Memory Maker

[bouncingsquares]

My husband and I will be traveling to WDW on January 30 (it's getting so close! yay!!). It's just the two of us, and I am really on the fence about buying a memory maker! I just don't know if it's worth it for two adults. We will be in the parks for 5 days. I think the only restaurant we have an ADR for that will do MM photos is Chef Mickey's.

On our last three trips, I've lugged around my DSLR. I got some really great photos, and I definitely don't regret bringing it, but it would be nice to not have to carry it! I also noticed on our last trip that while the photographers are more than happy to use your camera, they will take a lot more pictures on their own cameras than on yours. The only character we met was Buzz Lightyear (it was a quick, one day MK trip) and the guy took one crappy photo on my camera but got a ton of awesome ones on his. They also aren't going to mess with the settings on your camera, so unless I want to stop and get everything set correctly every time, theirs are likely always going to come out better.

That being said, Memory Maker is expensive. Photos on my own camera are free. And with the Memory Maker, you can't get photos of whatever you want, wherever you want, so I might still end up carrying my camera anyway. Or I might just settle for the camera on my phone.

I don't know! I feel like if I had kids traveling with me, this wouldn't even be a question, but it's difficult to know if it would be worth it for us. Have you used it when traveling with only your spouse/SO? Was it worth it?

 

[siskaren]

The thing is, you have to be willing to make the effort to make it worth it by stopping at PhotoPass photographer locations (and it doesn't have to be just meet and greets), and don't forget, it also includes ride photos and videos. If it helps, the break even point is 10 pictures, and it shouldn't be too hard to get more than that in 5 park days. I always go solo, and on my last trip I got the PhotoPass CD (which is no longer offered, at least not as a pre-purchase deal), and in 7 park days (well 8 including the MVMCP) I ended up with 150 pictures after adding borders (so I typically had 2 or 3 versions of each picture depending on how many borders I used.)

 

[Dug720]

The thing is, you have to be willing to make the effort to make it worth it by stopping at PhotoPass photographer locations (and it doesn't have to be just meet and greets), and don't forget, it also includes ride photos and videos. If it helps, the break even point is 10 pictures, and it shouldn't be too hard to get more than that in 5 park days. I always go solo, and on my last trip I got the PhotoPass CD (which is no longer offered, at least not as a pre-purchase deal), and in 7 park days (well 8 including the MVMCP) I ended up with 150 pictures after adding borders (so I typically had 2 or 3 versions of each picture depending on how many borders I used.)

Just clarifying... You're talking about 10 downloads of pics to break even? If so, that will definitely be worth it for me for my August trip!

 

[siskaren]

Just clarifying... You're talking about 10 downloads of pics to break even? If so, that will definitely be worth it for me for my August trip!

No, I'm talking about getting 10 pictures taken, although I suppose downloading one picture 10 times would be basically the same thing.

 

[Dug720]

No, I'm talking about getting 10 pictures taken, although I suppose downloading one picture 10 times would be basically the same thing.

Ok, thanks. I said "download" because even without Memory Maker, they don't charge you to take pictures - I guess that's where I was confused.

 

[bouncingsquares]

The thing is, you have to be willing to make the effort to make it worth it by stopping at PhotoPass photographer locations (and it doesn't have to be just meet and greets), and don't forget, it also includes ride photos and videos. If it helps, the break even point is 10 pictures, and it shouldn't be too hard to get more than that in 5 park days. I always go solo, and on my last trip I got the PhotoPass CD (which is no longer offered, at least not as a pre-purchase deal), and in 7 park days (well 8 including the MVMCP) I ended up with 150 pictures after adding borders (so I typically had 2 or 3 versions of each picture depending on how many borders I used.)

I know it definitely wouldn't be difficult to get 10 pictures, but the thing is, if I didn't buy the Memory Maker, there is no chance that I would purchase ten pictures. Each time we've gone, we've purchased one photo, and I even had a hard time doing that (because $15 for one picture?!). Buuut if I got 150, it would be totally worth it, and I think having access to the borders and getting the "magic" shots where they photoshop in Tink or whoever definitely adds to the value. I just don't know if I will remember to stop at every PhotoPass photographer location.

 

[scdak]

My husband and I will be traveling to WDW on January 30 (it's getting so close! yay!!). It's just the two of us, and I am really on the fence about buying a memory maker! I just don't know if it's worth it for two adults. We will be in the parks for 5 days. I think the only restaurant we have an ADR for that will do MM photos is Chef Mickey's.

On our last three trips, I've lugged around my DSLR. I got some really great photos, and I definitely don't regret bringing it, but it would be nice to not have to carry it! I also noticed on our last trip that while the photographers are more than happy to use your camera, they will take a lot more pictures on their own cameras than on yours. The only character we met was Buzz Lightyear (it was a quick, one day MK trip) and the guy took one crappy photo on my camera but got a ton of awesome ones on his. They also aren't going to mess with the settings on your camera, so unless I want to stop and get everything set correctly every time, theirs are likely always going to come out better.

That being said, Memory Maker is expensive. Photos on my own camera are free. And with the Memory Maker, you can't get photos of whatever you want, wherever you want, so I might still end up carrying my camera anyway. Or I might just settle for the camera on my phone.

I don't know! I feel like if I had kids traveling with me, this wouldn't even be a question, but it's difficult to know if it would be worth it for us. Have you used it when traveling with only your spouse/SO? Was it worth it?

