Now that the whole world is shut down, I have time to write this and maybe others can teach me something about Memory Maker. I don’t know if our experience was unique or these disappointments and frustrations are common. We are unhappy with our 2019 PhotoPass pictures.
When we went to WDW for the first time in 2012, we purchased the PhotoPass. While it was pricey, we loved it. The picture quality was good, the borders and stickers were fun and amazing, and we had the option to save the picture in different sizes with the borders and stickers. And lines were not terribly long except for characters.
Can you tell which kid is a swimmer?
I saved all these pictures in wallet, 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10 formats.
We loved it so much, we decided to pay for Memory Maker in 2019 and we were willing to pay $169. After looking at the 2019 pictures, and the sticker, border, and size options, we regretted the decision to buy Memory Maker. My iPhone takes better pictures than the PhotoPass photographers! Unless things change, I will not buy Memory Maker at all next time.
- The picture quality was poor. Some pictures were highly overexposed, underexposed, or blurry. (The indoor venues for 7 Dwafts, Donald and Scrooge, and Daisy and Minnie were all very dark.) Some were just bad sun/shade locations. Others have touted the studio in Disney Springs. We went there 3 separate times and had different photographers each time. We thought the posing and lighting was poor. Even when nobody else was in line, they didn’t take the time to pose us better.
No borders or stickers were available for this Pooh shot or the 7 Dwarfs
Kids in a green screened studio shot. This was an indoor shot where they had full control over lighting.
We have more that are of similar quality.
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Borders and stickers were limited.
a. You had to use an iPhone or iPad. We have both. But we don’t own an Apple laptop. It was hard to see the border and sticker options on such small screens.
b. There were not that many border and sticker options. In 2012, we had different border and sticker options depending on the location and the characters. In 2019, some locations and characters had no sticker or border options (i.e. Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends at MK). Other locations and characters all had very similar border and sticker options. We did not take one single Princess picture but all the princesses borders and stickers were available for every single picture!
We were pleased with the lantern pictures but there were no other sticker options available. Notice that the sticker is blurry. That’s how it showed up when I selected it. When I made it smaller, it was clear. -
Size options.
a. I downloaded the original pictures onto my laptop. I uploaded some of them to Costco Photo and Shutterfly. The only print size option is 4x6, otherwise, the picture will be cropped. That can be problematic if you want a larger print.
b. Once I added the borders and/or stickers, I had to save it on my device. There were no options to save the picture in different sizes. Again, I uploaded some of them to Costco Photo and Shutterfly. The only print size option is 4x6, otherwise, the picture will be cropped and I will lose some of the borders and/or stickers. This is problematic. -
Specialty picture options were limited.
a. We asked every single photographer on Main Street during MVMCP for all the special effects photos unique to MVMCP. We got one.
b. There was a really cute shot in TSL with a green army man parachuting down while we could look on in amazement. I asked for it and was told it was only available around noon each day for 15 minutes!
c. In Epcot, there is a shot for each country that puts your picture into a passport. Over 2 days, we got one of them. There were not photographers around in each country to take pictures.
We found it ironic that of all the passport photos we could get, we only got China! Our families originally immigrated from Hong Kong.
