Disney Cruise Line Photobooks

[Toni A]

Hey all! My family is going on their first Disney cruise and I was just wondering about the photobooks that the DCL offers. Are they worth it? Is it comparable to a Shutterfly photobook? Hardbound, etc. I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I recommend just getting the photo package and using one of the 7.3 million free Shutterfly codes to make your own.

 

[Toni A]

I recommend just getting the photo package and using one of the 7.3 million free Shutterfly codes to make your own.

So you think their photobook is not worth it? Main reason I ask is that it's more expensive to get the full picture package than it is to do a photobook. Have you done a photobook? If so, is it a hardcover and does it include all the cruise pics???

 

[NZMUM]

So you think their photobook is not worth it? Main reason I ask is that it's more expensive to get the full picture package than it is to do a photobook. Have you done a photobook? If so, is it a hardcover and does it include all the cruise pics???

The photobook is hardcover. It has approx 34 photos in it. We get it because we're not big photo people - our kids are adults, so we don't need photos with every character in multiple outfits anymore. For us it takes a big effort to get enough photos.

 

[tanya0369]

I personally buy the cd and then make a book on disneyphotopass. You can then use all the Disney cruise clip art but also use the photos you took with your own camera in addition to the cruise cd photos. It's my favorite souvenir.

 

[Toni A]

The photobook is hardcover. It has approx 34 photos in it. We get it because we're not big photo people - our kids are adults, so we don't need photos with every character in multiple outfits anymore. For us it takes a big effort to get enough photos.

Thank you so much for the info! That helps a lot!

 

[Toni A]

I personally buy the cd and then make a book on disneyphotopass. You can then use all the Disney cruise clip art but also use the photos you took with your own camera in addition to the cruise cd photos. It's my favorite souvenir.

Thank you for the tip! I will look into that as well.

 

[ivanp91]

These stories are few and far between, but I have heard of the rare instance where people have received other guests' photobooks. With the cost and then dealing with delivery on top, I would just design my own.

 

[hanscarlet]

We just got our first photobook this past May and I was very happy with the purchase and the experience. If anything I found I had trouble finding the 36 photos to fill the book. We stopped at a lot of photo opportunities on our 7 night cruise but DH is a pain about it, he doesn't like lines or characters. We went with this option for two reasons - 1. as just stated, getting DH to wait in lines for characters is a pain and so we found that we never really had enough digitals to justify the digital purchase 2. The mad rush to pick up the USB at shutters is completely avoided with the photo book, you just personalize your book at a kiosk and then it gets mailed to your home a few weeks later.

I've gotten to the point with cruises that if you take all of those digital photos, after a while you're just like meh, all the photos are the same... at least with the photo book you get high quality, hard cover product out of the whole ordeal.

there are themed pages, like one page is a castaway cay day, another is a pirate night, the quality of the drawings inside make it look like a professional scrapbook with high quality images of the ship as well

I would show you photos but I'm moving my house on Friday and the photo book is packed somewhere in one of the boxes in my house Lol

 

[Toni A]

We just got our first photobook this past May and I was very happy with the purchase and the experience. If anything I found I had trouble finding the 36 photos to fill the book. We stopped at a lot of photo opportunities on our 7 night cruise but DH is a pain about it, he doesn't like lines or characters. We went with this option for two reasons - 1. as just stated, getting DH to wait in lines for characters is a pain and so we found that we never really had enough digitals to justify the digital purchase 2. The mad rush to pick up the USB at shutters is completely avoided with the photo book, you just personalize your book at a kiosk and then it gets mailed to your home a few weeks later.

I've gotten to the point with cruises that if you take all of those digital photos, after a while you're just like meh, all the photos are the same... at least with the photo book you get high quality, hard cover product out of the whole ordeal.

there are themed pages, like one page is a castaway cay day, another is a pirate night, the quality of the drawings inside make it look like a professional scrapbook with high quality images of the ship as well

I would show you photos but I'm moving my house on Friday and the photo book is packed somewhere in one of the boxes in my house Lol

Thank you so much! That was super helpful and it definitely sounds like what I'd want to do. We are kind of the same with pictures. We probably won't take a ton and the ones we do will probably be based on the theme nights so that's perfect. I think that made up my mind for me. Photobook it is! Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Toni A]

These stories are few and far between, but I have heard of the rare instance where people have received other guests' photobooks. With the cost and then dealing with delivery on top, I would just design my own.

I hope that doesn't happen because I think we are going to go for it, lol. It sounds like an awesome deal and knowing me, I'll never end up having time to create my own. Ugh. Wish me luck!

 

[hardis5]

Our first few cruises we did the disc, downloads and then moved to the photobook (hardcover like Shutterfly). In terms of memories we rarely look at the pics when provided from file but the photobook was shown to many as a capsule of our sailing and IMHO is the best value from Shutters. Yes you can do a photobook for a lot less after the fact with one of many services providing the same but you will have to have the pics (either from your own camera or phone) or will have had to have spent more than a Shutters photobook cost buying Shutters pics/files to create.

