Help me with Memory Maker

[EHakkinen]

Okay - we just got back this morning from 7 days in Disney. We had the Memory Maker Package, and it shows that we have 451 pictures on MDE (not sure if that includes stock photos or not?) I'm wondering if it is worth it to pay the 29.95 for the Disney Archive Disk? Or does it make more sense for me to just download all the pictures on my account and burn them onto a disk myself?
Still trying to process everything and I'm soooooo exhausted so TIA for any suggestions or opinions!!!

 

[Graciegirl5]

We've used MM twice. I didn't buy the disk. I downloaded all the photos. It will take a long time, so I usually did it overnight. I'm not sure if the archive disk would just be the originals or if it would include any of the pictures you added borders or stickers to. I certainly wouldn't want to pay for it if it didn't, so that might be something to think about. Give yourself a day or two to decompress and then maybe work on it. It can be time consuming, but I enjoyed it and have used the photos to make a bunch of things through Shutterfly. Make sure you download the license agreement. I've never been asked to produce it, but I've heard of others being asked. It can seem very overwhelming, but you'll get more used to it as you use it. I also downloaded the parks one at a time, so I had a separate folder for each. I hope you are able to enjoy them, we have had a lot of fun with ours and the magic shots are some of our favorites.

 

[EHakkinen]

We've used MM twice. I didn't buy the disk. I downloaded all the photos. It will take a long time, so I usually did it overnight. I'm not sure if the archive disk would just be the originals or if it would include any of the pictures you added borders or stickers to. I certainly wouldn't want to pay for it if it didn't, so that might be something to think about. Give yourself a day or two to decompress and then maybe work on it. It can be time consuming, but I enjoyed it and have used the photos to make a bunch of things through Shutterfly. Make sure you download the license agreement. I've never been asked to produce it, but I've heard of others being asked. It can seem very overwhelming, but you'll get more used to it as you use it. I also downloaded the parks one at a time, so I had a separate folder for each. I hope you are able to enjoy them, we have had a lot of fun with ours and the magic shots are some of our favorites.

Thank you! So I edit the photos, add borders and stickers and all that, and download them that way? Yeah - that sounds like something I need to wait a couple days to do but it sounds like fun!

 

[Graciegirl5]

I actually downloaded them twice. Once before I made any changes and once after the changes. I wanted to make sure I had original copies. I'm sure I ended up with duplicates, but better that than missing one. Then, on the MM site you can add the borders and stickers, crop or resize. I'm by no means an expert, but I was able to figure it out. The site can get quite sluggish at times, so it may take a bit of patience, especially with so many pictures. But I have been very pleased and just tried to give myself plenty of time to do the edits. Then I uploaded the pics from my computer to Shutterfly and was able to make photo books, shopping bags, decks of cards and regular prints. ( if you haven't used Shutterfly, make sure you look for coupon codes. They are very common. I never pay the list price on their website) Oh, and I think you have to select the stock photos separately if I remember right. But you are allowed to select them all. Definitely rest and then enjoy reliving the memories!

 

[poober25]

I vote for buying the disk. Add all your borders, stickers, etc. first. The disk will include everything in your account the day you purchase it.

 

[babesboo99]

We used MM last time we went and we are going to do the same again this year. What we did is download every picture and loaded them onto a disk

 

[rg35]

I download every picture for archival when we get home from our trips. On a reasonably fast cable internet connection it should only take a few minutes to select all photos and download even hundreds of photos. Any embellishing - stickers, etc., can be done separately afterwards and downloaded separately.

I didn't realize people still burned disks...it's not the best archival medium (on site storage is exposed to disaster - fire, flood, etc.; there are questions about the long term durability of CD-R and DVD-R media). My important data is stored in three places - a hard drive on my desktop computer, on a local NAS backup device, and on a cloud storage service. Everyone should have a robust data archival strategy for documents that are truly important.

 

[babesboo99]

I download every picture for archival when we get home from our trips. On a reasonably fast cable internet connection it should only take a few minutes to select all photos and download even hundreds of photos. Any embellishing - stickers, etc., can be done separately afterwards and downloaded separately.

I didn't realize people still burned disks...it's not the best archival medium (on site storage is exposed to disaster - fire, flood, etc.; there are questions about the long term durability of CD-R and DVD-R media). My important data is stored in three places - a hard drive on my desktop computer, on a local NAS backup device, and on a cloud storage service. Everyone should have a robust data archival strategy for documents that are truly important.

I agree with you. I just don't like keeping my pics on the computer. I had a computer crash on me and I lost very important pics so now I burn them and print them in the stores and put them in an album. But MM was well worth it we got over 300 pictures I believe over a 5 day period well worth it in my opinion

 

[EHakkinen]

I download every picture for archival when we get home from our trips. On a reasonably fast cable internet connection it should only take a few minutes to select all photos and download even hundreds of photos. Any embellishing - stickers, etc., can be done separately afterwards and downloaded separately.

I didn't realize people still burned disks...it's not the best archival medium (on site storage is exposed to disaster - fire, flood, etc.; there are questions about the long term durability of CD-R and DVD-R media). My important data is stored in three places - a hard drive on my desktop computer, on a local NAS backup device, and on a cloud storage service. Everyone should have a robust data archival strategy for documents that are truly important.

I know i totally live in the past. We needed DVD-ROMs at work one day and when I said I had some at home people were shocked. I guess I should get with the times. I just don't know the best way to store my millions of pictures. I have one pretty old external hard drive that has my 2009 Disney pics and videos on it...

 

[Mikie]

Definitely tackle the fun of reviewing and adding embellishments to your photos when you're no longer exhausted! However, do make sure you get to it long before your pictures start to expire (45 days after they were taken). As someone said above, the site can be pretty sluggish so you don't want to be trying to edit, save, download at the last minute. The stickers and borders are really fun - the site knows where you were when shots were taken so it gives you options relevant to that (i.e. special ride-related add-ons for your ride photos; Epcot stickers for shots taken in Epcot; different MK pictures depending on what land you're in, as well as seasonal stickers, character signatures, and general things like the year, birthday/anniversary/wedding. . . )
Have fun!

 

[chicagodisfan]

I've called Photopass 3 times in the last week, so I can share what they've told me about Memory Maker in case any of the questions are the same. Maybe you already know this one, but if you want to get the Photopass watermark off the proofs so you can add borders and stickers easier, click on "download" any of the pictures. It'll prompt you to activate Memory Maker and once you do, the watermark goes away. According to the Photo Pass person i talked to, it is glitchy when activating through MDE on the app on a smart phone or iPad, so better to do it from a pc. All of the reps suggested downloading a clean set right away and then adding borders and stickers (click "create a copy" so you still have the original) and then download the new ones individually. And, yes, the CD will include any edits, borders and stickers you've added along with the originals (if you've saved as a copy) and the 400 stock photos. The MDE number should be just your photos without the stock photos included. We are thinking of getting the CD too. I downloaded them all and will upload to a cloud type service but I like having something external that is easy to find and store.

 

[rg35]

I know i totally live in the past. We needed DVD-ROMs at work one day and when I said I had some at home people were shocked. I guess I should get with the times. I just don't know the best way to store my millions of pictures. I have one pretty old external hard drive that has my 2009 Disney pics and videos on it...

I've been using crashplan for over 8 years. You install their software on your PC, select the folders you want synced up and it works in the background to upload your files to your backup account. If your hard drive dies, you log in and restore from your backup. It's $59/year, which I think is a relatively small price to pay for the extra insurance of remote backup. The wirecutter also chose it as their best online backup service. http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-online-backup-service/