What's the advantage of photopass?

[Lavender Mom]

I'm sorry, I don't get it. Can someone spell it out for me? Why would it be worth it for me to spend $100 (mabye 60?) for me to get a disc of pictures from Disney? Is it just so that I can take advantage of the skill and/or convenience of the Disneyland photographers? Is it so that I can have cute pictures of mickey, minnie and tinkerbell in my photographs? Is there more that I'm missing?

Please help. I've read several threads on the topic trying to figure it out and I just don't get it.

 

[LavenderPeach]

One advantage is that you get everyone in your group in the pictures instead of always having someone missing.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

One advantage is that you get everyone in your group in the pictures instead of always having someone missing.

Or asking a stranger to take them for you.

Now that Disney changed it where the prepaid price is the same as the after you get home from the trip price (this is still right, right?), you can check out all your pictures when you get home from your trip before you buy.

 

[Sherry E]

I didn't understand the benefits of PhotoPass prior to coming to DISboards in January 2008. Now I wish I had taken a chance on it in December 2007 when I had certain friends with me, but too late now. For me (and you can see many of my Photopass pictures on the Photopass sticky thread and in my Trip Report), the benefits were numerous. By the way, there is no sense in paying $100 to pre-order for DLR. You pay $60 when you go online and edit your photos and order your CD.

1. As Lavender Peach said, you can get a whole bunch of pictures with everyone in the group in them, and no one has to be left out or bothering other people to take the pictures.

2. PhotoPass photographers generally tend to have good equipment - their cameras are high quality Nikons (like D70 or D80), and tend to be better than what we bring with us to the park. The last couple of trips, neither my friends nor I had great cameras with us, so the PhotoPass people came in handy. I used them for all of my 'people' pictures and used my other cameras for scenic/landscape stuff. It is worth it to use them for better and nicer photos than what you may ordinarily get. And they will take several in each 'session.' It is also good to use as back-up if your camera breaks down or gets lost.

3. You can get hundreds and hundreds of pictures for your $60. That is a great deal! It is not a good deal if you only take 10 pictures and spend $60, but you can get hundreds and hundreds of them taken, and you edit them countless ways, using the special Disney borders and effects on the PP site, which means you can double and triple the photos you have. I turned 97 pictures into 300 by editing.

4. Why not use PP? It's a win-win. You don't have to buy anything. You can have them literally take 500 pictures of your group and you can go on to the website and share those pictures with everyone you know via e-mail within a 30 day period, but you never have to buy anything if you don't want to. They will delete the photos after a certain period of time and they will be gone, but if you see them and don't think they are worth it, you never have to buy a thing. The PhotoPass card is free, the picture taking is free, and viewing/sharing of them is free. You just cannot keep them if you don't buy.

5. And yes, you do get the special Disney magic shots if you want them, like Tink in the hand, Mickey sitting next to you on the bench, pointing up at Mickey and Minnie and Goofy in the sky, pointing at Stitch in the ground, Stitch popping out of the Christmas present, etc.

Basically, the bottom line is - I don't think my friends were that keen on getting in PhotoPass pictures to begin with because they didn't know anything about it, but once we got rolling (at my insistence), they loved it! Once they saw how it worked, the photographers helped loosen them up and got them to do zany things on camera like we used to do when we went in the '80s and '90s. It made them laugh. They had FUN. And isn't Disneyland all about fun and letting loose? I say it's worth a TRY for anyone. You have nothing to lose and you will probably get some great photos out of it if you use PhotoPass!

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

I didn't understand the benefits of PhotoPass prior to coming to DISboards in January 2008. Now I wish I had taken a chance on it in December 2007 when I had certain friends with me, but too late now. For me (and you can see many of my Photopass pictures on the Photopass sticky thread and in my Trip Report), the benefits were numerous. By the way, there is no sense in paying $100 to pre-order for DLR. You pay $60 when you go online and edit your photos and order your CD.

1. As Lavender Peach said, you can get a whole bunch of pictures with everyone in the group in them, and no one has to be left out or bothering other people to take the pictures.

2. PhotoPass photographers generally tend to have good equipment - their cameras are high quality Nikons (like D70 or D80), and tend to be better than what we bring with us to the park. The last couple of trips, neither my friends nor I had great cameras with us, so the PhotoPass people came in handy. I used them for all of my 'people' pictures and used my other cameras for scenic/lanscape stuff. It is worth it to use them for better and nicer photos than what you may ordinarily get. And they will take several in each 'session.' It is also good to use as back-up if your camera breaks down or gets lost.