We seem to each cruise be taking fewer/having fewer pics taken (anyone else notice fewer photographers around as well) and using our phones for important memorable pics with CM taking using (and the DCL app and a clock when on-board) so we now no longer have enough pics through Shutters to make photobook worthwhile.

 

[fdefulvio]

Keep in mind that if this is the same process as the Photopass Photobook in WDW you have to create the book yourself, and only have a limited amount of time. I’ve purchased two books over the years, spent many hours creating pages, paid fees to extend my time, and have never completed my book before my offer expired.

I’m a tech person, and there is a learning curve to get up to speed with the app. I think my problem is that I’m very critical, and tried to include too many pictures. I just didn’t have the time or commitment to complete the 20+ pages. If you aren’t overly critical, and stick to just one or two pictures to a page, you can probably knock it out.

 

[islandsnoopy]

The only time I've ever purchased the DCL photobook was on our Alaskan cruise. Loved all the unique Alaska clipart and the hardcover photobook. It's a great memory of our trip.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Keep in mind that if this is the same process as the Photopass Photobook in WDW you have to create the book yourself, and only have a limited amount of time. I’ve purchased two books over the years, spent many hours creating pages, paid fees to extend my time, and have never completed my book before my offer expired.

I’m a tech person, and there is a learning curve to get up to speed with the app. I think my problem is that I’m very critical, and tried to include too many pictures. I just didn’t have the time or commitment to complete the 20+ pages. If you aren’t overly critical, and stick to just one or two pictures to a page, you can probably knock it out.

I've never made a book at Shutters, but I've done several WDW photopass books with as many as 60 pages in them, which is the max. The trick is to get all your photos planned out before you begin making your book. Why pay more for the extended time on the photos, if you've bought and downloaded the photos? Disney allows you to upload your own photos, which means you can upload your expired photopass photos again, when you are ready to make a project.

Take the pages one at a time. You have a month to get them done. So before you ever upload and start your project, decide how many photos you want on your pages. Once you have that planned, putting the pages together isn't hard. If you're creative, you can build your own using Disney papers, or even your own creations (as a photo to fill the page). If you're not creative and just want a nice album, use the pages Disney has designed for you. There's even a cruise theme of pages, so it's quite easy.

I do agree, however, that if you want to do your own thing, there is a learning curve, as there are limitations to the software and available embellishments. If you have the time, do practice pages in a "test" book/project (and why not do a practice book to see if you like the software? It doesn't cost anything.) to figure out what things you can customize and which you are stuck with. For example, I have some favourite frames I use, but I get tired of the same ones, so I create frames and shadows in Powerpoint or Elements, save as a jpg and upload as a full photo. In the software, I select the "no frame" (because I've added the frame before I ever saved my photo). It does help if you play around with the software a bit before you start your real project.

One hint, don't get too close to any of the edges of the page, as their printing of the photopass books isn't always as accurate as they should be for that price. I usually have a background that's larger than the displayed page and bring any elements in about a quarter of an inch from the edges to be sure everything looks right in print.

Oh yeah, and save periodically, like after every page you're happy with, especially if you have a flaky browser that likes to crash on your from time to time.

 

[g_ppetto]

If you are using Disney's PhotoPass... We have done the photo package at WDW twice. When accessing the photos online, it is best to use the Chrome browser. If you want to edit any of the photos (crop, add images, etc.), make a copy of the photo and edit the copy, not the original. If you make a mistake you can always delete the edited copy and make another copy from the original.

Also, I keep seeing photo services in the advertisements Costco send me. I'll have to check to see if they do books.

We haven't decided what we are going to do regarding the photo package for our upcoming cruise. We need to learn more about it. This thread is helpful. Thank you!

 

[tanya0369]

I have made over 10 books on the photo pass website. It does take time and the first time around a lot of time! But I absolutely love them and the kids still look through them years later. So worth it! I love that I can add my own photos from my camera as well.

 

[lv2cruise]

For those of you who have purchased the photo book, how long did it take for you to receive it in the mail?

 

[cmph]

I thought the book seemed like a much better value than the photos (digital or prints). However, if you travel with extended family - it's far cheaper to just order multiple copies of one book from shutterfly or the like.

However - the main reason the cruise book seemed like a worse choice than making our own was that it won't include any excursion photos. I'm not sure I've seen this mentioned above, but it's a big issue if your "best" photos are from excursions or if you're simply trying to make a true vacation memory book. I decided I would only get the DCL one in the future if we're doing a Bahamas cruise and not traveling with extended family.

 

[lovetotraveltx]

To be clear, as I'm thinking of doing a photo book this time, you design it yourself on the shutters computers during your cruise? Then it gets mailed to you. We are just 2 adults and I'm so behind in making books for our vacations and my husband loves them. Just thought this would be a fun souvenir and done shortly after we get home