I got MM as part of a bundle with my WDW tickets. I used it to set up an MM share group and photos are now appearing from members of my group in my MDE. (I don’t go for another 13 days.)
I think the photos are surprisingly poor. Presumably there are people paying full price ($169 in advance, $199 otherwise) for this service and I can’t see how they can be happy with it.
Sure, there’s the convenience of having someone take your photograph while you’re meeting a princess, so that your whole family can be in it, but I expected professional quality pictures. You know – the group centred in the shot, people having their eyes open and smiling, that sort of thing.
Have you been happy with your Memory Maker purchases?
I’ve had them. I have to say, I think since today’s phones take photos that are almost the same quality as pro cameras (at least in daylight) the main value is the convenience of having someone else take the shots for you. Also, with MM, you get the pics and videos from certain rides, that you certainly could never get on your own. If you’re doing a week or more, and have young kids, I think MM is worth it. Otherwise, not as much. But if you get it as part of a bundle, and either didn’t pay for it or didn’t pay full prices, just enjoy what you get out of it.
I had MM as part of a group share. For 1/4 cost (about $35 then) it was very worth it. I got over 300 photos and videos. They take multiple shots, so it gives you a chance to pick your best photo with Cinderella, etc. Sure, some weren’t great, but they usually weren’t the only shot at that location. We were there just 5 days, and much of my park time I was solo. I surprised myself having way too much fun meeting characters.
Oh sure – I’m not bothered for myself. I’m not particularly sentimental about having photos of me in front of famous bits of WDW or standing awkwardly next to people dressed up as Disney characters. I just wonder why people pay top dollar for the service.
Ah, so your question is why pay full price for this type of product instead of less money? Because many people don’t know about sharing the cost. Or they don’t want to hassle with sharing. Or they don’t want other people seeing their photos. Or they have plenty of money and don’t care about the cost.
Or, if you are asking why accept this level of product? Maybe people have lower standards, they realize you can’t spend a long time getting dozens of shots while other people are waiting their turn (unlike a photo studio). Or they want the magic shots, on-ride shots, videos, and standard WDW stills you can’t get with your own camera. Or they want convenience.
Maybe it’s some combination of those. After doing a shared MM for just the two of us, and how that worked out, I can see how easy it is to accept the price for the process/product - for a different situation (e.g. larger group, grandkids, etc).
I’ve only done it in a share, but I was happy with the amount of good photos at the end. Not every one was a gem, but overall I got a whole trip’s worth of nice family photos with all of us in the picture rather than one person stuck taking the picture. I want to be an a share again for our October/November trip, but I’m thinking to aim for fewer people in it than last time. I wasn’t running it, and the lady kept inviting more and more people. In the end it was 10 or 11 families in the share, and they kept messing up the downloads.
Looking back at the pictures from my childhood, The are LOTS of pictures of me with my Mother, and some of me with my Father, but very few of the three of us together. If I had kids, I could perhaps see the benefit of having MM so we could have “whole family” pictures. But as a middle-aged couple, neither of whom really enjoys looking at pictures of themselves, MM is of no interest to us. I actually resent the fact that they added it “free” to the AP - and then jacked up the price of the AP; I’ll probably never get an AP again…
Last trip I only had 1 batch of poorly taken pics, like that guy wasn’t having a great day or something. But the rest made up for that. I carry an expensive camera and would rather not hand it over to people to take our pics for us and risk a drop. I’m never in any of our family pics because my husband doesn’t take good ones, lol, so I enjoy the pics of all of us together.
We bought it, and while it was pricey, I’m glad we did it. Most of our photos turned out very nice, though I think I could do without the “magic shots”. Best part was the action shots on rides for us. If you can’t tell the difference between these photos and the selfies on your phone, you need your eyes checked. There’s no comparison.
We considered a share, but after hearing about the risks, passed on it. In hindsight, I think a share could work if you found someone who was going to the World at a non-overlapping time, with a day or two between the visits, since the photos are organized by date. If you were ever at the park at the same time, it would be difficult to separate the photos.
I agree the quality of the photos can be good and bad.
I take many photos with my camera, so we don’t buy the package - but we did pose for one set of family shots on Main Street on our previous trip so I would be in something good, and was for an early ADR so the street was very empty.
Castle looks great. Our faces are in complete shadow in every shot. I mean - that’s the ONE shot their photogs should have down, no? We wanted to use it for our Christmas card and I had to Photoshop the heck out of it.
This trip we connected our MDE to my wife’s friend with an AP. She can download any of our photos for us, so we took the time to get a lot of MM photos. A couple are great, most are OK, a bunch are not.
But then - I take a lot of photos and it is probably the same outcome.
Ahhh, somehow I missed this…you did yet MM. the pics aren’t great, but they take several of each location, so we usually had a good one. If I didn’t have kids I would never pay for this. I found waiting in line to get our picture taken very annoying. And trust me when you are there you just want them to click, click click and move on to the next family. If they took more time it would take forever. I told them we don’t want the “magic shit” whoops shot. Where your holding your hand out and they add tinker belle on your palm. No thanks, just click click click and let us be on our way.
We’ve had MM included with our tickets the last few trips (and will again in October). It’s not something we would ever have paid separately for, but we were surprised just how much we used and enjoyed it. We’ve got lots of great photos of DD with various characters, some nice ones of us all together (we wouldn’t have had any without MM) and some cool ride videos. We’ll be using it again in October.
I hate having my picture taken and typically avoid it at all costs, so I AM the picture taker. I thought it was fine and never cared to not be in photos. But I had to deploy (I’m in the Army) years back and my mom said to me “You better come back alive, it’s the only way your son will know what you look like. There isn’t a single picture of you and him together.” Talk about the ultimate guilt trip! Needless to say I booked to have our pictures done as soon as I returned. 2 kids later and I was back into my old routine. Mom popped up again “Do I have to send you to Afghanistan to get a family portrait of you with my other grandkids”. So, for me this is the one time I can have goofy, spur of the moment pictures of me enjoying time with my family. I wouldn’t get half the photos if I was asking strangers and the quality isn’t a big deal to me. The magic shots are fun for everyone too. The bonus is that grandma is happy and the kids don’t have to use my old highschool yearbook photos for School Mothers day gifts. lol
I have been on the fence about getting MM. It seems really expensive and I am afraid I won’t do anything with the pics except store them on the computer. We will have two phones, a DSLR and a GoPro and should be able to get plenty of pics on our own. We have reservations at HDDR. I guess we will just pay OOP for the picture there. This thread does it for me. I can’t reconcile in my mind $169 for mediocre pictures. I can see where MM works for families, but it’s just me and the hubs.
