Memory Maker

[livinginthecornfield]

our trip is coming up in about 3 weeks! So excited! just wondeing if Memory Maker is really worth it? We have a nice Canon DLSR that we usually bring, and if we hand it off to a cast member, the picture is usually out of focus.....are the photographers really everywhere? This is our second trip with our kids (4 and 2yr old) and we weren't really paying attention to all the photographers our first trip (a 2day quickie to MK) but this trip is going to be 4 1/2 days (AK, MK, Epcot, DHS and an extra morning at MK).

 

[HizMinnie2015]

I've never been to WDW; our first trip is in October. However after reading the trip reports here, I made sure to get it for our trip. I've heard of ppl getting 300-500 photographs in a weeks time. There are magic photos where the photographers asks you to pose a certain way and then adds a character to the shot later on... I've seen Tink, Olaf, Chip, Stitch all added to photos. You get a copy of the attraction photos and the videos for the rides that have them. If there are photos taken at a Character meal, they will be included too.

The thing I like best is that I can download every photo just as Disney photographers shot them, Then I can go back to the originals and add things such as borders, dates, park names etc. Pictures normally cost approx. $15 each... my memory maker will pay for itself if I download just 10 photos. I know I would take more than that... so its an easy choice for me.

 

[Chuckers]

With Memory Maker all ride photos and videos are automatically captured and sent to your website account when you link it to your magic band. You can still have photographers take a picture with your camera even if you have MM, so you have two options. Also, MM photographers have the ability to do 'magic shots' that can be a lot of fun.

 

[Dirt65]

We used Memory Maker last year, to me it was worth it because I was in the picture. You will still use a camera for shots where they are not but you don't need a big DLSR. A good point and shoot will add nicely to the MM.

 

[balcerfamily]

Honestly, it depends. Our first trip had decent shots with MM, most were printable. Our last trip I was HUGELY disappointed in the shots from MM. Many of these photographers are NOT professional photographers. They receive minimal, short term training. The majority of our shots were grainy, out of focus, and/or poorly composed. I could only print 3 of the 500 shots we had. I had better shots from our iPhones. I am admittedly picky, because I am a professional photographer, so for the average consumer, I think they probably provide satisfactory shots over all.

I opted for the service because A. I wanted to be in the photos and B. I did not want to lug around my $5000 camera around the park.

 

[SeanTomorrow]

I have concerns about quality too. @balcerfamily, you're making me worried. Anyone have some recent good/bad examples they could share?

The few pics I've seen on the boards look like they were from point-and-shoots. If something as basic as focus is a problem, I wonder if I should just hand them my iPhone. At the least it'll take care of that problem...

 

[Chuckers]

Our MM pictures were all clear.. there were just a couple of issues:
1. We had about 4 magic picture shots that had no magic in them.
2. A couple of the ride photos were wrong.. we got someone else's photo instead of us. Luckily, they were our second/third time on the ride, so we didn't really need them.
3. One of the pictures I REALLY wanted (me with the hitchhiking ghosts) was not on the site.

I've been told you can email Disney and let them know that there are missing picture.. I tried that for the Hitchhiking ghost pictures while should have been VERY easy to find as I was the first person to have my picture taken that night, but I never heard anything back from customer service and the photos were not added to my account.

 

[Ratatosk]

I was trying to decide this before our trip last week. I have a small canon Coolpix that I hang on my belt loop and in the pat we've used the photopass card for a few pictures in front of the epcot ball or castle and then after my trip I use those photos and my photos to make a calendar on the Disney website for about $25. We would also forgo the ride/action shots.

This past week we noticed everything was handled thru our magic band. Used that with photographers instead of the photo card AND on rides it automatically downloaded the photos to our Disney Experience webpage. Didn't realize all the photos that were taken of us on 7 dwarves until I checked out the webpage. So for us, the Memory Maker didn't make sense. I plan to upload photos from my camera and use those and the photopass ones to purchase a couple items.

 

[Ratatosk]

I didn't realize there WERE hitchhiking ghost pictures

 

[Dellar]

We are using the MM for the first time this summer. When I was talking with the lady booking my trip, she said that it could also be used for the pictures that I take with my own camera, but from what I'm reading I'm thinking that is not the case. Can someone please clarify?

 

[SeanTomorrow]

She must have meant you can upload your photos to the site: https://mydisneyphotopass.disney.go.com/help-and-support/uploading-photos

Haven't used it before, but I think it's so you can add photos to your scrapbooks or printouts

 

[YawningDodo]

I've also been wondering about the MM for a mother-daughter trip later this year (both adults). I know Mom has wanted to buy one or two ride photos per trip...it would be nice to have all those photos just available to us, but I kind of wonder if just picking out a couple favorites to order individually off our PhotoPass would be the better move. We've occasionally had the roving photographers take our picture, but we never really sought them out and we're probably not going to meet any characters.

 

[Newsies]

YES! I love MM photos. The CMs do a really great job of capturing magical moments with the characters, if you're into character interaction, and the quality is phenomenal. Plus, they're easy to download straight to your computer

 

[Feberin]

We didn't get it for our trip. We have a nice camera that we put on auto focus when handing it off to a Disney photographer. The pictures were pretty much the same regardless if they were using our camera or theirs. We purchased two pictures (one in front of the castle that I liked better and one magical shot) after the trip. I also purchased a ride picture. Since my kids were young there weren't many rides we were doing as a family that did pictures. My four-year-old also hated stopping to do pictures so in a lot of the posed shots in front of things he's scowling. Despite not doing MM we got a ton of pictures of our entire family by handing off our camera. I could see doing it if we were part of a group and splitting the costs but in my opinion it's too high.

 

[Chuckers]

I didn't realize there WERE hitchhiking ghost pictures

It was during MNSSHP.

 

[balcerfamily]

@SeanTomorrow Here are a few examples of our terrible photos from MM in July. Now, I will say that while they did not refund the MM, they did give us a substantial credit with the mydisneyphotopass store.

Out of focus and underexposed:

Dirty/foggy lens:

Severely over-exposed and out of focus:

 

[SeanTomorrow]

@balcerfamily I could live with the first photo, but but those second two are just awful. I didn't even know DSLRs could take photos that bad.

I had a friend hand me his fancy camera at a DLR trip. On auto setting and with no experience, my shots were about a million times better than these. This is very disappointing.

 

[siskaren]

I must be an idiot, because I don't see anything wrong with the first two photos.

 

[glaserjm]

This will be our first time doing MM because we are traveling with a group of 12 and therefore the divided costs makes it incredibly affordable and is a good way for us all to share photos. Did anybody have trouble linking members of their party to MM? Is anybody who is on your Friends and Family automatically linked? I just want to make sure that when the group splits up we will all have access to it w/ our bands.

 

[hsmamato2]

my thoughts..... (I've been about a million times,so based on that too) It's not a once in a lifetime thing for us....and we used photopass once. Would I pay to do it again? Never. I like getting a few fun/posed shots with us all in them, but it's as simple as handing them my iphone and asking them to also take a couple with that,along with their big camera. Are there a few shots that you can get(rides,added characters) with MM? yes. Is it worth 200.00? IMHO no. Of course I am an excellent photographer myself, so most of my own shots are what I like for a memory book....the one posed shot we have with characters is fun, but not noteworthy. And yes, since everyone in my family has a cameraphone, we get all sorts of shots of all of us. It's up to you, but I don't miss it at all.