Anyone not get memory maker and regret it?

[tinkerbesh]

We leave for disney on Saturday and still trying to decide if memory maker is worth it. At first I just thought I would use my own camera to take pics. But now wondering if we should do memory maker. We do not have any character meals. Do they really capture all of the pics I would want? Don't want to spend the money if I end up needing to take my own pics of what I want anyway Will I regret if if I don't take it. Today is my last day to decide

We did MM for the first time last month, and I think we will get it every trip from now on. We didn't do any character meals, and we only did a few rides that take your photo. We don't feel like we tried particularly hard to "get" photos either-- sometimes we stopped at the photographers, and other times we walked right by and headed straight for attractions. But we still got almost 200 pics out of it (over 6 days), and that was before I started adding borders and stickers! (Now I'm up to 300, and still adding to that...)

Even during this crowded summer season, we never waited behind more than 1 family. And most times we didn't wait at all-- there was a photographer ready for us right away.

We weren't shy about asking for magic shots and particular things we wanted-- for example, at HS we saw the photographer take pics of a family in front of the hat and then also at the fountain a few steps away. So we asked him for the same thing. Other times they suggested cute things for us to do like kiss DS on both cheeks together, etc.

The BEST part was asking a Main St. photographer to take some solo shots of our 11 month old son sitting on Main St -- this photographer went to town and gave us the MOST ADORABLE photos of our son taken to date. I would have paid $150 for that mini photo shoot alone.

So do I regret not getting it on previous trips? Not really, because we didn't have a child in the mix, and we were content taking selfies of our heads most places. But would I have regretted it if I didn't get it this time? Yes - absolutely. Pretty sure we will always get it from now on! I especially like the idea of having photos taken in the same place so we can watch as DS grows up over the years.

 

[goofy4tink]

I got MM for our 10 day stay in early June. Lots of terrific shots in there....got about 300 photos after messing around with them. My advice? Be sure to check them, every day. I didn't. When I got home some were missing, including a terrific ToT shot as well as a shot of my dd on Main St, just before the parade...no one else around. That really annoyed me. Should have checked them daily.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

I think it depends on what you are planning to do in the parks. We got PP+ last year and I was really dispappointed by how few PP photographers we saw in the park. We are probably going to get it this time, but only becuase we plan on doing BBB, PL and MNSSHP. My kids are more into rides than character meets and we aren't doing many meals that include a picture opportunity.

 

[TinkerElsasMom]

Isn't there a map somewhere that shows where the photographers are?

 

[Angieandsteve]

I personally love MM, but I'm that mom who forgets to take pictures of my kid at the cutest moments because I'm too immersed in living it. That's when the photographers are great, they do it for me. Plus we then all get to be in pictures together.

However, you will still need to take your own photos, there are only so many spots the photographers hang out in. They can also take a picture of you with your own camera, so you could still get family shots.

If you love taking pictures and is that person who's always got their camera out, you're good at it and want to do it at Disney, I vote you don't get MM. If you like the idea of not even bringing a camera but just taking some pics with your phone and relying on the photographers, then I vote to get it.

Another perk for character interactions for me is that if I want to pull out my camera I take videos and let the photographers take pictures. I love watching those after the trip. Kids say the cutest stuff to characters!

Agree with everything about this but especially the video part. We we were at DW for 5 nights at the beginning of June. I got 69 pictures off of memory maker. Most of them were great. A few were not perfect but I definitely wouldn't have gotten every image perfectly either. I loved being able to do the special effects on them which I am normaly not in to. It was nice to be able to enjoy the moment when my daughter met Anna and Elsa versus focusing on taking pictures to capture the moment since I knew they were taking them for me. My favorite pics were the ones from BBB. They capture the moments so well.

Also a thing to consider, in 2013 we went to DW. I ordered somewhere between 5-7 photos from photo pass and spent nearly $100. I really wanted more but thought the cost was a bit too high. This year I was able to download all I wanted and didn't have to worry about the cost.

Now with our package this year we got MM free but I was going to order it anyway and would again.

 

[tinkerbesh]

Isn't there a map somewhere that shows where the photographers are?

Yes, the park maps show their general location. But there are usually more photographers out than shown on the map. For example, at MK it shows there is a photo spot on Main St. with the castle in view. But in actuality, there are many photographers up and down the street. And we usually found that the first 1 or 2 might have several families waiting, but if you keep walking up the street (or down later in the day) you'll see another photographer a few feet closer with no line at all.

 

[lizard1]

I got MM for our 10 day stay in early June. Lots of terrific shots in there....got about 300 photos after messing around with them. My advice? Be sure to check them, every day. I didn't. When I got home some were missing, including a terrific ToT shot as well as a shot of my dd on Main St, just before the parade...no one else around. That really annoyed me. Should have checked them daily.

Did you call them to see if they could find the pictures for you? I was missing several shots from my June trip (some due to the error of the photographer or their equipment not working properly) and they have been able to find and add all but one to my account. They will search through all of the pictures taken as long as you have an idea about when/where it was taken. 407-560-4300

 

[Love Tink]

Do you plan to do a lot of character meet and greets? That's where you really make out on Memory Maker, in my opinion. (Also, we never "ran from spot to spit chasing the photographers" and missing all the great "topography," and we never waited more than a couple of minutes, yet we still had literally hundreds of photos....not all of which were perfect, but not one of which was blurry.)

