Can someone please explain photopass?

[AugustDisney]

I'm so confused about this. I think I may be interested, but I am not sure. A lot of the pictures I've seen are kind of cheesy, but I'd imagine they don't have to be. How can you buy it?

 

[Alesia]

Start here: http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disneysphotopass/

 

[puffkin]

It is super easy.

There are park photographers all over the park. If one of them takes your picture, they will scan a small card called a photopass for you. Then everytime you get a picture taken by a photopass photographer throughout your trip, you just hand them that same card to scan. At the end of your trip all log onto the website, put in your card number and all your photos will be collected in that one place.

Then you can order whatever you want. THey have all sorts of stuff. It then ships to your home. It is super super easy.

On the DIS people tend to blow things way out of proportion. The concept of photopass is very easy and it is free. We always get them and very rarely do we buy any of the photos, but it is a nice option, just in case. A lot of people preorder the photopass CD....that is what you probably see on the boards. You pay a price upfront, then after your trip all the pictures are yours to keep and do what you want with on that CD.

 

[AugustDisney]

It is super easy.

There are park photographers all over the park. If one of them takes your picture, they will scan a small card called a photopass for you. Then everytime you get a picture taken by a photopass photographer throughout your trip, you just hand them that same card to scan. At the end of your trip all log onto the website, put in your card number and all your photos will be collected in that one place.

Then you can order whatever you want. THey have all sorts of stuff. It then ships to your home. It is super super easy.

On the DIS people tend to blow things way out of proportion. The concept of photopass is very easy and it is free. We always get them and very rarely do we buy any of the photos, but it is a nice option, just in case. A lot of people preorder the photopass CD....that is what you probably see on the boards. You pay a price upfront, then after your trip all the pictures are yours to keep and do what you want with on that CD.

Ohhhh, so I don't have to pay anything up front then? I can wait until I see the pics to decide it I want any? Why would you buy the CD up front if you don't have to? Is there an advantage to that?

Thanks!

 

[AugustDisney]

It is super easy.

There are park photographers all over the park. If one of them takes your picture, they will scan a small card called a photopass for you. Then everytime you get a picture taken by a photopass photographer throughout your trip, you just hand them that same card to scan. At the end of your trip all log onto the website, put in your card number and all your photos will be collected in that one place.

Then you can order whatever you want. THey have all sorts of stuff. It then ships to your home. It is super super easy.

On the DIS people tend to blow things way out of proportion. The concept of photopass is very easy and it is free. We always get them and very rarely do we buy any of the photos, but it is a nice option, just in case. A lot of people preorder the photopass CD....that is what you probably see on the boards. You pay a price upfront, then after your trip all the pictures are yours to keep and do what you want with on that CD.

Ohhhh, so I don't have to pay anything up front then? I can wait until I see the pics to decide it I want any? Why would you buy the CD up front if you don't have to? Is there an advantage to that?

Thanks!

 

[Krazykloud9]

Ohhhh, so I don't have to pay anything up front then? I can wait until I see the pics to decide it I want any? Why would you buy the CD up front if you don't have to? Is there an advantage to that?

Thanks!

Nope...you don't have to pay anything upfront. You can take as many pics as you want using the card the photographer gives you. Go on the website when you get home and check out the pictures. If you see stuff you like, you can order it...if not, don't do anything. The pictures expire from the site after 30 days (I think) once you view them. Also, remember to take a picture of the card number using your personal camera or cell phone just in case you lose the card.

I preordered the CD because I was getting a discount for preordering. The original cost is $150, the discount price was $100. The money was refundable if I decided I didn't want the photopass CD. It was a win-win for me. I had nothing to lose. BTW...I loved the pictures and ended up getting the CD.

 

[Alesia]

Ohhhh, so I don't have to pay anything up front then? I can wait until I see the pics to decide it I want any?

Correct.

Why would you buy the CD up front if you don't have to? Is there an advantage to that?

Because you save $50 by pre-ordering.

If you pre-order and then decide you don't want the CD after seeing the pictures, you can get a full refund.

 

[OtherFigment]

I didn't know you could get a refund if you don't end up wanting the CD. That makes me much more likely to pre-order it!

 

[laurie31]

None of our pictures were cheesy - you can pose however you like.

Remember that if you do like just "a few" of the pictures, that you can easily spend the cost of the CD before you realize it. I think it only takes buying 7 pictures to equal the cost of the CD.

When you buy the CD, you have literally hundreds of photos, plus you can change the borders and do other fun things to them. More importantly, you are given permission to reprint them.

If you buy a single photo, I don't believe you can take it to WalMart (or anyplace else) and have copies made. With the CD, you can print off however many you want, in whatever sizes you want.

We used a photopass photo for our Christmas Card one year.

 

[mountdew1]

Remember that if you do like just "a few" of the pictures, that you can easily spend the cost of the CD before you realize it. I think it only takes buying 7 pictures to equal the cost of the CD.

When you buy the CD, you have literally hundreds of photos, plus you can change the borders and do other fun things to them.

Both are very true. Our last few trips we have ended up with several CD's worth of pictures. If you plan on meeting characters, photopass can be a huge help. Parents are normally wrangling the kids, getting autograph books ready, etc so they aren't always ready with the camera for that magic moment. The photopass photographer only has to worry about taking pictures so they often can get that magic moment.

