Memory Maker Worth It?

Is the Memory Maker worth the $169?


  • Total voters
    36
It all depends on what you value. We have gotten MM every trip so far. I love getting all of the ride photos, and the ability to stop for random Photopass photographers and grab a quick photo, and not have to decide at the end which ones we want to download or print. We have thousands of photos over the past 4 years, and it's awesome to go back and see how the kids have grown, and how things have changed. It also saves us from having to carry around a camera, and while we still wind up taking photos on our phones, we run out of space pretty quickly.

We aren't planning to get MM for our short, 3-day trip over MLK weekend. The plan is to go cheap (no park hopper, staying at SoG, eating all QS, no TS) so we are doing without the extra stuff, but will definitely have it for our June trip that will be about a week long.
 
It's subjective. How long will you be there? How important are photos to you? Would you "go out of your way" to get them? We have APs, so it's included with that. But we'd buy it anyway. Our trips are typically long...7-17 days. As PP mentioned, there are tons of ride photos that are taken, which are awesome. Some have small video clips too. Plus, there are tons and tons of photographers walking around the parks. We often stop if we see one who is available with no wait (pretty common). It takes all of 3 minutes to do, and you get several photos. Same goes for the water parks, they have photographers and we get great photos there. We'll end up with hundreds of pictures after a long trip, and it took little effort. Well worth it to us. But if it were just a one or two day trip, no, I probably wouldn't buy it.
 
We always purchase it when we go - whether just the wife and myself or our whole family. But like Klayfish and compshu said, it's all about what you want and what you value. Unless there is a crazy long line, we stop at every photographer we see, so we always end up with a bunch of photos. Usually, one ends up on a Christmas card - yes we are old-fashioned and still send them! My degree is in Photojournalism, so I value photos, as does my wife. We usually take a few on our phones as well, but we really enjoy looking back on the ones we have gotten from purchasing Memory Maker.

I also like the fact that the photographers never seem to be in a hurry. I've watched them countless times working hard to get a great shot of a big group.
 


I wouldn't go without it but if I visited more than once a year I would probably skip it once in awhile.

If you are spending $xxxx amount of money to visit what's another $169? Just saying, compared to your other expenses, it's a minimal amount.
 
This was the first time we used it and I don't think I would ever go back. I never brought my DSLR camera and could just rely on my iPhone 7 and the Photo pass photographers. The VAST majority of the shots are awesome. Just a tip, don't wait until the end to review them. I looked at them while in line and noticed one whole set was overexposed in AK. I knew we need to redo those when we went back.
 
We are local, annual pass holders now, but when we vacationed here, we always got Memory Maker. We did make a point to stop at many of the photo stops and we went through several of the character experiences as well, so if that's not your ideal way of spending your time in the parks, then maybe it's not for you. However, we still have pictures on our wall that were taken by the Disney photographers from our last trip before we moved down here. One of them is a large canvas photo that I got for a really good deal at Walgreens. It's at night in front of Cinderella's castle and is just an amazing photo. That alone was worth the cost of the package for us. As mentioned, compared to your overall expense for your vacation, the price is very reasonable. But if you are fine with taking your own photos and don't want to spend the time going through the photo opportunities, then it makes sense to save the money.
 


We usually get it but started thinking that it was getting too high in price but we ended up buying it for this trip in December since we are bringing my GS for his first trip and we are trying to get as many photos with him as we can.
 
Thanks All. Seems like an overwhelming yes. Also I didn't know photo booths are included too..that's incing on top. I think we'll probably go with it, but wanted to get a feel for how other experience of it was.
 
To us, it isn't worth it.

While we enjoy taking pictures, the thought of letting a ride photo go doesn't bother me one bit. I mean, for the most part, they aren't stellar photos. If it is your first trip, or your child's first time on a bunch of rides, then okay. If you only want one ride photo though, buying one photo costs less.

Second, it often takes time to wait for the Photopass CM to take your photo. Some folks see nothing wrong with waiting in lots of photo lines, but we prefer more balance with our time.

At the opening of AK, folks are absolutely streaming in the FoP queue! Every second of delay easily adds 5 minutes to your wait. The queue went from zero to 2 hours in less than 15minutes! Stopping for early morning photos by the tree carries a big price! Last summer, we were the cut off for the AK night show, the family behind us didn't get seats. Two seconds faster made a big difference!

About 2 years ago, we brought first timers to WDW, so we got MM. We didn't end up with very many photos, and we actually tried to find FP photographers!

Part of the footage of 7D was neat, but most of what you get isn't you. It is canned footage.

