of their stock photos. It is easy to upload your pictures. It is very easy to put together- just drag and drop. You can do 1-4 pictures per page. The pages are set (you can't move the picture holes around), but for each style (classic characters, fab five, princess etc) you have a few different layouts to choose from for whatever number of pictures you choose. Some of the layouts have spots for text. Be sure you have a good mix of horizontal and vertical pictures. The hardest part for me is that I always seem to have too many vertical pictures I want to use.

 

[Alexander]

We've done two of these books. One was DS's first trip and the second was our first cruise/WDW stay. They are really nice. They are printed by Jostens, the yearbook company.

 

[TruBlu]

We got one from our last visit. It does cost more, but you get the Disney themed pages. Ours turned out really good, and I think I will make one from every trip now. I added pictures and used photopass pics. You pick the number per page, the theme for each page, and add any captions you want. We love ours.

 

[Angeni11]

We were planning on getting one on the preorder as a surprise for my mom since she is coming on our little ones first trip with us.

I have a question though. If you do the preorder for both the CD and book can you have the CD sent to you first so you can upload the pictures to use in the book and then have that sent or do you have to have both sent at the same time?

The reason I am asking is they have 2 levels of books and I think the one with the preorder only lets you use your pictures not the photopass ones.

Thanks.

 

[jenseib]

NOT worth it. The quality is not good at all. I did 1 in 2007 because we didn't have many pictures. It was nice, but not worth the moeny at all. And the picture quality is poor. I vowed never to spend that kind of money on one again. Also the book was not made well and if you are not careful the pages can be ripped out easily. last year I caved and preordered one with my CD. Then I had so many pictures I ended up paying 35 more for the dang thing and again the quality was poor. I made one with shutterfly for my MIL and the pictures were 10 times better in that book.

Angeni11 You do order them seperately, but you don't need the CD to do your book. The pictures are online when you put in your photopass codes, so you just use them there to make the book. You can upload your own pictures as well to put in it. I never heard of 2 levels of books, but maybe that is new. But I do know they are there for photopass pictures. You can use any pictures photopass or personal in the book.

Also I want to add that the page layouts are VERY limited. I tried to put the most pictures on each page, but then I had only about 3 or 4 layouts to chose for the whole book.

 

[Alesia]

I made an 80 page page photo book from blurb.com and it cost less than $45 including shipping. The same book from photopass would have cost over $160. The quality was also better than the photpass books.

Another thing I don't like about the photopass books is that there are only a few layouts and backgrounds. with blurb, there were hundreds of layouts and you could make any background you wanted.

 

[ktlm]

The reason I am asking is they have 2 levels of books and I think the one with the preorder only lets you use your pictures not the photopass ones.

Thanks.

You can use the photopass pictures for the book whether you buy the CD or not. Unless things have changed (and I just made one last month from our DL trip this summer), the 2 levels were that one had a standard cover and one you could put your picture on the cover.

I do agree that they are expensive, more than some of the other sites out there (especially when you add extra pages). That is the one thing that makes me cringe about them, but for me it is worth it because I like the Disney themed pages AND the time factor makes me actually do the book. I know the photopass pictures will only be on there for 30 days after I have logged in and seen them, so it makes me sit down and do the book. If I wasn't doing the books on the photopass website, I would probably never get around to doing them.

 

[DaniB]

I made an 80 page page photo book from blurb.com and it cost less than $45 including shipping. The same book from photopass would have cost over $160. The quality was also better than the photpass books.

Another thing I don't like about the photopass books is that there are only a few layouts and backgrounds. with blurb, there were hundreds of layouts and you could make any background you wanted.

Did blurb specifically have layouts & backgrounds for Disney?

 

[clarkmichelle]

I recently got custom made photobook at CVS; they had some offers in last month. I used the Disney theme.

 

[scootch]

I have done a disney one, but it doesnt' have alot of options(or didn't at the time) for adding text and such.They do have disney backgrounds that you can use. I love shutterfly. They do not have disney backgrounds, but with the photopass pictures, you can add borders to the pictures, so I don't really need disney specific backgrounds. They also have this 12 x 12 book that has beautiful pages. Here are a couple links to the ones I did on there.

http://community.shutterfly.com/gal...postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDBg2aOW7Ny5YgMU5mNE

This link is to an 8x8 book I did once there. http://community.shutterfly.com/gal...postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDBg2aOW7Ny5Ygu25tCA

One thing with shutterfly is they offer sales alot, so I just work on the book at my own pace and then order when it is onsale. You will need alot of pages too with 1000 pictures. My books end up way over the normal 20 pages that most companies include with their offer. Either way, they are a great keepsake!

 

[clarkmichelle]

I recently got custom made photobook at CVS; they had some offers in last month. I used the Disney theme.

 

[Angeni11]

Someone posted on another thread they used Picaboo and liked it. I looked it up and they seem to have quite a lot of Disney themed backgrounds and a lot of flexibility.

Thanks for the advice on the Disney photobook. I think I might go with Picaboo or another site instead but will still preorder the CD as the worst that could happen is none of the photos come out and we get our money back.