If you buy a single photo, I don't believe you can take it to WalMart (or anyplace else) and have copies made. With the CD, you can print off however many you want, in whatever sizes you want.

It depends on how you buy it. If you purchase a print from Photopass, then yes, technically you don't have any reprint rights. However, you do have the option to buy a photo download of that print, and that will include a release to print copies however you want.

If you don't pre purchase the cd, you can do it afterwards, but as PP's have said, its a $50 savings if you pre buy. Think about the "classic" pictures. Family in front of the castle, family in front of the tree of life, etc. Well, now do them multiple times during your trip. Morning, day, night, etc. The number of pictures quickly adds up. Get pics of just the kids, the whole family, single shots, whatever. It very easy to get a ton of pictures. And make sure to stop multiple times for any must have photos. You never know how a different photographer will pose you, and multiple shots greatly increase the chance of everyone smiling, not blinking, etc.

 

[erincon23]

Another benefit of Photopass is that if someone in your party does The American Idol Experience, they have a special photopass photog there who will take TONS of pix for you (you aren't allowed to take any yourself) and give you a separate card with all those pix. I don't know if they do that for any other event (Jedi Training? we've never done that), but it's worth keeping in mind.

You can have more than one card, too -- if you are travelling with another family, have teens who will be off on their own, or whatever, or if you forget your card in the hotel room, they can get their own card and you can enter all the card numbers into one account (as long as nobody enters their card number into a separate account).

Some of the rides (not sure how many at this point?) can have the photo that's taken on the ride put into your Photopass account. I know Test Track can do this -- so you don't have to buy that photo right there.

And ask the Photopass photogs to take a picture with your camera, too! They're happy to do that, and that way even if you don't buy anything, you'll have a photo that includes your regular family photographer (in our family, that's me -- my kids are never going to remember what I looked like when I'm gone...)

 

[Jerseymomof2]

wow I never knew any of this. I have a question. is their a map of where the photopass photographers are? I have only seen them on main street by the castle. Am I that Disney struck that I missed all the others? LOL

 

[Donalyn]

Love photopass. I've gotten the CD on the last two trips.

 

[Wadecool]

We have been home from our trip a few weeks now and we preordered the photopass cd. I know the photos disappear in 30 days, but I'm unclear as to when that 30 days begins. Does it begin when the first picture is taken, or when the pictures are first viewed?

 

[Kathymford]

I had no idea about the refund...I'm definitely adding this to my to-do list for my trip this fall. Is the link provided in the 2nd post the only place to do the pre-purchase for $50 off?

 

[mmmbop]

wow I never knew any of this. I have a question. is their a map of where the photopass photographers are? I have only seen them on main street by the castle. Am I that Disney struck that I missed all the others? LOL

They're at the park icons (Castle, Tree, Hat, Ball)
They also have some that roam the parks. A few weeks ago, a photopass person snapped a few of us with Push. A few minutes later, another photopass person snapped a photo of me & DBF when we were in a VERY heated game of checkers in Frontierland (I won ) We definitely didn't even notice the Photopass person snapping away, we were so into it!

I believe you can also grab the photo taken at Test Track and transfer that to your card.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I didn't know you could get a refund on your pre-bought photopass CD--good to know! I am definitely getting one for my September trip--it's my honeymoon and I want lots of pics! Plus, I don't want to have to keep asking strangers to take pictures of the two of us.

Question: Do they have photopass people at the character meet-and-greets scattered throughout the park?

 

[erincon23]

All the character meet & greets have photogs. And (at least when we were there last in '09), when you view your pix with the characters, you could add special borders of that character's "signature" to your photo. I thought that was cool.

 

[puffkin]

I didn't know you could get a refund on your pre-bought photopass CD--good to know! I am definitely getting one for my September trip--it's my honeymoon and I want lots of pics! Plus, I don't want to have to keep asking strangers to take pictures of the two of us.

Question: Do they have photopass people at the character meet-and-greets scattered throughout the park?

To us the photopass cd was never really worth it because pretty much the only place we have seen the photographers is at the park icons and the meet n greets. We just don't do a lot of those type of things anymore. For us it is cheaper just to buy one or two prints and do the free VISA picture in Epcot. When we were down 2 weeks ago, we did see quite a few more photographers out than before especially in Epcot at some of the different Flower and Garden Topiaries. I think they are really pushing the sale of the Photopass CD as we got several mailings for that before our trip.

Oh, and the person that asked about the Jedi Academy....there was a photographer taking picutres there, but he gave you a ticket. The people next to me were complaining because they had the photopass CD and apparently these pictures could not be added, they were a seperate purchase. Same with all the ride photos except for Test Track. If they would add those, we definitely would be more interested in it.

 

[Alesia]

We have been home from our trip a few weeks now and we preordered the photopass cd. I know the photos disappear in 30 days, but I'm unclear as to when that 30 days begins. Does it begin when the first picture is taken, or when the pictures are first viewed?

You have 30 days from the day the first picture is taken to claim them. After that, you have 30 days to edit them and order the CD.