Is the Memory Maker Worth It?

[JJTNY]

Until our last trip, I wasn't really on the Memory Maker bandwagon. I love to take photos and I take a lot of them, but of course then I am not IN most of them which is sort of a bummer later.
On our first family trip, we had a pre-park open ADR and made sure to get a shot taken on Main Street while it was empty. The photographer didn't do a good job at all and our faces were all in shadow.

However, before our trip last summer, we connected to my wife's friend who has an AP on MDE. After our trip she was nice enough to download all of our photos for us.

While I still have reservations about the quality of a fair amount of the photos (fill flash please!), so many good ones of all of us. Plus the ride and photobooth shots and I am much closer to seeing the value of getting it next time.

 

[UncleMike101]

Yes.....
We've had MM four times and were pleased with the results.
Occasionally the photoghapher has a few ideas for posed and setting shots that make for unique memories.
Plus........
Since my SLR's and I have been the primary picture source in the past I can now be in the photos with the Family.

 

[whitney37354]

We have gotten MM for three of our four trips. The monetary cost is high, but it's worth it to me to have everyone in the pictures, the character photos, the ride pictures, & now the ride videos. We have been taking the big 35mm camera & our video camera. This trip we plan to just take photos with our phones & small camera & leave the rest to MM.

 

[tlmadden73]

Since my SLR's and I have been the primary picture source in the past I can now be in the photos with the Family.

This - enough can't be said about getting the main photographer of the family IN the photos without asking a stranger to please take our photo (and pray for good results).

With MM -- basically the smartphone is the main source of non-Photo Pass photos. It is lighter, smaller and thus easier to haul around the park.

 

[bettymae1121]

This - enough can't be said about getting the main photographer of the family IN the photos without asking a stranger to please take our photo (and pray for good results).

With MM -- basically the smartphone is the main source of non-Photo Pass photos. It is lighter, smaller and thus easier to haul around the park.

This! I take 90% of the photos in my family so I'm not in many, and my DH can't take a decent photo to save his life so the few I am in are...not that great. Now our trip is 8 days so that makes the cost easier to swallow, but if you go on a lot of rides with photos and/or meet-and greets, and take the time to use the photographers around the park I think it would easy to at least break even on the deal and get 17 pictures even on a 4 day trip (I think individual downloads are $10 each? Someone correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[MomOTwins]

Another option is a single day pass, which you can buy on the app after a day. That is what we are going to do on our shorter trip. Castle backdrop pics are the best!

 

[TeacherDL]

We haven't done it our last couple of trips, but I think I'm going to buy it again for this trip. My oldest daughter is going with us, and I know as her life gets busier (she's 19 and in college), she won't always be able to go with us. I want to enjoy it and have some great pics!

 

[timsueshd]

Thank you for all the advice...

I think the biggest bonus we will all be I the picture.

 

[disneydeal]

Yes! We get so many great pics and videos each time. My kids love to watch the ride videos over and over. If you decide not to get, in my experience the photopass photographers have never minded taking pics with my phone for me.

We are getting it for the first time and this is like our 7th trip. Question I have is what is the videos of rides? I thought it was just pics.

 

[reiella]

We are getting it for the first time and this is like our 7th trip. Question I have is what is the videos of rides? I thought it was just pics.

It's a video with a brief video capture of your ride experience. I believe it's just 7 Dwarves Mine Train Ride (

) and Tower of Terror (

). Something to highlight, the majority of the video is stock footage, just a scene or two of your experience interspersed.

 

[2009CAN]

I've purchased it for the last 5 trips. LOVE It! I'm an avid scrapbooker, but even if I weren't, I LOVE having family pics. I enjoy that we're all able to be in the same picture and that there are usually several poses for each shot in case someone had a strange look in one of them.
And when there's no/minimal line, I have zero problem asking for a shot with all of us in it and then asking for one of just the kids.
We're doing a super short 2-3 day trip due to being in FL for a work trip and I will even buy it for just that short of a time.

 

[blabadie]

I was thinking about buying the Memory Maker for our 4 night trip in November.

Is it worth it?

