Talk me into, or out of, Memory Maker

[JoAnna525]

Hi. I am considering getting MM for our upcoming trip, but I have to do it soon (we check in on Oct 25th!) My, husband, DS2, and I went to the World last year, and took some of our own pictures, but we literally only have three pictures with all of us together - one was the picture with Donald from our Tuskerhouse breakfast, another was one that a stranger was kind enough to take for us, and the third was from a photo booth at Rainforest Cafe. I would love to get a TON more of all of us together. Also, we are more of a "live in the moment" type of family - we're pretty bad at taking pictures because we don't want to stop spontaneous moments from happening just to get a picture.

With this background, do you think that MM would be a good value for my family? My concern is that I'm not really interested in searching out CMs just to get my money's worth and interrupt the "moment", so to speak. But if they are relatively easy to find, or better, if there is a way to know ahead of time where they are, that would make it more palatable to me. Thanks for any thoughts you have!

 

[kcpinwdw]

I had it last year when it was photo pass plus and it was SO great, I bought memory maker first thing booking our trip this year! The photographers are really everywhere and it doesn't feel like a hinderance at all. We got about 75 photos last time, this time we have a bigger group and I anticipate more. I'd go for it

 

[alievans719]

I'm still on the fence with MM; it is true that photographers are all over, but those same photographers will take pictures with your camera as well. That's what I did last trip. The only thing is their cameras are set up for the specific lighting whereas your own camera may not(for example, nighttime at the Tree of Life looked great when the photographer took it with his photo, it looked awful with mine.) It might be easier with a kid to just ask them and have your photos all in one place, but if you don't want to spend the money, the photographers will use your camera too, if you ask.

 

[RMolinaro414]

I think its a must and photography is a hobby of mine. The photographers are trained to take the best photo possible in all conditions. Plus, who doesn't love the magic photos

 

[JoAnna525]

I'm still on the fence with MM; it is true that photographers are all over, but those same photographers will take pictures with your camera as well. That's what I did last trip. The only thing is their cameras are set up for the specific lighting whereas your own camera may not(for example, nighttime at the Tree of Life looked great when the photographer took it with his photo, it looked awful with mine.) It might be easier with a kid to just ask them and have your photos all in one place, but if you don't want to spend the money, the photographers will use your camera too, if you ask.

The lighting and central database of my photos are good points. Didn't think about that - our night time photos from MNSSHP were pretty bad last year.

 

[JoAnna525]

So here's another question that I can't seem to find an answer on. For pictures like those taken in the Enchanted Tales with Belle, how do they know who they are taking pictures of? Is there an opportunity to scan your Magic Band somewhere? How does this work?

 

[ericstac]

So here's another question that I can't seem to find an answer on. For pictures like those taken in the Enchanted Tales with Belle, how do they know who they are taking pictures of? Is there an opportunity to scan your Magic Band somewhere? How does this work?

yes they scanned something.. i forget what but it was our band or the photo pass or something.. i forget tho..

which leads me into why WE get the memory maker lol.. I have a horrible memory so we have a ton of photos taken, then we create hard cover books talking about the various trips with photos etc. For me, this helps me remember our past family vacations and how the kids are and junk... I'm only 39 too

 

[msmama]

It's just my son and I when we travel so if I want pictures of us together, I get MM (well, actually upcoming will be first MM, but always got Photopass before).

We actually end up with almost too many of the 2 of us, lol. But that's a great problem to have.

I generally don't stop to wait if there's a line that's too long at a particular photographer. And I generally find that a lot of people are doing the "big ones" (in front of the castle, the hat, etc) at park opening, but if you go back later in the day they're not as busy.

Also, like I said, haven't done MM yet so I don't know if there is a way to tell now, but with PP+ photographers spent A LOT more time with you because they knew you weren't waisting their time with photos never to be looked at.

 

[krist10]

I'm a total novice to this and I did read the website but can someone explain the true benefits to the mm?

 

[eastcoastmom]

I'm wondering the same, is it worth it or not? Seems like I'm leaning on it to be worth it!also getting the ride pictures which is fun to remember.

 

[gules]

I think it depends a little on what you want on this particular vacation. In my opinion, MM are good for:

- Getting those ride photos! If you do a lot of these but never buy because it's too expensive, they are included. Well, most of the popular ones at least.
- Pics at Character M&G! They're used to talking to the photographers and face them automatically, and the photographers are used to getting them into the max light. A year when we went to see Anna and Elsa, out MM paid off. The photograph even used my camera while I wasn't looking and snapped a BUNCH of adorable photos. I found them much later and was very delighted!
- Special occasion pics!! If you have a large family and want to get a lot of shots with EVERYONE. Or even a small family and want everyone in, these can be worth it. Also, for things like Villains Unleashed, they added some stock photos of the characters. From what I understand MNSSHP might do something like this? Not sure.
- Magic Shots! These are special shots that only certain photographers are trained in, but they're fun! And it has to be a Disney photographer.

