Anyone not happy with the photopass

[Ccann]

I have read a lot of reviews of the photopass and the photopass +. And what I have heard it is a great deal. I am wondering if anyone thought it wasn't worth the money?

I really want to get it, my husband says no we will be able to get a family shot from a stranger....

I guess I need conviencing that I will be okay without the Photopass or the Photopass + on our vacation. Which is Nov 1st.

I really hate to get it behind my husbands back LOL.... but also anyone with the stock photos and are they worth the $30.00 or to upgrade to the Photopass+.

I need to know before the trip because I do refuse to pay full price on the photo CD.

Any Help is appreciated.....

 

[txnana]

I wouldn't go without it!! Seriously, I am the family/group photographer and have trouble even getting into some shots. Other folks are on vacation the same as you are with valuable things to do. Sure, someone will take a snapshot if you want to ask. But the photopass photographers will take many shots of you and your husband in several poses to get the right shot in the right location. Then when you get home you can add delightful borders and frames and signatures to the photos and print them at your local store or use them in a digital book. We went with a large group and purchased the pp in advance and had over 1000 pictures when we finished that were all mailed to me on cds. I have pre-purchased one for my upcoming trip for the mnsshp with a friend. We hope to have hundreds of memories on the cds when we get home.

 

[plb626]

It is worth it. I'm also the family photographer and rarely get in photos. The Disney photographer takes several shots with the right speed and focus, plus they will take a photo with your camera.

What I like is the ability to come home review all the photos and then put on the special borders (year, birthday,...) on at my leisure. You need to make sure that you save the photos with the borders and sizes before you actually purchase it, you can't make changes afterwards. So the 40 pictures that I have from Disney now became 86 with the different borders and sizes that I want. Then I can order them at Walgreens for 10 cents for the 4x6 or just got a special for $2.99 for 8 x10.

Plus on our recent trip we had a pictures of someone else on our photo card. I called the help line and the CM was able to locate our pictures right away and put them right on our account. Very simple.

 

[Ccann]

I guess I will have to convince my DH it's worth the money. I know he will not read these boards, he laughs at me because I am a planner already. So wish me good luck that he caves in and agrees we should have one.

 

[phillymummer]

I did not get one for our first family trip to Disney and I regret it. Even though I had my camera, I got so involved with things that I often didn't take pictures. My MIL had her camera and she took *a lot* of pictures but she still did not get a good photo of everyone. There were many candid shots, with people squinting or looking away.

I have been told you can pre-order the regular Photo-pass (NOT the PP +) and if you don't like the pictures or think it's worth it you can get a refund. Maybe
if you tell hubby this, he would be more willing to spend the money?

Even though we are only going for 3 nights and will only be in MK and DHS, I am going to pre-order the PP just to be sure I get some good photos this time.

 

[jamala]

We have never gotten the CD. We always pick up a photopass at the first photographer we see. Then use it for family pics, After they take the shot with their camera we ask them to take one with our camera. They have never refused they always take one for us. When we get home I order the calendar (usually around $20-25) and use the photopass pics to fill the calendar as a gift to my hubby. The first year we did photopass we have 10 pics on the card, the next year we used it more and had around 25 pics. Last year we had about 30 or so. But not all of them were good pics so the calendar fit us well. My SIL always gets the CD but her girls do tons of character pics and my kids do not care for characters.

 

[1stvisit0909]

I did not get one for our first family trip to Disney and I regret it. Even though I had my camera, I got so involved with things that I often didn't take pictures. My MIL had her camera and she took *a lot* of pictures but she still did not get a good photo of everyone. There were many candid shots, with people squinting or looking away.

I have been told you can pre-order the regular Photo-pass (NOT the PP +) and if you don't like the pictures or think it's worth it you can get a refund. Maybe
if you tell hubby this, he would be more willing to spend the money?

Even though we are only going for 3 nights and will only be in MK and DHS, I am going to pre-order the PP just to be sure I get some good photos this time.

You can preorder PP+ and as long as you dont open it you can get a refund. My voucher was taped to the outside of the box, so I dont have to break the seal until later.

Our first trip we did the regular PP, it was awesome. We were only there 3 full days and a half day, and we had well over 100 pictures. My kids loved the "magic" shots, and after the boarders and such we had over 200 pics on our disk. We were intentional about stopping at PP photogs, and we will again.

