Photo CDs

[QJ411]

Just a word of warning - we had 4 linked cabins on the Aug 15 cruise. After reading all the info on the DIS about linked cabins and the ability to include all the pictures on the CD, I called DCL to verify it and was told that there would be no problem. Just to confirm it, one of the other linked cabins also called DCL and was told the same thing. So I went to Shutters as soon as it opened the first day of thecruise to give all the cabin numbers for our linked rooms and advise that we planned to purchase a single CD for all 4 rooms. The perplexed person at the register told me that the asst manager would call me that night. No call on Saturday. No call on Sunday. On Sunday night I went to Shutters to make sure everything was arranged. I was told that I would need to speak with the manager of Shutter, Shane. I again left my name and cabin number. To people from 2 of the other cabins also stopped by and were told to wait to hear from Shane. On Monday I spoke with Shane and he said he NEVER HEARD of people being able to put more than one stateroom on a CD but that he would call shoreshide and find out whether it could be done. No response on Tuesday. We went to Shutters and spent another 30 minutes or so trying to find out the status of the CD. No response on wednesday. went back to Shutters and spent at least another 45 minutes trying to find out the status of the CD. (This was time away from our families!! Starting to get a bit upset here). On Thursday we were told he was 'still working on it, keep posing for lots of pictures..." This was another 45 minute conversation - more time away from families - and we told Shane that we needed an answer soon because we had only one more day and we still had no pictures picked out. Plus, our pictures were scattered across 4 rooms - some had our kids in them, some had ours plus cousins, some were on our stateroom but we weren't in them, etc etc. Finally, on Friday he told us that it couldn't be done and that the best he could do would be to offer us the $299 picture plan plus a small discount. This was on Friday, after business hours in the States. We really felt like he strung us along the whole week and added anxiety to the vacation because he wouldn't give us an answer til Friday. My DH - who had not gotten involved at all up til that point - then came looking for me because this last conversation occurred while I was supposed to be at dinner and another couple was supposed to be at Palo - instead, we were still trying to figure out what to do ith the picture CD. Had we been told on the first, second or even thiord day that the single CD was not an option we would have saved valuable vacation time and stress and been able to leisurely pick out the pictures we wanted. now we were told that we would have to pick out the pictures we wanted on the last day of the cruise. Anyway, my DH went to Guest Services and explained the situation. (The wives had already been there but had been referred back to Shutters. DH stood at Guest Services til an officer was available to speak with us). The officer then went to Shutters and met with Shane. They were not able to resolve the situation the way we had been told ($100 per family for 1 CD) but were able to offer us something better than the $300 package.
Another set of linked reservations (both were travelling in cat 3s) were offered nothing - $400 for one CD per stateroom, take it or leave it.
All in all, please don't count on a single CD being available for linked reservations. The amount of time we spent at Shutters - and speaking with Guest Services - was pretty substantial and negatively impacted our cruise. It was the only negative thing we've ever encountered with DCL. If anyone also calls to verify this infor with DCL, make sure that you get the name and title of the person who confirms the information. Had we done that things might (??) have been resolved sooner.
This is in no way a ding on the photographers. Grace (who does the white background pictures) is absolutely amazing at what she is able to capture. And considering the cost of a private sitting and pictures at home, the price is steep but might even be a little cheaper than is available in our area of NY.
Just wanted to make sure that no one is caught unawares.

Oh no, that's terrible!!! I'm so sorry you had to go through that whole ordeal; especially after DCL CMs verified it over the phone. That would put major unnecessary anxiety on our cruise as well. Thanks so much for the heads up. And I agree - that's reasonable in comparison to some private portrait studios in our area. BTW, we LOVE Grace!!! She's super sweet with the kiddos! Hope to see her again this time around.

 

[Kurby]

when you have your pics taken can't you just give them the 1 room key?

we didn't have that many taken - mostly of dd with cinderella snow white etc but we handed them our card.

what do they do for more then 4 ppl? do they ask for multiple cards be given to take the pics?

 

[lbgraves]

They use a digital facial recognition program to sort most of the pictures when they don't scan the cards.

