Disney's photopass Q's

[SD33]

So heres the deal. I recently purchased a new HD, waterproof video camera (The Kodak Playsport) that I absolutely love and would highly recommend!

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/PLAYSPORT_Video_Camera/productID.169976100

I did this for the obvious reason that most of the things I REALLY want to get on video at Disneyland involve water (Splash Mountain, GRR, WOC, etc.).

My only problem is, I don't want to carry around two cameras when I am at the parks (especially since I bought a waterproof camcorder so I wouldn't have to worry about it getting wet on rides). So, my question is...how does Disney's photo pass work exactly? How is the picture quality? And would it be worth it to not have a camera for pictures and to just allow Disney to take care of the still shots?

Also, how much is it to get all of your photos on a CD so that you can edit them and use them at home? I'm looking at the information on Disney's website and not exactly understanding how it works. Looks like there are a few options but I'm not sure which is which.

Thanks!

 

[Disney Dreams]

Here's the thing with PhotoPass....

Great photos with you in them. Fun memories.

However, it does not substitute being able to take pictures of things around the Park, shows, attractions, etc....

For example, if you want a picture of the Mark Twain sailing around the riverfront, you won't get it. Now, they do have stock photos you can purchase from PhotoPass if you want, but those are additional money.

I don't think PhotoPass substitutes for having your own camera. Now, does your phone have a decent camera? Maybe that could help you accomplish what you are trying to do?

- Dreams

 

[PrincessIM]

We've always purchased the CD from the park but I believe you can purchase it online as well. I think if you purchase it online you can add various things to your photos (borders, captions, etc....). I believe we paid $59.99 for only the CD. There is also a $79.99 package which gives you 2 or 3 5x7 I believe. My main reason for using photopass is to get the whole family in the picture instead one person always being left out of the pictures. This time around my experience wasn't quite so good as our previous two trips. I found there weren't as many photographers this time around. Luckily we were travelling with another family and were able to combine our photos together and split the cost. I think we still only ended up with about 50 photos between the two families compared to 100+ for our family alone on our previous two trips. Some of the photographers are better than others but in my opinion, I would bring your camera with you. I think it's a great addition but not a substition to bringing your own camera.

 

[CaseyK]

I know what you mean about lugging a camera around. We did it, and it was a pain as we also had our almost 3 year old and our 5 month old in a carrier! It was a lot of stuff. But we got some great shots you won't get with photopass. We also did photopass. I collected the cards they gave when they took the pic, tried to remember it the next day so I was not getting more cards, and loaded them up when we got home on line. I then edited them, added borders, changed colors to black and white and so much more. Ordered the CD and printed them off myself. I actually just got them into a separate album (the others from our own camera went into the scrapbook). DD loves to look at both but loves the photopass ones. I recommend getting it if you have a lot of pics taken. But I also recommend taking your camera for a little bit to get some other shots as well. We're going back in September and just tonight DH was telling me he wanted to shoot more footage, take more pictures, and get as many photopass photos taken as possible! Don't know if this helped you ore not- I rambled a bit!!

 

[skiingfast]

My only problem is, I don't want to carry around two cameras when I am at the parks (especially since I bought a waterproof camcorder so I wouldn't have to worry about it getting wet on rides). So, my question is...how does Disney's photo pass work exactly? How is the picture quality? And would it be worth it to not have a camera for pictures and to just allow Disney to take care of the still shots?

Also, how much is it to get all of your photos on a CD so that you can edit them and use them at home? I'm looking at the information on Disney's website and not exactly understanding how it works. Looks like there are a few options but I'm not sure which is which.

Thanks!

The CD is I believe still $59.99 but as others have said won't get every shot you would take with a personal camera. The Photopass websites best information is the locations of the photographers. Otherwise look at http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disneysphotopass/ It will tell you all about the how and why.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Some video cameras allow you to take still shots as well. Does yours?

 

[SD33]

Hey all, thanks for the replies! It looks like I will be bringing the second camera with me on this trip. My video camera takes stills but they aren't very good and it looks like the photopass CD is pretty expensive. Oh well

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Hey all, thanks for the replies! It looks like I will be bringing the second camera with me on this trip. My video camera takes stills but they aren't very good and it looks like the photopass CD is pretty expensive. Oh well

The main problem with relying on photopass is you'd only have pictures at the entrances to the parks, on main street, in front of the castle and with characters....

 

[SD33]

Yeah, I just checked out a map of where photographers are located. Looks pretty limiting. I didn't even see more than one or so in Frontier and Adventure land. Kinda weird.

 

[Lissame]

I think that map just shows where the photographers are located all the time. They do show up at random times with random characters all throughout the park on any given day. My husband and son found a photographer behind BTMRR--no character, just taking photos with BTMRR going by in the background.

Often there will be a photographer near space mtn at night to get space mtn lit up in the background, but I never usually see one there during the day.

The last two years we have made a point to get our photos taken with the PhotoPass photographer every time we see one. Last year we had 210 photos on our CD, this year 125. There weren't as many photographers in DCA this year due to them being pulled from their jobs to do crowd control for WOC. It was a bummer!

They get fabulous shots at night. We have some really great ones with Main St. in the background, the people are kind of a blur because they were moving and we were standing still. Love them!

 

[skiingfast]

I think that map just shows where the photographers are located all the time. They do show up at random times with random characters all throughout the park on any given day.

Often there will be a photographer near space mtn at night to get space mtn lit up in the background, but I never usually see one there during the day.

They get fabulous shots at night. We have some really great ones with Main St. in the background, the people are kind of a blur because they were moving and we were standing still. Love them!

The maps show where they are on the busiest days but can be trimmed back at slow times. They are at almost every character encounter the main exception is those that roam.


The night shots are something great about PhotoPass. They are positioned with tripods which is key for getting those shots.