Convince Me, People...Should I Get Memory Maker?

[PantherPete]

I don't believe that looking at it in a "how many pictures am I likely to buy" manner quite does Memory Maker justice. Think more outside the box. You'll end up getting memorable pictures that you never would've taken the time to do without it. Some of the resorts even have photographers (beach club always seems to have someone at night down by the lake). So don't look at it as something to replace taking your own photos (you should still do some of that). Think of it as an enhancement to what you normally would do.

 

[Kathryn777]

We did not love it. It seemed a lot of money for the few pictures we actually printed. And I often found myself wishing I had my own camera

 

[eliza61]

I keep vacillating on getting one and I need some ammo to justify the cost....or to nix the idea.
Thoughts?

I've decided to pass. It's horribly overpriced imo and even when I did photopass, I didn't buy more than a few picture.

edited to add: I do have my own DSLR camera which I bring, I actually much prefer that because I hate "phoney" pose type pictures. I can take one or two, say in front of the castle but I much prefer more natural shots.

 

[Magpie]

I normally purchase one photo per vacation - sometimes a dining photo, sometimes a ride photo. While I do have a camera, I rarely bring it to the parks, unless we're doing a special dinner or character greeting or something like that. I don't need to take pictures of the sights - there are millions of better photos of that sort of thing online. I'd rather just look at the hippos on the Kilimanjaro Safaris, than spend all my time trying to zoom in on them for a (probably) blurry photo. I'm not a photographer!

So, Memory Maker is definitely not for us.

That said, I am seriously thinking of getting the Memory Maker package when my husband and I have our big 25th anniversary/he's retiring! celebration trip in a few years' time. I figure I'll get Disney to take tons of photos of us on that trip, and then put them altogether in a book of some sort and get it printed. It'll be a nice way to mark the occasion.

I'd also consider it if we were taking some future theoretical grandchild for their first trip.

 

[Mom2Stitch]

I'm a convert. Never tried memory maker until we took my DGS last year, only tried it because of seeing pics posted here and the good reviews. I will now always plan to include it in the price of my vacation. I loved being able to have the funny ride pics, character meal pics, the whole family together, and then being able to use the borders and make them even more special. It more than paid for itself for me. I also love the pictures of just me and DH in front of the Castle and in front of the Fountain in France-best pictures of us in 25 years together and they are in our favorite place in the world. Love it!

 

[rotlex]

It MIGHT be worth it for the ride pics if you want them. Otherwise, I feel it is WAY overpriced. The pics are OK, but I can think of a lot better things to spend that kind of money on while vacationing. We also take a very high quality compact camera with us and generally take a few thousand pics of our own.

 

[johde]

If you don't mind spending the extra money you could wait and buy it after your vacation when you can see how many pictures you have.

 

[vinotinto]

Good question. For those of you who think it's worth it, did you do longer trips? We're going for 4 days and have 1 character meal (1900 PF). I would be interested in a magic shot or two, but beyond that, I can't imagine getting sufficient value in 4 days.

 

[bbjunkie]

I am very happy we decided to buy it for our trip. We ended up with 559 photos over the 9 days we were there. I used my iPhone for candids throughout the parks, but definitely took advantage of the photo pass photographers. The reality is they took photos I can't take (on the rides, at the waterpark) that I really enjoy having. Even if I had my own DSLR, I wouldn't have taken it to BB or TL, and some of my favorites were there. Like this:

 

[Moonwolf]

Just got back from a trip with just my brother and my friend and I love the photopass pics we got. We had used memory maker on our DL trip last year so our mom (who is obsessed with pics) insisted we get it for WDW. We find it a lot quicker and easier than using our own camera.

