Thanks so much for your feedback! I've seen some of the hammock pics on other threads and they do look so nice.
I can't believe how much the prices have gone up since it all started and to even when you had yours done~
The price is now $99 for 20 mins. and $125 for 40 mins. No package, no prints, or anything. And you can't add park photopass onto it anymore. At least this is what I'm told with the CM I booked with.
We are doing the 40 min. session, but we have 16 people in our group, and we are splitting the cost amongst us otherwise I would not pay that for just my own family.
Wowsa, 16 people!! One tip just to help you and the photographer, pencil up a list of who you want together, large groups, smaller groups, adults, kids etc so you make sure you get the key pics your aiming for. 40 minutes will fly with that large of a group.
We also did the resort session when we were there in August, 9:00 AM sitting time. Working with photographers for my day job and being an amateur myself I probably had different expectations and looked at the overall experience with a more judgmental eye, however my overall goal was accomplished so in the end I was very happy.
In Aug you have an issue with temperature variations going from inside to outside and the lens fogs while it's still chilled from AC... unfortunately it takes a while for a lens to warm and in our 20 minutes only the last few images she didn't have to constantly wipe the lens to try to keep it free from haze. In Jan you won't have the huge temperature swing so it shouldn't be much of an issue, but for the 1st shoot of the day on a cold camera it was an issue for ours. The photographer also couldn't get control over her flash so our indoor GCH shots (which would have been unaffected by fog) were either under or over exposed (too dark or blown out). She pretty quickly realized that indoors was going to be an issue so we moved out in front of GCH and took several shots there and on a lava rock before we headed out to the beach. Our photog did much better by the beach in the hammock where she could use natural light, everything there was consistently exposed, however when we moved into a tree (her suggestion) and she added back in her flash she started having exposure issues again. My overall goal was a nice family portrait, and that we did get on the hammock, so mission accomplished and I walked away happy. The fact I have photoshop and can semi tweak the images at home made me feel a lot better as well, but again I may be slightly more critical and want consistency in skin tones when displaying 3 pictures next to each other and straight out of her shoot none of the individuals tones match. Anyhow, below are a handful of the good, bad and ugly from the shoot.
GCH - (disaster in general)
Out front - (was still having issues w/ exposure/focus/haze although getting better)
Lava Rock - (not that bad but now i'm nitpicking with skin tones and still some over exposure issues)
Hammock - (best of the day)
Tree - (back to nitpicking over skin tones and exposure)
We paid for the session, CD, 2 5x7 & 1 8x10 package, I want to say it was $140? We also bought the regular photopass CD ahead of time for $99 and I honestly got some great (ok better) pictures there including the one we used for our photo gifts and xmas cards this year. I would still absolutely do a resort session again in the future, especially if it were with a large group, but I don't feel compelled to do it every time were there or even every other year. Regular park photopass I will continue to do for our trips though because I like to have images with ALL of us, and 99.9% of the time it's my face stuck behind the camera!
to the Polynesian thread! We have been CL guests since the mid-90s and have never had a horrible stay. Some have been better than others, but none that would stop us from returning. Be forewarned, however, you may be spoiled for any future trips. It's tough to go back to a non-CL room!
Going to the poly for the first time since I was 17 and cannot believe it!
DD4 has cried every day saying she misses Disney. I will be trying to complete a trip report very soon but in summary we were in Somoa 1604...yay!!! We got exactly what we requested - Samoa, 1st floor, volcano pool side. We were happy with the room and Mousekeeping...the chair by the patio door and the shower side cabinet for the vanity were showing their wear and tear, but otherwise the room was in good condition ( I inspect for a living).
