Photopass - how does it work?

[markriet]

Prior to now, I had just assumed that Photopass was the standard Amusement Park photo that is taken as you walk in to the park, but with some recent posts I now believe it is something different.

What is it and how does it work?

 

[beattyfamily]

It's the ability to buy the park photos from home. In the past, you had to buy them before you left the park for the day. Now you can buy them from home.

When you first get a photopass picture taken, they give you a card and every photographer that takes your picture, will swipe that card.

You can still buy them before you leave WDW but you do not have to.

The ride photos and restaurant photos are not part of Photopass.

 

[2tinkersmom]

I highly recommend using the PhotoPass! There are PhotoPass photographers in many locations in each park. You will see the standard ones as you enter each park so you can have a picture with the castle, the Epcot "ball", the giant Mickey's sorcerer hat at MGM and the tree of life at AK.

But they are also at many other spots within the parks too, some a little more isolated so you don't end up with lots of strangers in your photo background too! Many times there will be photographers with the characters around the parks if you wait in line to do autographs/pictures. They are out at nighttime too so you can get some neat night shots as well.

The first time you have a photographer take your picture he swipes a card through his camera which loads that picture info onto your card. Then every picture after that you just hand them your card and they will swipe it. If you don't have your card with you every time, they will just swipe another one.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the good quality pictures these photographers are able to take. Many of them are very good with kids too and were able to capture good smiles of our whole family.

Then when you feel you have gotten all the pics you want you can take the card(s) to the Toontown Tent in MK or the Epcot Camera Center and you will be shown all the pictures on your card(s) by a Cast Member at the centers. They can add fun borders to any or all of your pics so you then get all the originals plus what they add borders to. We ended up with about 65 total pictures on our card last trip.

You can now purchase all your pictures on a PhotoPass CD for $99. Before you could only purchase them individually and they were fairly expensive - you can still do that option if say you only want one or two pictures. But if you have a decent amount of nice pictures, its more than worth it to purchase the CD.

The CD comes with a legal release form saying you have purchased the rights to the pictures and are allowed to have them copied, enlarged, etc. anywhere you want. So you can take the CD to Wal Mart, CVS, anywhere that has the digital "while-you-wait" photo developers. I took mine to the camera center where I purchased my digital camera and was able to print out about 250 digital prints from my camera card and all 65 of my PhotoPass CD pictures and I think I spent about $55.

Sorry for the lenghtly post but I hope this helps you understand what they do!

 

[Deputycoz]

We did the Photopass on our recent trip and it was great, just as the above posters described, awesome pictures and in alot of the pictures they add things, they can make it look like you are holding Tink or Baby Simba, in one pic we have Stitch popping out of the ground right in front of us, quality of pics is great, we bought the CD too.

Above poster is right, the photo pass photographers are all over, not just at the front of the park, I got a great pic of DH and DS in front of Tower of Terror right after they got done riding. DS got pictures of him with all the Power Rangers, he loved it.

I think buying the CD is well worth it if you have alot of pictures on there, we had about 50, but you need to make sure you can get to one of the 3 places that can make the CD for you, fairly close to the end of your trip. You don't want to buy the CD and then end up having more photos taken, I don't think they could add them on.

The 3 places to buy the CD is at Epcot Photo Center, Toon Town and the Grand Floridian. We ended up making a quick last minute trip to Epcot on our last night to get the CD, thank goodness they had EMH at Epcot that night, our plane left early the next day. So double check the times of Photo Place at the GF if you won't be able to get back to one of the parks on your last day.

 

[markriet]

So, let me see if I have this right. PhotoPass is pictures that the Disney cast members take pictures of you, and you can buy all of them at the end of your trip for $99.

Photomovie is a Disney DVD movie that you can add your own digital pictures (from your own camera) for $50. Is that right?

 

[DznyLvr2005]

You get your pics taken for free. You get a card that the photgrapher scans before the pic is taken. YOu can buy the pics on Main st. in the MK. Even after you get home, you can log onto the web and buy a pic... I think the cheapest is $9.99 or something like that. You don't have to spend $99!!!

 

[Deputycoz]

You get your pics taken for free. You get a card that the photgrapher scans before the pic is taken. YOu can buy the pics on Main st. in the MK. Even after you get home, you can log onto the web and buy a pic... I think the cheapest is $9.99 or something like that. You don't have to spend $99!!!

No, you don't have to spend the $99 to purchase the CD, you can purchase printed photos at Disney, not sure of all the prices, if there is only a couple of pics that you got taken and want a few nice ones to take home, then that is probably the way to go. I would only suggest getting the CD if you got alot of pictures and want to be able to print out more than a few.

 

[beattyfamily]

So, let me see if I have this right. PhotoPass is pictures that the Disney cast members take pictures of you, and you can buy all of them at the end of your trip for $99.

Photomovie is a Disney DVD movie that you can add your own digital pictures (from your own camera) for $50. Is that right?

Yes and no.

Yes, Photopass is what they call the feature of being able to buy your Disney photographer photos from home now rather then before you leave the park. YOu can still buy them before you leave the park OR you can wait till you get home which is a great. Cost is the same for both.