 

[AFETA]

I am traveling to Disney in about a week and a half and we always purchase the photo pass cd at the end of the trip. We have seen a link where we can pre-order the photopass before hand for $99.95. My question is, if we do the preorder will we be able to take our purchase confirmation with us and pick up the cd before we leave or do we have to wait for it to be shipped?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Schachteles]

I am traveling to Disney in about a week and a half and we always purchase the photo pass cd at the end of the trip. We have seen a link where we can pre-order the photopass before hand for $99.95. My question is, if we do the preorder will we be able to take our purchase confirmation with us and pick up the cd before we leave or do we have to wait for it to be shipped?

Thanks for your help!

With the Photopass in the Disney Parks, you preorder the CD and then when you get home, you load your passes onto your account, make the enhancements online and then order the CD and it will arrive at your house in about a week. No more having to spend HOURS at Disney with a CM trying to get your pictures cropped and enhanced!

 

[owensamo]

I am traveling to Disney in about a week and a half and we always purchase the photo pass cd at the end of the trip. We have seen a link where we can pre-order the photopass before hand for $99.95. My question is, if we do the preorder will we be able to take our purchase confirmation with us and pick up the cd before we leave or do we have to wait for it to be shipped?

Thanks for your help!

The photopass preorder is only for the parks. I think you have to order the CD after you return and have it shipped - I don't know that they have any way to enter the code you get into the system at the kiosks. It doesn't hurt to take it with you, but be prepared to have to redeem the pre-purchase after the fact.

One good thing about waiting is that you can see all your photos online and add borders/plusses/etc to them at home and not eat into valuable vacation time to do it.

Please note that the photopass CD is *NOT* the CD that's available from Shutters on the cruise ships. The pre-purchase option for Photopass won't include cruise photos, and the code will not be able to be used to purchase a cruise photo CD. I believe you can pre-purchase Cruise photo pacakges on the DCL website - not sure if the CD is included in that.

Amanda

 

[Kurby]

With the Photopass in the Disney Parks, you preorder the CD and then when you get home, you load your passes onto your account, make the enhancements online and then order the CD and it will arrive at your house in about a week. No more having to spend HOURS at Disney with a CM trying to get your pictures cropped and enhanced!

i still don't understand why the ships photographs can't be like the world photographs.


to me it's just a money grab - i know it's a different company but come on - 100 bucks a day just for photos.

 

[lbgraves]

i still don't understand why the ships photographs can't be like the world photographs.


to me it's just a money grab - i know it's a different company but come on - 100 bucks a day just for photos.

The parks are run by Disney. The photos on the ship are run by a completely different company. I think that it is fantastic that they are finally offering this option after years of being asked to do so.

 

[gismo1554]

I am traveling to Disney in about a week and a half and we always purchase the photo pass cd at the end of the trip. We have seen a link where we can pre-order the photopass before hand for $99.95. My question is, if we do the preorder will we be able to take our purchase confirmation with us and pick up the cd before we leave or do we have to wait for it to be shipped?

Thanks for your help!

The $99 offer you are on about I assume is for the WDW photopass CD. This however is not the same as the Cruiseline CD and would need to be purchased seperately.

 

[dismagic09]

we purchased the CD and it was worth every penny- we had over 250 pics on our disk (we had 2 cabins linked) you get the pictures that show up on the kiosk and if they don't show you can ask them to add them to the disk before you pick it up. We have over 2000 pics from our 7 day cruise - too bad i won't be able to afford getting them developed
my kids are going to remember every second of the cruise b/c we have a visual image for them

 

[camarks1234]

WOW! I for one am so excited that they are offering this. We cruised in Feb. and I complained bitterly about not having this option. I hated the borders, being restricted to the different sizes, etc.

About the price! I can't believe the amount of people who won't pay good money for good photographs. They are worth their weight in gold. They are your memories. I think the price is dirt cheap for what you get.

I actually forgot some of my photos on the last cruise and they MAILED them to me. I couldn't believe the pixie dust and was thrilled. I had been so depressed upon remembering forgetting them.

Thanks shutters!

 

[gismo1554]

WOW! I for one am so excited that they are offering this. We cruised in Feb. and I complained bitterly about not having this option. I hated the borders, being restricted to the different sizes, etc.

