Hey everyone, it's Jacqueline for Pixie Dust PhD. If you're new here we talk a lot about Walt Disney
World and Disney Vacation Club. I hope you find this information helpful! If you do please hit
that thumbs up button to “like” the video and consider subscribing to the channel--ring the
bell icon for notifications whenever I post new videos. In today's video we'll be talking about
taking pictures at Walt Disney World, specifically PhotoPass, magic shots, and Memory Maker. Is
this—oh!... Is this video an excuse for me to go back to look at some of the old and cute PhotoPass
pictures? Maybe. But either way it should be a fun and informative topic, so stay tuned!
Disney PhotoPass is essentially what Disney calls their pictures being taken on rides or
by their cast members. This is a great way to document loads of your memories in photographs.
And at least in my experience there's usually one person in the travel party that insists on taking
pictures; that means they're usually never in the pictures. PhotoPass is a great remedy for this;
to make sure that you are in some of those pictures too! If you get a picture while riding
a ride or from a PhotoPass cast member stationed around the parks at various fun and iconic
locations you are essentially participating in Disney PhotoPass. Other than the four main parks,
there are also PhotoPass locations in both of the water parks as well as Disney Springs. PhotoPass
is sometimes available at character meals, but not always so be sure to have your own camera ready to
snap those pics. PhotoPass locations can also occasionally be spotted at the various Disney
resorts. I have certainly had luck around holiday time finding PhotoPass cast members stationed in
the lobbies of the various hotels; it's super fun to get a professional picture with those seasonal
decorations. And last you will find PhotoPass cast members at very special events like Mickey's
Not So Scary Halloween Party. The logistics are pretty simple. Either before or after you take a
picture your PhotoPass cast member will instruct you to tap your MagicBand or your park ticket to
a handheld scanner. If you don't want to use your MagicBand or your park ticket many PhotoPass cast
members also carry PhotoPass cards. It'll have a code on it where you can enter that code on a
website to retrieve your picture later. Many rides now automatically link those on-ride photos to
your My Disney Experience account, but this only works if that long range RFID in your magic band
is active. Some rides do have picture viewing stations that you see right as you get off the
ride--where there are several screens displaying everyone who's ridden recently, and you can
tap your park ticket or your MagicBand to a tap point to retrieve your specific picture. However,
there definitely are attractions without this physical touch point in order to get your picture,
so you will want to make sure that that long range RFID battery is active in your MagicBand
if you want those on-ride photos. Your standard PhotoPass pictures can also be enhanced through
what's called magic shots. Instead of a normal photo of you and your travel party looking cute
at Disney, you can get those enhanced with a little extra Disney magic. A cast member
may ask you to do something a little strange like hold your hands out or look to the side.
They'll take your picture and then in post some fun Disney magic will be added.
Maybe you've got some Mickey balloons or maybe you're hanging out with Tinkerbell.
Not every single PhotoPass cast member will offer a magic shot, but it never hurts to ask.
The Disney PhotoPass Facebook page used to keep albums of the currently available magic shots;
however, unfortunately it looks like they stopped doing this. You can still check out the official
Disney PhotoPass various social media accounts though to get a sense of what cool magic shots
they're currently offering. The easiest way to find a PhotoPass cast member is in the My Disney
Experience app. When you load the map portion of the app it will automatically populate wait times;
however, you can instead have it populate PhotoPass. This will show you locations of the
various PhotoPass cast members throughout the parks. Simply look for folks in the PhotoPass
cast member uniform--that's usually a white or maybe light blue button-down shirt, a khaki vest,
and then slacks or shorts. Once you spot one you'll be able to spot them all very quickly.
If it's colder out they have fleece-looking coats that are navy on the bottom and beige on the top.
And of course they'll be holding very expensive camera equipment; that's usually a dead giveaway.
Not every attraction offers on-ride PhotoPass photos, however, a lot of the big ticket
attractions do. In the Magic Kingdom you can get on ride PhotoPass photos from the Haunted Mansion,
Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Seven Dwafs Mine Train, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin,
and the Pirates of the Caribbean. At Animal Kingdom these on-ride photos are offered at
Dinosaur and Expedition Everest. At EPCOT you'll get on-ride photos from Frozen Ever After and Test
Track. And over at Hollywood Studios you'll get on-ride photos from Tower of Terror,
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Slinky Dog Dash. So you've been going around taking all these
pictures, then what? Accessing them is actually fairly simple. You can view them in your My Disney
Experience app at any time. The magic shots do take a little bit to show up, sometimes even
one or more days later. But for the most part your PhotoPass pictures will show up pretty instantly.
