Disappointed with PhotoPass

[vicki_c]

There have been PP photographers wandering the Epcot countries in my experience on some of our trips.

We're getting the pre-paid CD for our upcoming trip and we will only be there for MNSSHP and 1 park day! So you know we're crazy! I figure if we have even close to 10 photos for those 2 days, it will still be a break even proposition. If we don't, I'm going to just ask for a refund and order any prints that we might want to have. We have done the pre-order CD about 5-6 times and really find it to be worthwhile. On one shorter trip with just DH and me, we got in a share and that worked well for that one time, but generally I don't like sharing (only child).

 

[Sorsha]

There have been PP photographers wandering the Epcot countries in my experience on some of our trips.

That would have been so nice...

We could only find one, over by the American Adventure, taking pictures across the lagoon, getting Spaceship Earth in the background. And sadly, his pictures, with what might have been the most magnificant background, were the most poorly posed and worst taken. SIGH.

Then again, it IS "slow" season (HA!) so there may be less photographers on staff this time of year. Also I think I read somewhere that they have been cutting back for "financial" (another HA!) reasons.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

Anyone have experience adding your own photos... or any really nice borders or special effects?

I plan to check the pricing of photopass for our trip coming up. I'd much rather take my own photos..... But I think buying photopass also gets some great photo borders and special effects to use. I think there's an option to add my own photos so I can buy them using those borders.

I always make a photo book through shutterfly.com after our vacations... but http://www.disneyphotopass.com/ I saw some samples that have really nice disney backgrounds.... at a huge price starting at $80 but that says up to 60 pages.... Shutterfly is about $1 a page so maybe that's reasonable.

 

[bas71873]

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?

We just got back too and I don't think there were as many photogs as we have seen on prior trips. I prepaid too and called yesterday to get my refund. I am ordering a MNSSHP themed photo magnet, 2 mousepads and 2 mugs (1 each for me and 1 each for DH for Christmas), but we didn't get enough pics to justify the cost. Now the first time I went, we got tons and it was totally worth it!

 

[Sorsha]

Disclaimer: I did not add my own photos, but this is how I understood it!!

Yes, you can add your own photos, and yes, I believe you can also add the Disney borders, backgrounds etc, and use their editing tools.

BUT....

You cannot include those pictures on your $99 PhotoPass CD. You have to pay for a seperate CD (I think the cost was $29??? but I may be wrong) that includes just your photos. Therefore it is to your financial advantage to upload ALL of your pictures and edit them and let Disney send you all of them on a CD to get the most for your money... the cost of the CD will be the same no matter how many pictures you upload and at least this way you will have all of your photos edited/stored.

 

[honeymooner2004]

I was wondering what to do about Photopass. A friend of my DH said he spent over $290 on the CD? I'm confused - is it less if you buy it upfront? I wasn't sure if it would be worth it for us. Most of the pics will be of my DD and I have a decent digital camera, but it would be nice to have a few of the whole family (only 3 of us). Can you not buy upfront and just buy individual photos after the trip?

 

[1153rsmith]

I was wondering what to do about Photopass. A friend of my DH said he spent over $290 on the CD? I'm confused - is it less if you buy it upfront? I wasn't sure if it would be worth it for us. Most of the pics will be of my DD and I have a decent digital camera, but it would be nice to have a few of the whole family (only 3 of us). Can you not buy upfront and just buy individual photos after the trip?

yes, it is cheaper if you pre-pay for it before your trip. The key is, you must have paid for the CD before you link any of your photopass cards to your online account. If you don't pre-pay, the CD alone is $149 I think, and if you add a photo book, it goes up from there.

We have done it 2x and I have enjoyed it very much. I like the magic shots, the whole family in the picture without having to bug someone, and the fact that some of the photopass CM's really know their stuff and will take time to set up a shot that you would never get otherwise. Our first trip, I ended up with over 600 pics. The second one was not as many because we didn't do nearly as many characters.. however, it was still worth it. I wish they would allow you to add more ride pictures in. The only one I know of is Test Track.

If you think you might want it, I would suggest you prepurchase before you go, take advantage of all the Photopass guys and gals in the park while there, review the pics when you get back and if you still don't think it is worth the $99, request a refund. You must request the refund though before you order the cd with the final pictures on it though. (When you pre-pay they put a credit for the CD in your online shopping cart that is matched up with the CD purchase you make after you finish editing.)

 

[honeymooner2004]

yes, it is cheaper if you pre-pay for it before your trip. The key is, you must have paid for the CD before you link any of your photopass cards to your online account. If you don't pre-pay, the CD alone is $149 I think, and if you add a photo book, it goes up from there.

