Disney Trip Planning – Reasons to Consider the Memory Maker PhotoPass

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Disney Trip Memory Maker Photos(1)We just returned from a family trip at Disney World for the 2015 Disney Social Media Moms conference. Needless to say, it was SO much fun!! We hung out with friends, made fun family memories, and took a whole bunch of photos!!! Even though I have a professional DSLR camera and take TONS of my own photos as a blogger, I was THRILLED to have the Memory Maker from Disney PhotoPass! Both images above are from our Memory Maker and I absolutely love them!

What is Memory Maker?

Memory Maker (formally called PhotoPass+) is an optional Disney trip additional purchase ($169 if purchased at least 3 days in advance of your trip, $199 if purchased in the parks) that allows you to download all of your favorite digital photos taken by the Disney PhotoPass photographers at a WHOLE bunch of locations (the front entrances to all the parks, all the major icons, some rides, character dining locations, and more)!

With the new Magic Bands, using this service is a breeze. Every time a Disney PhotoPass photographer takes your picture, they’ll scan your band and the photos appear in your Memory Maker account. You can then download the photo(s) as many times as you like as soon as they’re in your account!

Reasons to consider purchasing Memory Maker…

1. Magic Shots

At certain locations in the parks, the photographers can add a little Disney magic to your photos. In the first photo above, Tinker Bell joined us! The boys LOVE this one with Stitch and Olaf was a fun surprise too! With 3 young kids, it’s nearly impossible to get a shot with everyone actually looking at the camera AND smiling. So, I love that the magic shots allow us to have some fun without always needing to look at the camera! Stitch Magic ShotOlafMagicShot2. Actually being IN photos!

As the mom with the camera, there are FAR fewer photos of me with the kids than their dad. Sure selfies are fun, but regular photos that you’re in are important. So, I love that Memory Maker gives us SO many opportunities to get family photos with ME actually in them. You are certainly welcome to hand your camera to the Disney PhotoPass photographer to get photos with you in them for free. But…I find that they take WAY more when it’s on their camera for Memory Maker! And, when dealing with multiple people in the photo, you are FAR more likely to get a good one when LOTS of shots are taken! EpcotFamilyPhoto3. Fun, creative shots

Every PhotoPass photographer is different and some are MUCH better than others. But, if you utilize the service well, you should get at least a few fun photographers that get creative with the shots. Whether it be props or fun poses, you’ll probably get more creative photos than you might take on your own. Here’s a couple of our favorites!  AnimalKingdomFamilyPhotoMagicKingdomFamilyPhoto4. Ride Photos…and VIDEO!

Seriously ride photos are SO much fun! And normally, they cost a fair bit to purchase individually! So, I love that ride photos from a number of attractions (like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Tower of terror, Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, Expedition Everest, and Dinosaur) are included with Memory Maker. They’re even starting to add video from some attractions, like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. SO fun!! The boys have loved watching the videos! And, I LOVE all our different ride photos! These from Mine Train are favorites! MineTrainPhotosAnd, we had SO much fun on Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom too! We ended up riding at least 6 times in one day and got to ride with friends on some of our expeditions. The photos are hilarious!
EverestPhotos5. Fun borders & edits

Another fun thing about your Memory Maker photos is that you can add make fun edits that include adding borders, characters, etc. Here’s a couple that I did for the boys!

JediTraining1CarsPhoto

So, is it worth it? 

The answer totally depends – on the type of vacationer you are, the length of your trip, the size of your group, the value you place on photos, etc. It may not be a good value for everyone, but if you make the most of the PhotoPass photographers you can end up with some really special photos! I love all the ones we shared above and there are a whole lot more. In fact, we ended up with almost 400 photos on our Memory Maker account. And, at least 10-20 of them are my absolute favorite photos from the whole trip. At $15 a piece (if you wanted to purchase the shots individually), that MORE than covers the cost of the Memory Maker. So, I think it’s something definitely worth considering for your next Disney trip!

Looking for more Disney vacation tips? Be sure to check out the posts below!

Benefits to Staying on Property Benefits to staying on property at Disney World
Tips for Visiting with Babies & Toddlers
10 tips for visiting Disney World with young kids

Dis­clo­sure: My fam­ily was invited to the 2015 Dis­ney Social Media Moms Cel­e­bra­tion. I paid a confer­ence fee to attend and received dis­counted & com­pli­men­tary items from Walt Dis­ney World as part of the expe­ri­ence. I was not asked to write about our expe­ri­ences at the con­fer­ence or our fam­ily trip that followed. All opin­ions and expe­ri­ences are entirely my own!

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I’m Sara, a mom to three adorable boys living in the Arizona desert. As a former teacher, I love sharing my passions with others. So, have a look around for creative inspiration about cooking, creating, celebrating, traveling with kids, and more everyday mom endeavors!

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6 Responses

  1. Sara, these photos are great-no wonder you like Memory Maker. Wasn’t it the best? Well, except for the one photo that we had that was missing Tinkerbell. We are just staring at empty hands 🙂 So glad our paths crossed again (although it was way too short).

  2. We LOVED having the Memory Maker too. i’ve already made a photo book of all the shots and am printing more pics. Such great shots, they definitely outshined the ones we took. I’d so get this again.

  3. I guess the Memory Maker’s value depends on the time of year you visit WDW. I made the mistake of paying for it when we went in August. BIG mistake! We went to all of the parks and Disney Springs and came home with a whopping ONE photo (from Hollywood Studios)! That was one seriously EXPENSIVE photo!

    The few times we saw a Memory Maker photographer, the line for him was super long. It was the same even at Disney Springs. Since we only had one day at each park, we decided our time would be much better spent seeing the parks instead of waiting in line to have our pictures taken.

    So think about what time you’re going before rushing to buy the Memory Maker. It’s great if you can actually get some photos taken, enough photos to make it worth the almost $200 you’ll pay for it. But if you’re only going to get a few, it’s not worth the money. It’s easier to have a passer-by take a photo of the entire family (which they all will gladly do) then PhotoShop borders and such on them. You’ll save about $175 to spend on other things in Walt Disney World.

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