Shutters Onboard Photography - Is it worth it?

[gemduncan]

Is it worth the money to get the professional photos from Shutters onboard the ship? Or will I be happy enough with the pictures we take ourselves? This will be our first cruise.

 

[SailingSeas]

I'm an amateur shutterbug, and always love the additional candids Shutters provides. I can do with a fewer dinner table shots, but I love the candids around the boat, and especially on Castaway Cay.

 

[gemduncan]

Cool! Thanks for the feedback SailingSeas!

 

[imm93]

Newbie here....when you prebuy the photo package...does it include the professional photos too?

 

[anricat]

Everyone has a different opinion about Shutters. My thoughts:

1. Pre-purchase it if you are even slightly leaning that way. If you get on board and you decide you don't really like your photos, you can cancel by the last night of your cruise for a full refund. This is better than kicking yourself for not buying it.

2. If you are going to do a lot of character experiences, I recommend it.

3. If you like having a nice family portrait every year for your holiday cards or the mantel or whatnot, it can be about the same or even better than hiring a photographer at home and schlepping the whole family to get your photos taken. Take a nice outfit for each family member and hit every backdrop on the semi-formal or formal evening. Ta da! Photos for the grandparents to treasure forever.

4. I think the print plus digital package is dumb, personally. I don't want 8x10s of every single photo taken on the ship. Even if I did want a print of each photo, I wouldn't want huge 8x10's. I just print them from an online service once I get home. You get high res of every digital photo so just print what you want later in whatever size you want later.

 

[anricat]

Newbie here....when you prebuy the photo package...does it include the professional photos too?

Every time you have your photo taken on the ship by one of the ship's photographers (be it at a character meet, backdrop in the atrium or roaming photographer at dinner or Castaway Cay), it gets linked to your stateroom. You get all of them on a disc at the end of the cruise (for digital only) or a disc plus every photo in 8x10 for the digital + prints package. Most of the time they scan your Key to the World Card, sometimes they use facial recognition (which is mostly reliable).

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Newbie here....when you prebuy the photo package...does it include the professional photos too?

The photo package is the professional photos. All the photo locations that are manned by Shutters photographers.

Or are you asking about the in-studio, special sitting, photos? Those aren't included.

 

[imm93]

The photo package is the professional photos. All the photo locations that are manned by Shutters photographers.

Or are you asking about the in-studio, special sitting, photos? Those aren't included.

Yes not sure....what all they have but sounds like if you make a special arrangement with them then those are not included? I have only seen people post pictures with formal attire and no clue how they got those.

 

[over50visits]

Well…IMHO absolutely not worth it. I think the CC Cabanas are well worth it, and I think Remy is well worth it. So, as you see, everyone has their own splurge.

As for the photo package, ridiculously overpriced. You can tell from its location on the ship what a great profit center it is for Disney. But, you of course want photos of your cruise. We take dozens of absolutely beautiful photos with our own camera/hi-res smart phone, and they seem very, very happy to take pictures with our equipment for us at character greetings, for example. Our waiter has snapped pictures of us at dinner (we try to ask him if it looks like he does has time to do that). There are a lot of photos to be taken when the ship photographers are not around.

We have the same wonderful memories associated with the photos we take ourselves, and there are no opportunities we miss because we aren't paying hundreds of dollars for someone else to take them.

So my vote is clearly no. However, many people choose this as their splurge, and love their photos. Sounds like a real personal decision to me, and you can find plenty of people here to support whatever decision you make.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Like a lot of other cruise options, photographs are more of a value to some than to others. When our extended family cruised together, it was a family reunion, and pretty much the only time everyone was together, so having a group photo taken made sense. Especially when we were all dressed up for formal night anyway. Each branch of the family tree got an 8x10 but we didn't bother with any package deals.

Meanwhile, when DH and I cruise without the rest of the gang, I avoid getting in front of a camera. Just not a priority.

 

[anricat]

Yes not sure....what all they have but sounds like if you make a special arrangement with them then those are not included? I have only seen people post pictures with formal attire and no clue how they got those.