We have done it 2x and I have enjoyed it very much. I like the magic shots, the whole family in the picture without having to bug someone, and the fact that some of the photopass CM's really know their stuff and will take time to set up a shot that you would never get otherwise. Our first trip, I ended up with over 600 pics. The second one was not as many because we didn't do nearly as many characters.. however, it was still worth it. I wish they would allow you to add more ride pictures in. The only one I know of is Test Track.

If you think you might want it, I would suggest you prepurchase before you go, take advantage of all the Photopass guys and gals in the park while there, review the pics when you get back and if you still don't think it is worth the $99, request a refund. You must request the refund though before you order the cd with the final pictures on it though. (When you pre-pay they put a credit for the CD in your online shopping cart that is matched up with the CD purchase you make after you finish editing.)

Ok good to know. Are the edits part of the $99 CD package? And can you use the CD anywhere? Can you print out any size photo? How does this work?

 

[divawife]

I am going back and forth with buying the $99 cd. We only used the Photopass photographers for the special effects photos with Tink in the palm of your hand or Simba in your arms. Also, a group shot in front of the castle for the Princess & Pirate party. We ended up buying about $50 worth but that was with a 40% discount for using them at the PPP party. I didn't see the photographers enough to get over a 100 pics out of them and when we did see them there was usually a line waiting. If I could figure out how to use them for regular photos in additon to the special effects maybe I would buy the cd.

 

[Sorsha]

Ok good to know. Are the edits part of the $99 CD package?

Yes, Just be sure you do all of the editing/border adding/etc you want to do and "save as a copy" (preserving your original unchanged print as well) each time - before ordering your CD. You will get all of your original shots plus all of your edits.

And can you use the CD anywhere?

Yes you can, anywhere you would normally take a CD to have photos printed. Disney sends you a copyright release along with your CD.

Can you print out any size photo?

Yes you can, but I believe I have read that the resolution isn't superb on these shots, so if you try to print anything much bigger than an 8X10, they will probably end up looking not so swell.

 

[honeymooner2004]

Yes, Just be sure you do all of the editing/border adding/etc you want to do and "save as a copy" (preserving your original unchanged print as well) each time - before ordering your CD. You will get all of your original shots plus all of your edits.

Yes you can, anywhere you would normally take a CD to have photos printed. Disney sends you a copyright release along with your CD.

Yes you can, but I believe I have read that the resolution isn't superb on these shots, so if you try to print anything much bigger than an 8X10, they will probably end up looking not so swell.

Thanks so much to everyone for all the advice!! I will be taking all the facts to my DH for consideration as to what we'll decide!! (I think we'll be getting it)!!

 

[3_disprincesses]

Another photopass fan here. My favorite thing about using photopass is the freedom it gave me to enjoy my DD's character interaction. I usually miss out because I'm trying to take pictures but using photopass I was able to watch and participate with my daughter as she met all of the characters the first time. Worth every penny just for that and I will use photopass again.

 

[1153rsmith]

One more thing.. Pictures are originally formatted to 4x6 but when you add borders, it defaults to a 5x7. If you add borders and plan to print them as a 4x6 you will need to change the size back to 4x6 before saving, otherwise when you print, part of the border will be cut off. If you are not sure which size you will print, you can start with the original picture, add the border, save as 5x7, then start over with the same picture, same border, but change to 4x6 before saving. (You will have the original unedited photo, the 5x7, and the 4x6.)

 

[vicki_c]

Disclaimer: I did not add my own photos, but this is how I understood it!!

Yes, you can add your own photos, and yes, I believe you can also add the Disney borders, backgrounds etc, and use their editing tools.

BUT....

You cannot include those pictures on your $99 PhotoPass CD. You have to pay for a seperate CD (I think the cost was $29??? but I may be wrong) that includes just your photos. Therefore it is to your financial advantage to upload ALL of your pictures and edit them and let Disney send you all of them on a CD to get the most for your money... the cost of the CD will be the same no matter how many pictures you upload and at least this way you will have all of your photos edited/stored.

I'm a bit confused by parts of your post, but one part is not exactly right. The borders that are available for your own uploaded photos are NOT the same as the ones you can add to the PP-taken photos. The borders available for your own uploaded photos are MUCH more limited and I didn't see any that I cared about using - there were only maybe 5-6 available last time I considered doing that.

It is correct that you cannot add your own uploaded photos to the pre-purchase CD (or even non pre-purchased PP CD). That CD will only contain the shots taken by the PP photographers.

