Photopass photo books

[mastermind307]

I am considering buying the preorder photopass CD and the photo book. I bought the CD on our last trip but I've never purchased the book. I made a scrapbook of our last trip, and even though I enjoyed making it, it took time and money. I know I spent way more than the $50 the photo book would cost if I did the preorder special. I have a few questions about the book.
1. Was it easy to make, did you like the finished product?
2. How many pages are included, how much are extra pages?
3. Can you use pictures you uploaded along with the photopass pictures?

 

[treehugnmama]

I have bought 3 one for each of my last trip. I love them

very easy to do
yes you can upload your own picks inot it.
you can fit a ton of pics in it with the way the layouts work out

not sure how many pages or whaT EXTRAS COST.

 

[Cinderella909]

I am considering buying the preorder photopass CD and the photo book. I bought the CD on our last trip but I've never purchased the book. I made a scrapbook of our last trip, and even though I enjoyed making it, it took time and money. I know I spent way more than the $50 the photo book would cost if I did the preorder special. I have a few questions about the book.
1. Was it easy to make, did you like the finished product?
2. How many pages are included, how much are extra pages?
3. Can you use pictures you uploaded along with the photopass pictures?

I bought the photopass CD and decided against their photobook for a couple of reasons. There is limited page layout options, limited choices and probably the biggest concern I had was that many of the page layout were horizontal/landscape while all of my photopass photos were vertical/portrait.

I went with another photobook site that I found had some great options, layouts, backgrounds, etc. There are many good sites available, Blurp, Mypublisher, Picaboo, Artscrow, Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. You might just want to visit a few sites and practice a bit to see what you like. As far as costs, I don't feel that the nicer photobook sites are any more expensive than using the Disney photopass book. And, all the photobook sites have regular sales. I made my book and then waited on a good sale.

Next trip I'll be sure to ask the photopass CM to take a variety of poses. Have fun! Karen

 

[pmaurer74]

we bought that last year instead of the photopass. it was $75. It was difficult to fill up the 20 pages and we had a family portrait session too but we were able to upload our own photos. We had to do it fast though because the offer and photos were only available for a short time. I am planning to buy another one this year.

 

[twitch]

A PP said that the layout options were limited. That may have been true with a prior iteration of the software, but it's not true now. While you can use their pre-made layouts, you can build your own layouts from scratch--setting picture frames in either portrait or landscape mode.

We have done both... in 2007, we did an entire 8x8 scrapbook from our photos and the photos from the Photopass CD. In 2010, we did a Photopass CD/book combo. The book is a highquality book from Jostens. I think that the book came with 20 pages, and we paid $1.50 per 2 extra pages.

Probably the best way to decide is to look at someone's book:

You can see ours here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=266413&id=657521901&l=77f108892a

 

[cantwait101]

Created our album (pre order) in Jan. and it is the bomb. You can customize your pages, add text, add your own images...it is sooo easy. HOWEVER...the site can be super slow. I would do a few pages a night save them and do a few more pages the next night. Just so you know in advance...I added one photo of my kids checking out the planes cockpit with the pilot when we flew home and added that text to the photo and when I received my book they wrote cockpit as ****pit...so apparently they bleep out words or in my case, parts of words. I mean really...what else could you call the cockpit???? Anyway, it makes for a funny story when everyone looks at the book...I just wish I had known that before hand, I may have opted to quote the text a different way.

 

[networktek]

we have always done the photo pass cd but this year we are gonna try the cd and photo book option

 

[Sydnerella]

A PP said that the layout options were limited. That may have been true with a prior iteration of the software, but it's not true now. While you can use their pre-made layouts, you can build your own layouts from scratch--setting picture frames in either portrait or landscape mode.

We have done both... in 2007, we did an entire 8x8 scrapbook from our photos and the photos from the Photopass CD. In 2010, we did a Photopass CD/book combo. The book is a highquality book from Jostens. I think that the book came with 20 pages, and we paid $1.50 per 2 extra pages.

Probably the best way to decide is to look at someone's book:

You can see ours here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=266413&id=657521901&l=77f108892a

Thanks for the post and sharing! Your book is nice In 2010 (spring) it was only the old layouts which I used in 2008 and then did again in 2010. I was glad to see the new options when I logged into the website after being bored of the same old options for the last two trips. I do wonder why you have to "pick a theme" for 20 pages at a time? Or maybe there is alot of manipulation/choices you can do within that 20 pgs I just did not get to on my quick scan?