* Not all of these are Photopass. A few are from my camera and a few are from Sea World/Busch Gardens/etc. But the vast majority are Photopass.

 

[KristinU]

Question on the MM - does it have to be one sequential chunk of time? Or can you have it for a couple of trips that ar close to each other? We are doing an anniversary trip, just me and DH, for W&D Half Marathon, then 6 weeks later we'll be back for Christmas. Would they let us use the same MM or would it be one per trip?

 

[Mel2421]

We go there knowing we are getting the MM, so we try and take as many photo ops as possible. We have gotten so great photos. I love the ride photos. And of course the ones in front of the castle. Great memories and those are priceless. Plus I love that I can make as many copies as I want.

 

[eyehartdisney]

Question on the MM - does it have to be one sequential chunk of time? Or can you have it for a couple of trips that ar close to each other? We are doing an anniversary trip, just me and DH, for W&D Half Marathon, then 6 weeks later we'll be back for Christmas. Would they let us use the same MM or would it be one per trip?

It lasts for 45 days.

 

[DreamIsaWish]

Enchanted Tales with Belle is another great place for PhotoPass pictures. I love that experience, but the lighting is very hard to get good photos and the posed ones at the end are definitely better from the photographer than I can get with my camera. I've got a nice camera, but the official photographer gets the best vantage point right in the aisle where no one else is allowed to stand.

The surprising place I got tons of great pictures on this last trip was Typhoon Lagoon. There was a photographer covering each slide of Crushin' Gusher so we got really cute pictures of all 10 times we went down. I never could have gotten those pictures since we were on the ride. Even the family member who didn't ride (and was in the kiddie area anyway) couldn't have gotten as good of a picture because the photographers had the super zoom lens.

Unfortunately we didn't prepurchase MM this trip so I now have to choose among these really cute pics. I'm getting a calendar to get at least 12 images, but will definitely get MM next time.

 

[itchin2go]

We have not done "Memory Maker". Back when it was Photopass, we did that. Some trips we would get tons of pix, some not so much. Hard to predict. Unless things have changed, you have to actively watch for/seek out the photopass photographers.

It *could* be great, or it *could* end up feeling like a waste. It's kind of a roll the dice situation.

 

[lizard1]

Question on the MM - does it have to be one sequential chunk of time? Or can you have it for a couple of trips that ar close to each other? We are doing an anniversary trip, just me and DH, for W&D Half Marathon, then 6 weeks later we'll be back for Christmas. Would they let us use the same MM or would it be one per trip?

The photos are valid for 45 days from the day they were taken. The MM allows you to download photos for 30 days. So, it would in theory be possible to have photos that were taken less than 74 days apart on the same MM if you don't start downloading until the day that the photos start to expire. **At least this is my understanding according to what I was told by tech support.

 

[goofy4tink]

Did you call them to see if they could find the pictures for you? I was missing several shots from my June trip (some due to the error of the photographer or their equipment not working properly) and they have been able to find and add all but one to my account. They will search through all of the pictures taken as long as you have an idea about when/where it was taken. 407-560-4300

Nope, didn't call because I figured it was too late, and I just couldn't remember the dates that we did the things that didn't show up. I figure that it's been almost a month since we got home now...way too late.

 

[dakotix]

If you can view them online without MM, then in theory you could just use the Windows "Snipping Tool" and save them that way. You won't be getting the high res photos but it will be good enough to post online on FB or wherever.

 

[KristinU]

It lasts for 45 days.

The photos are valid for 45 days from the day they were taken. The MM allows you to download photos for 30 days. So, it would in theory be possible to have photos that were taken less than 74 days apart on the same MM if you don't start downloading until the day that the photos start to expire. **At least this is my understanding according to what I was told by tech support.

Excellent, thanks for the info! Sounds like it might be worthwhile for us!

 

[dubber724]

I traditionally take hundreds of pictures on our annual trip to the world. A couple of years ago I added photo pass for our December trip and it was wonderful. The best part is being able to add the special touches to the photos on line at a later time. I ended up with over 1500 pictures. The photographers are in enough locations to get some great shots. We also used it last year as well with similar results. To justify the cost it is important to have as many pictures taken as possible. My family loves characters so that part is easy. We also made sure we had family shots taken at each park with the major icon at that park. We will utilize this again when we go back in December. Keeping all of this in mind I still use my own camera as well.

 

[thinkerbell]

We had MM for free with our room this time. I'm glad we got to try it because we never would have paid for it. We got a little ove 270 pics. Some of them were on the rides that I couldn't have gotten otherwise but most of them were with photo pass photographers who will also take pictures with our own camera. We have many pictures on our camera that are duplicates of what is on the MM. For us, it would not be worth it to buy. If there were more photo pass photographers around the park-like in front of the rides or shows- it might be worth it to us. There were several down Main Street but they are pretty much all the same shot just getting closer to the castle. Also, they were with the characters. In the other parks, they were mainly as you were walking in and with the characters. Just not enough variety for us to pay for. We aren't ones to buy pictures as we come off of rides either though. It just all depends on what you want out of it.

 

[LucyBC80]

Maybe for you, but it is worth every penny to many, many people.

I'm one of those people for sure. I'm not camera savvy and I feel I'd waste too much time taking (bad) pictures if I had to to it myself. Plus we're a family of two so we want all our pictures to be of the two of us and not individuals. We still rely on the kindness of other guests to take some pictures in spots where there's no MM photographers but the majority of our last trip pictures were from the official photographers.