I lost a card in the parks, and the CM was able to find all my pics b/c I could remember a time/location we had one taken, and then they found one, and the rest were tied together. Worth it for me!

 

[elleherself]

I always join a photopass share, you can find them easily on Facebook. I pay around $15 or so, and a full cd of all my vacation pictures is mailed to me by the share host. I seriously love photopass, collecting magic shots has become a part of my vacation. I've never done photopass + and I don't think it would be worth the drastic increase in price for me. We don't do a ton of character meals and ride pictures aren't that important since we take trips pretty often. We rarely look at the ride pictures we have bought (and we've bought many over the years, lived in Florida my whole life).

Anyway join a share. It's economical and excellent. Photopass photographers are some of the best castmembers to interact with in the parks, they will pose you in fun ways and usually seem to love their job. I actually have some photos taken posing with my favorite photopassers.

 

[lucifie]

I haven't been to WDW in almost 20 years and we're planning our first trip with the kids in January. I knew about PhotoPass and thought that sounded great since at other theme parks if you buy one picture it can be $15, so I figured having professional pictures that I'm in sounded like a great idea and had it in the back of my mind that we should do it. Then I found out about PhotoPass + and the fact that it includes the photos from the rides and character meals and I was sold. I hope it's worth it.

Amy

 

[Poohbear5]

We prepurchased photo pass on our 25th anniversary trip. It was a great way to have alot of photos of us together and was our best souvenir. Everytime there was a short line, we would get a photo taken. We ended up with over 200 photos.

Some of the photographers did not make much effort and just did the "smile" and shoot quick photo, others get a little more creative.

We are now empty nesters so we will probably do photopass again on our next trip.

 

[suetoo]

I pre-purchase a cd every trip...sometimes more than once per year depending on the number of trips we make..this time I pre-purchased the photopass+. The CD is well woth it, as like other posters, I am the picture taker in the family!! You save a lot pre-purchasing and you can get a refund if you decide not to get the cd after your trip...This is my favorite souvenier...
I hope you can make it work! It is well worth it!

 

[Ccann]

I guess with the refund I can justify to my DH and that it's my Souvenir to myself. He would like to go golfing so I guess the price is comparable to each other.
Now would I be better with the Plus option? I have a 6 and 3 year old I am not for sure if the ride photos are all that important to me. But we are eating at:
Princess storybook dinning - pictures included with DDP?
Cinderella's Royal table- pictures are included with dinner
Dine and Play- do they offer pictures?
Donald's Tusker House-?
Winnie the Pooh dinning-?

And since we will have at least 1 if not two character dinning experiences with pictures included do we really need the others if they are offered??

Anyone use the PLUS and thought you would have been just as happy with the regular???

 

[elaine amj]

I did a Photopass+ share. That made it well worth it. We loved our + pics. But worth it all on its own without the share? I don't know that we loved them that much.

As for photopass itself - we're huge fans of it. I have only a handful of family pics. Our first trip to WDW I didn't do photopass and we did get strangers to take a couple of family shots. They're so-so shots though. With photopass we take at least 20-30 a day. We just keep getting photos done because I don't know which will turn out and I want to make sure we have a handful of great shots, kwim?

We come home with lots and lots of pics and I love them. Of course, I take plenty with my own camera too.

 

[snowcupid]

I didn't preorder in 2010 and ended up buying all of the pictures. Mainly for the really cute poses with princesses and our special one of DD with the frog. It was soooo worth it - this time we prepurchsed photopass+.

 

[candielips]

We usually prepurchase the pp when we are going with family members and all split on it.

Can someone confirm the current pricing for prepurchasing the photo pass and the photo pass plus?

 

[CareHeartsDisney]

We usually prepurchase the pp when we are going with family members and all split on it.

Can someone confirm the current pricing for prepurchasing the photo pass and the photo pass plus?

The pre-order price for Photopass is $119.95. Photopass Plus is $169.95.

 

[Lampoon2012]

How do you pre-purchase the photo pass +? We are going for the first time in April as a group of 11, and I think this will be perfect for us. I went to the photo pass site but I couldn't find anything, just how to purchase prints and products. If someone could link me to it that would be awesome.

 

[CareHeartsDisney]

Here's the link:
http://www.disneyphotopass.com/wdwphotopassplus.aspx

 

[Lampoon2012]

Here's the link:
http://www.disneyphotopass.com/wdwphotopassplus.aspx

Thanks!

 

[CareHeartsDisney]

Thanks!

You're welcome!