3. You can get hundreds and hundreds of pictures for your $60. That is a great deal! It is not a good deal if you only take 10 pictures and spend $60, but you can get hundreds and hundreds of them taken, and you edit them countless ways, using the special Disney borders and effects on the PP site, which means you can double and triple the photos you have. I turned 97 pictures into 300 by editing.

4. WHy not use PP? It's a win-win. You don't have to buy anything. You can have them literally take 500 pictures of you and you can go on to the website and share those pictures with everyone you know via e-mail within a 30 day period, but you never have to buy anything if you don't want to. They will delete the photos after a certain period of time and they will be gone, but if you see them and don't think they are worth it, you never have to buy a thing. The PhotoPass card is free, the picture taking is free, and viewing/sharing them is free. You just cannot keep them if you don't buy.

5. And yes, you do get the special Disney magic shots if you want them, like Tink in the hand, Mickey sitting next to you on the bench, pointing up at Mickey and Minnie and Goofy in the sky, pointing at Stitch in the ground, Sticth popping out of the Christmas present, etc.

Basically, the bottom line is - I don't think my friends were that keen on getting in PhotoPass pictures to begin with because they didn't know anything about it, but once we got rolling (at my insistence), they loved it! Once they saw how it worked, the photographers helped loosen them up and got them to do zany things on camera like we used to do when we went in the '80s and '90s. It made them laugh. They had FUN. And isn't Disneyland all about fun and letting loose? I say it's worth a TRY for anyone. You have nothing to lose and you will probably get some great photos out of it if you use PhotoPass!

Very well said!....and I agree with it all!

 

[annacali]

And as a mom with 2 small children...who had a hard enough time managing autograph books, pens, bags etc all the while not letting the kids ever out of my sight in a 2 minute character encounter... it was nice to have someone else take high quality close up shots of my kids with the characters and not have to worry about stepping back and taking pictures too.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

in case its not said an i missed it. photopass sharing. theres alot of us here that pay 10dollers or so to one person we all have set when we go an she or he is in charge they order the cd after eveyrones had a chance to edit an the when they get it they burn ours for us. its cheap an alot of fun an good pics to

 

[WA Kay]

I agree with others. When I began scrapbooking last year I started to notice a pattern. I am not in any vacation pictures as I am always behind the camera.

So I am looking forward to some evidence that I have actually been on the next Disneyland vacation. Yah PhotoPass

 

[Bugdozer]

I just LOVE photopass. When you consider that to buy the pictures individually it is $12.95 photopass is an amazing deal. Like others said I take the pictures and never end up in them. I also love the fact that i can print the pictures out right from my computer or at a local retailer as Disney includes a release form with the photopass. Knowing I am using photopass I don't worry how many pictures we are having done or how many poses. I love being able to add the borders to the pictures. I usually take each pictures and add the border and save as new. There is no limit on how many pictures are on a DVD. On a recent trip to WDW when all was said and done with all borders and so on I ended up with 1200 pictures. We make it a point to stop when in the parks. Does not take to much of your time up.

Here is a good pointer for those using photopass. As soon as you get your photopass card that they scan take you own camera and take a picture of the back of the card. If you were to loose your card you have the number that is on the back and can still enter it at the photopass site. Sometimes we may have up to 4 different cards going and i always take a picture of the back. Once they are put into the photopass site the boys like to keep the cards as a souvenir.

Bug

 

[toni1227]

We went last week and I think next time I will do more research on when to buy etc. We did not get that many photos (one reason being my DD was sick for an entire day (our DCA day so hardly any photos there) and the other is they kept taking our pics while we were facing the sun and my DS was not going for that. He kept closing his eyes and putting his arm up.
So then the last day I went to the photopass place and the guy told me to get the tinkerbell and other things on the pics it was $79. I asked him about buying the pics online and he said if you buy now you will not pay for shipping. I ended up paying $59 for the regular pics on the disc.

 

[Sherry E]

We went last week and I think next time I will do more research on when to buy etc. We did not get that many photos (one reason being my DD was sick for an entire day (our DCA day so hardly any photos there) and the other is they kept taking our pics while we were facing the sun and my DS was not going for that. He kept closing his eyes and putting his arm up.
So then the last day I went to the photopass place and the guy told me to get the tinkerbell and other things on the pics it was $79. I asked him about buying the pics online and he said if you buy now you will not pay for shipping. I ended up paying $59 for the regular pics on the disc.

