Share your experience with Shutters!

[CampbellzSoup]

Good afternoon everyone amazingly excited about the upcoming Disney cruise on the wonder I’m about to go on!

I just have a few questions for those who use shutters:

Do you think prepaying for the package worth it?

What kind of backdrops did they have? I have been on carnival royal carribran and Norwegian and don’t really use their photo service is Disney different?

Can you still use your own cameras with characters? Like in Disney world?

Anyone wanna share any of their amazing family photos to see if it’s worth it

I did my one and only Disney cruise 4 years ago for 3 days it went by so fast but now I’m going to take my time and do it right!

 

[i18mulan]

We’ve never purchased the photo package out of the 10 Disney cruises we’ve been. We’ve always used our own cameras and phones. CMs would gladly take your photos using your own cameras just like in the parks. And I personally don’t like the borders on the photos (I think it always comes with it). Kindda looks tacky to me.

But if you want to purchase it, prepaying would give you a better deal. It’s cheaper than getting it onboard.

 

[Twindians]

We purchased the full digital package and I am EXTREMELY disappointed. Like SUPER disappointed.
First off I was under the impression from the website that Shutters would be more proactive in getting pictures of you and your family. Completely False. Except for 2 dinners, we had to initiate each photo which meant waiting in long lines. If you include dinner shots - we got 6 separate scenes. $200 for 6 scenes makes no sense to me.
Second, the fake background shots are awful. It just looks like you could be at any cheap random photo place anywhere (not on the cruise) and have that background.
Third and more importantly - the photographers took a lot of bad pics. I don't mean subjectively, I mean things like "oh my child is holding something in front of their face".
Fourth - the resolution is much lower than I imagined. Getting a digital image package I thought I could make a good large canvas picture to frame - nope. All the images are 1-2MB. Even my phone takes larger images (for example - a great shot I got with Belle is twice the size of any of their pics) and considering I have a 10 year old DSLR that produces wayyyyy bigger images on average (so you can print larger pictures) I am completely baffled by the small digital size. Looks like the largest I can print is an 8x10. My camera from 20 years ago produced larger sized images (which means it had more detail in the image).
Fifth- onboard help was hard to come-by. I keep checking the kiosk and the photos weren't there and there wasn't anyone available to help. A person may be wandering around the shutters area, but basically would tell us to come back the next day or during the evening (when there was a big show going on or during dinner hours.) My pre-order didn't even show up in my account until the last day.
Sixth - I'm missing photos.
Lastly - getting information about what you are supposed to do other than stand in line for anything photo related, is ridiculous. I didn't even know I could cancel my order until after I left the ship and was ineligible. I didn't even know how to pick up my digital photos (and almost left without them!) until I hunted someone down at 11 pm the night before disembarking. No information was given to me.

It's a 3-night cruise, so waiting in line for every single thing photo related is just not a good way to spend time. I feel like they purposely don't give you information that could easily be printed and available. I'm thankful I took some great pics from my phone. Basically I paid $200 to insure we got some family photos, but really I could have just asked someone to take that with my phone.

 

[Kennywood]

It really all depends on what you want out of the pictures. You do have to be patient when waiting in lines. Remember, there are a LOT of people wanting pictures.

The pictures with the characters are a fun way to enjoy and remember the cruise. We're in our 50s & 60s and still enjoy the interactions, especially with our favorite characters.

The most important pictures we want taken are those on Formal Night. (I don't think they have those on the shorter cruises.) We use the occasion to get dressed up and get pictures taken that we then send out with our Christmas cards. We had our official 25th anniversary picture taken on the staircase and it couldn't have turned out any better.

As for the backdrops, yes, they do look pretty bad in the pictures. The backdrops are just those pull-down type. Still, the ones that are port specific are a nice way to commemorate that particular cruise. I'm hoping that the technology will catch up to where you're standing in front of a green screen, so that more realistic backdrops can be inserted.

Still, it's up to each person to determine if the money spent is worth it. If you have a family, I think it is.

