Memory Maker - is it worth it?

[ladurant2982]

I'm a huge scrapbooker and just can't decide is it worth it to pre-purchase the Memory Maker photo option for my upcoming 13 day trip?? $150 seems like a lot to put out without knowing how many or how good the photos will be.
Anyone have any thoughts to help me decide?

 

[rcklein5269]

I'm a huge scrapbooker and just can't decide is it worth it to pre-purchase the Memory Maker photo option for my upcoming 13 day trip?? $150 seems like a lot to put out without knowing how many or how good the photos will be. Anyone have any thoughts to help me decide?

We have had it the last two years and love it... The pics on the rides and not having to bother with having someone use our camera during the character interactions... So worth it to us

 

[alicat8]

I'm a huge scrapbooker and just can't decide is it worth it to pre-purchase the Memory Maker photo option for my upcoming 13 day trip?? $150 seems like a lot to put out without knowing how many or how good the photos will be.
Anyone have any thoughts to help me decide?

Someone in one of my other message boards posted some of her mm pics and they were amaaaazing. I've never gotten any that good from the Disney photographers, but hers made me want to get it! I'll probably provably end up going for it.

 

[thebutlerdidit]

We were there for five days. We saw a lot of characters, and we got plenty of great pictures. We had 181 pictures. I like putting the borders on so e of them too.

 

[Pattil1960]

My DH and I were there for nine days and have 300 pictures before boarders and stickers! We had never used it before and wish we had, especially when the kids were small at Disneyland. As others have said, you need to find and use the Disney photographers and ask about the magic shots. We ended up with about 700 pictures after all the effects, boarders, and stickers.

 

[Fob]

We have even started paying the extra for the Memory Maker plus. My son is just getting to the age (height) that he can ride all the rides and we love getting the ride photos, he makes the best faces. Plus, we generally do at least one character meal and the plus lets us get those photos as well. On a 7 day trip we generally come away with 300+ photos not including the rides and meals.

Plus, if you do the MM, you can get the list of places in each park where they will insert charaters into your photos. We have some GREAT pictures of my DS (age 7) and DD (age 2) "holding" baby Simba and Tinkerbell.

 

[JillShari]

We didn't get it and I dont regret it.

I am a scrapbooker which lead to my photo hobby... and if you hand the photographers in DW your camera, they will take the pic with it. I figured out that I would have needed to LOVE at least 10 photos to make it worthwhile... and my DH doubted that I would really like any of them. (I tend to be picky) I'm not into borders or enhanced things like the characters put into your hands etc, so I didn't care about that stuff.

If I remember correctly, I took around 700 photos ourselves and by handing over my camera, I have more pics of me in it, than on any other vacation.

And oh.... we took a pic of the screens when our ride photos were displayed and so we have them too...

 

[Auntrosie]

Our group of seven would say it was worth it.
It was "at times" a little difficult getting the adults to cooperate and stop for pictures. My sister and I tried to stop at every PP photographer we saw.
The girls in the group missed my 11 year old nephew participating in Pirate Tutorial. We were at BBB getting our niece a Princess makeover. We meet up with the boys as they finished at Pirates League and heard all about it. My BIL handed my sister a PP card that she didn't see again until she was home sorting their laundry. The card had 75 photos of him up on stage interacting with Jack Sparrow. The look on his face was "priceless". An actor at heart. He was in his element. She also found 4 or so other cards with additional pictures from our trip.
As planning a WDW vacation goes. I told the group months in advance to skip the cake, get their teeth whitened, cut & color their hair and think about what they will be wearing to the parks. Because, they would be smiling and posing for hundreds of pictures and pictures, they don't lie. They did heed some of my advice. The pictures are terrific.

We are headed back to the world Sept 2014. We have all modified our diets and our daily exercise routines.

Have a wonderful vacation! (I think I'll get that disc out and have a look at it right now!)