I find they're often in my account in less than 15 minutes. In all the parks there's also a location
to help you troubleshoot or browse your photos. Participating in PhotoPass is absolutely free,
meaning whether or not you plan on purchasing any pictures you can absolutely have them taken. But
of course keeping your photos without a watermark is not free. You can view your pictures on your
My Disney Experience app or online, but they will have watermarks all over them. Similarly,
you won't be able to download any of your pictures without payment. Individual digital downloads cost
around $17 per picture. It's a few dollars more if you want actual physical prints in various
sizes up to eight by ten. If you only want a few photos from your trip buying individual pictures
is probably your most economical option. However, if you'd like more than just a couple photos there
are two primary options to consider. First, there's Memory Maker one day which costs $69.
As the name implies you can download all of your PhotoPass pictures from a single day.
You are able to pick that day if you are at Walt Disney World for multiple days. The nitty gritty
details states that your one day starts at 6 am eastern on that day and ends at 5:59 AM eastern
the following day. Essentially if you want four or more pictures from that single day you may as well
buy the one day Memory Maker instead of buying individual downloads. Instead of Memory Maker one
day there's also just general Memory Maker. This applies to the length of your trip. If you buy
this at least three days in advance of the first PhotoPass pictures you want access to then it will
cost $169. If you didn't plan ahead, or realize during or after your vacation that actually you do
want access to all those photos, then it's $199. Effectively you get a $30 discount for planning
and paying in advance. You can purchase the advanced Memory Maker at the rate of $169 ahead of
your trip but less than three days in advance--you just won't get all of your pictures. For example,
if you purchase that $169 Memory Maker advance rate one day before your trip you won't have
access to the pictures from the first couple days of your trip. There is that three-day waiting
period. You can still see those pictures that you're taking on day one and two of your trip,
and you can buy them individually or through the one-day Memory Maker--they just won't be included
in your advanced Memory Maker purchase. In sum, any pictures taken within the first three days of
you purchasing that advanced Memory Maker rate of $169 are not included in that package. The
standard Memory Maker package, not the advanced rate, so the $199 package includes all of your
photos and there is no waiting period. While you can wait till the last minute, three days
before your trip, I usually try to purchase this a little further in advance than that. Essentially,
once I’m sure that I will be going on this vacation and that I definitely want Memory Maker
I’ll go ahead and make that purchase--so three or four weeks out. You can essentially purchase
Memory Maker at any time in advance of your trip, even a full year out if desired. Purchasing in
advance may help with your trip budgeting, but note that these purchases are non-refundable.
Memory Maker purchases are also non-transferable. The exception here is if you purchase Memory Maker
as part of a resort package, then the cancellation for the resort package will apply to Memory Maker.
This means depending on the terms that you signed up with this vacation package it's possible that
your Memory Maker would be refundable. The digital content, so all of your PhotoPass pictures, will
expire 45 days from the date they were taken. You can purchase an extension if needed for $19.95;
this extension gives you an extra 15 days to download all of your content, so 60 days total
from the date the pictures were taken. In general a good rule of thumb is to just try to remember
when you return home from Walt Disney World to download all of your content right away.
$169 dollars for all the photos from your trip certainly isn't cheap--it's definitely something
to consider. But there is some good news! Only one single person in your travel party needs to make
this purchase. That's right Memory Maker really only needs one linked guest from your whole party.
Very literally you could be traveling with just one other person or 12 other people,
but still only one person in your travel party needs to purchase Memory Maker.