 

[Mommb]

It is absolutely true that you need to seek out photographers if you want a lot of pictures. I found that whether photos were taken at dinner was hit-or-miss -- on a recent 8 night Magic Med cruise, we had photos taken at the table 2 or 3 times, as well as at Palo dinner, which was typical of past cruises.

Each evening, there were photographers in the atrium. Lines were longest on Formal night, when there were 3 photo stations -- one with the Captain near Guest Services, one with the center statue, and one to the side near Shore Excursions. Several times throughout the cruise there were backdrops with the ship and of specific ports.

Every scheduled character meet has a photographer, as well as an accompanying cast member who is often willing to take photos with private cameras. (When my daughter and I met Minnie, the CM offered to take a photo with both of us, and I found not only several photos but also a 25-second video on my phone when she handed it back.)

There are photographers wandering on Castaway Cay, as well as with the characters, but it's hit-or-miss whether they are easy to find.

I had not had a problem with the quality of the photos, but I am not a photography expert.

We typically just buy a few photos that we like. I haven't gone for a package out of fear we wouldn't have enough photos taken to make it worthwhile. I know that packages purchased onboard can be "down-graded" if you don't have enough that you like, but I'm not sure about packages purchased in advance.

 

[KashasMom]

We've never bought any package before but have bought the 10 and 20 photo photo USBs a few times. We've always been really happy with the photos. IMO - they are much better quality than any photos taken with phones! We've always checked the kiosks a couple of times during a 7 night cruise to make sure all our photos were there. One time there were several missing but the photo guy was able to track them down and they were all there within a few hours. Aside from at dinner, you do have to stand in line for character photos or family photos. It is what it is and that doesn't bother us since we want the photos. Oh...and there are several photographers at various points with different backgrounds at Castaway Cay when you get off the ship. We're going on another Very Merrytime cruise and plan to have a lot of photos taken (we're going with extended family so will have a lot of group photos as well). We'll pre-order the package this time and if we don't find enough photos we like, we'll cancel and just buy what we want.

 

[KashasMom]

We purchased the full digital package and I am EXTREMELY disappointed. Like SUPER disappointed.
First off I was under the impression from the website that Shutters would be more proactive in getting pictures of you and your family. Completely False. Except for 2 dinners, we had to initiate each photo which meant waiting in long lines. If you include dinner shots - we got 6 separate scenes. $200 for 6 scenes makes no sense to me.
Second, the fake background shots are awful. It just looks like you could be at any cheap random photo place anywhere (not on the cruise) and have that background.
Third and more importantly - the photographers took a lot of bad pics. I don't mean subjectively, I mean things like "oh my child is holding something in front of their face".
Fourth - the resolution is much lower than I imagined. Getting a digital image package I thought I could make a good large canvas picture to frame - nope. All the images are 1-2MB. Even my phone takes larger images (for example - a great shot I got with Belle is twice the size of any of their pics) and considering I have a 10 year old DSLR that produces wayyyyy bigger images on average (so you can print larger pictures) I am completely baffled by the small digital size. Looks like the largest I can print is an 8x10. My camera from 20 years ago produced larger sized images (which means it had more detail in the image).
Fifth- onboard help was hard to come-by. I keep checking the kiosk and the photos weren't there and there wasn't anyone available to help. A person may be wandering around the shutters area, but basically would tell us to come back the next day or during the evening (when there was a big show going on or during dinner hours.) My pre-order didn't even show up in my account until the last day.
Sixth - I'm missing photos.
Lastly - getting information about what you are supposed to do other than stand in line for anything photo related, is ridiculous. I didn't even know I could cancel my order until after I left the ship and was ineligible. I didn't even know how to pick up my digital photos (and almost left without them!) until I hunted someone down at 11 pm the night before disembarking. No information was given to me.

It's a 3-night cruise, so waiting in line for every single thing photo related is just not a good way to spend time. I feel like they purposely don't give you information that could easily be printed and available. I'm thankful I took some great pics from my phone. Basically I paid $200 to insure we got some family photos, but really I could have just asked someone to take that with my phone.

