Memory Maker - worth it?

[SusieQ79]

Hi, all!

I was just reading up on Memory Maker and I'm considering it since it's just DH and I going, which makes photos with both of us harder to come by. Anyone try it? Worth it/not worth it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JustTinking]

Yes, I looked at it too for our upcoming trip, still not sure if I will invest. PhotoPass on its own has always worked for us; as you say, nice to have pix of the two of you. I look at all of them, then pay for downloads for the 2 or 3 I like, if I find any that I like. That in itself runs around $15 per download, so not cheap. After all, how many photos in front of the castle do you want? Or the HS hat? Or Spaceship Earth? Consider location. For the special attraction photos, say Splash Mountain for instance, you need to remember to stop and register with CMs that you just experienced that attraction, doesn't sound like it automagically knows to seek out your photo.

We are going next trip with family, so maybe worth it for a family trip? Jury is still out for me. It's one more thing in a WDW vacation that is becoming very regimented.

 

[networktek]

it will all depend on how long so are staying in WDW and if you are going to try and get photos with all photopass photographers. for us it is always worth it everytime we see a photographer we get them to take 4-5 photos of us in different poses or with magic shots

 

[disneygirlinnj]

With magic bands, the photos now actually do just automatically show up on your account. At least ours did for many of the rides in November (test track, etc).

We always get it but there's usually 4 or 5 of us traveling together so split between all of us, it's pretty cheap.

 

[JasonDVC]

With magic bands, the photos now actually do just automatically show up on your account. At least ours did for many of the rides in November (test track, etc).

This is awesome!!

 

[MinnieGi]

Every third or fourth trip I've purchased the photo plan. We are currently here right now and I purchased Memory Maker before we left. What our family of 4 really likes about it is the ride photos are included!!! My kids always wanted to purchase those and every now and then a really good one would come along and i would, but most we just laughed at and went on our way. This time we are including them all on our memory maker which is so cool!! The kids are having a ball with it, they rode Everest 5 times in a row the other day and did a different "pose" for each photo. They were hysterical! Even the cm's were laughing at all their poses! Its easy with the magic bands - one cm writes the number down of pic and you go to photo desk and they attach it to your memory maker account. The kids are thrilled they have photos of all the major attractions now!!

Also has been nice getting full family photos taken and some of them have been just beautiful! Now we don't go out of our way seeking out every photo opportunity, but if one is on our way, we will stop.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

We did the Photo Pass Plus in August, which I think is about the same as Memory Maker. I'm not kicking myself that we did it, but I don't know if I'd do it again. Yes, we got a bunch of photos of the whole family. And having the ride photos is great. As the PP mentioned, we always would look at them, laugh, and move on. Too expensive for one photo! Now we have a record of all those and can print them, use them in books, on cards, etc. And we did get the photo package from our Tusker House breakfast. But it is a lot of money! I think next time, it will be a lot of handing our own camera to the photographers to get those family shots!

I think if I were at all worried about budget, this is one of the first things I'd skip! If it's a once in a lifetime--or once in several years anyway--trip, I might splurge on it.

 

[lpereira]

With photopass plus we still take our own photos. Excluding duplicates (my elderly mother rode expedition everest a gazillion times in the single rider line) we ended up paying around 30 cents a photo. But my daughter is a character groupie so we spend a lot of time doing that (not always with a photpass photographer present) and character meals. For us it is just part of the budget. Next trip we will do the new photo package.

 

[Sur]

Biggest issue we have is processing the photos after (with borders, stickers, etc). The site is RIDICULOUSLY slow. It takes 12 HOURS to process about 140 pictures. Being they are hard to see, we put a few borders on each photo in order to determine which will be be best once the full size photo arrives on disc. I'm starting to question if the boarders are worth it, as I Take photos myself, after the photo pass photog does. I think it takes close to a minute, per picture, to process the changes, EACH change. This may be a purposeful delay, as they know most people cant invest that kind of time into processing them, so they may do 2 or 3 borders per photo. It's hard to determine quality from their processing site, and some pictures I thought were good, ended up out of focus or eyes blinking, for example.

 

[lpereira]

I can vouch for that. I started working on photos the day we got back this time and just barely beat the expiration deadline.

 

[Brian Noble]

I was just reading up on Memory Maker and I'm considering it since it's just DH and I going, which makes photos with both of us harder to come by. Anyone try it? Worth it/not worth it?

Worth it questions are so subjective, but here's my two cents.

When I travel with the family, the photo package is the third "splurge" I go for, after a rental car and a park hopper, but before a bunch of expensive TS buffets. The borders, trick shots, etc. are cute, and we could live without them. But, we would easily buy a 6-8 ride photos while we are there over the course of the week, and at that point the extra cost for the pre-purchased package isn't a big deal. It was also great to have some photos taken the year we did the water parks, as we would never bring our "good" camera with us. I'm not sure if they still do that, or if it is seasonal, etc.

However, when it is just the two of us, without the kids, we've skipped it. We only buy 1-2 ride photos if the kids aren't with us, and my wife has a good camera that gets comparable shots to what the PP photographers use. So, we just ask them to use our camera. We don't get as many shots this way, but we get enough to document the trip. For an adult-only trip, I'd rather spend the money on nicer meals, etc.