To Be or not to be ...a Memory Maker

[kjblovesdisney]

The pros and cons of purchasing Memory Maker are needed. We (myself, daughter and granddaughter age 10) are heading to WDW on Sept 23- 28. I am a regular visitor/fanatic but my daughter and granddaughter haven't been in almost 5 years. I was thinking of purchasing h Memory Maker for our MDE but my daughter thinks it might be too much money. I'm thinking it would be a great keepsake for my granddaughter. Whats do you think?

 

[hbisch]

We all value pictures differently - and you have to decide if the value is worth it for YOU, not for your daughter or granddaughter (a 10 year old would likely choose a toy or stuffed animal over a bunch of pictures, so you are buying it for you, not for her). Personally, I purchased Memory Maker for a combined total of 14 hours in the parks over 2 days (Villains Unleashed and one MNSSHP) and it is worth every penny to me. I would consider it a no-brainer for a 5-6 day trip...

 

[Madame]

We purchased it for our 1st trip last month. It was ok, but I wouldn't pay for it again.

Some of our ride photos are missing.
Nothing to do with MM, but same technology /flaw - all my daughter's posed castle package BBB photos were blank due to 'wrong shutter speed used by photog.' We did not find this out until 4pm. The photos were taken before 9am & we were soaked with sweat & the costumed had been removed.

I don't think that some of the photographers are as trained as they need to be when you're paying that much just to download photos you then have to pay again to print.

Just my $.02

 

[lizard1]

We love MM. We used it on our last 2 trips (we were able to combine it onto one MM, which made the value even greater for us). From our first 2 weeks, we ended up downloading almost 1700 pictures (just for our family of 8).

Pros:
-ALL of you can be in each picture
-You can be a part of character interactions instead of hanging back taking pictures
-They capture some great character interaction, including the time when the child is walking up to the character, not just a posed photo
-You are more likely to stop to take pictures
-Magic shots
-Animated magic shots and ride videos
-Prepurchase discount of $50...comes out about the same as buying 10 prints from Disney

Cons:
-Sometimes photos are missing, and while they many times can be retrieved by calling Photopass, sometimes there is an equipment malfunction and they can't be retrieved
-You have to sometimes make an effort to stop to take pictures
-Price- it is expensive if you don't try to get some value out of it by stopping to take pictures

 

[BudgieMama]

For us, it was the best value add on we booked. We went to NYC last year, and came home without a single photo of the two of us, because every time we gave my camera to someone else, they screwed up!

A week with MM gave us nearly 300 photos, mostly of both of us, but on the day we toured separately, nice individual photos at the parks we visited. It was well worth it for us. They are worth far more to us than the $150 price tag! It was nice not to worry about how many photos we had taken, or having to choose at the end. We also love having the ride photos, but we would never have paid for them separately.

I can understand those who think it is a waste of money, but I'm well chuffed with our photos!

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

Just used it last week. The only con was there were some decent lines for the photogs at prime picture taking spots. Everything else was awesome about it. 300 photos of us, me in most of them (That rarely happens), amazing quality of photographs, very professional level, the photogs were incredibly friendly and gave us some great park tips, magic shots are hilarious. Honestly feel that this was the best money we spent at Disney.