Almost all of this information is available here - before you cruise. Too bad you didn't know before spending your $200.

 

[Numtini]

The photos will be in focus and well lit. They are set up to be "safe" so they can get one exposure and get the shot. From my point of view, way too wide a focus that has a sort of journalistic look and over-flashed. We handed off our camera and got better looking shots, just IMHO. They'll do that for characters, but not for the backdrops.

 

[MomOTwins]

I have always wanted to buy ONE photo of the whole family on board but the quality was so terrible I couldn't even find one I was happy with. The photos were never centered correctly in a weirdly egregious way (e.g., half my husband's face cut off, 70% shot of the floor with us crammed way up top in a corner). A lot were poorly lit, especially at dinner, with TONS of redeye. And the ugly little borders are hard to swallow-just weird and tacky and I would just have to crop them.

My sad old little iPhone 6 took better pictures at every character meet than the professionals.

 

[Twindians]

We purchased the full digital package and I am EXTREMELY disappointed. Like SUPER disappointed.
First off I was under the impression from the website that Shutters would be more proactive in getting pictures of you and your family. Completely False. Except for 2 dinners, we had to initiate each photo which meant waiting in long lines. If you include dinner shots - we got 6 separate scenes. $200 for 6 scenes makes no sense to me.
............

I also just looked at the family shots that were taken - there isn't one usable one for a Christmas card or framed pic. EVERY SINGLE ONE has something wrong - blocked face, looking away, closed eyes, etc. So sad. If I had known this, I would have had someone take some photos of us together. I'm really happy I offered to take

Almost all of this information is available here - before you cruise. Too bad you didn't know before spending your $200.

I did do a search on here before my cruise, but none of this information came up. It was my first Disney cruise, so after spending about 2 hours reading stuff (mostly about how people complained about the borders) and how people were happy with the number of photos (usually ppl mentioned it only on 7 day cruise) I thought the logistical information would be provided via email, info in our cabin, or something. There was nothing. There really isn't anything on the main cruise page either, until you dig down to support info.

Honestly I looked here and the website before purchasing the photos, but I guess I didn't look in the right places or know enough what to look for. I think there is probably a big difference between a 3 night cruise and a 7 day cruise with this. With 6 year old twins - standing in 30-60 minute lines for each photo op may not be a reasonable expectation and probably won't result in a good family photo.
For a first time Disney cruise family, the web site leads you to believe that everything will be "
Picture-Perfect Memories Made Easy" and that photographers will be "capturing your memories as you soak up the sun, sand, and surf on Castaway Cay" (we never saw 1 photographer walking around) and "before our Broadway-caliber live shows" (we never saw any photographers before the Broadway shows).

Anyway - I hope my addition for people with young children on the 3-night cruise will be helpful for others searching. It would be really nice if photographers wandered the ship taking casual pics, which is what I thought we would have at least a few photos of. There were zero of that.

 

[Ronneeaght]

I have always wanted to buy ONE photo of the whole family on board ...

Can you buy single digital prints onboard? What's the cost for that?

 

[MomOTwins]

Can you buy single digital prints onboard? What's the cost for that?

No, the single was only offered for print, not digital. I think it was around $20. If you wanted digital I think you had to get the 10 photo package or better, but don’t quote me on that since I didn’t look too closely at all the options after the photos I saw were so disappointing.

 

[daisyx3]

We did not pre-buy, but when I saw there were at least 10 I wanted we got a package on a USB and got 10% off with my Disney Visa. Not as cheap as pre-buying, but still a discount.

 

[msmama]

I've pre-ordered for every cruise (and my upcoming) and I've been very happy. Are they the best photos ever taken - no. I'd compare them to school picture quality - fine for the number of people getting through the line - same as the park photos. The lighting is much better than most taken with my phone (which I would guess they plan on purpose), especially the photos taken in darker areas. And I have gotten a handful of REALLY great ones over three cruises.

