How long are lines for formal pictures?

[LuvMyRedHeads]

I have been hearing a lot about the long lines waiting to get your formal pictures taken. We have early seating for dinner should we go to get our pictures done before or after dinner? What has been your experience? I am trying to avoid long lines with two little ones. How long did you have to wait on your cruise? Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[SueEllen]

Generally before early dinner and after the lines can be quite long.

One way to try to avoid the long lines is to go to your restaurant on time--place your order and excuse yourself for a minute. Then your family can get pictures without the long lines and head right back to the restaurant. That way you are on time for dinner, have your meal started and still get back in time to eat.

If you have late dining the best thing to do is go a bit early to avoid the lines.

Good luck!
Sue Ellen

 

[dis4me]

Sue Ellen that is such a good idea. I wish I thought of that while we were on our cruise. However we went down about a half hour before the scheduled time and waited in the lobby until they started lining people up. We were usually 1st or second in line and then we went in to enjoy dinner.
It was well worththe wait. I have gorgeous family photos from all 4 cruises.

 

[AnnMorin]

what we do is get ready early for say 5:00 (we always have early seating) we are right in line for them in the begining and then go back to the cabin for a glass of wine (or two) I do like the idea of ordering first though...

 

[disneyeveryyear]

We had late seating and struggled to get pictures taken. We never did get to see Minnie and Mickey all dressed up.

We did order our dinner and then go take pictures. We had a corner table in Lumiere's on formal night so we could see when the line had dwindled. This was the only way we were able to get any pictures taken on formal night.

Personally, I think the photos were much too difficult to deal with. The lines were very long.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

We had our formal pictures taken on the plain background with no character's. Mainly because there was no waiting. The lines for photos with Mickey etal were very long. If you don't care about a certain background or being with a character...look for the plain backdrop and there is usually little to no waiting...

 

[Minybear]

Sue Ellen
I hate waiting in line for those photos. I will inform my DH and we are going to do that. I want to do other things on the ship then waiting in line for a photo.

 

[Cruise04]

Also something to remember is that they offer to take the pictures for several nights, not just on the formal nights. So for the 7-day they take them on the formal night and on the semi-formal night and then we did see them set up on one or two other nights as well. Some people dressed formally for all the meals so they were able to chose when they got their pics taken.