If you have ever been to Disney you may have come across the Disney PhotoPass Service. This service is actually fabulous. Why? Because Disney has staked out photographers in both randomly and in the most photogenic sections of the theme parks to take pictures of you and your family/friends on vacation. It takes the guessing out of who will take the picture and be left out vs. trying to track down someone to take a photo for you. When you find a photographer you just hand him a card the size of your room key/credit card and they scan it linking the photos they took to your account. You can then wait until you get home to view your pictures and decide if you want to purchase any or all.
Now this service can get a teeny bit expensive (this is Disney we are talking about). But there are ways to cut down on this cost.
- Join a Disney Crazed Message board and get in a PhotoPass Swap for your vacation dates
- Purchase just the photos you like
- Prepurchase the PhotoPass CD from Disney
Mike and I will be doing #3 above. By visiting the Disney PhotoPass website you can buy the cd for a 20% discount. But the main reason we are going to do this is because you can book a private photo session with a Disney photographer at a deluxe resort and that photographer will spend 30-40 minutes with you taking professional photos of you. The cost is just an additional $25 if you prepurchase the cd and once again you get the rights to all photos. Right now the private session is only available at the Grand Floridian Resort but later this month it will open up to Saratoga Springs and the Polynesian Resorts! I can’t wait to see the first wave of photos posted on my Disney message boards so I can decide on which resort to pick for our pictures.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
LOVED the photo pass last year! In my opinion, it is well worth the money!
I love the photopass too and I’ll be doing the prepurchase again in August. Hoping to create a share group by then, but it’s worth it even if that doesn’t work.
I loved my photopass pictures. If you have a puch on a lanyard you keep your pass, room key etc. in, if you put your photopass card in you can just have them scan it without taking it out.
Photopass is great. I did the preorder CD my last trip and this trip I’m in a share. I would love to have pictures taking at the Poly!
This is our 3rd photopass CD that I have ordered. Our last photopass CD in Dec 07 after adding borders, etc totalled over 500 pictures. Just got back from our most recent trip and we probably had around 175 photos before adding borders, etc. Our CD of course was pre ordered. Great deal in my opinion as this way I get to be in the photos also. Wish I had of known that the photo sessions at the Grand Floridian were so cheap, as this was our 20th anniversary trip.
Love the PhotoPass!! It’s so nice to get photos of us that aren’t “self-portraits”! Getting it at the prepurchased price is even better!!
Thanks for posting this!
I loved the photopass, it was the only way that I knew that I was there. I did not know about the deluxe resort pictures….good to know for next time!
You can also read more about photopass as well as all of the changes to the resort sessions at http://www.stitchkingdom.com/photopass