Disappointed with PhotoPass

[mimmi]

We bought the cd last time it will buy it again. Some pictures are of an extremely bad quality, but as we have very few family pictures and lost our camera at the Universal studios so that we don't have any pictures from this trip I think the cd is worth the expense.

 

[ougrad86]

How do I get the bonus pictures I viewed when I pulled up my pictures? Do they automatically come or do I need to download them as well? Or just put in my preordered CD to my cart, and everything I see is there?

 

[mickeyboat]

I preordered the photo pass CD and I am so glad I did. I am the photographer in our family, and sometimes when I look back at photos from our vacations, I wonder if years from now anyone will remember that I was there.

We got over 150 photos before my edits. We did a lot of character meetings and made a point to find photographers when we were out and about. I love that I can put in character signatures on character photos. I love that we got a few good night photos and a great one at MNSSHP with our entire family and the Pooh characters. I love that we found a photographer to take a picture of our entire family in the same spot where DH proposed to me over 20 years ago. The magic ones with my girls holding baby Simba turned out really well, and one photopass photographer had me climb on a wall at Epcot so he could get a picture of me "blowing out the candle" on the F&W cake for my birthday.

 

[winefairie]

Just wanted to let everyone know my experience, we pre-ordered the PPcd thinking that I could include my photos. As previous posters have said, you can not add personal photo's to the cd, but the cost for the personal cd was only $19.99, still a little pricey but I had already spent the time to edit and add the not so great boarders to my pictures. We also wanted a Christmas ornament so with that purchase we used the discount code from MNSSHP, it made it overall worth the cost and effort. However, I am not going to do the personal photo's next time. Just not worth it, IMO. As for the photo's taken by CM's they were okay, not great. I was disappointed with photo of DD taken with Cinderella, she had sash from BBB makeover all twisted up and they took picture before I could fix it. I will do it again, as I have learned some tricks from the board and at the parks.

Lani

 

[jkluttrell]

I a big photopass fan as well. We had 212 photos from our 6 day trip and then 331 total on the cd after editing and the bonus MNSSHP pics. (a lot of those are character photo ops though) I am in several of these pictures and I am never in pictures because I am always the one taking them. Plus I love some of the borders available!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I'm not sure I get it either. One trip several years ago, it seemed worth getting because we had a ton of pics on it, but then...we had a ton of pics from that trip. Honestly, the ones we took with our own cameras are on my computer, so if ever I have reason to go back through those old photos (pretty rare) I find plenty on just the computer. I never look at the CD.

I really don't understand the obsession some folks have with photos. I mean if I've bothered to pose ten people, I'll take mutlple shots to attempt to get everyone's eye's open, but I don't really worry about having 'back ups' from a photopass person. I don't understand why folks feel the need to take 100 shots on every dark ride at WDW. It seems totally self absorbed to me - esp as you can find them all on the internet with a two second search.

Sure, I'd be bummed if I forgot my camera at a close family member wedding or something, but even there,it's not like everyone else in the family isn't going to have a THEIR camera.

And when our family is together, mostly, I just want to have fun. It seems dumb to spend all of our together time taking photos. If there's one photo of the gathering, that's plenty. If it doesn't turn out, oh well. I'll get a shot next year. Somehow, I've got plenty of family photos.

 

[WelovMickey!]

We just returned from a week long trip to Disney and I have to say I was very disappointed with PhotoPass. We spent full days in each of the 4 parks, and I would say that we did not have more than 15 pictures taken in the entire week. While I will say that we skipped the "character photos", which would have likely presented more opportunities, I guess I expected the photographers to be at more of the Kodak Perfect Picture locations. I did prepay for the CD, but will likely request my money back. The $99 is a worthwhile spend if you plan on buying more than 9 photos, since I think buying them individually costs $12.95 each....but since I took most of the shots with my own camera too, I don't see much of value in paying the $100. Maybe since it was a slightly slower time, they don't have the crews out in full force...but I guess I was just expecting more. Am I missing something?

I did notice when we were there in June (clear skies too) that there were less then I have seen before. We did not get as many has I would have liked because they were not in the photo areas that I have seen them before. One that stands out in the memory was the Living Seas area...no photopass person I hope there will be more when we go back.

 

[auroralark]

For me, Photopass works in certain situations. Normally, we do not buy the CD. However, when my friends and I went down for a trip we split the cost and stopped at every single photographer we saw. We also met tons of characters. This was a weekend trip and by the time I was done editing, adding borders etc. we ended up with well over 100 pictures - from 4 days! totally worth it for that trip. If you're going to stop for the photographers and meet a lot of characters and/or you're going to split the cost with someone else - I think it can definitely be worth it.

 

[Kathy Z]

I'm trying to decide about pre-ordering a photopass CD for our December trip. Last year in May I didn't see a lot of pp photographers in the parks but in December I did. I also saw them in the Deluxe Resorts at night and would have loved to have them take photos of DH & I. From all that I've read in the past few days and learning about the magical shots etc. I'm about ready to decide.

The big question I have left is when does the 30 day clock start ticking? Our trip is Dec 12 - 19 and I really won't have time to spend online looking over the pictures to decide how to edit them and order the CD until after Christmas. Does the 30 clock start on the first day we have pictures taken (Dec. 12th) or the first day I go online to start working on my CD? Once I do go online and finish my edits and order the CD to be sent how long does it take to arrive?

 

[beebumble]

First of all if you were lucky enough to get photos this time, my photopass says 122 photos and that's because they show the same photo at least 6 times. Family members were cut out of our photos. Some were blurry and the one we laughed at::: The guy tells us to point to the sidewalk well guess what the photo shows. US POINTING TO A SIDEWALK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very glad we did not prepay, Photos are definetly not worth it
Have a magical day

 

[mickeyboat]

I am having trouble logging on to the photopass site. Anyone else?

 

[sophie832]

DH and I have pre-ordered the CD for our Dec. trip. He's the photographer for our trips, so we usually end up with lots of pictures of me, and only 1 or 2 with both of us in them. We're looking forward to getting lots of pictures of the two of us! However, if they end up being a letdown, we can always get a refund.

What I'm now wondering is whether to register the photopass card that came with our travel documents, or just wait until after our trip. Not sure how that works. I'm going to try and hunt down the answer on the DIS.

 

[okeydokey]

Our pictures from last week were pretty much useless. One photographer we found at the bridge near the castle never even said a word to us as he took our picture. I handed him the card, he clicked a couple of times and handed it back, maybe gave a sort of grunt. Of course we did walk up to him while he was shoving something into his mouth so maybe he felt like we interrupted his snack.

The best photo we had taken during the trip was when a random CM walked up to us while we were posing the kids in front of the Rockin Rollercoaster and asked if wanted a group shot with our own camera. He was very nice that the pictures came out great too.