Memory Maker, yes or no? Tell me your experience.

[V2000]

At dinner only, for the pics you can take with The Beast afterwards.

Very cool. I have my birthday dinner reservation at BOG on a MNSSHP night. Would love pictures with the Beast!

 

[V2000]

Now I have to figure out if I want the download or CD.

 

[MataHari22]

Now I have to figure out if I want the download or CD.

Not sure if you know, you have to pay extra if you want a CD, last year the price was $29.95, I believe. The cost of Memory Maker is for digital downloads only.

 

[Micki NJ]

Totally worth it for us, but I do want to offer some tips

I always make sure to grab a photo off my phone - maybe if there is just a pic of my DD before my DH and I jump in the picture or even of my DH waiting in line with the character in the background. The reason is both times I have used MM they have lost pictures. I remembered they took our picture with a specific character, but it never showed up. So having the day/time stamp with exactly what my child was wearing has made sure that when I send in the request to have them find the pictures they always have. I think the first year there were 3 characters missing and the second year maybe only 2. I won't remember 2 weeks later what my daughter was wearing that day or what time we met Mulan or Goofy, but my phone camera will

And I ditto the MM Share if you can get one. This is our first year just going pre-cruise for 2 days and the cost was just too much. I found a share that really makes it more reasonable for a short trip.

 

[siskaren]

Wow really?!? So I can go to Disneyland in my hometown the following week and use memory maker still?
Sounds like a good deal.

No, Memory Maker can only be used at WDW.

 

[nobellybutton]

It's my splurge souvenir. They are memories that are precious, and most of the time I'm not in the pic because I'm taking it. At least with the MM I know I will have greats pics of our family, rides, character breakfasts, some meet and greets and MNSSHP and also the MVMCP.

 

[melana]

I am debating on getting it. There are three of us going and we never are able to get pictures together. I have a few weeks to make my decision. So after 45 days you can't access the pics anymore? I guess I could transfer them to a flash drive for storage or an external hard drive? I don't know if I want to pay an extra 29 bucks for a cd.

 

[MataHari22]

I am debating on getting it. There are three of us going and we never are able to get pictures together. I have a few weeks to make my decision. So after 45 days you can't access the pics anymore? I guess I could transfer them to a flash drive for storage or an external hard drive? I don't know if I want to pay an extra 29 bucks for a cd.

Yes. You just download them and make your own CD if you want, or store them on your computer and/or an external device for back up.

 

[melana]

Thanks!! I thought that could be done but just wanted to make sure.

 

[God Of Thunder]

I am going to be there during the Christmas / New Years week. Would lines for these pictures be crazy? I know the parks themselves will be, but I don't know what to expect for MM photos.

 

[Fiddysmum]

We bought it for our trip last week. We had 4 park days and got over 200 photos. They are fanastic!!! Totally worth the money!

 

[eliza61]

I am going to be there during the Christmas / New Years week. Would lines for these pictures be crazy? I know the parks themselves will be, but I don't know what to expect for MM photos.

Depends,
I go during the slow time and lines in certain locations are always crazy. I've always had a wait at

MK entrance
front of castle, although usually every few steps there is a photographer
in front of the Epcot ball

We don't do Characters anymore so can't tell you how the wait for those are.

 

[once]

I’ve been travelling solo to WDW twice and it was worth it for me both times, even though the price has increased. I was there for 5.5 days and got 443 pictures from Memory Maker!

Pros:
- All rides photos (and videos for Mine Train and Tower of Terror) are included

- Photos at Character Meals are included. This was not applicable to me so no comment on this one.

- Night photos turn out better (at least for me), including photos with Ariel which is in her cave/grotto. The flash of my camera wasn’t enough

- There are a lot of photographers around

- You can get Magic Shot and even Animated Shots. I got both without asking or knowing. They took my photos which I thought would be normal photos and then added the animation. It was a nice surprise to see them in my account.

- MM was very helpful for me during MNSSHP for 2 reasons: a lot of night shots and I forgot my camera!!! Rookie, rookie mistake. I took my camera out to take a photo in my room and forgot to put it back. My phone camera decided to stop working that same day for no reason so I relied heavily on Photopass photographers who were there for every character at MNSSHP

- Your package comes with Disney stock photos of places and characters

Cons:
- How good your photos turn out depend on the photographers. Some will only take 1 or 2 photos (I’ve seen good photo opps being missed. The photographers could have been taking photos when kids are hugging the characters but some did not). Some photographers will take as many as they can and even instruct you on how to pose. If you have little ones, also take the photos yourself. You could capture some magical moments the Photopass photographers missed.

- The videos were a disappointment to me. I thought I’d see myself screaming as the elevator on the Tower of Terror went down but it was more like a still photo of me sitting in the ride and then the stock video from the point of view of someone sitting in the ride.