It is really worth paying the $7.00 for shipping to leisurely edit your pictures to your heart's content, in the comfort of your own home, on the PP site. You can edit for two hours, then edit again at your convenience in a week. You can experiment with different borders and effects, black and white, zooming in, cropping; you can do many variations of the same photo (like let's say you want to send the same exact Stitch-in-the-ground picture to every member of your family but want a different border or character enhancement on each one - you can save multiple copies). And it costs $59.95 plus $7.00 for U.S. shipping - no tax. It is a really good deal - moreso if you take LOTS of pictures. But now you know so next time you will be prepared and armed with lots of PhotoPass knowledge!!

 

[nunzia]

I'm a cheapskate and I found it well worth it for our family reunion and the Adventures by Disney. I won't get one everytime, but it was sure worth it those two times. I scrapbook and got so many great shots of everyone fighting Captain Hook, hitchhiking with ghosts, etc..I made scrapbooks and enlargement..all kinds of things. It was alot of fun editing them, cropping, adding autographs, etc.

 

[KelliLee702]

I just LOVE photopass. Here is a good pointer for those using photopass. As soon as you get your photopass card that they scan take you own camera and take a picture of the back of the card. If you were to loose your card you have the number that is on the back and can still enter it at the photopass site. Sometimes we may have up to 4 different cards going and i always take a picture of the back. Once they are put into the photopass site the boys like to keep the cards as a souvenir.

Bug

Can more than one person have the same card? So that several family members can get photos on the same Photopass?

Thanks.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

You can combine multiple cards onto one account.

The PhotoPass CMs can and will take pictures with your own camera as well. As for the PhotoPass service, the borders, etc. can be a lot of fun, but the service forever sold itself to me the day that my own camera died right when my picture with the character was being taken. Fortunately, I had PhotoPass.

The great thing is that the service is free. If you get home and find out that you don't like any of the pics, borders, etc. you're not out of pocket. You only have to pay for the CD if you choose to buy it.

 

[LavenderPeach]

The PhotoPass CMs can and will take pictures with your own camera as well.

Has anyone had a good pictures taken on their own camera by PP CMs? The couple of times we have done this, the pictures have come out awful and we have a nice little camera (not professional but it's new and I can always get good pictures with it). DH and I laugh that they are probably told to take bad pictures with the guest's cameras so that they'll want to buy the PP version. I know it's a little off topic but just wondering if it's just us or what.

 

[Dizneydaz]

As PP have said, it's one way to make sure you all get in the picture. I too am the picture taker in my family and never seem to be in the shots. And yes, you can have the PP photog. take pictures of your family with your own camera. Many times they will offer to do so without being asked. I will say that the picture they take with their camera almost always comes out better. They take at least 3 shots, and they zoom in. With your camera you'll usually only get one, and it's usually not zoomed in.

Twice now I have been able to combined WDW and DLR on one CD order. Last year I ended up with 2180 pictures (after edits) of which 2030 were of my family (and friends) alone. 150 more were for 2 other families who shared my CD at WDW (I had met them the year before).

Right now when we go to DLR we aren't doing the PP CD and I miss it! I enjoy talking to the PP photogs. It's fun to act silly. And the pictures are, for the most part, wonderful. If you have kids, they are even more special. Since we've done them so often, now it's fun if we can come up with a new pose. Here's one of our most recent ones. Our fav. PP photog took this in Jan. He said he'd been thinking about it and wondered if Disney would let it go thru-they did and I think it's pretty funny!

When we go to WDW they also take PP pictures in the 2 waterparks. The photogs stand right in the water to get some great shots. Even when the giant wave is approaching. You can't get those shots yourself unless you have a very expensive, waterproof SLR. Last year my waterproof case (for disposable cameras) leaked so I wasn't able to take any of my own water shots.

This one is of my DD9 and her best friend who we ran into at BB. We knew they were visiting WDW but didn't make arrangements to meet up yet. The photog that day was great taking pix of the 2 of them. This was a special shot she had just taken once before-See how you can see the water slide in the center of the tube?


$67 isn't change ($59.95 plus $7 shipping) but it's a small price to pay (to me) for the memories. For about the same price you'll pay to get about 5 5x7 prints in the park, you can get all of them and print as many as you want. I get mine done at Sam's Club.

 

[ratherbe@disneyland]

When I went out there in September last year, we had a CM take one of us with the Photopass, and one with our camera, and the one on the photopass was horrible, but the one taken with my camera was great. I think its a hit or miss really...

