Talk to me about Memory Maker

[Leeba]

I see that it's $169 if I buy it in advance ... have you had a good experience with it? How many photos did you receive, total, from your package? Do you just get digital versions of your photos, or actual hard copy photographs as well?

Does this include those photos taken while you're on rides as well?

thanks!

 

[Mousemommy1]

We always get it and like it. We usually end up with about 150 - 200 pictures, including ride photos and character meal photos. Now, they are all digital. No hard copies but we still order the CD. We enjoy the service and feel it's worth it.

 

[Davie Business]

Your results will vary depending on how often you remember to have cm take photos. Only digital - you'd have to print (they include copuright license for personal use). Rides and character dinners all count as long as you find your pic and swipe your MB. One neat thing is the Specials: they have you hold your hand out and look surprised amd when ypu look at the pic later Tinlerbell is sitting on your hand. They have a bunch of different specials. I think we usa get about 30pics but we oft forget opportunities.

 

[limpy]

We always get it and like it. We usually end up with about 150 - 200 pictures, including ride photos and character meal photos. Now, they are all digital. No hard copies but we still order the CD. We enjoy the service and feel it's worth it.

Did the CD cost anything? Because you can download all the photos to your computer, etc, for free.

I vote yay on the MM - a very good use of money, IMO. The best pictures we got came from the professional shots. We haven't taken professional photos of the whole family since we had kids (1 and 4 years old), so this was perfect for that - family photo session with an awesome background!

 

[Jenna319]

If you purchase memory maker, would that include a photoshoot at a resort if we wanted to do that? or that would be separate from memory maker package?

 

[Jenna319]

is there anywhere to coordinate photo shares anymore?

 

[OZMom]

We loved it. We split it between 3 families and had over 900 photos. The magic shots and ride videos are very cool.

 

[Ladcassidy]

Family of 3, 5 day trip, well over 400 pictures, even before I multiplied them by adding frames, stickers, etc. Granted, we did ETwB several times, which is a photo bonanza. Also lots of character meals and ride photos.

 

[Leeba]

Thanks all! It sounds like it would be sort of freeing to just put away the camera (I mean, phone) and not have to worry about documenting everything.

Does it cost a lot of *time* though? 900 pictures in 5 days? OMG, that's a lot of photos!!

ETA: OOOH! I misread. 400 pictures in 5 days; 900 pictures with 3 families. Still, that's a lot of pics.

 

[alicat8]

We got a lot of photos, but I was unimpressed with the quality. Definitely nothing we couldn't have done with our own cameras. It was nice to be able to just watch my daughter with the characters, but I'm pretty sure most of the photographers are just random cms that they hand a camera. I definitely didn't see it as a replacement for our own camera. They're not everywhere, but nice to get some formals with everyone included.

 

[Ladcassidy]

We only stopped for posed pictures when it was super convenient -- as in, when the photographer was standing near us looking to take a picture immediately. No waiting. Most of our pictures came from things we were doing anyway -- at meals, character meet & greets, rides and other attractions.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Did the CD cost anything? Because you can download all the photos to your computer, etc, for free.

I vote yay on the MM - a very good use of money, IMO. The best pictures we got came from the professional shots. We haven't taken professional photos of the whole family since we had kids (1 and 4 years old), so this was perfect for that - family photo session with an awesome background!

The cd was $20. I just personally like having the extra backup.

 

[limpy]

The cd was $20. I just personally like having the extra backup.

Yes, but you can just put the pics onto a CD for a few cents (cost of blank CD). You could make several cds in a few minutes.

 

[verleniahall]

we loved it - we had 5 days in park plus halloween party plus chararacter meal and dtd - it was really worth it ot be in the pictures and not behind the camera the entire time. (it showed i actually WAS on teh vacation!)

 

[Mousemommy1]

Yes, but you can just put the pics onto a CD for a few cents (cost of blank CD). You could make several cds in a few minutes.

I know. I'm one of those suckers who pays a premium for convenience, lol

 

[kboo]

We got over 200 pics with MM last year. Invaluable for family pics and magic pics. We did Enchanted Tales 2x in a row, and it was wonderful because one time DH and DD were in it.

Quality definitely varies among the photographers, but the ones on Main St., especially in the morning, were generally terrific.

 

[MandiC]

We got at least 300 pictures (but we also did Enchanted Tales with Belle, as a pp said, photopass bonanza!) I loved it and we will definitely do it again for future trips. It is nice to get those classic Disney shots in perfect locations of your entire family without trying to bother/stop someone else who is on vacation. We never waited for pictures, just took a second or two to pose and get our band scanned and be on our way. It was wonderful. Could you do it with your own camera? Probably but for me it took the stress out of it. Now that is not to say I wouldn't bring something to take our own pictures! Some of my favorites of the kids are ones I took. My younger daughter with her daddy at night on the carousel on our first day in Magic Kingdom, no photopass photographers around there. The kids in the World Showcase, exploring Animal Kingdom, on the safari ride, ect.
You do get all your ride and meal pictures, which was another huge bonus for us.

 

[canadiandisneynut]

When you say meal pictures do you mean when you enter for dinner or does a cm actually take pics of the characters with your kids as they visit the table?

 

[MandiC]

When you enter and pose for a picture (at Tusker House it isn't with a character), the photopass photographers don't take pictures at the tables

 

[wlake]

We always do one and I think it's worth it. We end up with over a couple hundred for a 7 day trip. Some of the photographers are great and will pose you for great shots and others will snap one picture and that's it; so if you don't think the photographer got good shots, hit that spot again another time. Some are college students, some just "regular" people, and some are actually photographers. We found one who was working the Mexico to Italy half of World Showcase one morning about 3 years ago and ended up sort of following him (not on purpose). We posed for him in a couple of countries and found out he was a "real" photographer. By the time we met up with him in Italy, he did a huge photoshoot of us -- 30 or 40 pictures -- because he wasn't busy, and those are some of the best photos of my husband and me outside of our wedding. (If you see Frank, he's worth waiting in line for! ) There have been others that have gotten my normally reserved husband to be goofy and silly, and there's always one that can make it look like my boys actually get along! The ride pictures are so-so in my opinion and the character meal pictures vary. The ones we had from Tusker House with Donald Duck were good, the ones from Park Fare and 'Ohana were ok (but those don't have characters in them). We don't do many (if any) character meet and greets, but when you do, those are added to the Memory Maker too, and you can add a character signature stamp to the picture during the editing process afterwards. I thought that was pretty cool!