Memory Maker - Worth it?

[Familyof6]

I've read a few posts about MM, but I'm not seeing my situation addressed. I'm wondering if it is worth buying the MM for our trip with my husband and my kids who are young adults and most likely won't pose alot with characters? (ages, 21, 18 and 14) Are there photographers in enough locations, other than with characters, to make it worth buying this?
We haven't been to the parks in 7 yrs! So many things have changed and I need to get up to speed before the end of April!!! Just booked last night!!

TIA

 

[barbaraann]

Is Memory Maker worth it? I am about to find that out on my August trip. I didn't want to pay for the Memory Maker, so when I saw the offer for a free one on the WDW website, I jumped at it. I changed my room only reservation to a package, and I got the memory maker free.

 

[thptrek]

We are three days into our trip and averaging about 30 pics per day. We are adults plus our kids who are 18+. We just pull up when we see a photo pass photographer and get a pic done. They take about 5 pics real quick using different settings. They do a great job. We are also getting all our ride photos too.

If you are not going to take the 2 minutes to get pics taken then don't buy MM. Otherwise it is a good service.

 

[Networth]

The last time we went I purchased Photopass+. It was just my fiancé and I so very few character photos I think we have 10? out of 200+ photo's. Point being we had enjoyed it got pictures every night before dinner when leaving the GF. Also the ride photo's to me are priceless because she had never ridden many of them. I would say its worth it.

 

[Familyof6]

Thanks for the help with this! Barbaraann, we don't really have the option to change to a package. We are booked with a military room rate and we have bought our tix at the military facility in order to take advantage of their awesome price! The money saved on tix will pay for MM 5 times over! I guess I should look at it that way. I just want to be sure there are plenty of photographers available to take pix and the wait times for such pix are minimal. Tptrek, are you finding this to be so? It sounds like you are finding photographers just waiting to take pix. Is that fair to say?
How many rides have photos? We have never purchased the ride photos because of the expense. It sounds like this may be worthwhile just for the ride photos???
Thanks all for your help!

 

[lizabu]

We just came back from six days in the parks. We have 4 or 5 ride photos. In total we had 150 pictures and that's with seeing a dozen or so characters. If you won't be seeing characters I can't say that it's worth it. I didn't see a lot of Photopass photographers and the ones I saw were all in the same area. For example in MK practically every photographer was on Main St. You could get a photo in front of the castle and then another with a different photographer closer to the castle and so on. Animal Kingdom they were sprinkled around. HS they were mostly in front of the hat. Epcot they were mostly in front of spaceship earth. I don't think I would do it again. They will take photos with your camera if you ask.


This is a thread from last week

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3247598

 

[jensen]

I pre-purchased whatever version of photopass package was available during my past three trips. I always question whether it was worth the investment.

Yes, we've got over 200 photos of our family. But, the vast majority are taken in front of the Castle because that's where most of the photographers are. It's rare to find one anywhere in the parks besides the main attraction. This past trip, there wasn't even a photographer when we went to use FASTpass to meet Mickey!

Many of the images are at odd angles or with shadows cast across our bodies or faces or our eyes closed because we are looking directly into the sun. I had a hard time finding one image suitable for framing this year.

When it used to be $99 to pre-purchase, I bit the bullet. Now that it's 50% higher, I'm going to seriously consider whether it's worth it.

If you are going with friends and can split the cost among the group... that's the best way to go.

 

[juliehoey]

Ride photos in themselves are worth it. Sometimes they are the best photos and you don't want to always purchase multiple ones from the same attraction. Now they're included. For me, that was a deal breaker to purchase.

 

[j2thomason]

This may be a crazy question, but can the pictures be downloaded to an iPad?

 

[MeanestMomEver]

Just returned and spent 8 days in park. We have 266 photos. My college aged daughters are huge camera hams!

In addition to the basic photos in front of the park icons and at the character meet and greet spots, we also have photos in front of several of the topiaries, near the rose garden/castle, in front of DHS by the fantasia brooms, one in World Showcase, one with The Beast at Be Our Guest and in front of Ariel's castle. (When I say one, I mean one session of 3-10 photos, often with different combos of family members, depending on his busy the photographer was.)

Also, if you want alternate backdrops, just ask the photographer. They are happy to turn and shoot in a different direction. For example, with a Main Street building in the background. We have a couple of those. I wish I had thought to ask about taking one with the balloon seller in the background!

I have to say, looking back at all the souvenirs we've purchased through the years, none of them mean as much to me as the photos from photo pass.

 

[gilesmt]

I think the question is more who you go with and what they want or need. To me it would never be worth it. But I just returned with my dd last night, and we have 366 mm pictures. Worth it to me, no. Problems with always making sure the photos were there each night. Problems with it being on just the main purchases persons magic band, so she always had to be around to get pictures. Problem finding photographers, just two in hs, one near beauty and beast and one on the Main Street walking in, Epcot and ak same just two photographers in the whole park. Many are not with charactors like, Alice, brave, Mary Poppin's had no photographer, many dining had no photographer for any pictures, a few had it just for the shot outside dining room.

Major major problems finding anyone to be able to help or fix problem. In 13 days stopping and asking at least once a day how it worked, we on the last day finally got someone who was able to tell what I few as the truth! It is not iPad comparable, so for us who use only iPads we had a problem. It was hooked up to a band who only had iPad. We had to call and go threw three people to get it on someone else who had computer and fix the problem, so in total we have spent probably 6 hours in two weeks to fix problem, and we finally downloaded them, but three files did not download so we need to call again to find out why. Now they are all on a computer we don't have full access to.

But one good thing, we did not have to lug around a 30 pound camera, and wait for dd to take pictures that she would never be in.

 

[Cais]

You know the main person who purchased memory maker doesn't need to be around to take pictures right? Memory maker is just the ability to download photos not collect it. I could purchase it and send my family on a week trip and we could get all of their photos even if I never set foot on property.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[aprincessatlast]

Do they still have a money back guarantee when doing a pre-purchase? We have only purchased photo pass and photopass + at DL. If you did not love it you could get a refund - the pics of course.

Photopass+ at DL was a let down despite the 3/4 ride pictures. At a $99 it was fine but like pp said a $50 increase is a lot.

 

[Winnowill]

We got back two and a half weeks ago, and I finally logged on to look at our MM pictures this past weekend. I was delighted to find that we had more than 300 of them (and this is prior to sizing, adding borders, etc - I'll probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 by the time I'm done), so it was totally worth it. Then there are the 1400 I took and the 450 my husband took - we had a great trip, and have plenty of photographic evidence to prove it!

 

[KNovacovschi]

I have a question regarding MM. I had originally booked the MM promo so was aware that I wouldn't receive the package until check in and would not show up in MDE however I have changed that promo for FD but decided to purchase MM. My questions are as follows:

1. It shows on the website that I have it but not the app, should it not show on the app?
2. Will I receive a package in the mail or something via email regarding MM?
3. Do I have to link anything now or can I go directly to a park and it works immediately?

TIA. We had never purchased photo package in previous years but its our 10th wedding anniversary trip and will be just the 2 of us so I figured it would be easier to do pics this way.