Should I buy Memory Maker?

[Islamom]

I am a 40 year veteran of WDW. I go once per year and take over 1000 pics per trip. Do I need Memory Maker ? Should I try it? What are the pros and cons, please? Thank you for your insight!

 

[Accident]

memory maker is just the picture download package. You can try photopass all you want for free, but you can't get the photos they take until you pay for them. The options to pay are per picture ($15 each, 1 day memory maker which cannot be prepurchased but gets you all the photos disney took for 1 calendar date ($59 I think), memory maker (unlimited downlaods) purchased at least 3 days before the first picture was taken ($149 I think) and memory maker (unlimited downloads) purchased after the trip ($169 I think). Also free downloads is included in annual passes now so that is an additional option to pay for the photos as well.

The pros is they are in the best spots and you can all be in the photo really easy and let disney take the picture. For things like character meals, it's really handy to let someone else do the photos while your enjoying your meal and the characters. They also have some extras you can edit into the photos as well as some animations and other things they can make appear in the photo..

The big con I see is they aren't the professional photographer part of disney and just interesting cast members or college program which may or may not be a photography major. With that said, 99% of the photos I consider to worth keeping so don't read too much into this. if they all sucked, nobody would buy it and disney doesn't want that..

another con is you probably need to wait in line for your turn to get your photos taken. I do regularly use them for those we're in the park shots. so MNSSHP, I got a couple photos in front of the castle and down mainstreet where you could see the castle and decorations. We still take lots more pictures on our own, but it's nice to have someone take it for you and in certain places, the photopass photographers are the best spots.

 

[jvsims]

The main reason I like it is indoor character meets where the lighting is wonky. If it were just outside photos, I just ask the photographer to use my camera if I don't have Memory Maker. The Annual Pass now includes MM, so 1 member of our group is updating to AP, thereby getting MM for this trip & their next, plus all the associated discounts for dining/shopping, etc

 

[speeb]

For things like character meals, it's really handy to let someone else do the photos while your enjoying your meal and the characters.

Are there any character meals that still have photographers? Because that would be amazing and was one of my biggest "I wish"es from our trip. Having to put down my ribs and take a photo like a crazy person!

 

[Beamerball]

Are there any character meals that still have photographers? Because that would be amazing and was one of my biggest "I wish"es from our trip. Having to put down my ribs and take a photo like a crazy person!

At Ohana breakfast there was a photo pass photographer with Stitch.

 

[kniquy]

It kind of depends what your pictures are of. Is it the resorts and parks? are you traveling with family or friends? a large group? I am the photographer in the group so i am very often not in any pictures. We loved our memory maker as we were able to get many family pictures that usually wouldn't happen. The ride photos are great too. I think it is worth it but to make it worth the money you need to take advantage of the photo pass photographers. At first my husband was almost annoyed that we had to stop at everyone, but once he saw the pictures and the magic shots they can do he loved it. Many of those pictures are in the photo book i made of our last trip. If you have a couple trips or one long trip be sure to price out the option of getting the annual pass which includes the photopass. I am taking a trip myself in april 2017 and then a family trip in april 2018. With the new promotion for the 13 month annual pass it made sense for me to get the AP - it worked out to be cheaper than to purchase my tickets separately for each trip and then buy the memory maker for my family trip. So if you go every year and you can work 2 trips within 13 months the AP might make sense.

 

[Islamom]

Thank you all! I am the principal photographer, so perhaps Memory Maker would be useful and we would have some photos of me without my having to Photoshop myself in! I always make a book of our trip photos , so I guess these photos will look good in the book. I think I will try Memory Maker this time!

 

[jmkjr72]

We use it all the time. the last 2 years during flower and garden it included great pics of the topiary with no one I them. we love the fact that we dont b have to worry about bringing r a nice camera with for the meals and the few other spots they don't have photographers our cell phones work just fine. the last few trips have been adult only and we have still gotten our money's worth

 

[Duck143]

I loved Memory Maker. It is definitely worth the price of $149 to me. We got a ton of photos, a few videos and everyone had a blast with the MagicShots.

 

[klmall]

The answer also depends on what activities you plan to do at Disney and the kind of pictures you want taken by Disney. Will you be eating character meals? Willing to stop to pose for group pictures several times a day? Riding the attractions that actually have on-ride photos? Going to BBB etc.? Are you happy with the pictures you take yourself? Willing to put up with possible downloading, editing process and lost picture issues? Whatever your answers are to the previous questions will that total # of pictures be worth the price of Memory Maker? For many families, especially those with children or those who rarely take pictures themselves that they like, the answer will be "yes".

