Does Shutters REALLY do what they say they will do??

[Tzbwilsonfam]

I'm trying to decide whether or not to purchase the photo package for our upcoming Black Friday cruise.

Their website says they take photos around the ship and even mentions the pool and table areas.

I've read some threads on here about this company, and I don't recall much good.

Are they really around the ship or is it just the studio type photos and characters??

Any first hand info is appreciated

 

[imahistorygeek]

I've seen them once in Palo and once in Animator's Palate. I've never seen them in the adult pool area. I can't comment on family area. I've also never seen them out and about, but wasn't looking for them either. I've seen a lot of character meet and greets as well as studio type photos.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'm trying to decide whether or not to purchase the photo package for our upcoming Black Friday cruise.

Their website says they take photos around the ship and even mentions the pool and table areas.

I've read some threads on here about this company, and I don't recall much good.

Are they really around the ship or is it just the studio type photos and characters??

Any first hand info is appreciated

We've had our photo taken at set up locations. Those locations were mostly in the atrium (with and without characters), but I've seen them in other locations as well. We've also had our photo taken by roving photographers around the ship on various decks. Also in the dining rooms. And at Castaway Cay (both set up locations and roving photographers).

I have no complaints about the photos we've had taken. But we've never gone for the "must have everything" package, and are selective about the ones we want.

 

[Sytrace]

They are in the restaurants at least a couple of nights during the cruise. They are also at the character meets and are set up for formal shots during the cruise. Pirate nights, formal night, etc. at designated locations where you stand in line and wait. The dining room ones they come to your table and take some photos there.

Also in the terminal before boarding, and once you go thru the mickey ears in the terminal they take shots there. I have not seen them wander around the ship taking photos though. Or in the pool area.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

On our four night, they took pictures of us at the tables twice. They were on the family beach at Castaway taking random pictures. I wasn't on deck enough that cruise to see if they took pictures in that area. Then they have several stations set up each night, all the scheduled character appearences, and a station on Castaway with the ship in the background.

 

[PlanoNana]

For those who bought the digital package - do you feel you got a good value for your money? I'm especially interested in replies from folks traveling with kids in the 1-6 age range. We're the grandparents traveling with DD, SIL and 2 grand daughters. DD and I are trying to decide if a package for their stateroom would be worth the cost.

 

[KristinDBQ]

There are pictures automatically taken during the Aqua Duck where they claim they use facial recognition to match it up with your account, but none of those made it to our account (and we did the Aqua Duck plenty). Good pictures are important to me, so we pre-ordered one of the USBs with a set number of images. I was very disappointed in the photo quality. Lighting is poor (frequently overblown), red eye is an issue, and some of the photos were out of focus. I don't think the photographers are well trained. I don't think we'll bother next time.

ETA: Our girls were 5 and 7 when we did our cruise this summer, so close to the age range you're asking about. If you've got young ones who don't hold still well for pictures, I suspect the focus issue would be even greater. Our kids hold still fine for pictures and I still struggled to pick 10 images that I thought were decent enough to pay money for.

 

[TrySomethingNew]

Plenty of pics taken at designated locations (lobby and character meets). We've not seen pics from anywhere else onboard except the dining room one night. Also boarding picture. We were pleasantly suprised with one Shutters employee that was on an excursion to take pics - she was there with name badge and shutters camera. We were at a Norway stop on a DCL excursion. We took 3 DCL excursions that trip (the rest private), and a shutters photo taker was only on the one excursion.

Unfortunately there were issues with the pics -they were not accessible to us, nothing Shutters did helped. This was post-cruise within the 30 day window. Luckily we had purchased the print and digital package, so had a large stack of printed pics we got before we left the ship. Since they were not able to get us access to our digital pics, we were refunded our photo costs. Dissapointed in not getting the digital images, but they tried to help (via email) and when nothing worked, the refunded without delay nor any argument.

 

[Richard Howren]

For those who bought the digital package - do you feel you got a good value for your money? I'm especially interested in replies from folks traveling with kids in the 1-6 age range. We're the grandparents traveling with DD, SIL and 2 grand daughters. DD and I are trying to decide if a package for their stateroom would be worth the cost.

We bought the digital package on a recent Alaskan cruise. I have had a few misgivings regarding the quality of the photos. Time is quite limited for the photographers with a full boat of people. But, it doesn't excuse the many shots that we got of our granddaughters with their eyes closed. Their quality control is a bit lacking especially with a 4 year old. As mentioned earlier there were a lot of "staged" shots with long lines. My biggest pet peeve was the many guests that were taking numerous group photos and in many combinations of attendees. They chewed up much of the photographers time forcing them to short change the next group. We felt rushed most of the time. The lighting, clarity and color of their pictures were good, just that they raced through and the photos were not the best that they could have been for the money.