The thing that pulls me in for the Photopass is that its only DH and I, so unless we want to ask someone every time, or have just one of us in each shot, its great to be able to utilize this. We didn't use it on our trip in 2006 and only have about 4 shots of both of us in them (asked random people) but this year we will use the photopass to add to our pics. I think its all just about you wanting to have lots of pictures of everyone in your party. Like everyone else said lol.

 

[Mybananas]

It is really worth paying the $7.00 for shipping to leisurely edit your pictures to your heart's content, in the comfort of your own home, on the PP site. You can edit for two hours, then edit again at your convenience in a week. You can experiment with different borders and effects, black and white, zooming in, cropping; you can do many variations of the same photo (like let's say you want to send the same exact Stitch-in-the-ground picture to every member of your family but want a different border or character enhancement on each one - you can save multiple copies). And it costs $59.95 plus $7.00 for U.S. shipping - no tax. It is a really good deal - moreso if you take LOTS of pictures. But now you know so next time you will be prepared and armed with lots of PhotoPass knowledge!!

So if I understand this correctly, at the end of your DL trip you go turn in your card and they will try to sell you a CD w/ extra's there. Or you can just wait until you get home and order the CD plus s/h charge? And from the sounds of it, it is better to wait until you get home and then order the CD due to endless photo editing possiblities...

If I wanted to just wait until I get home to order the CD, do I need to tell them that so that they won't delete the picts???

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Has anyone had a good pictures taken on their own camera by PP CMs? The couple of times we have done this, the pictures have come out awful and we have a nice little camera (not professional but it's new and I can always get good pictures with it). DH and I laugh that they are probably told to take bad pictures with the guest's cameras so that they'll want to buy the PP version. I know it's a little off topic but just wondering if it's just us or what.

I've never had a problem with the CMs taking bad pics with my camera. In some cases, the better pic comes from my camera.

The pics will be in the PhotoPass system for approximately 30 days after the first one is taken. Once you enter your code from the back of the card on the website you will get approximately 30 days after you enter the code before Disney will delete them. It's my understanding that if you order a PhotoPass product, they'll keep the pictures up a little longer than the 30 days.

Any edits made in park are not saved to the system and you can't get the special borders, add ons, etc. if you buy the CD in the park. IMO, it's well worth paying the shipping and handling to be able to make nearly unlimited edits on those pictures. And again, they don't limit how many pics you take (and later edit) with PhotoPass unless we're talking numbers in the thousands.

 

[Sherry E]

So if I understand this correctly, at the end of your DL trip you go turn in your card and they will try to sell you a CD w/ extra's there. Or you can just wait until you get home and order the CD plus s/h charge? And from the sounds of it, it is better to wait until you get home and then order the CD due to endless photo editing possiblities...

If I wanted to just wait until I get home to order the CD, do I need to tell them that so that they won't delete the picts???

PP won't delete your pictures yet. You have time. I have never gone to the PP locations in either park to view my pictures. Some folks like to do that because they want to be sure all the photos are there (sometimes technical difficulties can arise and pictures could be missing; but if you can provide enough info about what you were wearing or where the picture was taken, they can track your pictures down! It's great!). Iny any case, yes, I gather that at those locations in DLR, they offer you the option of buying single photos there or a CD there, with come enhancements, but you don't get to edit youself. So waiting until you get home and paying the extra $7.00 for shipping is the MUCH better deal due to the endless photo editing possibilities. When you get home, you take whatever cards you have accumulated (it is easier to have all the pictures on one card, but if you have multiple cards among your family members, have one reliable person collect them all) and create your online PP account. Or if you lose the card(s), make sure you have written down the numbers from the backs of the cards at the start of your trip so you can access your pics with the numbers even if the cards get lost. Anyway, you enter the card numbers into your account and view your photos. You have to create the PP account within 30 days of the date the first PP picture was taken. They won't delete anything yet as long as you create your account within 30 days. Then, you have an additional 30 days from the day the account is created to edit, share, view your photos and make a purchase. You can share them with relatives before, during and after your editing process in case anyone has suggestions. So basically, if you don't buy anything after that second 30 day period, they will delete your photos. But you have all kinds of time to play with them before that to get them just how you want them!

And if you decide to order an extra copy CD for anyone else at the same time as buying your CD, it is an additional $19.95, added to the $59.95 for the first CD. Otherwise, just for one CD it is $59.95 to buy the CD online.

I should point out that one of our wonderful DIS'ers here, Dizneydaz, had over 2000 (!!!!) pictures on ONE PhotoPass account, all for $59.95!!!