Our group is three adults who have been to WDW more than 11 times. We don't need pictures of each other and don't really want all the cute special effects i.e. Animated Magic. We don't do Meet 'n Greets or Character Meals.

While we might enjoy viewing the On-Ride videos a couple times (and then forget about forever perhaps) and use the On-Ride photos it hardly seems worth $149 or even $59 for a few ride photos.

Last trip I used my Visa Disney Rewards $ to purchase the Ride pictures I wanted. That worked out great for us. I then zoomed in on each picture and edited each to get close-ups, which to me were better than the originals with so many other people in them.

 

[dmband]

I like photopass/mm but to be honest it's not really worth it.
It takes hours to add boarders and such and in the end most people end up not printing many out or even looking at them again.
I would and am going to stick to my personal camera this time around and purchase a couple of favorites.
This will save me at least $100 and I'll have the same basic picture without boarders as the keepsakes

 

[Dayzy]

I was so happy to have it. I have 2 kids so getting the pictures at the meet & greets was important to us. And several times the photographer was able to get a shot I never would have thought to snap - like my kids in full run when the handler told them it was their turn to meet Pluto. Or from our first trip when my DS was 3. The photographer was able to get a shot of him when he first laid eyes on Mickey coming around the corner at Character Spot - jaw dropped, eyes wide, and hands on his cheeks. I could never have gotten that.

 

[BMon_1981]

I vote yes. I am a professional photographer, so photos are my "thing" - Very important to me. Plus, I'm always behind the camera. That being said, on our last trip, there were some that were better quality photos than others, but overall I was really glad we went with it! Plus, we received copies of our ride photos, which is not something you can get off your smartphone very easily. If you decide to get it, just make it worth your while. If you see a PP photographer, take a few seconds to have them snap some photos. That's what we did. It didn't take away much time from our day at all and in the end I was thrilled to have so many photos of my whole family. Money well spent, IMO!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I think that it really depends on how many PP photos you plan on downloading. If you always take a ton of PP photos, and want to download them all, it is totally worth it. If you only want to get a couple specific shots, then pay for them each individually at $14.95 each. We got it as a gift for our last trip, which was my daughters first trip, so we used it a fair bit and it was worth the money. But it isn't something that I would buy every trip.

 

[skuttle]

I like getting it to not have to worry about using my own camera. It's just a little easier. I also count which ride photos we may want. For example, our next trip, my youngest will finally be 40 inches, so I want to get the ride pics for his first time on Splash, ToT, Test Track, etc. Those add up quickly!

 

[danc18]

If you take 1000 pics then you really enjoy them. I think it's worth it if you are spending several days there. Having said that, be prepared for some issues. We had missing pictures and pictures of the wrong party on rides. These were resolved by a very nice tech support guy after an hour hold time on the phone. So if the money isn't an issue, hey.... you're on vacaction. But also as others have said, the photographers will use your camera as well so you could cherry pick the few unique ones they take and pay just for those.

 

[mickey&minnie04]

We are 2 adults and our pictures used to be just one of us in them, w/ MM we can now both be in the pictures! I agree some are better then others but I love all of them and wouldn't want to choose only a few

 

[tink2]

We had never tried MM until our last trip and now I feel like it’s a must. We have two teenagers and they had a blast with the photos. We got so many more photos than I would have been able to get myself on rides and of our whole group. and the shots at character meets and greets were great- the lighting is sometimes weird in those and they were great at capturing really cool shots during the meets and greets. Much better quality than what I could have gotten. Plus, they usually downloaded very quickly to our account- so we were able to have them on our phones for sharing. We also found ourselves stopping to get more photos than we probably ever have- because we felt like they would be good quality and we could easily get a group shot without having to find a stranger to take them.
We loved it and are definitely planning to get it for our upcoming June trip. The 17 year old daughter thinks it’s a must now- lol

 

[mco65]

We have used memory maker on a few occasions and never regretted it. It has become super convenient and easy to use...

 

[Tormania]

We used it in Dec 2013 and thoroughly enjoyed all the photos we got and I have every intention of using it again next Dec. Being able to have all 3 of us in photos in and around WDW to reflect back on over the years is well worth the cost. I didn't mind going through all the photos and adding borders and other graphics. I'm one of those people that on a normal vacation when I look back through all the pictures very few have people in them, so it's a very nice change to actually get those family photos that are usually lacking for me.