About the price! I can't believe the amount of people who won't pay good money for good photographs. They are worth their weight in gold. They are your memories. I think the price is dirt cheap for what you get.

I actually forgot some of my photos on the last cruise and they MAILED them to me. I couldn't believe the pixie dust and was thrilled. I had been so depressed upon remembering forgetting them.

Thanks shutters!

OK just to say personally I don't think they are that good photos and this is my honest opinion so don't flame me. I have seen alot better photos a lot cheaper than they are giving you. I usually find 1 or 2 decent pictures amoungst the entire lot and for $400 I don't think its good value for 2 pictures! That being said if it was a reasonable price say $200 then I might consider having more pictures done in hope of more good ones but when only around 10th of the pictures are any good I don't see the point in paying which is why I think they aren't worth the money.

For those people who have loads of pictures that are good this probably is reasonable value but we just don't get that many (and before you say it yes it probably is because were not very photogenic but that's not the point). To me the $99 offer in WDW is cheap but yes I agree the DCL company are more professional than the ones around the park but I still don't find them any better than photography studios over here and I wouldn't pay $400 for a session over here where I'd get more than 2 photos. This is of course a personal taste thing and personally I don't think its worth the money. I would rather pick out one or two photos and pay for them.

 

[dolphingirl47]

OK just to say personally I don't think they are that good photos and this is my honest opinion so don't flame me. I have seen alot better photos a lot cheaper than they are giving you. I usually find 1 or 2 decent pictures amoungst the entire lot and for $400 I don't think its good value for 2 pictures! That being said if it was a reasonable price say $200 then I might consider having more pictures done in hope of more good ones but when only around 10th of the pictures are any good I don't see the point in paying which is why I think they aren't worth the money.

For those people who have loads of pictures that are good this probably is reasonable value but we just don't get that many (and before you say it yes it probably is because were not very photogenic but that's not the point). To me the $99 offer in WDW is cheap but yes I agree the DCL company are more professional than the ones around the park but I still don't find them any better than photography studios over here and I wouldn't pay $400 for a session over here where I'd get more than 2 photos. This is of course a personal taste thing and personally I don't think its worth the money. I would rather pick out one or two photos and pay for them.

I agree that the price is way too steep. At half the price we would have a deal.

We do have to agree to disagree on the quality though. I have had a few professional photos taken over the years and the ones from the Magic and the Wonder are hands down the best photos that I have. They are much better than my wedding photos (and they are nice enough that my sister is using the same photographer for her wedding). The photographers seem to be able to capture the essence of the moment like no other photographer I had dealings with.

Corinna

 

[gismo1554]

I agree that the price is way too steep. At half the price we would have a deal.

We do have to agree to disagree on the quality though. I have had a few professional photos taken over the years and the ones from the Magic and the Wonder are hands down the best photos that I have. They are much better than my wedding photos (and they are nice enough that my sister is using the same photographer for her wedding). The photographers seem to be able to capture the essence of the moment like no other photographer I had dealings with.

Corinna

Corinna, its probably just me with the photos lol! I hate every photo I've had taken pretty much so I'm probably overly critical.

 

[MMitchell29]

Seems like i''m getting conflicting information. someone on the other page mention how she couldn't get her rooms linked and was told that they didn't do it. She stated she had an officer check for her and was told no. Now i'm reading how someone had over 2,000 pics taken of their families with rooms linked. (wow you guys must have stayed in the picture line)

So which is it? Can you have rooms linked or not? We are a family of 5 so we had to get 2 rooms but planned on taking all our pics together.

