Photo Packages

[Guest]

Hiya,

Can anyone tell me what happens with photo's onboard? Is it like Photopass, where we get a card then just buy the ones we want?

Are there many photo opportunities with characters?

Thanks!

[Michelle]

Hi Fiona

There aren't photopasses, at least there wasn't last year.
You get your photo took say on the Thursday and then all of your photos for that day are displayed in Shutters, along the walls, you have to go and find them and you decide if you want to buy them or not.
They do packages. We didn't think we would buy many photos, but we were wrong.

[disneydreamer]

Like Michelle says there are loads of photo opportunities. You'll find it very difficult to choose which ones you want. DD and I commondered a "large" corner of Shutters to lay out all the photos so that we could decide which ones we wanted. We had over 100 photos and that was only in 3 days! If you email DCL they will be able to give you an up to date price list. I did have one but its probably out of date now.
Jackie

[Guest]

Thanks to both of you for the info!

Looks like I'm gonna be spending a pretty penny! Do you know if I can just choose a package onboard or do I have to arrange it in advance?

Thanks

[jdybnsn]

Originally Posted by erkeyderkey

Thanks to both of you for the info!

Looks like I'm gonna be spending a pretty penny! Do you know if I can just choose a package onboard or do I have to arrange it in advance?

Thanks

See more...

You normally choose it when on board, and they are fairly flexible about you chopping & changing what you want ... you don't have to decide your package until your last night... though this does mean you have to "look after" your photos ie try & keep them altogether where you can find them and they will often get moved around by the Shutter staff putting up new photos, on the Shutter's display boards. The last night at the Shutter's desk can get VERY busy as you might imagine !

Unfortunately there is no Photopass, because the Shutter's outfit is a non Disney owned operator (like the spa onboard) who has been given a licence by Disney to operate from their ship... it may be in future, when their contract finishes, this could change though ?... quite possible, as lots of people have asked Disney about this.

Unfortunately the photos are comparitively expensive, and its easy to get carried away as they are highly glossy and most have great Disney cruise themeing around the borders... we really made ourselves look hard at the actual photo content before we purchased, because actually many are technically not that good...not surprising though because they are snapping away ten to the dozen to get lots of shots at people all the time (even on Castaway Cay beach). You will need to be firm with yourself or you will get carried away !

There are lots of character photo opportunities on board - they will list where & when the characters are going to show on board the ship for official meet & greets on your daily activity schedule (more often than not in the main lobby). But, you should carry your camera with you at all times, because its common for characters to just "appear" for a few minutes, in all kinds of places...we bumped into Cinderella on the stairs on our last cruise and she showed up in the kids club on our first, Chip & Dale appeared walking through Topsiders when we first got on the ship, and again at the entrance to the restaurant on Pirates Night... and we have many more examples of these informal show ups... and these are probably the best as they are more spontanious, though its rare for the official photographers to be present at these times.

The official meet & greets in the lobby, is where you will find official, professional photos are taken (but you are also welcome to take your own) and they do tend to attract long queues - if you desparately want to meet a particular character, then you are better to join the queue just before the last character before yours has finished, to stand the best chance of meeting the one you actually want...
There are also character opportunities on Castaway Cay (both timetabled & spontanious).

Meet & greet queues are shorter on the longer 7 night cruises though, as there are more opportunites and therefore less pressure... there's also a character breakfast on the 7 night cruise, where you will get lots of snaps, as the characters dance with the kids around the room (unfortunately they don't come to individual tables any more, like you get at WDW character dining - though this could change, as the dancing around is a new thing, and there have been lots of complaints).

[Guest]

Originally Posted by jdybnsn

You normally choose it when on board, and they are fairly flexible about you chopping & changing what you want ... you don't have to decide your package until your last night... though this does mean you have to "look after" your photos ie try & keep them altogether where you can find them and they will often get moved around by the Shutter staff putting up new photos, on the Shutter's display boards. The last night at the Shutter's desk can get VERY busy as you might imagine !

Unfortunately there is no Photopass, because the Shutter's outfit is a non Disney owned operator (like the spa onboard) who has been given a licence by Disney to operate from their ship... it may be in future, when their contract finishes, this could change though ?... quite possible, as lots of people have asked Disney about this.

Unfortunately the photos are comparitively expensive, and its easy to get carried away as they are highly glossy and most have great Disney cruise themeing around the borders... we really made ourselves look hard at the actual photo content before we purchased, because actually many are technically not that good...not surprising though because they are snapping away ten to the dozen to get lots of shots at people all the time (even on Castaway Cay beach). You will need to be firm with yourself or you will get carried away !

There are lots of character photo opportunities on board - they will list where & when the characters are going to show on board the ship for official meet & greets on your daily activity schedule (more often than not in the main lobby). But, you should carry your camera with you at all times, because its common for characters to just "appear" for a few minutes, in all kinds of places...we bumped into Cinderella on the stairs on our last cruise and she showed up in the kids club on our first, Chip & Dale appeared walking through Topsiders when we first got on the ship, and again at the entrance to the restaurant on Pirates Night... and we have many more examples of these informal show ups... and these are probably the best as they are more spontanious, though its rare for the official photographers to be present at these times.

The official meet & greets in the lobby, is where you will find official, professional photos are taken (but you are also welcome to take your own) and they do tend to attract long queues - if you desparately want to meet a particular character, then you are better to join the queue just before the last character before yours has finished, to stand the best chance of meeting the one you actually want...
There are also character opportunities on Castaway Cay (both timetabled & spontanious).

Meet & greet queues are shorter on the longer 7 night cruises though, as there are more opportunites and therefore less pressure... there's also a character breakfast on the 7 night cruise, where you will get lots of snaps, as the characters dance with the kids around the room (unfortunately they don't come to individual tables any more, like you get at WDW character dining - though this could change, as the dancing around is a new thing, and there have been lots of complaints).

See more...

Wow! Thanks for all that info. It's been really helpful!

You're a wee star!

[ReadyToBurst]

Found this thread from 2008 has there been any changes to how the photographs work on DCL?

[DIBBadmin]

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