 

[Feberin]

We chose not to get it for our trip May 12-16. I don't feel like we missed out by not having it. I will say we have young kids who didn't ride most of the big picture rides. We spent maybe $25 on two pictures from rides and $30 on downloads of two pictures that were taken by their photographers. However one of the pictures wasn't even that good but we'd left our camera at home that day since it was supposed to be really rainy and my husband was concerned about it. The other picture had an inserted Darth Vader, which was cool.
You can view all the pictures online and decide to buy them. You will save money by buying it in advance but you're also buying it without seeing the pictures. I figured if I absolutely LOVED the pictures then I would just spend the extra money afterwards. But $150 for pictures that are unknown in quality was too much for me.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I'm a scrapbooker too and we got the MM with our last trip. It was well worth it. I'm the one who is always taking the pictures, of everything, and never in the pictures. It's so nice to finally to have some of me with my family.

 

[4Beans]

Plus, if you do the MM, you can get the list of places in each park where they will insert charaters into your photos. We have some GREAT pictures of my DS (age 7) and DD (age 2) "holding" baby Simba and Tinkerbell.

Thanks for the info, where did you get the list of spots where they do 'fun' shots? We are going in a couple weeks and I pre-ordered the MM so I want to be sure to get as many shots as possible. I'm really hoping its worth it for us. On past trips I've just handed over my camera to PP photographers and that works, but the group (adults & kids) get annoyed with so many pics (PP and my camera) at each spot. I'm hoping to cut down on the annoyance and get some great shots in the process!!

 

[Auntrosie]

4 beans,
There is a great tread on this site in Disney World Tips started by a PP Photoghapher. The title is Have a Photopass question? Ask me. It has all the current Magic Shot information and lots of advice on working with the photog hers for the best experience.
Have a wonderful trip!

 

[BuzzyBelle]

We had it last year and will use it again this year. It was great having the freedom to not worry about picking out just one favorite shot from a meet and greet or the magic shots. My DD was very nervous meeting characters and I couldn't have taken pictures myself because I had to stay close to her so she felt comfortable. Letting the photo pass photographer take care of it let me concentrate on her. We also stopped at picture locations that we probably wouldn't have taken the time to do if I hadn't put out $150 already, but I'm so glad we did because they are such nice pictures. We had a blast coming up with silly faces to do on the rides since we knew we would have the shots. The photos are so expensive individually I would have missed out on having a lot of great pictures without MM.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I have just started going through the photos taken by the Photopass photographers on our latest trip - just got back last Sunday.

I didn't ask about magic shots though and none offered them automatically. That's my only regret. So if you want some of those be sure to ask the photographers nicely if they can do them.

I'm really happy with the Memory Maker - I made the family stop and take photos and they came out great. Having the attraction photos is fun. Normally I don't have any of those.

So it was totally worth it for this past trip.

 

[pfp258]

Here now, bought it for $199, pics are okay, not the greatest, like having the ride photos. Pictures not the greatest means this........off center frequently, cut off top of the castle in our first day family photos, some pictures with eyes closed, etc. I guess we thought we were paying for professional photos (like on the cruise) but that has not been our experience. Doubt we would do it again.

 

[brownierose]

We love memory maker!! I have 2 dds (5 & 1 on last trip) and it's totally worth it for us! They love characters so we do lots of meet and greets and character meals . We didn't get many ride pics though just a few . We had almost 520 pics after 2 weeks and I would Definelty purchase again. It's great having our whole family in shots!

 

[lauradis]

I like it dont always get it.

This coming trip I will be getting it, because it will be first trip for my sons friend.

I want them to have tons of pics of his first time.

 

[bdoyledimou]

we only get it for trips over 7 days -- - shorter than that we can't get our moneys worth -- (we feel anyway)..

this next trip is 9 days and we got it -- but would have anyway as we are taking our foster daughter, and we want al the pics for her memory book.

 

[ladurant2982]

Just returned from 2 week trip which included 8 park days plus 2 water park days. We came home with over 600 photos! So glad we decided to pre-purchase the MM. My groups were linked together a total of 12 people, 3 families and I loved to be surprised when I looked at the photos and saw what pics my group got when separated. Also loved that we could put the water park photos on my account...we got some great ones at typhoon lagoon on the water coasters!