Disappointed with our Photo Pass experience

[Lil' Grumpy]

hey, tell your husband he has a "cute purse" !


yes , we were there for 2 weeks during christmas & it was

freezing. . however, we still got many special shots. sometimes
we made "suggestions & they were happy to obliged. ( a few times,
others saw what we were doing so they follow suit. one evening, scroodge
& daisy were in the lobby entering blt. we were staying there so
i had to race up to our room & dragged my daughter down. she was still
wearing her tinker bell pj's.


think outside the box....liked we used the balloon guy for backdrop &
the fireworks to one of the shows. also we were wearing shirts
of a real mouse....trying on mickey clothes. the camera girl posed
us as a "mouse family".

funny~ this was the same girl doing the family of the day, & when
the park opened we separated my wife & kids got to be hooked
up with their group including getting some neat characters
groups. then later on she scheduled us to meet her in front of
the castle where we did some special photos. during mnsshp, they
had the wicked witch out. she did not have a poison apple. no
fear...during trick/treating i came across a candy apple sucker
that we used as a prop. later on, i saw photos where she
had her own apple. wonder where they got that idea?

my guess...after that purse picture....he won't be posing anymore
for awhile ...but it would make a great christmas card,
ho, ho, hoe?!

 

[goofy4tink]

Too funny! We were also there the week of August 19. I do agree....the photographers were not that prevalent during our visit. There was one very cool time, however, after dinner at CRT, near 11pm, the castle was all lit up, MK was EMPTY (a great sight to behold!) and there was this lone photopass photographer on the side near Tomorrowland just standing there ready to take a picture. We totally jumped at that and it ended up being our favorite shot of the trip. I also did not order the CD. I only had just a few PP shots taken and then I uploaded my own pics to the PhotoPass site so I could create my album. I just love adding all the Disney borders/backgrounds etc.

QUESTION.....I'm reading about PhotoPass photographers taking "candid" shots.....I didn't even know that was possible....how is this done??

​

Bigyellowshoes...you might want to change your font.....it's pretty hard to read...even the darker green is hardish to read. In any case...welcome to the DIS boards.

I have found that the Photopass shots can be hit or miss. We have as many taken as is humanly possible. Otherwise, I'm the one behind the camera!!! We have had a few Photopass books made, as well as a couple of Photopass videos made. They have all been very nice, even if a bit expensive. We have had some very nice 'candids' taken at character meet and greets. Not all the photographers seem to do them...but the smart ones do. Why??? Simple. It means the guest is going to spend more money on the photos. Candids are so much nicer to have than the more 'formal' ones. I've had photographers start snapping photos as soon as I had handed them my photopass card. There was one meet and greet with Goofy that must have had at least 15 candid shots available!!! The one of me dancing with Goofy is priceless. Or the photo of Tink giving my dd a ton of 'fairy attitude' which dd then proceeded to give right back to Tink!! Hysterical photo...a family favorite.

BUT.....with everyone posting all these wonderful experiences here on the DIS, and other internet sites, it is sometimes hard for other people to have to 'settle' for what they believe to be lesser shots. Sometimes we get lucky, but certainly not every time.

Something to keep in mind......even though those shots aren't 'closeup', you can edit them. You can zoom in and crop them. I think that many times the photographers want to give you that option, but I don't think that everyone completely understands that you can edit them. But, perhaps Disney has changed the Photopass site since I was there last. Maybe the edit is no longer available??

I know that when we decide to do photopass, we find every single photographer we can see.....we get photos taken at some very strange spots, but we end up with a ton of photos. I know that when my dd and I were there, we crammed in about 45 shots in one day, in two different parks. It was actually kind of funny to see the exact same outfits in so many shots, in those different parks.

 

[okeydokey]

The last time we went the photopass pics were awful. They were not framed well and many were blurry. The photographers seemed annoyed that we were bothering them. The best pic we got all trip was taken by a random CM who saw us getting our own pics in front of Rockin Rollercoaster and offered to take one of all of us with my camera. He was great. The rest were disappointing.

 

[Donalyn]

We've had great experiences with PP, but you get out of it what you put in.

I make sure to tell the photographer what I want. For example, our youngest DD's first meeting with MM - I told the photog to snap away. I took a few pictures, but I was also able to enjoy it.

On the magic stuff - you have to ask, I'd say 85% of the time. Some are very vocal about the options.

I've also had missing magic and I think it is very funny. In one picture, Stitch is not coming out of the ground, which is funny.

And some photog are better than others and some are more into candids. One of my favorite all time pictures of my oldest DD is of her looking at Tink (who you can't see in the picture) waiting her turn to meet her. DD looks like an angel. I didn't tell the photog to take this, he just did.

And PP is a great back up to your own camera. On our brand new digital camera (yes, I know that was stupid), my husband somehow erased our first 2 hours at MK of our oldest DD first trip, including when she first meet MM. All I can say is Thank goodness for PP. Of course, back then we just bought the pictures from them and spent a fortune (and it was worth it). But since then, I'm a huge fan of the CD (and the photobooks).