I ended up liking my pictures so much that I might opt for a regular photopass next time. It's similar but less inclusive... It'll depend on how long we go for. :3

 

[MyAnna]

We have purchased memory maker as well for our last two trips. We stink at printing pictures, but we loved being able to download all our photos to our computer, then sharing them on our network. For us, it was cheaper than buying the prints of all the photos we wanted at disney, plus we never had to spend time looking at photos at their kiosks, we just took as many as we wanted, then would get home and download all 160+ photos. Eventually, we print them at SAMs or somewhere inexpensive and put them in the disney photo book. Our twins love it. This last trip, we purchased MM upfront, so it was also great having the pics tied to our magic bands instead of five of those cards we would inevitably leave in the hotel. Finally, someone asked about enchanted tales with belle- they give you a card, but you can add the photos to your MM account and then get them as well.

 

[JoAnna525]

OK, sold. I'm going to give MM a try this trip. I will come back here and update in a couple of weeks when we return home. We're doing MNSSHP, and it will be really nice to have some decent pictures from that. At this point, I'm bleeding money on this trip anyway, so what's another 150, LOL!

 

[Divslp]

If you do MNSsHP only, the memory maker is only $39. I plan on getting that.
Does anyone know: is the memory maker for your entire trip (multiple days) at the parks, or is it just for one day?

 

[rachael95]

The MNSHHP Memory Maker is for that night only, I believe. The normal Memory Maker that is $150 if you buy early and $199 if you buy at the parks is for the entire time, including the party if you go.

We did MM this last time and my DH said it was the best thing we bought the entire trip. We've got a ton of pics with all three of us. We loved it. Yes, there are some bad photos where we had weird looks on our faces, but when you ended up with 150 shots, getting a big portion that are great is important. And the lighting and clarity are much better than a quick point and shoot would be.

Considering that my DS's daycare does "school" pictures twice a year and the package on those that gives me the digital rights and the file to print more pictures for the 3 shots they do is $150, I consider the Disney MM to be a GREAT deal. Remember, you get digital rights to your photos. You can download them and print them as often as you want using any service you want.

And for geeks out there, DH and I thought this was really neat. What happens is, they take your pic, they scan your Magic Band or PhotoPass Card and the photos are associated with your account. They are IMMEDIATELY transferred over wireless to the main servers. The photos are NOT stored on the photographer's camera. We thought that was really cool. As soon as your card/band is scanned, the camera automatically sends all the information to the main servers. The photographer doesn't have to do anything other than scan your band with their device.

 

[JoAnna525]

The MNSHHP Memory Maker is for that night only, I believe. The normal Memory Maker that is $150 if you buy early and $199 if you buy at the parks is for the entire time, including the party if you go.

We did MM this last time and my DH said it was the best thing we bought the entire trip. We've got a ton of pics with all three of us. We loved it. Yes, there are some bad photos where we had weird looks on our faces, but when you ended up with 150 shots, getting a big portion that are great is important. And the lighting and clarity are much better than a quick point and shoot would be.

Considering that my DS's daycare does "school" pictures twice a year and the package on those that gives me the digital rights and the file to print more pictures for the 3 shots they do is $150, I consider the Disney MM to be a GREAT deal. Remember, you get digital rights to your photos. You can download them and print them as often as you want using any service you want.

And for geeks out there, DH and I thought this was really neat. What happens is, they take your pic, they scan your Magic Band or PhotoPass Card and the photos are associated with your account. They are IMMEDIATELY transferred over wireless to the main servers. The photos are NOT stored on the photographer's camera. We thought that was really cool. As soon as your card/band is scanned, the camera automatically sends all the information to the main servers. The photographer doesn't have to do anything other than scan your band with their device.

That IS cool! Thanks for the info - I actually was wondering about that.

 

[Feberin]

So here's another question that I can't seem to find an answer on. For pictures like those taken in the Enchanted Tales with Belle, how do they know who they are taking pictures of? Is there an opportunity to scan your Magic Band somewhere? How does this work?

For Enchanted Tales with Belle they give you a card that you add to your account. You get all the pictures from that performance.

We did not get MM and I don't regret it. We have a ton of family pictures. We just gave the photographers our camera. We own a really nice camera (Cannon Rebel) and they did a great job taking pictures of us. We also spent like $40 to purchase some pictures. I got two pictures (one of us in front of the Castle when we didn't have our camera with us and one where they added special effects to it). I also purchased the two shots for a certain amount after the Buzz Lightyear Spin ride. I always look horrible in ride pictures and my kids were too young for a lot of the rides where they take your photo.

I was really happy with the pictures we took and looking at all the ones the photographers took online there weren't any other ones besides the two I purchased that I regretted not having. We also got all the entry pictures from a character dinning for free.

 

[KathyPet]

I bought the MM but I really don't understand how it is used. Posters refer to some sort of card you have to show? I am not intending to buy Magic Bands. I already have my tickets. How does this all work?

 

[ChasingLeslie]

I almost never have pictures of our family because I am always the one taking the pictures. It really meant a lot to me to have nice pictures of all of us from our vacation. We had about 800ish photos...most were from character M&Gs; we only searched out photo pass photos for a few places like Castle pictures in MK and pictures in front of the Epcot ball. I think it's 110% worth it!

 

[Kjbbach1]

Thanks all, you have convinced me to use this as a way to get our yearly family Christmas card picture