Some of the best points we found for photopass are:
1. No need to bring your own camera - It was great not having to take a camera with us and having to worry about running out of battery or memory or having to put it away and take it back out constantly. We had our phones to take some pics but those were mainly just for selfies and random scenery.
2. The photopass people are usually all set up at good locations and they keep the space in front of them clear so no need to compete with others to get a good angle.
3. Quick and you can get the entire family in the shot - lines for the photopass people are usually very short. We never waited for more than 1-2 family to finish ahead of us and usually there would be no line at all
4. No need to fiddle with settings - While the photopass people will gladly take pictures with your regular camera theirs are already set for the specific lighting in the area so no need to change any settings or making sure if the flash needs to be on or off
5. character meet and greet shots - yet again you can use your own camera but with the photopass they can start snapping pics as soon as your turn starts capturing those first few moments as opposed to needing to take that time to pass your camera off to a castmember and if it's a complex camera telling them how it works.
6. magic shots - these are pics you can't just get with your normal camera. Sure if your good with photoshop you could create some magic shots on your own but there's something special about being surprised at what you get. I know I wasn't expecting some shots that turned out of be magic shots
7. ride photos/videos - yet again something you can't get with a normal camera. I especially love the videos because they also include little intros to the ride so you can experience the ride a little again

Overall on my trip my photopass was listing over 400 pics - some of those were stock photos but I'd say about 250-300 were actual pics of us. That averages out to about $0.60 per pic (and that's before I do some editing and make copies adding boarders and other things). Completely worth it in my books.

 

[kitkat4622]

I think it's worth every penny I paid for it. I already purchased it again for our upcoming trip in April. We got well over 150 pictures and now I am looking forward to more magic shots

 

[bc7ate9]

My husband and I always get Memory Maker. Our trips range from 4-7 days and it has ALWAYS been worth the cost for US (that doesn't mean it will be for YOU, though.) We don't care about ride photos and never care for our meal photos so those are just "extras." We stop at many photographers and meet many characters each day and end up with hundreds of photos - some good, some not, but they are all photos we wouldn't have otherwise. We carry our phones with us and will sometimes ask them to get a back up for us, but we mostly rely on the photographers (I've even used them at Food & Wine to take food photos for me.) It's just the 2 of us and we don't get our photos taken any other time during the year - in fact, this is probably the closest to a professional photo session we will ever have, at least till we have kids.

When I need to remind myself that it's worth the cost (and honestly, the price is very nominal for US), I look at my family's photo albums from the 80's. We came to Disney every year, yet there is not ONE picture of my entire family and there are maybe 3 of my dad since he was our main photographer. Very sad, especially since he passed away in 2009. I would give anything to have more photos of our family at Disney so I'm ensuring that we do now as we start our own family! I also think it'll be really fun to look back at them in 10-20 years and see how we used to dress and things like that.

 

[BobC]

If you have small kids, then perhaps maybe get it one trip

That's the only way I could see myself getting it...

I'd never do it on a solo trip or adult trip

 

[tink9702]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is if you are trying to take your own pics at character M&Gs they are often dark. So if you just have a phone or a point&shoot your picture might be too dark. The Disney photographers have their cameras set up for the dark lighting. I found this especially true at Enchanted Tales with Belle. I also HATED handing over my camera and fumbling with both it & the autograph books, sharpies etc.; just too much to handle!

we didn't get MM last trip but will be the next one!

 

[shaycamp21]

I am on the fence about getting MM too. We are staying 9 nights so I guess there is the potential to get a lot of photos though in the past we have never posed for too many photo pass photos so not sure if it would be worth it. It sounds like you'd be spending a lot of time to waiting to have photos taken? We do have 3 character meals booked (1900 Park Fare, Akershus and Tusker House) and the only meet and greets we plan on doing (have a FP+) are of Anna and Elsa and another at AK though those are just with my 4 year old. Not sure how much my older dd's (15 & 17) will be willing to pose for photos but they do enjoy the ride photos.

