New Disney Photo Pass

[ashley.smith]

Not sure when Disney moved to the new system but the advertising lacks in this area which is a shame. I don't know how many others out there share my view that Theme Parks photos are a regal rip off and so avoid photographers like the plague.

Disney however now offer Photo Pass through all four parks and also at Typhoon Lagoon. This means that you get a credit card swipe card and every time you see a photographer they swipe the card and your photos are uploaded to their website so that you can buy them at a later date, or even let friends and family view them from home. This is a great idea.... Better still though is that you can purchase a CD with up to 300 photos on it for $99. This is tremendous value and had it off been explained at the beginning of our holiday rather than on the last day we would have taken up the offer of all 300 photos rather than the 8 we eventually got.

You can link multiple photo cards to your on line account so if you go as a family you can pool resources and buy one CD at the end of the holiday. You get the rights to reprint the photos at home at your own liesure and are licensed to make as many prints as you want for personal use.

Busch Offered a similar package last Easter with the Photo CD as part of the Photo package at around $50, whilst Discovery Cove offer a similar package. Both BG and DC though limit the number of photos you can have (I think its to around 30). This makes Disney offer the best value for money.

Lesson learned for our next trip, and hopefully for everyone going out now.

More details can be found from the Photopass website at

www.disneyphotopass.com

Oh and they do a fantastic bound book with a combination of your own and thier photos which I think may just appear as a Christmas present next year!

[ashley.smith]

Oh forgot to mention... The photo pass does not apply at the moment in Chef Mickey's they still sell the overpriced photos!

[HeeHaw]

We bought the disc last year, but we didn't realise you could do this till over half way through our trip and we must have seemed scary the way we leapt on every photographer from then on till the last day when we had it burned

[BevS97]

We did this in February, and it was in it's infancy the previous trip we took (Oct 04 I think)

We were told when we had our first photo taken about the CD rom, so we took the opportunity to have lots of photos taken and came home with well over 100.

I guess if you were avoiding photographers and weren't staying onsite, then you might not have been exposed to the advertising, but we have always enjoyed the photographs and while they weren't cheap we always came home with a couple as they were our only full family photos from the trip.

[Rebelrebel]

We knew about it in August when we went but didn't really see many photographers, we ended up with 6 really poor quality ones so I did not buy them :(.

[Sean_and_Sue]

We got the $99 CD in October. Used it at all the parks and during MNSSHP.
Great to have everyone in the photos at the same time, but the quality on some was quite poor. Worth the money though:thumb:

[floridahippy]

We did this in november and we found it great fun and the least expensive way of doing it! Some are poor quality but most are lovely. Well worth doing - we made a point of seeking them out and having different combinations done of our family group - great fun

[BarryandCaron]

We bought this in August. We are really pleased with the whole thing and it will be even better when ride photos can be put on it. Excellent value we thought.

A minor observation from our latest trip is that the photographers don't seek you out now and it's up to you to ask them.

Caron

[Rebelrebel]

A minor observation from our latest trip is that the photographers don't seek you out now and it's up to you to ask them.



Perhaps that's why we did not get many. We also did not do many character greetings as the girls are a bit older now and we have done it many times before.

[00swan]

Many thanks for the advice - sounds much better than the couple of photos we ended up ordering on-line once we were back, would have been much more inclined to approach the photographers if we knew about the cd beforehand.

[dw52151]

thanks for the tip, what a great price!

[Mazzy]

We used photopass for the first time at the MNSSHP and the photos they took were brilliant! We will definitely be getting some photos done next trip, it will be great to have all 4 of us in the photo, instead of taking turns with the camera. :thumbs-up

[twinklebelle]

We got a photopass back in June, got told all about it by a friendly photographer on our first day in the parks...but we didn't buy the photos in the end because we only had about 20 or so of them so it didn't seem worth it. Next year we're planning on getting as many photos as possible.

I think it would be brilliant if the photos that you get taken on rides could some how be incorporated into the photopass but I can't see it happening any time soon.

[Mazzy]

twinklebelle - Test Track ride photos are incorprated into Photopass - we got our in October - hopefully others will follow! You just put your photopass card into the machine under the screens and it adds the photo to your card. :thumbs-up

[Andre]

One minor downside of PhotoPass is that while I was trying to take some nice tripod night shots of Spaceship Earth on my way out of Epcot one evening, no less than three people came up to me waving their PhotoPass cards and wanting me to take their photos... I did photograph at least one group using their own camera, though. :)

Mind you, my pics came out OK:

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m187/andrewilley/Walt%20Disney%20World%20-%20May%202006/Parks%20After%20Dark/WDW-May06-Epcot-OrigFile-IMG_2475.jpg

Andre

[brody-maddison]

One minor downside of PhotoPass is that while I was trying to take some nice tripod night shots of Spaceship Earth on my way out of Epcot one evening, no less than three people came up to me waving their PhotoPass cards and wanting me to take their photos... I did photograph at least one group using their own camera, though.

Mind you, my pics came out OK:

Show off!!

Just kidding, great pictures.

[kallen]

When we were there in September there seemed to be a lack of photographers around or they were all avoiding us so we only managed to get about 8 pics in the 2 weeks and they weren't very good though we had fantastic pictures the time before.

[twinklebelle]

That's a nice pic of Epcot, oh and thanks for the advice Mazzy we managed to somehow miss Test Track this year. Though I'm sure well fit it in next year. I've never been on it ever (the queues are always too long) and I'm feel like I'm missing out.

[Mazzy]

twinklebelle - yes you are definitely missing out! Next trip go there first thing, or get a fastpass then go back, this is a must do ride, I am not a coaster lover but absolutely love test track, it's so fast on the outside bit you feel as though you're going to lose your head, oh and if you have long hair tie it back, or you will be trying to get the tugs out for hours LOL!! :D

[twinklebelle]

twinklebelle - yes you are definitely missing out! Next trip go there first thing, or get a fastpass then go back, this is a must do ride, I am not a coaster lover but absolutely love test track, it's so fast on the outside bit you feel as though you're going to lose your head, oh and if you have long hair tie it back, or you will be trying to get the tugs out for hours LOL!! :D


Sounds like it's good fun then, I'll get a fastpass if I can when we go in June. The thing is DF isn't a big fan of rollercoaster type of rides and always chickens out before we even get near it. I'm going to have to try a little harder to persuade him this year. Oh and thanks for the hair tip, I'll try to remember that one.