Magic Maker questions

[mshanson3121]

Is it worth the money? How many photos do you end up with normally? Where do you get photos taken?

 

[Terra Nova guy]

I've purchased Memory Maker several times. For my family, I think it's worth it. But we do make good use of the photographers and stop multiple times a day at different locations. I also like the new ride photos and videos they've added (you need to have a MagicBand to get full advantage of the ride photos).

To answer your questions:
1. Yes
2. my family got about 300 last trip. But it depends on your family and how often you are wiling to stop. Character Meet & Greets add significantly to the number of pictures you get.
3. Photopass photographers are location in numerous places throughout all the parks. For example, there are 5 or 6 in a row all the way down Main Street.

 

[mshanson3121]

I've purchased Memory Maker several times. For my family, I think it's worth it. But we do make good use of the photographers and stop multiple times a day at different locations. I also like the new ride photos and videos they've added (you need to have a MagicBand to get full advantage of the ride photos).

To answer your questions:
1. Yes
2. my family got about 300 last trip. But it depends on your family and how often you are wiling to stop. Character Meet & Greets add significantly to the number of pictures you get.
3. Photopass photographers are location in numerous places throughout all the parks. For example, there are 5 or 6 in a row all the way down Main Street.

So there are places where you can just stop and have pictures taken? Not sure how many times we'd do that, I have a daughter with ASD who struggles having her photo taken. However, candid shots - ride ones, character M&Gs etc... are a different story, she'll be fine with those. She'll be more likely to pose for a photo when she is with a character. As far as extras, we have Pirates League, BBB, dinner at CRT all booked, so I'm assuming those are all prime photo ops? And then we'll definitely be doing some M&Gs in the park, including A&E.

So... that might make it worthwhile?

 

[dwbrewster]

So there are places where you can just stop and have pictures taken? Not sure how many times we'd do that, I have a daughter with ASD who struggles having her photo taken. However, candid shots - ride ones, character M&Gs etc... are a different story, she'll be fine with those. She'll be more likely to pose for a photo when she is with a character. As far as extras, we have Pirates League, BBB, dinner at CRT all booked, so I'm assuming those are all prime photo ops? And then we'll definitely be doing some M&Gs in the park, including A&E.

So... that might make it worthwhile?

IMO if your DD struggles standing still for her picture it is worth it only if you are there for multiple days and plan on doing character M&G's. It gave me the peace of mind that I can get a couple of pictures with my phone but really I could just take in the moment watching my kids interact with the characters. If you are only there for a day or two and don't anticipate many character M&G's then I would say no, you can buy pictures for $15 a piece (I think) and would get better value that way.

Also note that MOST but not all characters have a photographer, for example Tarzan and Mary Poppins cannot be photographed by Disney photographers due to copyright issues.

 

[mshanson3121]

IMO if your DD struggles standing still for her picture it is worth it only if you are there for multiple days and plan on doing character M&G's. It gave me the peace of mind that I can get a couple of pictures with my phone but really I could just take in the moment watching my kids interact with the characters. If you are only there for a day or two and don't anticipate many character M&G's then I would say no, you can buy pictures for $15 a piece (I think) and would get better value that way.

Also note that MOST but not all characters have a photographer, for example Tarzan and Mary Poppins cannot be photographed by Disney photographers due to copyright issues.

We're going to have 4, possibly five days in park.

 

[siskaren]

IMO if your DD struggles standing still for her picture it is worth it only if you are there for multiple days and plan on doing character M&G's.

The OP said she's doing Pirates League, BBB, and dinner at CRT, all of which include PhotoPass pictures. Add in ride photos and character meet and greets, and I don't think she'll have any trouble getting enough pictures to make it worth it.

 

[Mikie]

Memory Maker's advance price is now $169, so you need to buy at leasst 11 photos to make it more valuable to buy it vs purchasing a few photos at $15 a la carte.

Things that make MM worthwhile
- a big group traveling together
- people interested in stopping at the photopass photographers stationed around the parks to get family/group shots (we stop at least once in each park for the "iconic" photo infront of the castle, Epcot ball, tree of life, etc)
- doing things like Jedi Training, BBB, Enchanted Tales with Belle, I think Pirates League where a photographer will be snapping away the whole time
- doing character meet and greets
- Character meals don't matter, except at CRT, Akershus, etc where a photographer takes your posed shot with character before you are seated (otherwise, you take your own pictures during th meal when the characters actually come around to your table)
- riding rides with photos: Space Mountain, Buzz LIghtyear, Splash Mountain, 7 Dwarfs in MK; Expedition Everest and Dinosaur in AK; Tower of Terror, Rockin Roller Coaster in DHS; Test Track in Epcot

The more of those things that apply to you, the more likely that it will be "worth it" to you. I had about 250 pictures with my big family group in October before adding borders and stickers. After adding maybe 50 of those, I donwloaded around 300 pictures. When it came time to actually scrapbook, of course some shots were simliar (take 4 shots at one spot and choose the best one) but I still used at least 100 in my photo books, so I LOVE MM and consider it worthwhile.

It sounds like a good idea for your trip, but if you're hesitant, you can always just buy individual pictures. I used a lot of my MM shots, but if I had to eliminate it, I could have chosen a dozen or so very best shots to commemorate the trip and been ok.

 

[msmama]

A few things that no one else mentioned -

I don't have to carry my bulky camera every day. I'm good with my dslr, but that doesn't mean I want to carry it every day. And while PP's can take pictures with my phone, I prefer to rely on their cameras.

Also, the whole family can be in the pictures. Again, you can hand over your camera to a PP and they'll take a picture for you, but 9 times out of 10 their pictures are better than the ones they take with my camera (because their settings are set up for their location while with mine I usually put it on AUTO for them to use rather than adjust settings).

 

[MmmSuite]

We ended up with about 900 pictures on our MM. Plus, about 2300 others on our cameras.

I got every picture of my son doing ETWB as The Beast which as about 30 and about 30 of both my boys doing JTA.

We stopped a lot and did a lot of M&Gs and character meals.

 

[DopeyforDonald]

Just another opinion to throw in in favour of Memory Maker. You don't have to be a big group to be able to make memory maker worthwhile. My fiance and I have been using Memory Maker in one version or another for 4 trips now and each time only the two of us have used it. We do stop for photos around the park but not a massive amount in a way that would impact our day, we also hardly do any of the things mention above such as Jedi training, BBB or Pirates League as it's just the two of us. We've found that with the amount of character meet and greets we do and the amount of ride photos we get it is well worth it. For us it just takes away the pressure of either having to ask someone to take our photo, or having the lovely 'long arm in photo' look when trying to take a photo of ourselves.

Judging by the things youve outlined youll be doing and the fact that youll be doing meet and greets id say you'll definitely find it worth it.