My best friend and I were on the fence about Memory Maker this past September - we were only going to the parks for 2 halloween parties, one full day at MK and 1/2 day at AK / 1/2 day at Epcot. We did end up adding another full day at MK though. We decided we would purchase the Memory Maker - and I believe the price has been reduced now. We stopped at as many photopass locations that we could find unless the lines were long - we have been to the WDW parks many times and for us this was just a relaxing trip, do what attractions we could including our fast pass selections but basically it was to just enjoy the sights so we had plenty of time to take photos

At the end of the days I listed we had 369 photos, many of which were magic shots, some videos, only a few were ride pictures (we don't do thrill rides) and by the time I finished editing I now have 1201 photos of the trip, I even purchased the CD of them!

I will also say that we took a larger Nikon DSLR camera and smaller Nikon J1 with us on all the days and took 1000's of shots ourselves - and I don't think we ever gave either one of the cameras to the photopass photographers since from the looks of our pictures they were always around our necks!

Memory Maker is a great way to get both of you in the pictures if that's important to you and some of the magic shots are cute but like others have said, the photopass photographers will take the shots with your camera and you are under no obligation to purchase any of the ones they take. Personally I don't think we could ever do a Disney park without a camera, even if its just a small point and shoot simply because there are so many things we want pictures of that have nothing to do with the photopass locations

 

[Dug720]

I'm confused on the whole "pay" thing. I thought that Memory Maker entitled you to pretty much unlimited downloads of your pictures. Are these "purchases" in addition to the downloads - and optional?

 

[siskaren]

I'm confused on the whole "pay" thing. I thought that Memory Maker entitled you to pretty much unlimited downloads of your pictures. Are these "purchases" in addition to the downloads - and optional?

I'm not sure what you mean by "purchases". Memory Maker costs $149 if you buy it before your trip or $169 if you buy it after. If you don't buy Memory Maker and want to buy individual PhotoPass pictures, then you have to pay $15 per picture, which is what I was referring to when I said that 10 pictures was the break even point.

 

[Dug720]

I'm not sure what you mean by "purchases". Memory Maker costs $149 if you buy it before your trip or $169 if you buy it after. If you don't buy Memory Maker and want to buy individual PhotoPass pictures, then you have to pay $15 per picture, which is what I was referring to when I said that 10 pictures was the break even point.

Gotcha. That is what I was trying to figure out. Thanks.

 

[LinderInWonderland]

Okay, the single greatest photo of my entire trip last time was a magic shot with DH holding Tink with the castle in the background. The expression on his face is hilarious and the photographer was so excited that he asked her to take it, so the whole moment was amazing. We have it again for our next trip, but we keep waffling. Yes, the ride photos are fun, but there were SO MANY careless photos. For example, at our meet & greet with Mike and Sully, I really enjoyed the whole experience of meeting them and couldn't wait to see the pictures. Then we checked them out and they didn't even wait for us to pose all together. We have my SIL's backside in most of them and she and DH look caught off guard in the one picture where all three of us are facing forward. It was so disappointing! When I compare the photos they took with my cellphone at Lightning McQueen and Mater versus the Memory Maker photos (literally the only time I asked them to do that because I wanted to text the picture to my nephew immediately), the phone photos look so much better! Granted, I had the Nokia Lumia 1020 with the 41 megapixel camera, but shouldn't the professional cameras be better than my phone?

Even so, I know this time we are going to try to meet Vader and Chewie and now that I know when the ride pictures are I can TRY to pose, but I still don't know if it's worth it.

 

[SaraJR]

I went in nov with my now fiance)), and my bff and her family were also there, we split the MM. Despite splitting even if I had to pay full price I would 100% buy it again at full price. True its good to bring your own camera for the places where there arent PP but the photos you get with MM are very good quality and they are in a lot of good spots over all i will always use MM on future trips.

 

[LoveOlaf]

My husband and I will be traveling to WDW on January 30 (it's getting so close! yay!!). It's just the two of us, and I am really on the fence about buying a memory maker! I just don't know if it's worth it for two adults. We will be in the parks for 5 days. I think the only restaurant we have an ADR for that will do MM photos is Chef Mickey's.

On our last three trips, I've lugged around my DSLR. I got some really great photos, and I definitely don't regret bringing it, but it would be nice to not have to carry it! I also noticed on our last trip that while the photographers are more than happy to use your camera, they will take a lot more pictures on their own cameras than on yours. The only character we met was Buzz Lightyear (it was a quick, one day MK trip) and the guy took one crappy photo on my camera but got a ton of awesome ones on his. They also aren't going to mess with the settings on your camera, so unless I want to stop and get everything set correctly every time, theirs are likely always going to come out better.

That being said, Memory Maker is expensive. Photos on my own camera are free. And with the Memory Maker, you can't get photos of whatever you want, wherever you want, so I might still end up carrying my camera anyway. Or I might just settle for the camera on my phone.

I don't know! I feel like if I had kids traveling with me, this wouldn't even be a question, but it's difficult to know if it would be worth it for us. Have you used it when traveling with only your spouse/SO? Was it worth it?

We bought memory maker in November (our 3rd trip) and found it worth it for just me and my husband because we made an effort to stop at every photo pass ohotographer or character spot that didn't have a super long wait- we ended up with over 200 pictures and 5-10 videos to download which was well worth it. They show up in MDE almost right away for download and the magic shots and little videos that come with it are totally worth it. We used lots of them for our holiday card and the quality of the photos you just can't beat!