 

[MMitchell29]

Just a word of warning - we had 4 linked cabins on the Aug 15 cruise. After reading all the info on the DIS about linked cabins and the ability to include all the pictures on the CD, I called DCL to verify it and was told that there would be no problem. Just to confirm it, one of the other linked cabins also called DCL and was told the same thing. So I went to Shutters as soon as it opened the first day of thecruise to give all the cabin numbers for our linked rooms and advise that we planned to purchase a single CD for all 4 rooms. The perplexed person at the register told me that the asst manager would call me that night. No call on Saturday. No call on Sunday. On Sunday night I went to Shutters to make sure everything was arranged. I was told that I would need to speak with the manager of Shutter, Shane. I again left my name and cabin number. To people from 2 of the other cabins also stopped by and were told to wait to hear from Shane. On Monday I spoke with Shane and he said he NEVER HEARD of people being able to put more than one stateroom on a CD but that he would call shoreshide and find out whether it could be done. No response on Tuesday. We went to Shutters and spent another 30 minutes or so trying to find out the status of the CD. No response on wednesday. went back to Shutters and spent at least another 45 minutes trying to find out the status of the CD. (This was time away from our families!! Starting to get a bit upset here). On Thursday we were told he was 'still working on it, keep posing for lots of pictures..." This was another 45 minute conversation - more time away from families - and we told Shane that we needed an answer soon because we had only one more day and we still had no pictures picked out. Plus, our pictures were scattered across 4 rooms - some had our kids in them, some had ours plus cousins, some were on our stateroom but we weren't in them, etc etc. Finally, on Friday he told us that it couldn't be done and that the best he could do would be to offer us the $299 picture plan plus a small discount. This was on Friday, after business hours in the States. We really felt like he strung us along the whole week and added anxiety to the vacation because he wouldn't give us an answer til Friday. My DH - who had not gotten involved at all up til that point - then came looking for me because this last conversation occurred while I was supposed to be at dinner and another couple was supposed to be at Palo - instead, we were still trying to figure out what to do ith the picture CD. Had we been told on the first, second or even thiord day that the single CD was not an option we would have saved valuable vacation time and stress and been able to leisurely pick out the pictures we wanted. now we were told that we would have to pick out the pictures we wanted on the last day of the cruise. Anyway, my DH went to Guest Services and explained the situation. (The wives had already been there but had been referred back to Shutters. DH stood at Guest Services til an officer was available to speak with us). The officer then went to Shutters and met with Shane. They were not able to resolve the situation the way we had been told ($100 per family for 1 CD) but were able to offer us something better than the $300 package.
Another set of linked reservations (both were travelling in cat 3s) were offered nothing - $400 for one CD per stateroom, take it or leave it.
All in all, please don't count on a single CD being available for linked reservations. The amount of time we spent at Shutters - and speaking with Guest Services - was pretty substantial and negatively impacted our cruise. It was the only negative thing we've ever encountered with DCL. If anyone also calls to verify this infor with DCL, make sure that you get the name and title of the person who confirms the information. Had we done that things might (??) have been resolved sooner.
This is in no way a ding on the photographers. Grace (who does the white background pictures) is absolutely amazing at what she is able to capture. And considering the cost of a private sitting and pictures at home, the price is steep but might even be a little cheaper than is available in our area of NY.
Just wanted to make sure that no one is caught unawares.

I'm not understanding all of this, or why you went through this hassle. It's not like they haven't done this before according to disboards they do it all the time so why was it a big problem with you guys?

 

[lbgraves]

Seems like i''m getting conflicting information. someone on the other page mention how she couldn't get her rooms linked and was told that they didn't do it. She stated she had an officer check for her and was told no. Now i'm reading how someone had over 2,000 pics taken of their families with rooms linked. (wow you guys must have stayed in the picture line)

So which is it? Can you have rooms linked or not? We are a family of 5 so we had to get 2 rooms but planned on taking all our pics together.

Well, considering the odds...there has been one negative experience posted and several positive ones posted regarding having staterooms linked and all pictures being on the one disc. I would be sure that your reservations are linked prior to going on the cruise.

 

[MMitchell29]

Well, considering the odds...there has been one negative experience posted and several positive ones posted regarding having staterooms linked and all pictures being on the one disc. I would be sure that your reservations are linked prior to going on the cruise.

Thank you Lisa, That did seem very odd for that to happen

 

[jhoshowski]

They were not able to resolve the situation the way we had been told ($100 per family for 1 CD)

Reading this, I wonder if the poster was trying (or Shutters thought that they were trying) to split the cost of the CD between multiple staterooms. I am sure they couldn't do that - one stateroom would have to pay for the CD, and then "settle up" with the people in the other staterooms.