Sydnerella's Mama

Sydnerella's Mama

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

I just finished a photobook with shutterfly for our 2009 disney trip. We always prepurchase the photopass cd. I have never done a photobook before this one. I am utterly amazed at how awesome it came out. The pictures and pages are soo viberant! It must have close to 1,000 pictures in it and a 12x12 size and is 89 pages long. It took me several months of working on it but is was worth every minute. I used a 50% off code and free shipping. The book was $80!! I have in the past purchased a disney photo album and printed out all my pics 300 ish and it cost me over $100. I wanted something different this time.

I have just finished uploading all our pics from our 2010 trip and already finished the first 4 pages. This time it should be faster since I now know what I am doing.

I will check out the photopass books but believe I am sticking with the shutterfly books.

good luck with your book!

 

[ktlm]

I do wonder why you have to "pick a theme" for 20 pages at a time? Or maybe there is alot of manipulation/choices you can do within that 20 pgs I just did not get to on my quick scan?

I thought that at first too, until I started making the book and playing around. You can actually change the theme on every page. You just pick a theme at the outset and then you can change everything, including the "theme" for that page, as you do each page. You can pick any of the themes, and any background page for that theme for each separate page. You can also mix the background page theme with frames from a different theme; and with add on icons, characters etc. from other themes. You can pretty much do anything you want now- photos of any size and layout; text of any size and layout; frames or no frames, tons of little page decorations to choose from , etc. My only complaint with the new software is that there are not really directions on how it works so you have to figure out how to change and do things on your own at the outset. Me being half computer illiterate, had trouble at first- but DH, who is computer literate walked in and said- '"Oh that's easy"- it's kind of like power point let me show you and went after it full speed. Once you have it figured out it is extremely easy to manipulate.



Very Cute book Twitch! I will say to those looking at it, that they can make one just like it, or they can make one that is completely different. Mine looks absolutely nothing like Twitch's. We have very little text in ours, and we are much heavier on the pictures. For example, we will have one 2 page layout that the only text may be something like "EPCOT DAY" on the left hand page, and then the right hand page will have no text and as many as 7 pictures in all different sizes.

 

[TandLMommy28]

I wasn't really thrilled with Photopass's photobook options. Also, when I was trying to make it (October of last year) the site kept freezing up. I could do one page and then it would freeze up and it was so frustrating. I ended up using Shutterfly. Shutterfly lets you stack their coupon codes. I ended up getting to usea 40% off any photobook, $25 off any order and free shipping and got a 12x12 photobook with 40 or so pages for under $20. And it's gorgeous. To make up for not having Disney backgrounds, I just made sure to save all my Photopass pictures with every possible border so I'd have a lot of ways to make the photobook LOOK more Disney-ish.

 

[kmedina]

We preordered the CD and photobook last year when it was $179.95. The CD was discounted but not the book. By the time we added the extra pages and paid for shipping, the book ended up costing us over $100. I love the book and do not regret ordering it. However, I should warn you that it is not worth the price compared to Shutterfly books. Although, Shutterfly does not offer Disney covers. Since it is $30 cheaper ($149.95 with the CD) and you may not need as many extra pages as I did, I would get it. If you are unhappy, you could just not order it again.

 

[quest4dl]

I guess this is what I am trying to decide - are the Disney borders and themes worth the extra cost? I'm also concerned about the slow response time. We are visiting for my parents 50th anniversary and my brother's 40th birthday so I thought it would be a great gift to make them a photobook after the trip.

 

[twitch]

Thanks for the post and sharing! Your book is nice In 2010 (spring) it was only the old layouts which I used in 2008 and then did again in 2010. I was glad to see the new options when I logged into the website after being bored of the same old options for the last two trips. I do wonder why you have to "pick a theme" for 20 pages at a time? Or maybe there is alot of manipulation/choices you can do within that 20 pgs I just did not get to on my quick scan?

Sydnerella's Mama

Sydnerella's Mama

The "picking a theme" is to try to make it easier for you. Even though we picked a theme, we immediately deleted all of the layouts and backgrounds so we could built it from scratch. You can pick from any of the themes, regardless of which one you chose.