 

[msmama]

If I can piggyback - on the shutters website, where you can preorder, it says that the digital packages you get a disc. I've heard other places it's a USB stick. Can anyone confirm? I have no doc drive on my computer so a disc does me no good.

My plan is to preorder, I guess, because from what I understand it can be refunded for any reason, right.

 

[michellekcm]

I've seen them out and about on some cruises - but not the Caribbean / Bahamas ones.

Tracy Arm day in Alaska they've been on deck. In the Norwegian Fjords they were on deck and also at some of the ports taking photos as you left the ship. Out of New York they've been on deck taking photos with the skyline or the Statue of Liberty in the background.

On our 7-night cruises they've always done photos on formal night, semi-formal night, and pirate night - which means once in each restaurant.

 

[Starwind]

If I can piggyback - on the shutters website, where you can preorder, it says that the digital packages you get a disc. I've heard other places it's a USB stick. Can anyone confirm? I have no doc drive on my computer so a disc does me no good.

My plan is to preorder, I guess, because from what I understand it can be refunded for any reason, right.

On our Disney Dream B2B in December 2015 both cruises' photos were on USB sticks.

SW

 

[Richard Howren]

On our Disney Dream B2B in December 2015 both cruises' photos were on USB sticks.

SW

I recently was on an Alaskan cruise (August 1) and I only received a disc, no USB thumb drive. I hope this helps.

Rich

 

[Dug720]

If I can piggyback - on the shutters website, where you can preorder, it says that the digital packages you get a disc. I've heard other places it's a USB stick. Can anyone confirm? I have no doc drive on my computer so a disc does me no good.

My plan is to preorder, I guess, because from what I understand it can be refunded for any reason, right.

I don't know what they do, but I would think that they're going to soon HAVE to go the way of the USB stick as fewer and fewer computers even have any kind of area for a disc.Or at the very least on the order form have a box for you to tick as to which you'd prefer.

 

[Cats12]

I don't know about IN the pool, but there were some character meets in the gazebo on the pool deck of our cruises. And they definitely take candids at castaway besides the character ones. I always flag them down if they're going to skip us since I know I'm getting the package. My favorite part of the cruise is getting as many pictures as possible! As for quality, they do sometimes over expose, but the lighting in the lobby and restaurants is tough. We have really good cameras, but we can't compete with their light boxes and/or enormous flashes that we wouldn't want to carry around, so we rely on them and don't even waste everybody's time taking the same picture with our own cameras.

 

[gruffudd242]

I've seen them out and about on some cruises - but not the Caribbean / Bahamas ones.

Tracy Arm day in Alaska they've been on deck. In the Norwegian Fjords they were on deck and also at some of the ports taking photos as you left the ship. Out of New York they've been on deck taking photos with the skyline or the Statue of Liberty in the background.

On our 7-night cruises they've always done photos on formal night, semi-formal night, and pirate night - which means once in each restaurant.

On our 7/30/16 cruise we got a USB stick.

 

[LaFleurville]

I'm trying to decide whether or not to purchase the photo package for our upcoming Black Friday cruise.

Their website says they take photos around the ship and even mentions the pool and table areas.

I've read some threads on here about this company, and I don't recall much good.

Are they really around the ship or is it just the studio type photos and characters??

Any first hand info is appreciated

Thanks for asking this questions. I was just wondering the same thing.

Does anyone know if they (Shutters staff) will take photos using your own camera or will other Disney staff take photos using your camera when on board the ship if asked? Going on our first cruise in 2017.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Thanks for asking this questions. I was just wondering the same thing.

Does anyone know if they (Shutters staff) will take photos using your own camera or will other Disney staff take photos using your camera when on board the ship if asked? Going on our first cruise in 2017.

The Shutters photographers will not use your camera to take your picture. However, often there is a DCL CM assisting the photographers, and they will.

 

[cheermom2four]

We just came back from our 7 night western caribbean last week and had over 120 photos (we bought the all digital with prints package). We felt it was worth it but boy what a pain to make sure you wait in every line. Honestly, when we go again, we will just hand our camera or cell phone over to the CM or just take them ourselves. I felt we were constantly in line just to make sure we got enough pictures to make it worth it. Considering we got I believe 123 pics total and they usually charge if you buy them individually at $20 per pic, I think we got our money's worth.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

I felt the digital package was worth it for us. My girls were 6, 5, and 3 when we went on the Dream. I wanted to be in some pictures and my experience with handing my camera off to a random person has been poor pictures. We did not try to make every photo opportunity. If the line was too long, we did not wait. I didn't want to spend the whole cruise trying to make the package worth it. We still had plenty of pictures at a better quality than I would have received from my travel camera in the hands of a CM. I preordered, so it was cheaper than if I had waited and purchased the shots I would have wanted individually.