We see A LOT of characters. There's also a bit of...if the photographers see you a lot, they know the photos are important to you, so they take more, and more interesting shots. I've actually had photographers seek me out because they know we like the photos. I would say 90% of our photos (in the hundreds, even for a 5 day cruise) are character photos. We only do the background ones if there are no (or very short) lines.

I make a photobook of all my cruises so I know I will do something with the pictures. I don't love the borders like others have said, but I've always found a way to crop them to make it work (either with or without the border).

If, for whatever reason, I didn't like the pics, I'd have no problem cancelling so it seems a no-brainer to not pre-order if I'm considering. Would I do it for a 3/4 day cruise on one of the larger ships? Maybe not.

 

[mcd2745]

My wife is a picture nut. So we have always pre-purchased the all-photos package. How much value you get out of it is up to you. For a 7-nt cruise, I think we average around 200 photos.

 

[KashasMom]

I also just looked at the family shots that were taken - there isn't one usable one for a Christmas card or framed pic. EVERY SINGLE ONE has something wrong - blocked face, looking away, closed eyes, etc. So sad. If I had known this, I would have had someone take some photos of us together. I'm really happy I offered to take

I did do a search on here before my cruise, but none of this information came up. It was my first Disney cruise, so after spending about 2 hours reading stuff (mostly about how people complained about the borders) and how people were happy with the number of photos (usually ppl mentioned it only on 7 day cruise) I thought the logistical information would be provided via email, info in our cabin, or something. There was nothing. There really isn't anything on the main cruise page either, until you dig down to support info.

Honestly I looked here and the website before purchasing the photos, but I guess I didn't look in the right places or know enough what to look for. I think there is probably a big difference between a 3 night cruise and a 7 day cruise with this. With 6 year old twins - standing in 30-60 minute lines for each photo op may not be a reasonable expectation and probably won't result in a good family photo.
For a first time Disney cruise family, the web site leads you to believe that everything will be "
Picture-Perfect Memories Made Easy" and that photographers will be "capturing your memories as you soak up the sun, sand, and surf on Castaway Cay" (we never saw 1 photographer walking around) and "before our Broadway-caliber live shows" (we never saw any photographers before the Broadway shows).

Anyway - I hope my addition for people with young children on the 3-night cruise will be helpful for others searching. It would be really nice if photographers wandered the ship taking casual pics, which is what I thought we would have at least a few photos of. There were zero of that.

Possibly because it was a 3 night? You really did have some bad experiences though. I don't that is usual. They've always taken multiple pictures at one time to avoid the very things you mention (closed eyes, etc.). We have seen photographers in the water at CC and once in rare while other places around the ship, but yes, mostly with the characters of family photo shots in the atrium. Before the shows there are usually photographers outside the theater with characters. Not a lot of "candid" opportunities.

 

[ahain]

We only purchase photo packages on our longer cruises (one 7n Caribbean, Alaska, Panama Canal, etc.) and have been pleased overall with the quality and quantity of the pictures. We had one family portrait blown up to 20x24 and it came out great.

 

[ArielRae]

We have never purchased a photo package and was wondering. Can you take photos with your own camera with the special different backgrounds? For example the ones with the full ship, railing of the ship with moon, pirate night, the embarkation photo, full white background? All these don’t have a character just a roll down background. We have only taken our own photos with the characters. So can you take a photo with your own camera before or after the Cast Member has taken theirs? I know we would have to be quick so not to hold up the line.

 

[Mommb]

Because the photographers are not Disney employees (and, unlike the characters, do not have Disney cast members accompanying them), using your own camera at their set-ups is strongly discouraged. I’m not sure if it is forbidden, but I have seen photographers glare at people using their own cameras if it slows down the process.

 

[Ronneeaght]

No, the single was only offered for print, not digital. I think it was around $20. If you wanted digital I think you had to get the 10 photo package or better, but don’t quote me on that since I didn’t look too closely at all the options after the photos I saw were so disappointing.

Returning to say: we were able to buy single digital prints on the Magic this week for $20.95 per. I could download to my phone or pay additional $10 for a USB. It was a pleasant surprise and maybe something new they are trying.