 

[catra121]

I did the photo cd/photobook combo option for my September 2010 trip with my mom. It was very easy to use and used a lot of my own pictures. It comes with 20 pages and I know you can add extra pages but can't remember the cost. I feel like I should have added pages because in 20 pages I felt like I was rushed to get it all in and last days of the trip are not covered well.

I did have one problem though which ensures that next time I will just get the CD. They printed the pages of my photobook IN THE WRONG ORDER! I was so bummed when it came in the mail and my cover page was the 2nd to last page of the book and the last 2 pages were the first 2 pages. Mistakes happen...so I just sent a polite email requesting another copy printed correctly and I got a reply that said I needed to refer to the return procedures and mail the book back to them (at my own cost), etc. I sent a more strongly worded email saying that THEY made the error and I would happily send the book back at their cost or take pictures to prove it was THEIR error. They sent me a new book after that at no charge, printed correctly. I understand mistakes...but this being Disney I was suprised at their response to my first email.

So next time I will just wait for the CD and use Shutterfly to make my photobook. Their books are just as nice and have always had great service and awesome deals from them.

But I like the final book I got and it is on Display with my other souveniers from the trip. So you will get a great product...just hope they don't make any printing errors because dealing with that sort of stole some of the Disney magic for me.

 

[Luv2CtheMouse]

We bought one and were very pleased with it. The quality was great.

 

[mastermind307]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm leaning towards getting it, but I'm a little concerned about the extra pages cost. It could get expensive if it's $1.50 a page after the first 20 pages. Does anybody know how much shipping is?

 

[Cinderella909]

A PP said that the layout options were limited. That may have been true with a prior iteration of the software, but it's not true now. While you can use their pre-made layouts, you can build your own layouts from scratch--setting picture frames in either portrait or landscape mode.

We have done both... in 2007, we did an entire 8x8 scrapbook from our photos and the photos from the Photopass CD. In 2010, we did a Photopass CD/book combo. The book is a highquality book from Jostens. I think that the book came with 20 pages, and we paid $1.50 per 2 extra pages.

Probably the best way to decide is to look at someone's book:

You can see ours here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=266413&id=657521901&l=77f108892a

Twitch, you book is lovely. Really nice backgrounds. And, I really had no idea that one could do all of these things with the disney photobook. This year I might play around a bit with their photobook, but seeing that my photobook was 134 pages (and that didn't include one day at Epcot), I'll probably stick with picaboo. Thanks for sharing your photobook. Karen

 

[DisneyFamily123]

I am considering buying the preorder photopass CD and the photo book. .....
1. Was it easy to make, did you like the finished product?
2. How many pages are included, how much are extra pages?
3. Can you use pictures you uploaded along with the photopass pictures?

Here's your answers plus some samples of my photobook pages.

The photobook was easy to make but it took many hours and days to finish a 60 page book with 210 pictures. I paid to extend the storage time 2 times -- special offer $4.95 for 15 days... but it was extended several other times for free, just by calling the photopass phone number and asking. Tip.. if you pay for the extension, it only extends storage for the photopass photos. Call them if you need to extend storage for the photos you uploaded.

I really liked the finished product. Great quality. I've done photobooks with shutterfly.com before but the Photopass photobook had all the Disney borders, themes, images to add, etc... Again, it took me forever to finish it... but a 20 page book with less photos would be faster. Next time, I might try a pre-made scrapbook. 20 pages are included. Additional pages are $3.50 for a 2 page spread (1.75 per page). I was able to apply a discount code and get 20% off the additional cost (code was a special offer on the photopass site). The virtual photobook was nice too for $15 plus you get images (not high quality, under 200kb), not great for printing (guess they don't want you making your own 2nd copy) but still good. That's what I shared below.

Most of the images that you can add on to the pages are the popular characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Princesses). I wish they had images of other Disney characters too.

Here's some random images from the book.

 

[RandFamily]

I've ordered about 3 Disney PhotoPass books and I love them all. Very high quality.

I've also ordered photobooks from SnapFish which I find is much easier to use, your photos stay uploaded there forever so you can reuse them (they don't expire like Disney), it's MUCH cheaper, and there are many, many different sizes types of photo books you can create.

BUT they don't have all the Disney borders, characters, etc. It's a hard choice, which is why I alternate and do both