Tell me about Shutters -$$ worth it? - Pro's and Con's

[taniahappy]

Yikes for those prices! If I didnt have one already, I would much rather prefer to purchase a GoPro and take my own cool pics and then edit them at home... and print them with Shutterfly or similar

 

[NavyBlue4Eight]

We didn't purchase the package before we got on board, and it turned out okay for us because it turns out we're not the types to stalk the characters (save Stitch) or to stop for every photo op. I went down to Shutters the last night to see what they had (compared to what we took), and only ended up buying two additional photos - one of my DH at the end of the CC5K, and the other of my son and Mickey (which was better than ours). Sadly, the one set of pictures that didn't turn out for us (Disney Jr. meet and greet) didn't show up in our album at all. We won't get another chance at those as our little isn't so little anymore.
That aside, we'll do the same thing next time - just purchase the couple needed to fill in the gaps.

 

[SwimMom2]

I got the digital only package. For the past several years WDW photo pass has replaced our need to have family portraits taken. When I compare to the cost of family portraits in our area, Shutters is a bargain. Lol

 

[swimfin]

Hi,

The photo packages (especially the one with the disk and all the print photos are worth it!) The nice thing about the package where you get all the photos on the disk and you get the hard copy photos is you do not have to sit in Shutters and have to pick the best pictures out of your whole vacation. We have done the disk and and all the print photos package before a few times. It is expensive, but to our family it is worth the money!

1st time cruiser here and leaving in 2 weeks ... Clarification ... am I understanding this correctly....if I purchase the Disk and prints ($229 after 15% discount) I will get the disk and a hard copy of EVERY picture taken? For example, if we took 50 pictures, I'd have those 50 pics on the disk AND those exact 50 pics as 8x10s as well? So walking home with 50 8x10 photos?? AND if for some reason we don't like the pictures we can "downgrade" or cancel before the last night of the cruise? TYIA for clarifying!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

1st time cruiser here and leaving in 2 weeks ... Clarification ... am I understanding this correctly....if I purchase the Disk and prints ($229 after 15% discount) I will get the disk and a hard copy of EVERY picture taken? For example, if we took 50 pictures, I'd have those 50 pics on the disk AND those exact 50 pics as 8x10s as well? So walking home with 50 8x10 photos?? AND if for some reason we don't like the pictures we can "downgrade" or cancel before the last night of the cruise? TYIA for clarifying!

Well, it does seem to say that you will get a hard copy of all photos, but the website says "Print option includes one copy of your photos displayed in Shutters." Not all photos are displayed in Shutters. Some people have reported that they did, indeed, NOT receive ALL photos on the CD in hard copy, only those that were already printed out for display. Now, it is possible that all your photos may be printed for display. There's no way of knowing until you see what's actually printed.

Not all photos are 8X10 size (printed) the character photo ops are 6X8.

Yes, you can change whatever package you purchase, as long as you do it by the last full day of the cruise.
It's not really a change, they will credit back the package you originally purchased and charge you for a whole new package.

 

[beckylola]

I'm glad that someone renewed this thread. I've already pre-purchased the photobook for our Western Caribbean Fantasy cruise in June. Now I'm starting to worry about the pictures from Castaway Cay, which is on our last full day. Will there be time for the CC pictures to be uploaded to Shutters in time to make the photobook? I think it has to be done by 10 pm that night.

 

[swimfin]

I'm glad that someone renewed this thread. I've already pre-purchased the photobook for our Western Caribbean Fantasy cruise in June. Now I'm starting to worry about the pictures from Castaway Cay, which is on our last full day. Will there be time for the CC pictures to be uploaded to Shutters in time to make the photobook? I think it has to be done by 10 pm that night.

I was just wondering the same thing about CC pictures as I read PrincessShmoo's reply!!!

 

[swimfin]

Well, it does seem to say that you will get a hard copy of all photos, but the website says "Print option includes one copy of your photos displayed in Shutters." Not all photos are displayed in Shutters. Some people have reported that they did, indeed, NOT receive ALL photos on the CD in hard copy, only those that were already printed out for display. Now, it is possible that all your photos may be printed for display. There's no way of knowing until you see what's actually printed.

Not all photos are 8X10 size (printed) the character photo ops are 6X8.

Yes, you can change whatever package you purchase, as long as you do it by the last full day of the cruise.
It's not really a change, they will credit back the package you originally purchased and charge you for a whole new package.

OK!!! That makes a lot more sense!!!! THANK YOU for clarifying!!!! You always know the details!!! Truly appreciate it!!! THANK YOU!!!

 

[Amazonparrot]

I didn't like the fact that most of the photos they took were 8x10's. Of course those cost more so that is probably why they do it. I felt that some of the ones we took ourselves came out better and you can
always enlarge to a 5x7 if you have a particularly nice one. But my sister went with the package and spent alot of money. Oh well, everyone has their own way of looking at it.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

Whoa, I should've purchased that one photo onboard. I just tried to order it online. Each picture is $25! For a jpeg of the photo?!?! No thank you! I'll do without it. That's crazy! Well, at least it will be in our photo book.