If you're looking for something like this, this was our family on the Magic a couple of weeks ago as part of the included photo package. We also got a killer photo of us on pirate night of us all in our pirate costumes with a great pirate themed background. I love it! And we also got a fantastic photo of all of us with Jack and Sally. I handed the photographers my (nice DSLR) camera to take the same photo with Jack and Sally and it came out crappy. The photos in the restaurants I could do without. We didn't do as many characters this time so that didn't matter as much. But the family photo like the one I linked here was worth the price for us not to have to go find the time to have a professional portrait done of the family this year. And bonus points for Mickey being part of our picture!

 

[gemduncan]

You all have very good points. I could take all the pictures on my own. I'm just thinking that if my daughter (6 yrs old) is in the Ocean Club area, then I would love to get some candid pictures of her playing that I wouldn't be able to take myself. So, a Shutter photo might be a nice addition. I do like Anricat's suggest to pre-book the photos and then I can choose to cancel on the last day. Hopefully, it's not a huge pain to cancel on the last day with long lines, etc. I was trying to find the link to the pricing info, but I can't find it now. Does anyone have a link to the pricing for photography?

 

[gemduncan]

View attachment 135844
If you're looking for something like this, this was our family on the Magic a couple of weeks ago as part of the included photo package. We also got a killer photo of us on pirate night of us all in our pirate costumes with a great pirate themed background. I love it! And we also got a fantastic photo of all of us with Jack and Sally. I handed the photographers my (nice DSLR) camera to take the same photo with Jack and Sally and it came out crappy. The photos in the restaurants I could do without. We didn't do as many characters this time so that didn't matter as much. But the family photo like the one I linked here was worth the price for us not to have to go find the time to have a professional portrait done of the family this year. And bonus points for Mickey being part of our picture!

Love your photos!! How long was your cruise? We are going on the 4 night Bahamas. I'm hoping we do NOT have a formal night because my husband does not like to get dressed up. He has already commented that he is only packing 1 pair of shorts and 1 swim trunks.

 

[DCLDVC1]

You all have very good points. I could take all the pictures on my own. I'm just thinking that if my daughter (6 yrs old) is in the Ocean Club area, then I would love to get some candid pictures of her playing that I wouldn't be able to take myself. So, a Shutter photo might be a nice addition. I do like Anricat's suggest to pre-book the photos and then I can choose to cancel on the last day. Hopefully, it's not a huge pain to cancel on the last day with long lines, etc. I was trying to find the link to the pricing info, but I can't find it now. Does anyone have a link to the pricing for photography?

www.mycruisephotos.com

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Yes not sure....what all they have but sounds like if you make a special arrangement with them then those are not included? I have only seen people post pictures with formal attire and no clue how they got those.

There are photo locations with various backgrounds (cruise ship; water; black) out on formal nights (mainly in the atrium before and after the dinner seatings). Those are included in the packages. It's just any special portrait sittings you want to do in the studio that aren't.

 

[anricat]

Oh, just to clarify, this was on semi-formal night on a Magic 5 night Caribbean. That night they had also a plain white background, a plain black background (which we didn't do because, as you can see, we are all in black), a background that had a sunset photo of the ship and then also a background with the pumpkin tree.

 

[anricat]

You all have very good points. I could take all the pictures on my own. I'm just thinking that if my daughter (6 yrs old) is in the Ocean Club area, then I would love to get some candid pictures of her playing that I wouldn't be able to take myself. So, a Shutter photo might be a nice addition. I do like Anricat's suggest to pre-book the photos and then I can choose to cancel on the last day. Hopefully, it's not a huge pain to cancel on the last day with long lines, etc. I was trying to find the link to the pricing info, but I can't find it now. Does anyone have a link to the pricing for photography?

You won't get photos of your child in the clubs. They do take some photos, but they are pretty much only used on the last day for the Friendship Rocks thing in the Walt Disney Theatre. We didn't get any in our photo package on our two cruises.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

Is it worth the money to get the professional photos from Shutters onboard the ship? Or will I be happy enough with the pictures we take ourselves? This will be our first cruise.

Everyone has different opinions on whether or not to buy the packages from Shutters. I, personally, would never not buy them-- except I forgot last time. Ugh. Huge kick in the tail.
Buy them- if, on the last night, you decide you don't want the package you can get a refund.

 

[gemduncan]

www.mycruisephotos.com

Thank you!!

 

[gemduncan]

Anricat - I'm not sure if my cruise has a formal night. I'm guessing it probably doesn't since it's only 4 nights. I guess I should contact Disney Cruise and ask what the dress attire is for our vacation?!