Memory maker - yes or no?

i often get it, it’s the only time we are all in so many pictures together!!! And with a 14 month hold, if she doesn’t like the characters just hold her and most likely she’ll be content because she’ll be in your arms or dad’s arms. :). My kids loved the characters from an early age but my niece did not and we held her and have loads of pics with her and the characters! 😀
 
We bought it multiple times and having it made it a lot easier to care abut photos. I feel like walking around with phones and finding the perfect picture spots is hard to do. With the memory maker its easy, where ever you see a photographer, GO take the photo. Being able to view them all on the app is really cool too and once your home its super easy to print at a photo center. I feel like my family never goes an d prints off our phone.
 
I agree memory maker is worth it. I asked a similar question in the fall for a Nov trip. I didn’t purchase it before hand and decided to wait and see what kind of pictures came out. We had so many amazing pictures that I ended up purchasing them all (you can also buy just a day or single images when you get home). I made sure to get a picture taken if I saw a photographer and the lines weren’t too long. I don’t think you will regret it.
 
It is expensive but well worth it in my opinion if you take advantage of the photo pass photographers and get pics when you see them around! We got so many more family photos than we would have otherwise! All of the ride photos are included too and those are fun to have and super expensive to purchase separately. We ended up with tons of pictures and I've never thought it was a waste of money at the end of our trip.
 
DO IT! You want pictures of your WHOLE family at great spots, and the Disney photographers do a decent job.
 
Yes! 1000X over yes! Get it early when it's cheaper, and tap that band at every photo op you can find on property. Disney has cast members in all the must get photo spots, and they take better pictures than I do on my phone.
 
I love memory maker. Pictures are really important to me and Disney makes it so easy to find the photographers in so many locations. I also like that because I spent the money it makes me be accountable and stop and take the time to have the pictures taken.
 


We don’t get it anymore but we always got it when the kids were little. I cherish those photos. Totally worth the small price in the whole scope of a WDW vacation.
 
I would say absolutely yes. We used memory maker and visited every possible photo spot we could. We also got the videos and pictures from the rides. It was super fun. The pictures were way better than the ones from our phones.
 
100% worth it. We have always gotten it. From ride photos, to ride videos, to the fun little photo animations, to just having everyone together... it's great. We had so much fun meeting Darth Vader at HS and my son was in awe of him in all those photos that get captured.

I still take loads myself, but its just fun to get everyone together and roar like lions (Animal Kingdom)... or react with shock as you pretend your kid is holding a character.
 
This thread had me go home last night and pull up all our Memory Maker photos from our November trip. We sat around the tv and looked at them through our cloud service. We also looked at the photos I took. While my photos were more "in the moment", I'm never in any of them. A few of my photos, I had no idea why I chose the subject at all. All still fun to review.

The Disney photos are all much more polished and staged... and I get to be in them. They define WDW. As a family, here we are in front of the castle with holiday lights. We also are at the Tree of Life and Epcot ball, but we also get to see ourselves on Pirates, Mansion, Test Track, Aerosmith, etc etc.

Good memories for sure!
 
Last time we went we had over 800 pictures on our account. We just stop at every opportunity. I really love the fact that we travel in a family group and seeing where people where, what they did is so much fun at the end of the day.
 
My wife and I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom for a day right before the parks closed because of COVID-19. I have to say that in the past we've always gotten the Memory Maker and been happy with all the photos, so during this rare occasion when it was just my wife and I celebrating our anniversary I of course spent the $170 for it (that's the discounted rate).

This was a huge mistake.

There were hardly any photographers anywhere in the park! We stopped everywhere we found a photographer, and after a full day at Animal Kingdom I ended up with a grand total of 13 photos, and two of those were duplicates from the Expedition Everest roller coaster. I was extremely disappointed.

Now my stance toward Memory Maker has changed. I've learned the hard way that there is a break point between a multi-day trip with many family members and a day trip with a significant other, where purchasing the Memory Maker simply is not worth it. In the case of my wife and I, we didn't seek out characters, so that was a factor for sure. A family with small children hopping to character meet and greets will make it worth it I believe.

