Do Photopasses help on a budget?

[DisneyAllyC]

Hey guys,

Every time I've gone to Disney, I've never gotten a Photopass. I know they are great to have professional photos taken down there but aren't they expensive? Do you think they are worth it?

 

[jamilynhunt]

Hey guys,

Every time I've gone to Disney, I've never gotten a Photopass. I know they are great to have professional photos taken down there but aren't they expensive? Do you think they are worth it?

I did it and was so happy - we got great "magic" pictures with our girls holding tink in their Hand. the best way to do it is buy the cd before your trip on the photo pass web site the. when you get home you log in enter all the cards numbers and they will send you the cd or CDs with all the pics. take a picture of the back of the photo pass cards as soon as you get them just in case you lose one. this tip save us because I misplaced one. we ended up with about 170 pics in a 4 day trip - I paid 99.00 for the cd and it was well worth it.

 

[baileys mommy]

We went in the beginning of June. I just finished editing and adding sizes of all of the photos. We were there for 5 days and with all the edits had almost 500 pictures. Worth it for us.

 

[My3Princez]

Hey guys,

Every time I've gone to Disney, I've never gotten a Photopass. I know they are great to have professional photos taken down there but aren't they expensive? Do you think they are worth it?

A photopass card is free. Go ahead and get one to get your photos taken.
If your asking about the photopass package you can purchase that comes with a disk of digital photos, and whether that is helpful to your budget, that depends on whether or not you would have spent more than the cost of photopass on buying your Disney photographers' photos or not. Personally, I would never have spent enough money to equal the coat of a photopass purchase anyway, so it's not a budget helper for me. I still get all my photos taken by the photographers, but when I get home I just order the calendar for $25 and put lots of our photopass photos in it.
I do think next time we go, I'll get their new Attractions+pass with the digital ride photos. I like that idea.

 

[paysensmom]

There are also people doing shares for these onFacebook.

 

[erincon23]

There are also people doing shares for these onFacebook.

I've done this - found a share on Facebook - and it worked out really well. I've also arranged shares for a school group (which didn't work out so well because the kids weren't interested in stopping to get their pictures taken). A lot of whether it's worth it or not depends on how willing you are to stop and do it. The Photopass photogs will also take your picture with your own camera. And not all of the PHotopass pictures are good (or better than the ones you could take yourself). I've done it twice now because my DS was planning to do American Idol, and they provide a separate card of pix during the performance, but I wouldn't pay for it if I were only doing it for my family, with no share and with no special event involved.

 

[tnd]

For us, it is worth it to have pictures of the whole family together, rather than having one parent take the pics. It also means we don't lug the big camera around. Instead we just use our iPhone cameras for quick shots and get good character pics from photopass. I do think the printed pics are expensive, but if you buy the CD, you get a limited copyright release and can print them elsewhere.

 

[a1tinkfans]

IMHO
budget and photopass dont belong in the same sentence

I really think that Unless you are one to have a need to have 300+ pictures, have people in your group that want to stop and have that many pictures taken, and make it a priority to get the pix taken everywhere on everything (otherwise you ll be disappointed that you spent all that money), its simply not worth it

You can easily get the Great shots with any decent phone out there today, send them to any and everybody, etc etc the photopass photographers will gladly use your camera and theirs for you to get all those perfect pix you want, (yeah, even the ones where you hold tink in/above your hands etc, so cute by the way)
and you can then either order the calender as someone already mentioned to get the pix you want OR just choose to /purchase the "one perfect one" that disney took for you and put that One in a frame as your reminder of your trip (be sure to put the edging withe the date).
Seriously...as a scrapper with many many visits to disney, many special albums for each trip (but never more than 20 pages)...there always seems to be that "one" Xtra special one that even at $20. or so for that one buying from disney is a Lot less than the entire cd you ll buy...what will you do with ALL those pictures realistically??
Unless you can share the cost??.....but Id personally not like giving access to others I dont know to do what they want with my family/kids pix kwim....

Have a GREAT trip
making Picture Perfect Memories whatever you decide!!

 

[Patience]

I didn't do photopass on our last trip and I'm not doing it this on this trip either. Way too expensive as far as I'm concerned. We will get a photo package with our meal at Cinderella's Castle and the photopass photographers in the parks will use my camera as well as theirs to take pictures. I like the idea of maybe purchasing just one really nice photo to frame (maybe a magic shot) if we end up with a good one.

 

[dminnie]

A photopass card is free. Go ahead and get one to get your photos taken.
If your asking about the photopass package you can purchase that comes with a disk of digital photos, and whether that is helpful to your budget, that depends on whether or not you would have spent more than the cost of photopass on buying your Disney photographers' photos or not. Personally, I would never have spent enough money to equal the coat of a photopass purchase anyway, so it's not a budget helper for me. I still get all my photos taken by the photographers, but when I get home I just order the calendar for $25 and put lots of our photopass photos in it.
I do think next time we go, I'll get their new Attractions+pass with the digital ride photos. I like that idea.

