Memory Maker..the good, the bad, the ugly...

[disneyfan4u]

We were thinking about buying the memory maker. Is it worth it? Can I see your pics? Is there any coupons for lower then $149? TIA!

 

[imthemamahere]

$149 is the discounted price - and at that price, must be purchased 3 or more days before you want to start taking/printing photos - so buy it at least 3 days before you start your vacation. Full price is $169. I doubt you'll find it for less, but if anyone else has an in on a better price, I'm sure they'll share.

I don't have pics anywhere online that I can share from. But I can say that the photos definitely range from fairly mediocre to quite good. They're taken with decent dSLR cameras. Some photographers are better than others. I've blown up one of the photos from our 2014 trip to an 18x24 canvas that's hanging on my living room wall. My favorite photo of the vacation, and I bring my own dSLR to the parks as well. We've had some really great experiences with some of the Photopass CMs - we've had several go far above and beyond. But of course, most simply do what they must. Many photographers (though not all) are trained to take Magic Shots - those are fun, and totally worth asking for when you don't have a line of a dozen people behind you. If you haven't seen them, basically, the photographer will pose your group, and a bit of Disney "magic" (in the form of a character or digital "prop") will be added to your photo when it's processed. Very cute. My son loves them. We stop at most Photopass photographers we see (though not all) - it's usually just a few minutes to wait until another group or two have their photos taken. If it's not ridiculously busy and there isn't a long line of others waiting, we ask for specific photos when we want them - like one of just my husband and me together, a silly pose, etc. And we almost always ask for Magic Shots. We let the photographer suggest other poses. Again, if there isn't a long line of others waiting. When it's busy, we take a shot or two and move on. We easily end up with 300+ photos over a week's vacation. And then you can add details (like character signatures, borders, etc) to the photos on your computer, if that's your thing. Again, it's cute stuff.

For me, the best thing is that we're all in the picture. I'm always the one behind the camera. With the Memory Maker/Photopass option, I can prove that I went on vacation with my family.

As for whether it's worth it, we don't do a Disney vacation without it. To us, it's totally worth it. Whether it's worth the cost to you and your family is something only you can judge for yourself.

 

[ColonialMouse]

We don't do it every trip, but you get tons of great pictures, especially if you stop occasionally and let photographers take pictures of you in different places. If you show you're interested in nice shots, a lot of photographers will take the time to set up some interesting ones. Plus it includes ride and meal pictures.

I think it's a bit expensive, but from a week trip you're likely to get maybe 20 great pictures out of maybe a couple hundred that are taken. I'm OK with paying that maybe once a year or so. On other trips I just buy them at $15 per picture---got 5 that way from our last trip.

Bruce

 

[Kimberly9701]

Totally worth it!!!! I purchased it again for our 4 night stay in December.

When I look at the cost of the photo package on DCL I feel like I got a steal!!!lol.

 

[Kimberly9701]

I have hundreds of photos from MM. These are my faves. You'll love it!!!

 

[NJlauren]

Totally worth it IMO.

We have gotten in on our last two trips and really loved it. I do make a point to stop of tons of photographers as some are not as good as others, and some take more pictures then others. Feel free to check out my TR's for some pics, personally I plan on getting it every trip!

 

[RMColosimo]

For our family of 5 it is very worth it. Plus no looking for some random stranger to take pictures of the whole group of us. Plus my kids love the silly things that they put on some of the photos. And you get the ride photos as well.

 

[bsj1701]

worth it, here is one of mine...

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[Kimberly9701]

worth it, here is one of mine...

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This is great!!!! When/where was this..and is it still available?

 

[bsj1701]

This is great!!!! When/where was this..and is it still available?

During the Halloween Party, you would need to by a ticket for that, but otherwise, this is a memory maker photo taken by a Disney photographer.

 

[MandiC]

It all just depends on how long and how much you'd use it. We actually won it for our 2014 trip (a special our travel agent ran) and we LOVED it. It I were going for 4 or more days again, I'd pay for it no problem. I mean, we pay almost that for less than an hour with a photographer for our family pictures each year. So it is all in how you look at it. For me, it's family pictures, pictures of us on vacation, memories. It is worth $150 to me. That said, my mom and I went to Epcot in January this year, but we only went a day. Obviously that isn't enough time to make it worth it. They did take some awesome pictures though.

We really didn't find anything bad or ugly about it. It is super simple, they just scan your band after taking your picture and they show up in your account just like that. You get all your ride pictures, all your photopass pictures, all your dining pictures. The *only* negative is the price, and that is all in how you think of it. My opinion may be tainted because we tried budget friendly for our wedding photographer and ever since that disaster I swear by spending money for good pictures is totally worth it. You'll have them for the rest of your life.

 

[Kimberly9701]

During the Halloween Party, you would need to by a ticket for that, but otherwise, this is a memory maker photo taken by a Disney photographer.

We are going to the Christmas Party...hopefully will have fun photos for that as well!

 

[ashnicole]

I love having memory maker and plan to purchase it again! I loved having my whole family in a lot of the pictures. Sure, we could have found someone to take one or two pictures for us, but a lot of the photopass cms went all out for us. We had multiple "photoshoots" with photopass. If you see a photopass cm without a line, walk up. Those were some of my favorite ones. We spent a good ten minutes taking pictures in norway one day. The cm took a bunch of pictures with different combos of the family.
Some of favorites are of us with characters. Usually my mom takes pictures for us in Disneyland, but photopass did on this trip. Since my mom is usually behind the camera, she didn't expect to take pictures with the characters, but almost every character came up and interacted with her, and photopass got it all on camera.
Those were just some of my favorites. Yes, there were cms who just toom a few pictures, made it seem like they had no idea what we were talking about when we asked about magic shots, but those were only a couple out of the many we encountered.
If you think you will only take a few pictures in front of the four icons, it might not be worth it. But if you plan in riding the attractions that offer memory maker and plan to meet characters and take photopass pictures throughout the park, I think it's worth it. I think we had about 800 pictures on our account.

 

[MandiC]

The photographer by Italy has been the same both times I went and he is fabulous!

 

[bcsurvivorX2]

Bought it last August and LOVED IT. Got over 250+ pictures at 2 parks and 1 waterpark. And yes - for one vacation - I was actually IN THE PICTURES (so worth every penney)

 

[disneyfan4u]

Thanks everyone! Love to hear and see everything! I am so excited now!!!

 

[xlsm]

One of the best values in WDW, in our opinion. We go home with hundreds of photos, and definitely more than 5 good ones.

Have a great trip!!

 

[Tigerlily81]

For me, totally worth it so we can all be in the pictures, plus I love the magic photos!

 

[verleniahall]

TOTALLY worth it!!! We have over 500 for a week (i stop at EVERY photographer I can find though) and next year we will be there for two WEEKS!!!!! I can't imagine how many photos we will have!

 

[Aliceacc]

We always get it; it's part of the cost of a WDW trip.

Otherwise, there would be no evidence that my husband had ever been to WDW.