This also means if you're splitting the cost of Memory Maker among a larger group the cost becomes
a lot more palatable. Here's some details on how this works. You and your entire travel party need
to be in each other's friends and family list in My Disney Experience. Under every account
in your My Disney Experience friends and family list there is a checkbox that will need to be
checked for sharing my Disney PhotoPass. You can edit these permissions at any time. For example,
let's say I purchased Memory Maker. I can be with my partner over at the meet and greet for Merida
getting PhotoPass pictures there; at the same time other people in my travel party could be off at
Haunted Mansion and getting their ride photos from PhotoPass from the Haunted Mansion. I’ll be able
to see my friends Haunted Mansion on-ride photos in my account as long as they have selected that
sharing permission, and vice versa they'll be able to see my pictures with Merida. You can do this
for up to 25 people on your friends and family list. In this example, even though I’m the one who
bought Memory Maker and not my friends off doing other things, I or my MagicBand doesn't need to be
present with every person in my party in order to have all of our pictures collated together.
As long as your accounts are linked as friends and family in My Disney Experience and you've
got that sharing checkbox checked then you do not need to be physically present with anybody else
in your travel party. As long as those sharing permissions stay active then I’ll still be able
to view and download everyone's photos from those people in my friends and family list.
If you don't want to share your photos through the My Disney Experience friends and family list you
can also invite people to view your photos through an emailed link. If you have more than 25 people
in your travel party then you'll need to call and speak with a Disney PhotoPass guest services cast
member in order to get access to be able to view download and share all the photos from more than
25 people at one time. Then assuming you are the Memory Maker purchaser, it's up to you when you
get home from vacation to download everybody's pictures and disseminate as you see fit. If I’m
the only person in my travel party that purchased Memory Maker then I will be the only one who's
able to view and download the photos without any watermarks. Everyone else in the rest of my travel
party will be able to see the photos, but they will have that watermark. Also in good news--if
you are an annual passholder at the premiere, platinum plus, platinum, or gold level then you
essentially get Memory Maker included in the cost of your annual pass. This also means that if one
single person in your travel party is an annual passholder and they're fine with doing all the
downloading and sharing of photos after the trip, then you don't even need to purchase Memory Maker.
Aside from digital downloads of all your wonderful photos there are additional products that you
can purchase from Disney. These are things like physical prints, mugs, cards, calendars, and much
more. Whether the cost of a full or one-day Memory Maker package is worth it will of course vary from
individual to individual. Personally, I value Memory Maker quite a lot. As I alluded to before,
if we don't buy Memory Maker then I’m essentially not in any pictures because I’m the one ensuring
pictures are being taken. This means no one's taking pictures of me. Also the PhotoPass cast
members are really fabulous and well trained; you really do get genuinely good quality pictures--way
better than ones that I could take. Personally I also really love the character meet and greets,
which means I really get value out of PhotoPass because there are PhotoPass cast members at the
character meet and greets. These PhotoPass cast members are snapping away during your interaction
with the character as well as some posed pictures at the end. it's not unusual to get more than six,
sometimes even a dozen, pictures from a single character meet and greet. And because
I like meeting characters that's something I prioritize, so I try to meet a lot of them.
This means there are simply dozens, if not more than 100, pictures from PhotoPass of just my
character meet and greets, which certainly feels worth the cost to me. I also really enjoy the
on-ride photos. Some of them are better than others, and a lot of them are a little cheesy,
but they are really fun. Most pictures, whether that be with characters or in front of park icons,
you could argue that you could do that for free with your own camera or phone and that's totally
true. On-ride photos however you really are only going to get access to through PhotoPass.
Once we decide to purchase Memory Maker then we also commit to finding PhotoPass cast members
located throughout the parks, mostly by using that My Disney Experience map. Seeking out PhotoPass
opportunities, and especially those super cute magic shots, really becomes a big part
of our trip. As a warning though lines can become long; I definitely waited around 25 minutes for a
PhotoPass opportunity with the Tangled lantern lights. If these types of photo opportunities
don't sound interesting to you well then maybe Memory Maker will not be worth it for you!
Also if your trips to the parks isn't very long then $169 may not be worth it just in terms of the
sheer quantity of photos you would get. For me, since we normally go on longer trips and I like
participating in activities where PhotoPass is prevalent, it's definitely worth it. There's your
overview of Walt Disney World's PhotoPass, magic shots, and Memory Maker packages. I’d love to
hear if you normally do or do not purchase Memory Maker and why in the comments down below! You can
also find me on other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram @PixieDustPhD.
If you have any spectacular PhotoPass shots or those magic shots definitely please do share;
the seasonal magic shots I find particularly charming. I hope the rest of your day
is practically perfect in every way, and we'll see you real soon at Pixie Dust PhD.