Memory maker worth the splurge??

[monorailsilver]

Yes and no. All the pictures will go to one persons account. As long as you are all linked on MDE you can view the pictures but i believe only the main account can download and save them.

So if my sister is going for part of my trip can I link her magic bands to mine some how and we all use the same memory maker?

 

[Grmnshplvr]

I have been contemplating this as well, but I thought I saw that it was 199? I like the idea of not lugging my camera around, but I dont know I do really like candid shots too.

 

[Clifton Tesh]

So if my sister is going for part of my trip can I link her magic bands to mine some how and we all use the same memory maker?

I believe it only works that way for the tickets that were purchased with the memory maker package. So if your sisters bought her tickets separate, then it will not save to your memory maker.

For example
My wife ,daughter and I are going with my parents. My wife and I purchased memory maker, my parents did not.

The pictures that one of the 3 of us are in with my parents will go to memory maker. If my parents get a picture without one of our magic band being scanned, they will not go to my memory maker.

 

[monorailsilver]

I believe it only works that way for the tickets that were purchased with the memory maker package. So if your sisters bought her tickets separate, then it will not save to your memory maker.

For example
My wife ,daughter and I are going with my parents. My wife and I purchased memory maker, my parents did not.

The pictures that one of the 3 of us are in with my parents will go to memory maker. If my parents get a picture without one of our magic band being scanned, they will not go to my memory maker.

Thanks, I wasn't sure how that would work. I never buy ride pictures, heck I rarely print pictures so as much as I'd love for someone else to take pictures and me to have, I do like spontaneous ones too that there won't be a photo pass person-pool pictures, pictures at the CR metal MICKEY head (don't know how to decribe it), sitting on the <broken down> monorail, etc...

 

[DreamIsaWish]

Bummer again! Most of our characters meets will be during meals but if the meals don't include photo pass photographers it might not be worth it to us..is there a list somewhere the shows which character meals include photo pass photographer?

I don't know of any character meals where the photographer goes to the tables with the characters. The single character at the entrance, yes. The ones that come to the tables, no. I certainly could be proven wrong about none but it would definitely be the exception, not the rule, to have photographers at the tables.

Having said all that, I love Memory Maker. You'll get the photos from Enchanted Tales (and the ones I take with my camera are awful in there; the lighting is really funky). And I adore ride photos!

 

[DreamIsaWish]

I believe it only works that way for the tickets that were purchased with the memory maker package. So if your sisters bought her tickets separate, then it will not save to your memory maker.

For example
My wife ,daughter and I are going with my parents. My wife and I purchased memory maker, my parents did not.

The pictures that one of the 3 of us are in with my parents will go to memory maker. If my parents get a picture without one of our magic band being scanned, they will not go to my memory maker.

I don't think that's true. At least not historically. I definitely had family members that didn't purchase tickets with us and I could see their pics, if they were "friends and family" with the proper sharing permissions. In fact, I had pictures from family members that weren't even on the same trip with us (the times happened to overlap just right that we could squeeze their trip and my trip on the same Memory Maker).

Having said that, I haven't technically done Memory Maker in over a year because we had annual passes which have a slightly different version of photos. With that one, though, I did get pics from some friends that went at a time utterly unrelated to any of our trips.

To be safe, I do have one of "our" magic bands scanned instead of a family member, but I do normally get the pics from others in my group. My issue instead is with dead batteries in the magic band. We had one older band on a recent trip and some on-ride photos didn't register properly. Now I mark the bands with the year and put an X on the one I know has a dead battery.

 

[Clifton Tesh]

I don't think that's true. At least not historically. I definitely had family members that didn't purchase tickets with us and I could see their pics, if they were "friends and family" with the proper sharing permissions. In fact, I had pictures from family members that weren't even on the same trip with us (the times happened to overlap just right that we could squeeze their trip and my trip on the same Memory Maker).

The way it was explained to me is if they had memory maker purchased also you can share photos by adding them to friends and family, if they don't have memory maker they can see your photos but theirs won't show because they don't have memory maker.

 

[twoolle]

I find the M&G photos to be much more frame worthy than the character meals. Backgrounds are much better and no strangers at tables behind you.

I carry my own waterproof camera but I also enjoy MM so I can just step back and watch my kids...or wrangle them! (We have 4 so having hands free at times is helpful)

 

[JJIRmom]

I find the M&G photos to be much more frame worthy than the character meals. Backgrounds are much better and no strangers at tables behind you.

I carry my own waterproof camera but I also enjoy MM so I can just step back and watch my kids...or wrangle them! (We have 4 so having hands free at times is helpful)

I do agree with this! I do enjoy the detail in the background at actual m&g compared to dining way more!! I guess another thing I need to consider when deciding if I want to purchase or not.

 

[elgerber]

I don't know of any character meals where the photographer goes to the tables with the characters. The single character at the entrance, yes. The ones that come to the tables, no. I certainly could be proven wrong about none but it would definitely be the exception, not the rule, to have photographers at the tables.

I just looked at our memory maker photos, Stitch definitely had a photographer with him at O'Hana breakfast. The other characters did not, but he did.

 

[verleniahall]

YES! 2 Things you don't do disney without: dining plan and memory maker

 

[FrenchGirl]

Do they still have Photopass photographers at the water parks?