If that wasn't what happened I apologize for making assumptions , but that is how I am reading it, while I am trying to figure out what happened. I am very interested because we have 4 staterooms. 2 of them are grandparents (my and DH's parents), so they probably won't get many pictures taken of themselves - only with the rest of the family. So one CD of everyone makes the most sense for us. I guess it won't hurt to try!

 

[kritter]

Just a word of warning - we had 4 linked cabins on the Aug 15 cruise. After reading all the info on the DIS about linked cabins and the ability to include all the pictures on the CD, I called DCL to verify it and was told that there would be no problem. Just to confirm it, one of the other linked cabins also called DCL and was told the same thing. So I went to Shutters as soon as it opened the first day of thecruise to give all the cabin numbers for our linked rooms and advise that we planned to purchase a single CD for all 4 rooms. The perplexed person at the register told me that the asst manager would call me that night. No call on Saturday. No call on Sunday. On Sunday night I went to Shutters to make sure everything was arranged. I was told that I would need to speak with the manager of Shutter, Shane. I again left my name and cabin number. To people from 2 of the other cabins also stopped by and were told to wait to hear from Shane. On Monday I spoke with Shane and he said he NEVER HEARD of people being able to put more than one stateroom on a CD but that he would call shoreshide and find out whether it could be done. No response on Tuesday. We went to Shutters and spent another 30 minutes or so trying to find out the status of the CD. No response on wednesday. went back to Shutters and spent at least another 45 minutes trying to find out the status of the CD. (This was time away from our families!! Starting to get a bit upset here). On Thursday we were told he was 'still working on it, keep posing for lots of pictures..." This was another 45 minute conversation - more time away from families - and we told Shane that we needed an answer soon because we had only one more day and we still had no pictures picked out. Plus, our pictures were scattered across 4 rooms - some had our kids in them, some had ours plus cousins, some were on our stateroom but we weren't in them, etc etc. Finally, on Friday he told us that it couldn't be done and that the best he could do would be to offer us the $299 picture plan plus a small discount. This was on Friday, after business hours in the States. We really felt like he strung us along the whole week and added anxiety to the vacation because he wouldn't give us an answer til Friday. My DH - who had not gotten involved at all up til that point - then came looking for me because this last conversation occurred while I was supposed to be at dinner and another couple was supposed to be at Palo - instead, we were still trying to figure out what to do ith the picture CD. Had we been told on the first, second or even thiord day that the single CD was not an option we would have saved valuable vacation time and stress and been able to leisurely pick out the pictures we wanted. now we were told that we would have to pick out the pictures we wanted on the last day of the cruise. Anyway, my DH went to Guest Services and explained the situation. (The wives had already been there but had been referred back to Shutters. DH stood at Guest Services til an officer was available to speak with us). The officer then went to Shutters and met with Shane. They were not able to resolve the situation the way we had been told ($100 per family for 1 CD) but were able to offer us something better than the $300 package.
Another set of linked reservations (both were travelling in cat 3s) were offered nothing - $400 for one CD per stateroom, take it or leave it.
All in all, please don't count on a single CD being available for linked reservations. The amount of time we spent at Shutters - and speaking with Guest Services - was pretty substantial and negatively impacted our cruise. It was the only negative thing we've ever encountered with DCL. If anyone also calls to verify this infor with DCL, make sure that you get the name and title of the person who confirms the information. Had we done that things might (??) have been resolved sooner.
This is in no way a ding on the photographers. Grace (who does the white background pictures) is absolutely amazing at what she is able to capture. And considering the cost of a private sitting and pictures at home, the price is steep but might even be a little cheaper than is available in our area of NY.
Just wanted to make sure that no one is caught unawares.

The same thing happened to us on this cruise. We were strung along all week long by Shane and on the last night Friday night he tells us he can't do anything. He kept telling us that we needed to scan our cards more often. They are no longer able to reconize the faces without your cards being scanned. The whole thing was a total nightmare....Took up a lot of time. I sent DCL a letter. In the end they were not able to locate many of my pictures and no CD...........Nicole, my conceirge person could not even fix the problem with Shane and Shutters!!

I know that we were not the only ones that this happened to on this cruise either.