I do want to underscore a trend that I've noticed, which is the lack of photographers in key locations. This trip was our first to visit Pandora, and we encountered just 1 photographer "in the wild", meaning that they were not connected with a character but simply in an interesting location. In an earlier trip my father took my daughter to Animal Kingdom and they had the Memory Maker. They photos they captured in Pandora alone totaled 17 photos in 4 locations! (Yes I just pulled them out and counted.) So in this case two people going for a single day in 2017 the Memory Maker was totally worth it, but this year... Memory Maker is now dead to me unless I'm going for a family reunion or Disney decides it's going to employ more photographers.

As a side note, my wife and I did raise this concern with guest services while we were at the park. They claimed there were 55 photographers that day. I'm not sure how that number shakes out, but I counted 5 between the main entrance, the area in front of the Tree of Life, Pandora, Africa, and Asia... all day. Buyer beware.
 
it's honestly something I debate every trip, and was really thinking we wouldn't get it our last trip just as we were trying to do a relatively cheap trip - but in the end got it anyway and am glad we did

Not our most efficient as far as # of pictures but we always get a few that come out great, I love the on-ride photos and videos, love the magic shots, etc.

If you are into Star Wars at all there are a bunch of cool shots and things over in that area, etc.

I do agree with @MagicMakerDave above that I didn't see as many photographers at a couple of spots I was hoping to see them at so didn't get all the photos I wanted, but still got enough to make it worth it to me (we only go once a year at most so worth it to us to have those memories, see how the kids grow, etc.)
 
My wife and I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom for a day right before the parks closed because of COVID-19. [...] I do want to underscore a trend that I've noticed, which is the lack of photographers in key locations.
I mean... I feel like that’s an extremely specific issue. You were there the day before the parks closed, some cast members had probably already gone home, especially those with higher risk factors and those in the College Program. It’s hardly a representative experience. I’m sorry that happened but when I was there in February there were tons of FP Photographers all over.
 
FWIW, DW, DD, myself, and the rest of the people on our extended family trip came home March 14th, just before the closures began. This was our first time with memory maker and, in our experience, it was very much worth it. We came away with over 400 pictures between us and the rest of our travel group, since we had everyone linked, and the whole family was so happy that we were able to get access to the pictures. We come from out of town when we go and even without an extended family trip, if it was just DW, DD, and myself, I can safely say that we would opt for the memory maker going forward.
 
We got it on the last trip, and it totally paid for itself simply for the fact that I could enjoy and totally take in my 3 year old getting to meet the characters and getting photos done. I didn't have to watch the whole thing from behind my phone screen. A Photopass Photographer also caught my daughter throwing change into the Cinderella fountain (or wishing well as my daughter calls it), and made for a completely spontaneous pic and treasured memory. My daughter still says "remember when the photographer took my picture throwing the money in the wishing well..."
 
Honestly IMO it’s a waste of money overall.
it is cool while you are there, the ride/Jedi photos and magic shots are nice but otherwise overrated.

we got it 3 times plus a couple more with annual pass, had hundreds of pictures and turned them into thousands by adding boarders/size adjustment (Which takes hours). Wasted time getting photos at places we didn’t really care for just because we felt like we need to get our money’s worth. A bunch of the picture were not quality, go figure since a “pro” is taking it. A decent number of ones we did want ended up not being linked correctly and calling after you are home is a waste of time too.

Printed like 5, can’t tell you fast and easy where they discs/downloads are now.
”regular” pictures you can have taken by the PS photography person or anyone else in the park for that matter.

if it was under $75 I would do prob it again but otherwise not worth it Unless you are a ride photo lover
 
We have gotten it every time we've gone (3 times and then a 4th that was scheduled for this month). I guess whether it is "worth it" is always open for interpretation, but I love it. We look at the photos a lot and they have become desktop photos/backgrounds/screen savers. Its also nice not having to feel the need to chase down photos. The ride photos are great of course and (don't know if this is applicable), Disney know does its road race photos in-house so those are all part of the package.
 
It's a big selling point for us getting APs many years - especially if we have any trips that year with extended family on our reservation. We have photos with the package that we might not have even stopped for if we didn't have MM. At this point, I can't tell you how much we spent on the MM portion over the years - but I can tell you how much I look at the photos in my living room. Definitely worth it for our family.
 

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