Also, well....I don't mind ride queues, but certain waits drive me bonkers. Normally, I don't pay much attention to other folks, so what they do doesn't phase me. MM forces me to wait behind others and pay attention to the things they do. Watching folks go to obnoxious lengths in their effort to get the perfect photo puts a damper on my day.

One family had a crying baby, and the situation kept going downhill, but mom didn't care. Dad didn't intervene. It was painful to watch. The baby went from mildly unhappy to wailing, and a happy baby photo was clearly NOT going to happen, but the parents didn't care. What did the child have to do to get dad's intervention?

There's also the extended family that insists on getting all 20 different partial-family configurations. I get it if a family wants a few combinations, but there's a point past reasonable.

Generally, I don't care what other folks wear, but sometiems it is painfully obvious that the 'family costuming' is making at least one family member miserable. What is the priority? What do these folks value, when their daughter is crying because the high heels hurt? Or the son, surrounded by pink glitter, so obviously feels left out?

I like photos well enough, but there's something perverse that happens to some folks when they enter WDW. The castle façade doesn't always bring out the best in people.
 
You can also get a 1 Day MM for $59, though I'm not sure how much longer that will be available. It is a good option if most of your photos are taken on a single day.
 
I think it depends. I voted yes, but there are definitely times when I wouldn't get it. Long trip- yes; short trip- no. One thing it did do, though was give me the chance to not be so on-the-go and just take everything in a little more. As an adult with no kids, it's so easy to just skip the character meet and greets, but they're still fun (just probably not as much if you've got a small child enamored with them).
 
Where are the photo booths that are included?
Thanks.

I don't think there is an official list. Every one that I've come across has been included. Just look for the PhotoPass icon on the booth. They are usually in the gift shops and arcade areas at the resorts.
 
Nope not worth it. Just hand a photographer your camera to take a picture for you.
 
We aren't planning to get MM for our short, 3-day trip over MLK weekend. The plan is to go cheap (no park hopper, staying at SoG, eating all QS, no TS) so we are doing without the extra stuff, but will definitely have it for our June trip that will be about a week long.

Since you've done this so many times, you probably know this already, but on the off chance that you don't.....there is a HUGE military discount for MM that might make it worth it even for such a short trip.
 
Answers will vary.

Years ago I purchased the Memory Makers pictures DVD in advance of our trip anticipating that i would use it. It's still unopened on my bookshelf. Fast Forward to recent years and having an AP where the pictures are included and accessible on my phone. Once those pictures hit my MDE account they're uploaded to Facebook or Shutterfly. So yes, at this point in my life MM is worth it. Especially as we have kids and out trips are 5+ days in length and feel that we are getting our moneys worth.
 
I am on the fence on this one, but leaning towards doing it. On the one hand I'm sort of like "what do we really need all these photos for?" Dh will post them on InstaTwitterFace I suppose and since everyone I know follows him since I don't really do that I suppose it will be nice for them to see that we had a fun time. But the fact of the matter is that we usually end up with a lot of vacation photos and there's never really been any photographers involved. We went to Paris not too long ago and we have a lot of great photos. It was a great trip and I actually like going back and looking at the photos from time to time. Our cameras take surprisingly good photos. We have lots of photos of Paris, of me in Paris, my husband in Paris--and about three of us in Paris. When we travel that's the main thing I enjoy is frankly the fact that it's usually just the two of us for a week, no work, no chores, just us together--and that's exactly what our photos generally fail to capture. Now I imagine I would feel more comfortable asking a CM to take a photo of us than I did the average Parisian--while the average Parisian was really quite lovely most of them weren't being paid to help us. But still I feel like if we do MM we're more likely to get more of those shots done--partly because we paid a chunk of change for the right. Do we really need photos of the two of us holding Tinkerbell, no I suppose not. But if we're both in it, I want one.
 
This really, really depends on your length of stay and how many photos you bother to get!

If you are there for greater than 4-5 days and you don't travel to Disney very often - yes - it's worth it if you take the time to get pictures with them.

If you are traveling for a large family gathering and you want photos to be able to include everyone - yes - its worth it if you get a bunch taken.

For 2-3 days trips - unless your goal is to get as many pictures as possible - I don't think you get enough good ones in that time frame.

For frequent visitors on short trips - no - I don't think it's worth it.

I think my group now qualifies as "frequent" visitors - and if it weren't included with my AP - we wouldn't get it. We do use the Photopass photographers - but as they will also use YOUR camera - those shots are sufficient for us. Sure - we don't get Magic Shots or ride photos - but really - we don't like the ride photos anyway because everyone tends to look stupid in them. We might on a 7-8 day trip still, but for 4-5 days - we probably wouldn't.
 

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