 

[BigYellowShoes]

Bigyellowshoes...you might want to change your font.....it's pretty hard to read...even the darker green is hardish to read.

Thanks for the tip! Don't have much luck with fonts/colors......

​

And thanks for the welcome!!

 

[Kathymford]

I'm nervous about doing the PP pre-order, but I will probably do it anyway. It is our first trip, and with just DBF and I going, I figure it will be the best way to get both of us in the pics at WDW. We go to DL a lot, and we are never in any of the photos!

 

[bobbyshawatl]

I've never used the photopass system before, but my package for my upcoming trip contains the 20 page photo book. Hopefully there'll be enough photos for the book!

I always bring my own camera and snap away at everything!

 

[MattMatts-Momma]

I noticed this last year when we went to Disney. We hardly saw any Photographers out and about. We didn't have many photos on our photopass when we were leaving, compared to the year before. I thought it might have just been me that couldn't find the photographers...

I am still on the fence about ordering the photopass cd for our trip this week.

 

[Karbase8]

I agree I could barely find a PP photographer and the ones in MK were not very helpful or were complaining about their jobs. The best PP I saw were in Animal Kingdom, barely none in Epcot and HS was ok, I didn't do bad there. Only had about 30 shots taken if that and most were very redundant, I only ordered 4 or 5. I was really surprised not to see any around the lands in MK I truly was. So next time I know not to bother.

 

[Dizneefamily+4]

We went last month. We didn't pre-order the CD, but still used our photopass if and when we could find a photopass photgrapher (like you, we REALLY had to hunt them down and then, because they seemed to be so rare, we had to wait in line for them to take our pic!) They were almost non-existent in AK. When we went last year, those photographers were EVERYWHERE!

When we got home, we looked up the pics and like you, were VERY disappointed in what we got - hazy, out-out-of-focus, missing the top half of the castle, etc. One of the photographers insisted that we take the shots without our sunglasses - even though it was 3:00 in the afternoon and we were looking directly into August Florida sunlight. We all knew we were squinting and tearing up for that shot! We did have her take one with our sunglasses on as well, but it was still a poor shot.

We did manage to find one decent picture in the bunch - along the side of the castle by the Mickey/Minnie sculpted shrubs. That picture was clear, crisp and fabulous! We ordered an 8 x 10 and it's beautiful.

All in all, I have to say that our own pictures turned out so much better than the photopass pics. We too do a book online, but we use Shutterfly. They send me email deals all the time and this time, I got my book for 50% off. Love it!

 

[goofy4tink]

Thanks for the tip! Don't have much luck with fonts/colors......

​

And thanks for the welcome!!

Ahhhh, that's much better!!!!

I've never used the photopass system before, but my package for my upcoming trip contains the 20 page photo book. Hopefully there'll be enough photos for the book!

I always bring my own camera and snap away at everything!

I love the Photopass photo books. Yes, they can be expensive. But, the nice thing is that you can upload your own photos as well. I always make my own photo books through Shutterfly, but the Photopass ones are special since you get the photopass photos as well as the wonderful Disney backgrounds on each page.

 

[KellyWasHere]

Contact them about the missing magic shots. Those all get added by hand, so it's completely possible for them to miss some. If you let them know what pictures are missing the magic, they should be able to add it for you.

You may have to call them several times. My husband had to call 3-4 times until Simba was finally added into our magic shot!

 

[Disneynut5]

How much does it cost to pre order the CD verses ordering it after?

 

[djm99]

How much does it cost to pre order the CD verses ordering it after?

$50 if memory serves me correctly. $99 vs $150.

 

[sparks19]

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience.

I'm pre ordering the CD before our upcoming trip. Since they offer a refund if you aren't happy I figure why not.

last year there were a bunch of really cute photos but at $15 a pop I only ordered 2 and I only ordered those ones because they were MUST haves. The first one was a moment we would have totally missed on camera if it weren't for the photopass guy being a quick thinker lol. we visited mickey and minnie... DD did NOT want to see mickey, only minnie... until she realized that we were about to leave the room then she had to give mickey a kiss goodbye. she kissed him right on the tip of his nose... my inlaws were already out of the room with our cameras (as we were preparing to leave at that moment) so there was no way for us to get the photo of that moment. If not for the photopass guy we would have missed it completely.

I figure to make the CD "worth" it we only need 7 good shots... at $15 a pop 7 photos would be $105.

plus we'll also have our multiple cameras LOL IMO you can never have to many photos.

So hopefully it works out for us... if it doesn't then I'll just request a refund but if it DOES work out I'll be very happy to only be paying $99 instead of $150 or $15 per picture.

 

[maraki527]

If you pre order the photopass will the pictures that are already in your bucket be put on the cd? We will be doing a small weekend trip three weeks before our longer trip