A Memory Maker Review

[Cuddlemama]

We've had MM for several trips. Well, we've had Photopass+ for trips. MM+ will be a first on our Nov. trip. It's certainly not cheap, but I believe that it's a reasonable price point for it's value.

My opinion might be slightly informed by the fact that I am a photographer by trade and I never charge less than $150 sitting fee for a family shoot that can run 30-60 minutes and have 25-50 completed images. Getting hundreds of images and getting to be IN those images is worth a lot to me.

I do often think I could save the money and just be more diligent in taking all the shots with my own camera, but I don't have a good source for the overlays and tiny photoshop tricky bits. If anyone has a reliable source for transparent .jpg signatures, characters, and such for use in edits then it might change my mind.

 

[caracarn]

I totally agree with the last poster. The biggest value that my wife and I found with the MM was that one of us was not absent from photos because we were behind the camera. Also some of our favorite shots were captured when the photographers were shooting rapid fire as the kids were with the characters.

I do think if you are simply using it for ride photos and stills in front of the major park landmarks, maybe a bit overpriced, but we came back from a week long trip and had over 600 photos. No way we would have taken the time to take that many pictures ourselves and if we had we would have missed out on a lot of the fun.

 

[Mikie]

Yes, we both have our accounts linked. We are trying to figure out now if you can buy disks, or only download them. How many disks you can buy if you can, and how much they cost. And does it cost to download?

You will be able to download all photos of yourself and everyone you are linked to in MDE for free (well, for the $169 you already paid). You can download them as many times as you want and make as many CDs at home as you want, or send them to any photo processing place (shutterfly, snapfish, walgreen's, etc). If you really want Disney to make the CDS for you, you can order as many as you like for $29.95 on top of the MM price you already paid.

 

[travelfearlessly]

I totally agree with the last poster. The biggest value that my wife and I found with the MM was that one of us was not absent from photos because we were behind the camera. Also some of our favorite shots were captured when the photographers were shooting rapid fire as the kids were with the characters.

I do think if you are simply using it for ride photos and stills in front of the major park landmarks, maybe a bit overpriced, but we came back from a week long trip and had over 600 photos. No way we would have taken the time to take that many pictures ourselves and if we had we would have missed out on a lot of the fun.

This is a good point but being in the pictures shouldn't be the only reason you pick the Memory Maker. You can always meet a character, take your own pictures of your kids interacting with them and then hand your camera to the photographer so he/she can snap a few that includes all of you. It does get annoying after a while, though, always being the photographer and not being able to enjoy your child's reaction to the characters because you're always behind the lens of a camera snapping photos. My biggest complaint is that many of the pictures we got COULD HAVE been great photos. Especially the last photo in my blog post. It was so wonderful, right in front of the castle, everyone looking at the camera and smiling. But when we got home we saw there were giant black spots all over because the photographer failed to keep their lens properly cleaned and the entire set of photos from that photographer were ruined. I think that Disney needs to make a better effort to train their photographers on how to take high quality photos and take care of their equipment.

 

[kaetra]

In the mail the other day I received the Memory Maker small promotional brochure. "Meet the Garner Family!" was the theme and it showed an example of pictures the family got with Memory Maker on their trip.

Some of the photos in the brochure were taken at a pool. They seemed like candid photos of the family at a swimming pool. Maybe these were taken at Deluxe resorts? Or at the water parks? The girl was climbing across a cargo net above a swimming pool, the photo was close up. Another was of the whole family in a pool, but I couldn't tell where.

Anyone know of pool areas that have PhotoPass photographers?

 

[travelfearlessly]

In the mail the other day I received the Memory Maker small promotional brochure. "Meet the Garner Family!" was the theme and it showed an example of pictures the family got with Memory Maker on their trip.

Some of the photos in the brochure were taken at a pool. They seemed like candid photos of the family at a swimming pool. Maybe these were taken at Deluxe resorts? Or at the water parks?

Anyone know of pool areas that have PhotoPass photographers?

We stayed at the Beach Club Resort, a deluxe resort with arguably the best of all the Disney pools, and never saw a Photopass photographer. I Googled all over before our trip but couldn't find anyone who said that there are Photopass photographers regularly at the resort (besides in the lobby around the Christmas trees during the holidays). Perhaps those pictures were taken at the water parks? I read that they do have photographers there, though I don't know if they hang around the pool

 

[asbyrneva]

In the mail the other day I received the Memory Maker small promotional brochure. "Meet the Garner Family!" was the theme and it showed an example of pictures the family got with Memory Maker on their trip.

Some of the photos in the brochure were taken at a pool. They seemed like candid photos of the family at a swimming pool. Maybe these were taken at Deluxe resorts? Or at the water parks? The girl was climbing across a cargo net above a swimming pool, the photo was close up. Another was of the whole family in a pool, but I couldn't tell where.

Anyone know of pool areas that have PhotoPass photographers?

We've had photographers at Blizzard Beach everytime we go, around the lazy river, a couple at the slides etc we don't get a lot taken (one place I dont have to be in the pic is me at the waterparks! ) but its nice not to worry about cameras and phones and water. Havent been to Typhoon but assume its the same.

 

[goofy4tink]

There are photographers at the water parks, but not at resort pools. I believe the cargo net shot would be at Blizzard Beach.
I did MM last May....all three if us were there, not a common occurrence. And it was during SW weekends. We got a lot of pretty good shots.
Have MM purchased for our May trip. I'll be there with my 21 y/o dd, her best friend from high school (haven't seen each other for almost two years!) and the third of the 'three mouseketeers' who is doing the DCP there. Since I didn't want to be with them all the time, they can get as many photo pass shots as they want. And knowing these three girls, there will be hundreds!! Well worth it to me.