- Photographers are not available at EVERY meet and greet. They are available for all Halloween characters but for normal meet and greet, some do not have photographers (Mary Poppins at Epcot, not sure if there are others)

 

[Mbuksa]

I'm also on the fence. I had been on 2 trips to Disney and I just took my own photos. Then, my sister and her family went with us on a third trip and we split the cost. The photos were pretty good, but I agree it depends on the photographer. We are planning a 4th trip and I can't decide if I should spring for it. The kids haven't changed much and I'm not sure we will get a lot of different photos, but my husband will be with us on this trip and he missed the last. Also, it does totally depend in the photographer. We had some great pics, and some not so great pics. The ride photos are always fun. If your not going to disney world every year, I would recommend trying it. Like someone said, it's like a good souvenir. If your on a tight budget, you can get some great pics on your own and the photo pass workers will take pics with your camera and they have always been happy to do it for us. The ride photos are fun though. We did not get any magic shots though. Maybe because our kids are 10 and 13. Anyway, if you can fit it in your budget, I think you will be happy you did. If your budget is too tight, then don't worry, you can still get some great disney memories with your own camera.

 

[GeneralTso]

I bit the bullet and purchased it for our November trip. I'm a sucker for Photopass at Disneyland so it wasn't that hard of a decision for me. That price though

We will have our 5 kids with us (all in their 20's)--will they be able to have this loaded on their magic bands and take photos that will load on to MM? Or is it just my band?

Since we'll be split up a lot, it would be great if they could get their shots as well. Also, hubby and his son are running the F&W marathon, I'm assuming any pics they take along the way can be loaded if this is the case.

 

[siskaren]

I bit the bullet and purchased it for our November trip. I'm a sucker for Photopass at Disneyland so it wasn't that hard of a decision for me. That price though

We will have our 5 kids with us (all in their 20's)--will they be able to have this loaded on their magic bands and take photos that will load on to MM? Or is it just my band?

Since we'll be split up a lot, it would be great if they could get their shots as well. Also, hubby and his son are running the F&W marathon, I'm assuming any pics they take along the way can be loaded if this is the case.

First of all, nothing is "on" a Magic Band - it's just a means to access what's on your MDE account. Second, as long as they're all on your Friends and Family account, their pictures will be included on your MM.

 

[Mmw37]

Debating here too. I've read that it's cumbersome to add the photos to your phone/tablet, and those are all that I use. My husband has a laptop for school, but I never get to use it, and I'm the one in our family who makes the photo books. On our last trip, my phone's battery died permanently and then I dropped the camera's memory card in the toilet. And I forgot to go online and buy any of our photopass pics, because the time limit got away from me. We don't really have any from our last day as a result. I'm leaning towards getting it, but will need to really make a point to get them onto the computer and then transfer to Shutterfly. Disney sure has a knack for pricing things right at the "is-it-worth-it-or-not" point, don't they??

 

[barbaraann]

I booked a vacation package just two days ago, and I added the Memory Maker. I used it last year. I was a bit shaky on the download procedure, but I finally figured it out. I also ordered a CD, which cost me $30. Normally, I do not add borders, and such, but I think this time I will do much more editing.

 

[mommy4]

Are there still photographers at BBB? My little one is going for the first time and I think I really may get it this time

 

[Accident]

The first thing to remember, the photograhers are free to use and you can buy the photos (from the website after the trip) 1 picture at a time.... You can use them at no cost if you don't get it. Memory maker is just a bulk download price of whatever photos you want to keep and download to your computer.

IIRC, the pre-purchase price is roughly 15 pictures if the download is purchased individually after you get home. The post purchase price is about 20 pictures.... The photographers and ride photos are free to take, you only pay for the ones you want the original image of. Memory maker is a bulk discount. Also disney is into money, I'm willing to say that it's an option because there is enough additional money made from people who didn't need it vs those that really used the system for photos..

So the question is, will you have 15 pictures you want to keep when your back home? if it's less, don't buy memory maker and just buy the photo downloads individually. If it's more, then get it.. If your not sure, are you willing to pay the extra $50 if you find out it would have been better? You can buy memory maker after the trip, it just costs more. $50 extra isn't huge when you look at the cost of the trip. Again if there is between 15 and 20 pictures, individual is cheaper... (double check the per picture download price on the photopass site, there is a chance my memory on price is wrong and it's less photos).

The only time I ever purchased it was when we did our first holiday trip. We've never been there that time of year and talked about it for a lifetime.. we went crazy with almost every photopass photographer getting different day and night photos.. We decided we were doing this before we went down and it more than paid for itself..

Somethign to help you decide: if you get 1 photographer in each park, they will take 3 or more photos of you with different zooms, etc. That's almost the price of memorymaker right there. just get 1 or 2 more and you've saved money. Of course to save more money, take your own camera and photos They are really handy because you don't need to ask someone nearby to take a family photo and they have really good spots they take them from.