Photopass Photographers at Fantasy Fair and other Character Locations

[Tigger Trainer]

Perhaps it is just me, but I can only see photopass at Minnie and Mickey's homes in Toon Town. Are there no longer photopass photographers at Fantasy Fair and other character locations?

 

[mom2rtk]

Someone reported recently that they were testing taking the photographers out of some of the character meeting spots and having them roam the parks more. Unfortunately that sounds like it might still be going on? Yikes, I hope not. What a colossally bad idea that would be.

 

[superdeluxe]

Perhaps it is just me, but I can only see photopass at Minnie and Mickey's homes in Toon Town. Are there no longer photopass photographers at Fantasy Fair and other character locations?

We never saw any photographers with any of the characters

 

[sharksfinatic17]

Just left yesterday, the Photopass Photographers standing around in front of some of the iconic areas willing to take pictures (they didn't offer....you had to ask). For characters, we found ourselves taking our own pictures or the handlers would do so with our phone.

 

[ADLFAN]

How strange! Seems like character photos are the Photopass system's 'bread and butter'.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Just left yesterday, the Photopass Photographers standing around in front of some of the iconic areas willing to take pictures (they didn't offer....you had to ask). For characters, we found ourselves taking our own pictures or the handlers would do so with our phone.

Yup, it's driving me crazy. I've already emailed guest services twice about this. There are random photopass photographers just standing around uselessly ALL OVER the place taking zero pictures, and no one at the indoor locations where you've waited 30 minutes for a picture. It's bizarre.

 

[mom2rtk]

Just left yesterday, the Photopass Photographers standing around in front of some of the iconic areas willing to take pictures (they didn't offer....you had to ask). For characters, we found ourselves taking our own pictures or the handlers would do so with our phone.

Didn't they already have Photopass in front of the iconic areas though? How is this supposed to be different?

I always travel with a nice DSLR with external flash so we'll be fine, but I think a lot of people waiting in long character lines are going to be very disappointed. The lighting in most of those places is crazy bad.

 

[sherilaine]

We saw photographers with quite a few characters over our 5 days but certainly not with all - I'd say it was likely about a 50/50 split from what I saw. However, unless it's at night then I don't see much difference between the PP pictures and those taken on an iPhone 8.

 

[mom2rtk]

We saw photographers with quite a few characters over our 5 days but certainly not with all - I'd say it was likely about a 50/50 split from what I saw. However, unless it's at night then I don't see much difference between the PP pictures and those taken on an iPhone 8.

Many character meets never had Photopass. The ones with a dedicated indoor meeting place are really what's being experimented with (Fantasy Fair, Frozen meet at Animation Academy and the like). Are these the ones you're talking about? I hope so. It would be a real loss to not have Photopass in those spots. They are also the worst for lighting because of the way the ambient lighting cast shadows on faces.

 

[sherilaine]

Many character meets never had Photopass. The ones with a dedicated indoor meeting place are really what's being experimented with (Fantasy Fair, Frozen meet at Animation Academy and the like). Are these the ones you're talking about? I hope so. It would be a real loss to not have Photopass in those spots. They are also the worst for lighting because of the way the ambient lighting cast shadows on faces.

No, I am talking about characters that are outside, which can still have a decent line such as Groot, Mickey and Minnie in DL or DCA etc. we saw a lot of them with photographers. We didn't do any indoor meets such as Princesses but did meet Mickey inside and Chewbacca and Darth and they all had photographers.

 

[mom2rtk]

No, I am talking about characters that are outside, which can still have a decent line such as Groot, Mickey and Minnie in DL or DCA etc. we saw a lot of them with photographers. We didn't do any indoor meets such as Princesses but did meet Mickey inside and Chewbacca and Darth and they all had photographers.

Outside phone pictures are usually quite good. Indoor meeting spots are terrible for lighting. I used to swear those were designed that way on purpose to sell the Photopass pictures. But now that they took out the photographers, I'm going to have to adjust my theory!

 

[j9isawesome]

We were just there a week ago and Chewie, Darth Vader, Kyle Ren & Black Panther (all indoor locations) all had photopass photographers but Princess Fantasy Fair did not. Outdoor characters still were 50/50 if they had a photopass photographer or not. I had heard this was the case, so we just took solo shots of each other with characters on our dslr as needed, but I 100% agree that there should consistently be a photopass person stationed inside with the Princesses & Frozen characters too. :/

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I used to swear those were designed that way on purpose to sell the Photopass pictures.

Ha, we always said that, too!

And yeah, outdoors, a phone camera is gernerally fine. The princesses and Frozen crew just don’t turn out on a phone, though! A friend of mine has the iphoneX and she can’t even get good pictures in those spots...

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

I don't understand that if photopass photographers are out working in the park, they just stand around, unless you ask them. Whenever we saw them, we would try to get our photo, and they were nice. But they were easy to miss.

Also it would be nice to have them with the princesses, especially after the wait!

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Here's the response to my most recent email... doesn't sound particularly promising with the "future visits" business at the end...

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced during your recent visit and we appreciate the time you have taken to contact us regarding our recent staffing change within the Disneyland® Resort.

The Disneyland® Resort is currently undergoing a trial-based period that has removed all photographers from any indoor character locations.

We understand your concerns and are more than happy to pass this feedback along to our partners in the park regarding your experience with these modifications.

Please know that our goal is to continually review and enhance our services to provide new functionality and experiences so that your visit to our parks is always positive.

We sincerely apologize for any disappointment this may cause for any of your future visits to the Disneyland® Resort.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Also, seriously, people should email them. They won't know it's a problem if no one gives feedback. A quick email to say, "we were disappointed that there weren't photographers in Fantasy Faire" doesn't take long and might make a difference, particularly if it's a trial.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Here's the response to my most recent email... doesn't sound particularly promising with the "future visits" business at the end...

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced during your recent visit and we appreciate the time you have taken to contact us regarding our recent staffing change within the Disneyland® Resort.

The Disneyland® Resort is currently undergoing a trial-based period that has removed all photographers from any indoor character locations.

We understand your concerns and are more than happy to pass this feedback along to our partners in the park regarding your experience with these modifications.

Please know that our goal is to continually review and enhance our services to provide new functionality and experiences so that your visit to our parks is always positive.

We sincerely apologize for any disappointment this may cause for any of your future visits to the Disneyland® Resort.

I don't even use Photopass and I think that is a crazy business decision! I wonder if they are going to do away with Photopass and just leave it attached to MaxPass to get more people using MaxPass? And by removing the photographers it downgrades the amount/quality of the photos you can get? So strange to me.

 

[agamble]

This is really a bummer since they advertised Max Pass as photopass with the added benefit of fast pass. People want pictures with Princesses and Mickey and that is why they wait forever. We stopped bringing our camera and have been relying on Photopass and our phones. It does sound inconsistent though as the email response makes it sound like it is all indoor meets but reports from recent visitors sound like they are still at Launch Bay.

 

[sherilaine]

That email from them is not correct though as they have not removed all photographers from inside character meets - how did we get PhotoPass pictures meeting Darth and Chewie and Mickey then? This was just last week!

 

[superdeluxe]

I thought the question/concern was Photopass photographers with characters outside?

They did not have a photographer for Kylo Ren, which was disappointing.