 

[Toddgabweg]

The photographs at the water parks are hit or miss... there were times when we went and ran into a ton of photographers and other times there were none...

 

[travelfearlessly]

I love that Magic Shot!

 

[vtownpatty]

I loved it just for the ride photos! With only 3 in our family, most of the other shots end up looking pretty similar - there are only so many ways for 3 people to pose! We had a blast thinking up poses for some of the rides. On others, the candid shots were pretty funny. Undecided if we are getting it for our next trip.

 

[Cuddlemama]

This is a good point but being in the pictures shouldn't be the only reason you pick the Memory Maker. You can always meet a character, take your own pictures of your kids interacting with them and then hand your camera to the photographer so he/she can snap a few that includes all of you. It does get annoying after a while, though, always being the photographer and not being able to enjoy your child's reaction to the characters because you're always behind the lens of a camera snapping photos. My biggest complaint is that many of the pictures we got COULD HAVE been great photos. Especially the last photo in my blog post. It was so wonderful, right in front of the castle, everyone looking at the camera and smiling. But when we got home we saw there were giant black spots all over because the photographer failed to keep their lens properly cleaned and the entire set of photos from that photographer were ruined. I think that Disney needs to make a better effort to train their photographers on how to take high quality photos and take care of their equipment.

I agree with this post. Training is incredibly important. Maintaining the equipment properly is imperative. I always take my camera and I typically shoot an average of 300 images per day myself, but I also get tired of seeing everything through the camera's eye and not being able to be in the moment because I'm trying to CAPTURE the moment. This takes some of the internal stress off and, in the grand scheme of a multi-thousand dollar vacation, $170 is a reasonable cost of service...it's only about half of a single table-service dinner cost for our party size, for instance. So, 14ish days of photography services and images with release for the cost of half of a dinner...puts it in perspective in our family.

 

[kaetra]

The more people in your party and the longer your trip the better the value of course.

 

[Pooh2]

I would do MM for a special trip, a longer trip or if you have not been to WDW in awhile. On our last trip, we just handed our camera to the photographer in a few locations. It freed us up for feeling like we "had to stand in line to get our money's worth". That being said, if we get to go with all our grown kids, I will spring for it again!

 

[IrishNYC]

I agree with this post. Training is incredibly important. Maintaining the equipment properly is imperative. I always take my camera and I typically shoot an average of 300 images per day myself, but I also get tired of seeing everything through the camera's eye and not being able to be in the moment because I'm trying to CAPTURE the moment. This takes some of the internal stress off and, in the grand scheme of a multi-thousand dollar vacation, $170 is a reasonable cost of service...it's only about half of a single table-service dinner cost for our party size, for instance. So, 14ish days of photography services and images with release for the cost of half of a dinner...puts it in perspective in our family.

Not wanting to always be experiencing trips through my lens is a huge part of the reason I'm excited about using MM. I've spent too much of her first 5 years trying to capture perfect moments, so I'm leaving WDW to fate and Photopass.

 

[sunflowers138]

This might have been asked already, so apologies if it has.

We are not staying on Disney property, but doing 4 days in Disney World then jumping on a DCL cruise for 5 days/4 nights.

Can we buy the MM and use it for the WDW and DCL?

 

[ckret01]

Where can I find the list of rides that are included in the MM? Thank you

Also, for the magic shots, or where you can add in characters and stuff, is this something you have to request to each photographer or do they ask you if you want something added into the photo or do you do this online? Thanks for the help

 

[travelfearlessly]

This might have been asked already, so apologies if it has.

We are not staying on Disney property, but doing 4 days in Disney World then jumping on a DCL cruise for 5 days/4 nights.

Can we buy the MM and use it for the WDW and DCL?

The Memory Maker isn't available for the Disney Cruise Line so it would only be effective for the days you're at Disney World. Depending on the size of your party and what you plan on doing it might still be worth purchasing.

 

[BudgieMama]

I hadn't realised the price had gone up... we got MM for our trip last year (7 nights, 2 adults only)... we loved it last time, and as we're looking at doing 2 weeks next year, I don't think we'd skip MM for the sake of $20. It was one of the best value add-ons we had. We got around 250 photos, of which 4 were no good... I loved not worrying about taking pictures when we did the meet and greets, and although we would never buy ride photos, we do love the ones we got! I will make sure to book our MM for next year when we book our trip (hopefully when free dining for 2016 is released last this month!) to avoid another price hike next year!

 

[travelfearlessly]

Where can I find the list of rides that are included in the MM? Thank you

Also, for the magic shots, or where you can add in characters and stuff, is this something you have to request to each photographer or do they ask you if you want something added into the photo or do you do this online? Thanks for the help

Rides photos are: Buzz Lightyear, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Test Track, Rock n' Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Dinosaur and Expedition Everest. Ride videos include Seven Dwarves Mine Train and Tower of Terror.

For the Magic Shots you have to ask the photographers what they have. They will put you in the pose for the photo and then an editor adds the character to your photo later in the day. Only one photographer offered us a Magic Shot without us asking and then when we got home the Magic Shot wasn't even added so I looked a little ridiculous holding my arm out when I should have been holding balloons Sometimes the photographer will take multiple shots and only one Magic Shot gets added to the best one.

There are stickers you can add with the Memory Maker too so that's always an option. We added Christmas Mickey and Donald to one of our big family photos so in a way you can make your own Magic Shots but the ones the photographers have are unique and you don't have access to those when you're editing your Memory Maker photos. One of the stickers I can add to my current Memory Maker photos are little Mickey Mouse ears, for example.