Yes! Since I am usually the one taking the photos, Disney is the one vacation where our whole family has lots of photos of us all together. Plus the photos taken during the rides are so much fun. We still enjoy looking at them and reminiscing about what happened during the ride. The "magic" photos are not as big of a deal to me personally, but my kids (ages 4-7) love them.

 

[pup975]

I would say yes, if you can afford it and really like to have the pictures. I took an DSLR one time since I love having pictures, but after doing MM, that was the last time I lugged my DSLR around. If you do get it, make sure you get pictures all of the time. Some of the best photos I had were just random ones where I would be taking my son to the bathroom, and we would take a quick picture when we saw a photographer. We ended up getting pairings of photos of just the two of us that we normally wouldn't have gotten if we had the whole family with us. Also, a silly tip, if you figure out where the cameras are on the rides, that's an opportunity for silly ride pictures.

 

[maloned]

It's not worth it to me. I have kids, so I invest that money in buying our own DSLR. That way I get alot more photos, rather then just the few photo opportunities that Photopass offers. The Photopass photographers will also take photos for you with your own camera at the photo spots and character spots.

Here's another little trick that I found. “Friend” anyone with the Annual Pass that has Memory Maker as a benefit; on My Disney Experience. If you are friends on the site, your friend will see any pictures attached to your account and will be able to download them for you at Full Resolution, with complete rights; without any water marks.

 

[greg9x]

It's good if you want to be in pictures and don't mind the cost. Especially if you have kids that participate in shows like Jedi training as you get a ton of photos from them.

It was better a few yesterday ago when it was 1/2 the price and quality was better.
Also you have to seek out the photographers and sometimes there is a wait. And there are plenty of situations where you will still take your own pictures.

 

[nas1861]

I LOVE memory maker. It is the only 'souvenir' I buy. I am an avid scrapbooker so photos are important to me but I can rarely get my husband to take them of me and our son and when he does, they come out bad. I think that the value of the memory maker is greater if you visit characters, you definitely can get a lot of pictures otherwise. While you can give your camera to the character CM to take your picture, they tend to only take the one picture of you posing at the end of the interaction while the photopass photographer takes several pictures of you interacting with the character. I have a really cute one of my son waiting for his turn to meet Mickey with an excited look on his face that I would never have gotten as I was usually behind him. Also, don't be afraid to ask for magic shots. Most of the photographers can do them but for some reason, don't seem to offer them. They will do them if you ask but very few will volunteer the information. The flying banshee magic shot in Pandora is my favorite! I used to think ride photos were a take it or leave it kind of thing but since I have purchased memory maker the past few years, it is great fun to see my son on the various rides each year from when he was smaller and holding on to my arm for dear life as we zoom around Test Track to now when he rides with his hands in the air. It tells the story of our vacations.

You also don't have to lug your expensive camera through the parks. While taking your own photos with a nice camera is great, it becomes a little more cumbersome when getting on and off rides. Some people swear by this and more power to you, I couldn't do it. It's a lot freer for me to use my phone for some shots and rely on photopass for the great family pics.

What makes it worth it, specifically, things you can't get from your camera:
1. Character pictures that show interaction (If you take them, you will miss the moment)
2. MAGIC SHOTS! (Banshee photo, Tangled lighted photo)
3. Ride photos and videos
4. Photopass photographers tend to be a little more creative in their posing suggestions when using their camera as opposed to using yours.

But here is the bottom line: Will $30 make or break your budget? If you are unsure, you can always purchase memory maker after your vacation is over and you know how many pictures you have and what kind of budget overrun your vacation had. Then you can decide if memory maker was worth it for you. I say $30 because that is the difference between pre-purchase and regular purchase. So if that's not a budget breaker and you are really on the fence, then pretend you have it and visit the photographers that you can and see what you end up with knowing you can purchase later. You may surprise yourself in what you end up with.

 

[minniesBFF]

I have purchased it the last 3 trips we have been on, and have purchased it for our upcoming trip. It's worth it to us, I honestly don't think my fiancé would let us go on a trip without it since we started using it. I am not a photographer in any way, and most of the time feel like I would completely forget to even take pictures if it weren't for photopass. I love knowing that I will own every picture we collect, and it's kind of fun to us to find as many photographer locations as we can. Plus, now that we have a child I love having pictures of all 3 of us together.

So, to me the cost is worth it.