For your own photos, you have to order the other CD - I think it's called the Personal Archive for around $30 as you said. But the border options are limited.

I would always check here for the best info on Photopass:
www.stitchkingdom.com/disneysphotopass

PS - anything I wrote applies only to the CD. I have never ordered a Photobook or any prints, so I can't say for sure that those items are the same as what I posted above.

 

[Sorsha]

I'm a bit confused by parts of your post, but one part is not exactly right. The borders that are available for your own uploaded photos are NOT the same as the ones you can add to the PP-taken photos. The borders available for your own uploaded photos are MUCH more limited and I didn't see any that I cared about using - there were only maybe 5-6 available last time I considered doing that.

OK, that's cool - as I said I have never uploaded my own photos. Didn't see the value in it for myself, as I wasn't THAT crazy about the borders and thingies offered, even for the PhotoPass photos. Since I can burn my own CD with my own photos (and resize/edit them using my own programs) I just saw no point in it.

Now, hearing that the amount of borders would have been even more limited, I am even MORE glad I didn't waste my time!

Curious though, what parts of my post confuse you? Maybe I can clear things up? Sometimes I confuzzle even myself...

 

[vicki_c]

You cannot include those pictures on your $99 PhotoPass CD. You have to pay for a seperate CD (I think the cost was $29??? but I may be wrong) that includes just your photos. Therefore it is to your financial advantage to upload ALL of your pictures and edit them and let Disney send you all of them on a CD to get the most for your money... the cost of the CD will be the same no matter how many pictures you upload and at least this way you will have all of your photos edited/stored.

It was this part, Sorsha. I couldn't follow it and I thought you were contradicting yourself but I think I didn't understand what you were saying. I guess you're saying get the most for your money on the PERSONAL CD, by making sure to upload all your own photos? When I first read it, it sounded like you meant add them all the Photopass CD even though at the beginning you said you couldn't do that (which was correct). Clear as mud?

In any case, I thought the personal photo CD was a waste of money unless you were a person who didn't have the ability to burn your photos to a CD yourself, because of the limited editing options.

 

[Sorsha]

It was this part, Sorsha. I couldn't follow it and I thought you were contradicting yourself but I think I didn't understand what you were saying. I guess you're saying get the most for your money on the PERSONAL CD, by making sure to upload all your own photos? When I first read it, it sounded like you meant add them all the Photopass CD even though at the beginning you said you couldn't do that (which was correct). Clear as mud?

In any case, I thought the personal photo CD was a waste of money unless you were a person who didn't have the ability to burn your photos to a CD yourself, because of the limited editing options.

Yup clear as mud!!

You've got it though... if a person is going to upload some photos, play with them, edit them, add borders, etc, and then pay the $30 to order the CD from Disney, then a person might as well upload all his or her photos, and let Disney put them all on a CD. More bang for your buck. And yes, this would not be your Photopass CD. That's all I was sayin'...

And yes, I agree... unless your computer system just didn't have the ability to burn/edit your photos yourself, this really does just seem to be a waste of money...

 

[Dorisk3]

One more thing.. Pictures are originally formatted to 4x6 but when you add borders, it defaults to a 5x7. If you add borders and plan to print them as a 4x6 you will need to change the size back to 4x6 before saving, otherwise when you print, part of the border will be cut off. If you are not sure which size you will print, you can start with the original picture, add the border, save as 5x7, then start over with the same picture, same border, but change to 4x6 before saving. (You will have the original unedited photo, the 5x7, and the 4x6.)

This has actually been changed this year. It now thankfully defaults to 4x6, so you save all changes on that size. I think Disney finally realized that most people are printing out 4x6s and not 5x7s.

 

[magickimbo]

I didn't know about prepaying when we went in 2008. I paid $150 (?) for the cd but it was totally worth it for us. We had about 90 pictures on it and I got to be in lots of them. I'm usually the one taking pictures. I also took advantage of the fact that the photopass photographers would take pictures with my camera, but sometimes their shot was better. There was a picture of my son hugging Stitch (his favorite character). My shot was ok, buth the photographer got the look of pure magic and wonder on my son's face. It was worth the money for that one shot...although I used lots of the character pictures in my photobooks.

 

[brivers222]

in the past i thought it was useless ctrl+alt+prnt screen... but after this 10 day trip and taking over 300 pictures (not including the fun of adding borders and stuff) we are going to spend the $149 to purchase the disk in a little bit. its less than $.50 a print at this point