Picture Pass - thoughts please

[tinkerbell1112]

We always get the Memory Maker at Disney. Last summer we opted not to get the Universal photo pass, which in hindsight for the cost at that time was probably good. we saw no photographers (granted we also weren't looking) and probably only would have ended up with about 10 ride photos.

Next month we'll be there with a party of 9 for 2.5 days. The reviews on Universal's site are not good. Makes me think to say no again.

What are everyone's thoughts?

And, if we did get it, how does it work? the site makes it sound like we get one card - but with a party of 9, is that one card the card that has to be scanned at each ride?

thanks in advance!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Complete waste of money IMO (and we purchased ours for $49 a few years ago and activated last November). They give you one card on a lanyard. We had the hardest time trying to find our pics after each ride that we finally gave up. Never again.

 

[ForMyBoys]

We actually really enjoyed having it. We got some great pics in front of the park and in Jurassic world. Some great pics with characters. We took a bunch of pics on the couch in Simpsons and it was easy to scan the card to get ride pictures. I'd recommend it if you have time to stop and pose and if you have young ones that will want to meet characters.

 

[woodynjessiesmomma]

We did this last year for a 3 day trip and ended up with about 30 photos we really liked (over 100 with same pose,etc). It’s like MM, some are total flops, but we got some great pictures. We met characters and did the ET photos + ride photos + photographers at the entrance and were happy overall.
I skipped it this spring, but plan to buy it for next month with a party of 10.

 

[houseofthrees]

We have always been able to get a separate card for everyone in our group.

 

[tinkerbell1112]

thanks all - so I would only have to buy one 3 day pass for $90 and all 9 of us would be able to use it? The website makes it sound like you have to buy more than 1 card if you want more than one person scanning...

If I could get just 30 good photos and I only paid the $90, I'd call that good. But I foresee it being lots of ride photos. When we were there last time we only saw 3 character meet & greets (of course we weren't really searching for them)

 

[Barbanellie]

I'm jumping in on this, as we've just booked our trip (yay!) and I'm wondering about the photos as well, debating if we should purchase it or not. If we buy the 3-day photo package, does that include Volcano Bay? It's not mentioned on the Universal site, but since VB is so recent, could it be because it hasn't been updated? I know I read something about the Tapu bands and photos for VB, but wondering if these would be included in the photo package if we bought it for all our park days...

 

[HM]

We forgot our lanyard one morning. We were able to get a card from the photographer that could be used to add the photos to our account. I imagine anyone can do this from your group if you aren't together.

 

[kristie73]

We just purchased the 3 day universal photo pass. I don't think it's the same value as Disney. Not as many photo pass people. They really should add more of those. There are several good places they could. Or maybe they do and we just missed when they are available? At least we have the ride photos. We did do a few character pictures, Minons, Spiderman, and Transformers and the Harry Potter picture. We saw other characters... Homer, Lisa, Krusty, but no photo person with them but someone took our picture with our camera phone. So that's strange.

You can get multiple cards, but we were fine with one. I just handed it off to my husband when he went on a ride without me and then he got the ride picture added. It doesn't seem the self service worked well after the ride. I just went to the counter and asked the employee to add our picture to the card.

I'm glad we did it, but you have to really make the effort to get what you bought.

 

[houseofthrees]

I have bought the yearly pass the last two years while they were on sale. We have almost 400 photos on our account. You do have to make sure you are not missing photos you want before you leave, though. Last December we managed to get the whole Scooby gang and I was disappointed when I realized the photos didn't make it onto our account. We were already home by the time I realized it was missing.

 

[IvanovaTC]

I’m also looking at buying this for an upcoming one day trip to Universal next month, and I’m trying to get a feel for if it is worth it or not. It seems people either love this or hate it. I’m having trouble seeing how many ride photo opportunities there are, does anyone know? Also there seems to be an issue about adding photos onto the card?. Is it just a matter of making sure to stop at the desk at the end of the ride and selecting your photo? Isn’t this what you used to have to do at pretty much every theme park to buy your photos in years gone by?

 

[Gr8t Fan]

I’m also looking at buying this for an upcoming one day trip to Universal next month, and I’m trying to get a feel for if it is worth it or not. It seems people either love this or hate it. I’m having trouble seeing how many ride photo opportunities there are, does anyone know? Also there seems to be an issue about adding photos onto the card?. Is it just a matter of making sure to stop at the desk at the end of the ride and selecting your photo? Isn’t this what you used to have to do at pretty much every theme park to buy your photos in years gone by?

I'm glad to see that others have found this to be a worthwhile purchase. We didn't, but our experience doesn't seem to be the norm. There are scanning machines at some rides (similar to those that you tap your MagicBand to at WDW to get your Photopass photos), but we found, more often than not, that we could not locate our photos once we got off the ride, and there were long lines of impatient people behind us, so we just gave up. We could have waited in line by the cash register and tried to have them pull it up, but we felt like we were wasting time.

 

[Jenn504]

When do find them on sale? I am going on Nov 29 for 5 days and plan to go back next October so a year pass wouldn’t be bad if price is right. I got a 3 day pass in 2015 and had some great pictures.

 

[houseofthrees]

When do find them on sale? I am going on Nov 29 for 5 days and plan to go back next October so a year pass wouldn’t be bad if price is right. I got a 3 day pass in 2015 and had some great pictures.

They usually have them on sale for black friday.

 

[autismmom1]

If you ride the attractions with photo opportunities, and search out the "other" opportunities (ET's Bike ride, closet photo, Simpsons' couch, Spider-Man green screen, Jurassic Park jeep/t-rex, etc)? Totally worth it, even if you can't find roaming photographers. If your party has "grumblers" about getting pics made, it will probably be more difficult, but I LOVE the photos we got with our 3 day photo pass at Universal!

 

[Jeremy Nolen]

we didn't see hardly any 'free range' photopass photographers in our recent trip. In fact, I don't think there was a photographer at the character meets we came across either. So you're really just getting ride photos, which may be worth it but is a very different ROI from a WDW Memorymaker, as Disney staffs their parks with tons of photographers by comparison.

 

[schumigirl]

We are here now and have seen loads of photographers around the parks.........

Some in places I’ve never seen them before, of course Christmas brings more photo opportunities, but there are plenty of them around.

 

[ccvh]

Is the Simpsons couch photo op there again? When we were there last April it wasn’t. About two years ago we went on a trip with a large crowd, and I found then the photographer can give them a card, and you could manually add it to the account later. But do stop by the store that day. We also had some stranger family on our account.

 

[Ladcassidy]

We purchased the three-day package for our trip a couple of weeks ago. One day, we lucked into finding a roving photographer near the bridge into Hogsmeade who put together an impromptu family photo shoot with multiple backgrounds -- including the bridge and the castle. Otherwise, as others have said, we did end up mostly with ride photos, but my family loves those. We also scanned into a few "take your own picture" locations at Jurassic Park and in Volcano Bay (after we scanned our Tapu Tapu, a picture of our family on the raft ride showed up in our account). We came home with 60 pictures overall, which is a far cry from the hundreds we take with Memory Maker at Disney. But a fun souvenir of our trip nonetheless.