The calendar sounds pretty cool. So is it just 12 pictures you get to choose for it, or can you do a collage on some pages? Also, do they have a set theme for each month or do you get to choose what the backgrounds are for each month? And, can you add your own photos to this or do they have to be from the photopass card?

 

[zoemariesmamma]

We have done the photopass twice and I think it was absolutely worth it. Next trip we are for sure getting the photopass plus. I love the pictures from both of our trips, we look at them frequently. So worth it for us.

 

[SandrA9810]

While the photographers will use your camera, your camera needs to be good enough (which 99% are these days) and set properly (which about 95% aren't). When I worked there, I took the extra moment to turn the flash on indoors or use the night setting for night pictures. Not all of them do that, and you can have some pretty pitiful pictures leaving the setting to auto. Photopass has all of their cameras set for each setting, indoors, outdoors, and night time, so more than likely you will end up with a good picture.

If you like character meetings, it might be worth it SLRs can take pictures much faster than point and shoots, so they can get the special little moments. They also know the characters well enough to know what to expect and when. Parents can be completely off guard or too busy awwing over the moment to snap a picture.

 

[ShariVT]

My Dh was very sick last year and in a coma for 6 weeks we were incouraged by the icu staff to put pictures around the room, my daughter came home and got all our family photo pass pictures and put them up not only did it help us to remember happier times but it gave the drs and nurses a glimps of what dh was like. So to me they are priceless. If not for photo pass we would have pictures of our trip but we wouldn't be in them.

 

[luvdisney00]

I think they are well worth it. I love all of the family shots that we get with all of us in them and the quality of the pictures is amazing. I always pre buy the CD to get the best price. We haven't done the plus , it doesn't seem worth it to us because we are at the stage where we don't do a lot of character meals, but you have to assess that for your own family. For us the regular photo pass is all we need and I think it's a great deal.

 

[jperrot1]

We are three families with 9 people total going to WSDW for 9 nights and I purchased the photopass+ which you can prepay for $149. You have to order it at least 14 days before your trip. It includes all pictures taken put on a CD with printing rights given to you. Also, all attraction pictures (like splash mountain) are included on the CD at no charge. And, many character meals (like the lilo and stitch breakfast at the poly) have printed pictures taken of your group that look really nice and they tease you by handing them over to you to look them over and you can buy them for a price but with photopass+ you even get those prints for free.

So for us, it's a great deal. If you are on a short trip or don't care about pictures....maybe not such a great deal.

 

[adventure_woman]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the photopass. I have done many many shares - this last time I got the Plus and it was great. Getting the ride photos and dining photos was so much fun - something I would never have 'bought'. I led the share - and with 4 families I only paid $47 (they paid $34). It was great to have the pics of the first time DD#1 rode ToT, RnRC, EE, etc. I also love the character pics I get - I don't worry about taking pictures and can enjoy the moment more. That is my favorite souvenir.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the photopass. I have done many many shares - this last time I got the Plus and it was great. Getting the ride photos and dining photos was so much fun - something I would never have 'bought'. I led the share - and with 4 families I only paid $47 (they paid $34). It was great to have the pics of the first time DD#1 rode ToT, RnRC, EE, etc. I also love the character pics I get - I don't worry about taking pictures and can enjoy the moment more. That is my favorite souvenir.

I'm curious about how the shares work... You can PM me if you'd like.

 

[My3Princez]

The calendar sounds pretty cool. So is it just 12 pictures you get to choose for it, or can you do a collage on some pages? Also, do they have a set theme for each month or do you get to choose what the backgrounds are for each month? And, can you add your own photos to this or do they have to be from the photopass card?

There is quite a variety of themes and layouts for each month. You can use photopass pics and pics from your own camera. The calendar I made from our last trip has 24 photos, with a mixture of 1, 2, or 3 photos per page and a wide variety of themes. One of our best souvenirs - although having it hanging around is making it very hard for me to stick to our decision to wait longer before going back to WDW!

 

[adventure_woman]

I'm curious about how the shares work... You can PM me if you'd like.

Now you find the shares on Facebook. Everyone gets their pictures as normal at WDW. When you upload your pictures, they all go to ONE account (the leader's). Once all pics are edited, the leader then orders the CD's. The CD's are mailed to the leader, then the leader copies them onto CD and mails them directly to you. I haven't had any trouble with them (have both led shares and just joined them). My only personal preference is that the group is small - editing your pictures with ALL the other pictures is kinda a pain (as the site is a pain to begin with). That is why I limited my last share to only 4 families total. After 4, the cost per family doesn't go down that much.