So for the price of MM you get a digital copy of the photos correct? Not the actual prints? So that means if I wanted printed photos for a Disney album (we buy one every year) I then have to pay on top of the price of MM to get the photos printed? Just trying to see if it's worth it especially since we are Canadian and with our dollar being so weak the cost is well over $200 with the conversion not a huge deal when you compare it to the cost of the trip overall but I may need to convince DH as he is more frugal than I LOL.

We leave in 10 days so need to make a decision ASAP.

 

[bc7ate9]

I am on the fence about getting MM too. We are staying 9 nights so I guess there is the potential to get a lot of photos though in the past we have never posed for too many photo pass photos so not sure if it would be worth it. It sounds like you'd be spending a lot of time to waiting to have photos taken? We do have 3 character meals booked (1900 Park Fare, Akershus and Tusker House) and the only meet and greets we plan on doing (have a FP+) are of Anna and Elsa and another at AK though those are just with my 4 year old. Not sure how much my older dd's (15 & 17) will be willing to pose for photos but they do enjoy the ride photos.

So for the price of MM you get a digital copy of the photos correct? Not the actual prints? So that means if I wanted printed photos for a Disney album (we buy one every year) I then have to pay on top of the price of MM to get the photos printed? Just trying to see if it's worth it especially since we are Canadian and with our dollar being so weak the cost is well over $200 with the conversion not a huge deal when you compare it to the cost of the trip overall but I may need to convince DH as he is more frugal than I LOL.

Yes, you get your digital photo file. You can have the photos printed where ever you like and in whatever size and format you want - advantages to that are that you don't have to pay DIsney's over-inflated price and you can have them printed somewhere local to avoid shipping fees.

Besides character photos, we rarely wait to just have a photo taken in front of the castle or whatever. If you don't anticipate getting many of those photos taken regardless, it is probably not worth it for you, though. The photographers are happy to take photos with your camera.

 

[kimatigger]

I am also on the fence about purchasing for our trip. We are off sight so how well does it work with a card and not a band? For instance how do I get pictures from the water-parks? Or if I purchase should I get myself a magic band to link MM to it? Thank you!

 

[Crystal824]

I think it depends on the people going and the length of the trip. If we have a trip over 7 days, we will usually get it. For a shorter trip, we generally don't stop as much for the photos and just not as many photo opportunities. I also have little kids who love the characters and MM allows me to slow down and watch the interaction instead of trying to get the photos.

 

[eliza61]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is if you are trying to take your own pics at character M&Gs they are often dark. So if you just have a phone or a point&shoot your picture might be too dark. The Disney photographers have their cameras set up for the dark lighting. I found this especially true at Enchanted Tales with Belle. I also HATED handing over my camera and fumbling with both it & the autograph books, sharpies etc.; just too much to handle!

we didn't get MM last trip but will be the next one!

but can't you still purchase them separately?? It's been two years but last time when I had photopass, I simply purchased a few of those "dark, ride" shots.
Did they stop allowing you to do that? I don't have small kids with autograph books and my dslr is on a strap across my body so for me it's no handling at all. I whip it around but like I said, I take my camera everywhere so I'm use to it.

last question is, how have the lines been? one of the problems I had with photopass is long lines at the more popular places. right outside of MK is ridiculous, as is the in front of the castle.

 

[bbjunkie]

but can't you still purchase them separately?? It's been two years but last time when I had photopass, I simply purchased a few of those "dark, ride" shots.
Did they stop allowing you to do that? I don't have small kids with autograph books and my dslr is on a strap across my body so for me it's no handling at all. I whip it around but like I said, I take my camera everywhere so I'm use to it.

last question is, how have the lines been? one of the problems I had with photopass is long lines at the more popular places. right outside of MK is ridiculous, as is the in front of the castle.

Yes, you can buy any of them separately. As far as lines are concerned, we only had to wait for one other family a few times. There are several photographers up and down Main Street, in "front" of the castle so I never saw a wait for them. In fact, I would often see some just standing there waiting. There is one behind the castle, too, that will do a great shot trying to pull the Sword from the Stone.