 

[rer1972]

I felt it was worth it for us on our last trip. We did take photos here and there with our iphones (some very good some not good) in areas without photopass photographers. The benefit we saw was when we did character meet and greets since getting good pics in the different type lighting (indoor/outdoor settings) is not always easy, and we could focus on watching our girls enjoy the experience. The ride photos were also a benefit, and it seems they have added more rides since we were there last time (think POTC ride photos are available). We didn't do any character meals, but I think that would give the same benefit. I think the convenience makes it worth the price, and the quality is pretty good.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

It's very convenient for dealing with those quintessential shots that you just HAVE to have. The castle photo, the EPCOT Spaceship Earth globe, the pretty background photos

It makes M&G super convenient!

No coverage for Character Meals (except Ohana) though!

I still recommend one brings other cameras/devices so you can capture unique candids (Mickey Bar Time, "it's snowing?!", THIS-is-the-Avatar-line, etc) but most of that is on your phone (which you need for MDE), unless you have photography as a serious hobby.

So yes.... I would say it's worth it as pretty much you don't need to think about anything until you get home and then you have a month to get them all DL'ed. Also with MM, if you have people listed as Friends & Family (which you will need to do anyway if you are scheduling ADR's or FP+) the photos THEY take throughout the Parks show up on YOUR account. They can't see your photos unless they also buy MM.

But this method is how we found my family members on part of Day 1 of the trip... we realized they were going to make it through the gate lines about an hour ahead of us (and the ADR time!), so I said, go get your photos taken and have them scan your ticket card, it's free ! I know it *wasn't* free but my mom doesn't have MDE and her phone is too old for it. she would never get the hang of it, so I just asked her to take some tourist photos and we'd meet her somewhere in the HUB. Meanwhile we have gotten through security, through GS, through the Gates, and we are outside the Theatre when my DH does to buy MM. The morning parade is starting so now total chaos of people... Mom somehow finds us but later in the afternoon, we are in different groups. they said they'd be in Frontierland... somehow they didn't make it past Adventureland and we figured this out because they had some other MM photos taken and my DH's MDE was so helpful in telling us they were by POTC!

Side note: totally understand how this feature allows Disney to track our every movement.

 

[disney144]

We are going to do it. We just returned from our honeymoon (an amazing 3 week trip in Asia) and we only have about 5 photos of both of us that aren't selfies. We will be spending a lot of money on this trip, and being able to document it is worth it to us.

 

[DreamIsaWish]

The way it was explained to me is if they had memory maker purchased also you can share photos by adding them to friends and family, if they don't have memory maker they can see your photos but theirs won't show because they don't have memory maker.

That would be a new development (maybe last year or so?). I have (on *many* occasions) had friends and family pictures that I could get on my Memory Maker -- and I'm 100% sure they never bought Memory Maker themselves. I was able to watch my niece on Everest from the comfort of my home when she was a "family and friend" and I downloaded hundreds of photos for them. So either things have changed (of course always possible) or you got a notoriously unreliable CM on the phone.

Perhaps someone who has done MM more recently can chime in if things have changed. I would be interested if that's no longer the way things work so I can plan my next trip differently if needed. I suppose one option would be to give the other folks (friends and family) an older magic band of ours that I know is tied to one of us.

 

[Clifton Tesh]

Very possible I misunderstood the way it worked.

What I gathered from the CM was that you had to purchase Mm to be able to save your photos and it had to be purchased a certain amount ahead of time (I forget how long) before your photos would be available to view.

They said that since my wife and I have purchased MM, my parents can view our pictures, but since my parents have not purchased MM, then they would either have to buy it or pay for photos individually.

 

[starry_solo]

I did a memory maker share, cost me about $35.

For those with family members going and you want to share it, one person purchases it and has to add the others on their friends & family list and make sure to share photos with them. The other person has to accept the adding and do the same. Then the person with the memory maker will be able to download (gets all the pictures without the watermark). Everyone else can see all the pictures, but has the watermark.

 

[Auntrosie]

Is the memory maker worth the $170? The 2 other trips we have taken we have just handed the photo pass people our cell phones. The cell phone quality isn't always the best, so I have been going back & forth on splurging for the memory maker. The on-ride photos aren't a deal breaker for our family but we are huge on character photos. This year the majority of our character meets with be at dining reservations. Do most character meals have a photo pass person? We will be eating at 'ohana breakfast, Akershus, Crystal Palace, Disney jr @ Hollywood & vine, Chef Mickey, Tusker House & Bon Voyage breakfast. Curious on opinions!!

To have everyone in the picture, it's worth it. It's incentive to stop and take those iconic shots. You need hundreds of photos to come up with a handful you love. If your Crystal Place reservation is for before park open then go early and stop at every photo pass photographer on the way. The morning light is perfect for the castle shot. Do it you won't regret it.

 

[kniquy]

n-ride photos aren't a deal breaker

I felt it was totally worth it. And for us the ride photos made it even more worth it and those are our favorites! My sons expression on RnR was something we would have never seen had we not gotten the memory maker. Makes for great photo books. They usually do add in some pictures of the parks and characters -s o if you are into photo book making then it just adds to it.

The quality of the photos will be better than your cell phone, and it saves you from having to carry around a bulky good camera. It is a rare thing to get a family picture because i am usually the one taking it. My husband was so not into the photopass people on our first couple of days. I would make us stop at almost all the ones we saw (not really but a lot of them). But once he started seeing the pictures we were getting he was all on board to make the stops at the photographers. Such amazing pictures and if you get a good photo pass person they will even pose you (like my husband and i kissing in front of the castle and our kids covering their faces -- priceless) they will also do the magic shots -- so tinkerbell sitting in your hand. I guess it sounds like the meet and greets do have the photopass photographers so if you are planning a bunch of meets then again worth it.

The photographers do a great job of getting a great picture of you and the surroundings (EE, tree of life or the castle etc in the background) something that might not come out as good even if they grab your camera. Worth it to do it once.