 

[Bella29]

I love pictures and I love to have pictures that have everyone in the family in them. I have purchased the photo CD package in the past. However I am not likely to buy again for our next cruise because:
- I hate the cutesy borders they add on to the digital images now - blech. They always seem to cover up part of a person.
- the file sizes are not high - each pic on our last cd was about 1 - 1.5 mb, with some as low as 900kb. They are fine for printing up to 8x10 at 300dpi but they are not as good as they could/should be for digital scrapbooking and photo editing - zooming, cropping out what I can of the obnoxious border, etc.
- When we have been on the larger ship, we didn't see as many photo opportunities without long lines and certainly none for the characters. We haven't seen a photographer on Castaway Cay since 2005. But I know others have, it's just hit or miss I guess.
- Given all of the above, I find Shutters prices to be too high. And it really bothers me that they don't just give me the printed pics when you buy the CD since they're going to throw them away anyway and I just spent $350 with them. They would probably sell more CDs and save money on trash collection if they included the printed pics with the CDs or charged a reasonable nominal fee - $25 or so.
- Also my next cruise is a b2b, I wish they offered a good deal for that.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

I just got off the Dream. I ordered the photobook. They will mail it to our home, to arrive in 2-3 wks. It was chaos in Shutters the last night with long lines for the kiosks, since you had to wait until the last night to have all the pics available to create your photobook.

I had to work REALLY hard, "stalking" photo ops to get enough pics to fill up our photobook! The Shutters photographers were ONLY available for scheduled character meets (ridiculously long lines), in the atrium around dinner and they stopped by our dinner table two nights. I only saw one Shutters photographer on CC,and that was right after you got off the boat, for a pic in front of the boat. There were some character meets scheduled on CC, but it rained that morning, so I guess they were canceled. This is crazy, because with other cruise lines, the photographers are EVERYWHERE, taking LOTS of candid shots all day throughout the ship the entire cruise! So much so, that they become quite annoying. So, it's ridiculous that you have to "stalk" the photographers on DCL!

Anyway, the photobook was worth it to me, since it was just DS and me. It was nice to have professional pictures of the two of us.

 

[Peggytc]

How does the cancel on board work? Just if you don't take enough photos or don't like them enough, they will refund you? I'm looking at getting the package, we are going to be on a 12 night and its pretty pricey... But preorder does save a little.

Is there a discount if you buy before you board? How big of a savings roughly?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Is there a discount if you buy before you board? How big of a savings roughly?

The discount is only on the full CD if you prepurchase, and it's about 15%.

 

[Seamama]

I love pictures and I love to have pictures that have everyone in the family in them. I have purchased the photo CD package in the past. However I am not likely to buy again for our next cruise because:
- I hate the cutesy borders they add on to the digital images now - blech. They always seem to cover up part of a person.
- the file sizes are not high - each pic on our last cd was about 1 - 1.5 mb, with some as low as 900kb. They are fine for printing up to 8x10 at 300dpi but they are not as good as they could/should be for digital scrapbooking and photo editing - zooming, cropping out what I can of the obnoxious border, etc.
- When we have been on the larger ship, we didn't see as many photo opportunities without long lines and certainly none for the characters. We haven't seen a photographer on Castaway Cay since 2005. But I know others have, it's just hit or miss I guess.
- Given all of the above, I find Shutters prices to be too high. And it really bothers me that they don't just give me the printed pics when you buy the CD since they're going to throw them away anyway and I just spent $350 with them. They would probably sell more CDs and save money on trash collection if they included the printed pics with the CDs or charged a reasonable nominal fee - $25 or so.
- Also my next cruise is a b2b, I wish they offered a good deal for that.

Good point about the borders. I actually think they'd sell more CDs (even at those exorbitant rates) if the CD included pics with and without borders. Better yet, would be a set of borders that you could overlay yourself. And yes, why don't they just include the photos they've already printed? They're just going to throw them out anyway, which surely costs them money in trash fees. But, based on the fact that they're still in business, I guess they're making plenty of money even without our money saving/increasing ideas, lol!

 

[Seamama]

The discount is only on the full CD if you prepurchase, and it's about 15%.

And we can always change our order up to the last night night of the cruise, right? So, in my mind, I might as well do the pre-purchase and then change it if it turns out we really didn't get as many pics as we hoped. It's the same theory I use w/ Onboard Booking... we probably won't be able to sail again for 3 yrs (budget and family schedule reasons) and the expiration on those new 'vouchers' is 2 yrs BUT on the off-chance we win the lottery or something (like they change the expiration rules), I might as well book onboard just IN CASE we can sail again sooner. If we don't sail soon enough, we lose nothing but the onboard credit (which was "free money"/not ours to start with) anyway. (Of course, as my DS pointed out, "Mom, we can't win the lottery if we don't play it!" Smart boy.)

 

[New Cruise Gal]

How does this work if you have mixed families in a stateroom? I am sharing the stateroom with my sister and her son.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

How does this work if you have mixed families in a stateroom? I am sharing the stateroom with my sister and her son.

Each room must purchase their own CD, if you all want the CD. The only exception to this is where there is one nuclear family (dad & minor kids in one room, and mom & minor kids in a second room). In that case only one CD purchase is necessary.

I'm not sure if you're asking about just one room with a mixed family - but, if so, if your room purchases the CD than any photos take with anyone from your room in them will be included in the CD (one CD).

 

[New Cruise Gal]

Each room must purchase their own CD, if you all want the CD. The only exception to this is where there is one nuclear family (dad & minor kids in one room, and mom & minor kids in a second room). In that case only one CD purchase is necessary.

I'm not sure if you're asking about just one room with a mixed family - but, if so, if your room purchases the CD than any photos take with anyone from your room in them will be included in the CD (one CD).

Thanks Shmoo that's what I was afraid of. I really don't mind some pics of them but I really wanted more just myself and my son.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Thanks Shmoo that's what I was afraid of. I really don't mind some pics of them but I really wanted more just myself and my son.

Is your son in a different room?