Then, something that is new this past December...you can choose to buy the CD for $99 if you've taken ALOT of nice photos and you will then have them on a CD and can PAY to have them printed elsewhere or print them yourself at home. So you are not buying all of them at the end of your trip for $99, instead you are paying for a CD of them. Then you must still print them out when you get home.

Personally, the CD would not be worth it to me because I don't have that many taken and most I already have with my regular camera and I usually end up buying only a couple so $99 would be too steep for me but it's great for those who get lots of photos taken or for example, a big group of 2 or 3 families...they can chip in and buy the CD together.

Hope this helps.

 

[Poohbear123]

I used it this month, and bought 2 5X7's for 12.95 each. Next time, I will get more photos and possibly buy the CD!

 

[an_evans]

can you buy the cd online or do you have to do it there?

 

[noladave]

This whole CD thing is new, and very dynamic. It changed while we were there (this past week).

It is not availalble on-line, but the CM's expect this option sometime, but aren't giving a date.

New - They just opened ANOTHER CD burning place in EPCOT, so there are now 4 places to get your CD burned (I'm sure there will be more).

1. MK by toontown
2. Grand Floridian (we did ours there)
3. Epcot Camera
4. Epcot Character Connection.

We might not bring our camera next year, as Photopass photographers are EVERYWHERE! We ended up with over 137 pictures on our CD.

Also - did you know this (I didn't) - you can add Borders, Signatures, and Overlays on the pictures. You get a copy of the original, and then a copy of the what YOU have added. Maybe if you have only a handful, the CM will do the editing for you. WIth over 100 pictures, we went 1 by 1, and edited each photo, a process that took over an hour. Maybe next time, we will go every couple of days to do the editing, instead of waiting for the end of the trip.

 

[poohstx]

Markriet,

The new Disney Photomovie is a DVD which contains up to 68 photos which can be a combination of photos from your digital camera AND Disney Photopass photos. You upload them and they have tons of special effects and music which make it very enjoyable. The photos are divided up into 5 'chapters'....each of the four parks and 'Beyond the Parks'. Also on the DVD is a slideshow of the photos which play one by one with the Share A Dream Parade music in the background. Currently it is $49.95 for the first DVD and $19.95 for each additional one that HAS to be ordered at the same time. We watch ours often!

 

[UP Disney]

I didn't see this hint so wanted to make sure people are aware of it. At the Character Connection, you can get photopass pictures with each of the Fab 5 characters using photopass. My DD17, DD20 and I all got individual pictures with each of the 5 characters (that was 15 pictures for the CD). The pictures are so much nicer than the ones that we can take. The CD was well worth it for us.

 

[alle_rednic]

isn't there places where you can download your pictures from your memory card onto a cd?

i think i read it on the disney site, does anyone know how much it costs?

 

[JoAnnPan]

I had my memory card pics put on a cd for $12 in October 05 (not sure if the price has changed); of course the cd has small Mickey Ears on it ; it was at the photo shop connected to Tony's Restaurant

 

[First-timer]

i loved the photopass ....... i just wished i would of used it more...... the pics come out so good and they add little extras..... last week we bought it i think i had 37 pics on it and then they added borders and like the one in my signature(stitch comming out of the ground) and tinkerbell they all come out so beautiful that i had to buy them all ..... so 99 bucks was worth it for us and you get the copyrights to them and i scrapbook so i need to make many copies thats why i got it..... vicki

 

[JulieNMM]

Hmmm, I think this is really expensive! Am I the only one? I'm just thinking outloud here....

I have a film camera and if I take a roll a day for 6 days that will cost me $5 for each roll (=$30) + $10 to get double prints of each (=$60) for a total of $90. I can then scan them in at home if I want to share them with anyone online. So for $90 I get 300 prints of 150 pictures and these pictures include things like on the plane ride there, in the hotel, at the pool, and other places where there are no Disney photogs.

Otherwise, I could still use my film camera for the extra shots (where the Disney photogs aren't) AND buy the CD. If I have 75 pictures taken by Disney photogs, I will have to spend $15 to print them out back home (single copies at $0.20 each) plus 2 rolls of film of the "other" shots = $30. Total = $99 + $15 + $30 = $144. But I won't have to scan them in if I want to send them online.

BTW, I don't care for all the extra borders and would probably only choose a few "extras" like having Tink flying around....

Comments???

JULIE going to WDW 4/1-4/8/2006

 

[alle_rednic]

I had my memory card pics put on a cd for $12 in October 05 (not sure if the price has changed); of course the cd has small Mickey Ears on it ; it was at the photo shop connected to Tony's Restaurant

do you need to take anything other than your camera? like the USB cable?

 

[Fire14]

not that i'm aware of it's like the kodak picture makers you would see at walmart/target etc.

 

[Amyg]

So if the photo's are $12.95 each if you buy them individually, but you want to buy more than 7-8 of them, it's a better deal (cost wise) to purchase the photopass CD? That sounds pretty good especially if they will add all that fun extra stuff in them. Hmmmm...something to consider!