What's wrong with Shutters?

[kalc12345]

The price is one problem. The photos are very expensive for what you get. The quality is horrible!!! I think you could get better pictures from a little point and shoot. Then there are the borders..hate them! They also don't give you many options in what size you can get it.

 

[Silverfox97]

Will the Shutters photographers use your personal camera to take a picture also, like the Photopass ones will, if you ask?

No. However, when meeting characters, the DCL CM 'handler' will take a pic with your personal camera.

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[Silverfox97]

I bought the 10-photo CD, and there are borders on all the photos. I have found them to be difficult or even impossible to crop out. In addition to the borders, some of the photos have multiple logos/graphics which make the photo look way too busy. Here is an example:

The borders are also a problem when trying to print standard sizes like 4x6 and 5x7, with portrait (vertical) orientation photos in particular. Specifically, the borders on the left and right are cut off.

Why not just allow us to log on to a web site when we get home to choose the photos we want?

The ONE lone pic I bought in March was a 6x8 including the horrific logo-laden border. You are correct - the placement of it doesn't allow for even cropping. I was able to grab a frame at Michaels for it. If it wasn't for the fact that its a nice family photo, we surely would not have purchased it (and in fact DH (a photographer) is still not happy with it).

I also agree with the last part about buying online later.

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[MommaSnowwhite]

When we cruised in June of 2012 I was surprised how bad the photographers were. My DD was >1 and was dressed in a Minnie dress. We stood in line for 20 min to meet Minnie. My DD crawled to Minnie - it was so stinking cute! The photographer didn't get a single good shot. Minnie on her hands and knees and my daughter on hers - priceless. The guy took 2 pics, both were horrible - the photopass people in the parks would have taken a ton more. I think they take fewer photos because they print them all. My DH is a hack photographer & he says the best way to get a great shot is take tons of them - its a law of averages - one of them will be great!

 

[ajgardner]

This is disappointing - I've been to Disney World once and DisneyLand once, both times using PhotoPass and loved it. We got tons of pictures and it was easy. This is somewhat the vision I had for Shutters. I guess I'll have to carry my camera around at all times - I love pictures and scrapbooks.
It doesn't sound like a lot of what they do makes sense...why print out all those photos - the cost they incur from that (ink, time, photopaper, etc..) is huge, along with just the general waste. It also seems that it would be easy and not a big deal to include two copies of pictures on the CDs, one plain and one with borders. I'm bummed now.

How about the family portrait sessions that I read about - are these decent? Is there a charge for the sitting?

 

[havaneselover]

One word: borders. This is my biggest gripe with dcl. Quality and price are reasonable IMO.

 

[Jey12]

My only guess as to why they print out all of the pictures is because people are more likely to buy a picture that has already been printed than one they see on a screen. Something about the thought of your family being tossed in the trash bothers a lot of people and in a way they are "saving" that picture. Or at least that would be my guess.

ETA I wish I knew more people that were willing to pay $300 for a couple pics on a CD. I would be able to take a month long cruise on what I'd make doing the regular portrait sessions I schedule throughout the year.

 

[Ana~n~Joseph]

We always buy pictures from Shutters but I sure wish they weren't so expensive and that they had other size options. Really wish I could get some 4x6 or 5x7! Also hate the borders! I also wish they would link Photopass with the Ships - it would be nice to go to Disney World before a cruise and have all the pictures together.

 

[Meghatron]

We have been on three cruises with different Shutters staff each time and have had an issue with maybe two photos out of hundreds. We include the CD price in our vacation budget because we think it's that valuable. We actually do "wallpaper" our walls with family photos and a majority of them are the shots taken by Shutters. Almost none are Photopass shots, in which we are perpetually disappointed.

I am one of those people who LOVE the borders and would previous be forced to comb through our prints and choose which ones I wanted on top of the CD that has no borders. I am very happy that the CD now includes the borders, although I agree with a PP that digital technology should allow for both options to be on the CD.

 

[shmoogrrrl]

On our last cruise (2005, so WAAAY back(, they didn't have borders on them. Can you not ask for a picture without the border? I wonder what the reasoning behind THAT is? How silly!

Do they do any of the "Hold your Hand up and Tinkerbell will magically appear in your hand" pictures?

 

[Silverfox97]

On our last cruise (2005, so WAAAY back(, they didn't have borders on them. Can you not ask for a picture without the border?

In March on the Fantasy, the answer was no.

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[Justacruiser]

I didn't like that they chose what size to print things in, they chose if a border should go on it or not, and I had NO options, if I wanted those pictures, to do something else. We didn't take enough pictures to get a disc, so there were only certain pictures I wanted, but I wanted them in different sizes. And that is frustrating, when you are paying something like $75 for maybe 5 photos.

I saw a whisper of something about digital images in an option other than the CD, but in Feb that didn't exist; I could ONLY buy the prints of the pictures I wanted...there was no option to get the digital images of ONLY what I wanted.

I request them to resize my pictures to 5x7 rather than the 8x10. The price drops form 19.95 down to 12.95. Give them a day to get them for you, you will pick them up a the shutters desk. very easy and no hasles.

 

[poohmomof5]

Hi all!

Just a warning, I think they might do things differently on the new ships vs. the older ones. We asked to have some pictures resized and they said no (this was on the Dream). On the Magic, they always said yes and we got them.

 

[poohmomof5]

For everyone who is reading this and has never been to Shutters, please don't just assume they are bad and get disspointed already. Everyone has their own opinion and just because someone doesn't like something doesn't mean you won't. For example, I don't like Ham (i know, its crazy) but most people do! So, pay for the pictures if you like them and want to, and if you think they are too expensive, or don't like the borders, don't buy them. Like someone said before, they feel pretty expensive until you have to get your kids senior picutres!

 

[havaneselover]

This was my experience too. On the Magic, they did it. On the Fantasy there was a sign saying they could not be resized. I don't get why DCL allows this. Or why shutters does it. I know I would have spent more had I had better options.

 

[Meghatron]

Do they do any of the "Hold your Hand up and Tinkerbell will magically appear in your hand" pictures?

Yes. I did a whole maternity session with Tinker Bell. They also have Captain Hook to add it now as well.

 

[over50visits]

It seems as though I read a lot about people not liking Shutters and/or wishing Disney would get rid of them and bring in their own people. Why is this, what is not so good about Shutters?

Other than the prices are insultingly high, the quality is variable, and the choices limited, they would be fine. The photographers are friendly. We choose to spend our several hundred dollars on other splurges, and take our own wonderful memory-filled pictures.

 

[sambycat]

See now I like the borders- if/when we buy pics it's more for the borders/ souvenir value. Generally the quality is just fair and I do think they are way overpriced.

 

[ktmo]

I bought the CD and prints on our 4 day Dream cruise. I can't really complain too much. It isn't much different from the other cruises we have been on.

I will say that I was disappointed that they only took one or two posed pictures. They didn't take pictures of the characters signing books or giving hugs like they do at the parks. That would have been nice, especially since I forgot my camera a few times.

Oh, and they stop taking pictures in the morning of the last day for the most part. We were only able to make it to the last Princess Gathering and they didn't have Shutters Photographers. I know it is a time issue, but I would have loved to have those pictures (and the borders - am I the only one who likes them?).

 

[Justacruiser]

Hi all!

Just a warning, I think they might do things differently on the new ships vs. the older ones. We asked to have some pictures resized and they said no (this was on the Dream). On the Magic, they always said yes and we got them.

Just off the Fantasy last Saturday and they did for us.