Just back - Not happy with Photopass +

[specrn]

Is there a list of which rides do pics on them with photopass+? That seems to me like the only reason it'd be worth it. Thanks

 

[angierae]

Our missing Jack Sparrow pics from MNSSHP on the 20th (reported on the 23rd, after we got home) were put into our account today.

I am, as always, completely thrilled with Photopass and will continue to use it.

 

[mickeygirl78]

I've seen a decline in quality too, not telling us that my niece had her hands covering her eyes or that one of our group was blocking another.

I don't look at them as professional photographers though, to me it's the equivalent of asking another guest to take your pic.

I enjoy getting the cd though and probably still will get it. We had some missing magic shots and called and they fixed them for us.

 

[Masiri]

Mention the placement of the magic shot things too. They can add them in after the fact (that's how it's actually done) so they might be able to move them.

Oooh that's great to know - the balloon shots seem to be tricky and most of those for us came out with the balloons not even close to the hands, I'll put in a request to see if they can be fixed (along with my half dozen missing photo requests, ugh!)

 

[pixieprincessmom]

I think closed eyes and other problems ARE the photographers fault. It only takes a few second to look at them. If lines are long maybe they won't take the time to look, but they should. This is a service people are paying for. Would it be okay for you wedding photographer or photographer for a family photo session to make these mistakes?

We usually have lots of pics we love. Some photographers are wonderful. Others don't care at all.

 

[wendow]

We had the basic photopass this trip. I thought the service was pretty poor as well and was glad I hadn't splurged for the Plus. We had many dark pics, blurry pics, off center pics, tilted pics, etc. We had the same experience in that each photographer took about 3 pics and then moved on. In MK, there was only one photographer who could do the magic shot. They lost pics of ours too but were able to find them with a lot of persistence on my part.

We knew before we went that people were complaining about poor experiences so we stopped for almost every PP photographer every day and had our pics done again just in the hope that we'd get several good shots. And we did get some good ones. So I'm happy with what I got for what I paid.

If these types of reports continue to persist, I think many (including us) will think twice about using PP.

 

[smitch425]

I think closed eyes and other problems ARE the photographers fault. It only takes a few second to look at them. If lines are long maybe they won't take the time to look, but they should. This is a service people are paying for. Would it be okay for you wedding photographer or photographer for a family photo session to make these mistakes?

We usually have lots of pics we love. Some photographers are wonderful. Others don't care at all.

It is totally different than having wedding photos taken. PP photographers are not professional photographers. Whenever we have had them take a photo with our own camera, they have checked to make sure it turned out well. They can't check the pics taken on their camera.

 

[bumbershoot]

They can't look at them, and it is totally different than having wedding photos taken. PP photographers are not professional photographers.

And if they were on that level, the CD would be about $500!

Is there a list of which rides do pics on them with photopass+? That seems to me like the only reason it'd be worth it. Thanks

It's all of the rides with photos.

If you ONLY want Attractions photos, and you don't want the normal pp photos or character meals, etc, then just buy Attractions Plus once you're at the parks!

 

[smitch425]

And if they were on that level, the CD would be about $500!

Exactly.

 

[Ktay92]

Current Photopass Photographer here, a few things you might not know.

1. Our cameras are attached to a PDA and it's set up so that we can't see the pictures we take. The only way we can see it is if the camera and PDA aren't connected, which is not a good thing. That's how photos get lost.

2. With the new website rolling out, we could only do certain magic shots at certain locations. Also with magic shots, the only thing we do is pose you and take the picture. We don't actually add the balloons or tinkerbell or whatever. Our quality assurance team does all of that.

Also, for future trips, try and remember the time and location your missing pictures were taken. It's not fun when someone comes in to look at pictures and their picture in front of the castle is missing and all they remember was that it was taken somewhere on main street in the afternoon.

 

[kaylasmom07]

It is totally different than having wedding photos taken. PP photographers are not professional photographers. Whenever we have had them take a photo with our own camera, they have checked to make sure it turned out well. They can't check the pics taken on their camera.

I think it is important to remember this.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I think closed eyes and other problems ARE the photographers fault. It only takes a few second to look at them. If lines are long maybe they won't take the time to look, but they should. This is a service people are paying for. Would it be okay for you wedding photographer or photographer for a family photo session to make these mistakes?

We usually have lots of pics we love. Some photographers are wonderful. Others don't care at all.

Except you are not paying for the service. You are paying for the photos and the rights to them. The photopass service is free for all guests to use. There is no requirement to buy the photos if you use the service. If you are concerned the quality might not be good enough for you, you do not have to preorder the cd. You can always choose to wait to pay until after you see if you have good enough photos. If you know you want ride photos, regardless of how they turn out, you can buy the attractions+ option without having to buy the entire photopass +.

 

[Cais]

I think closed eyes and other problems ARE the photographers fault. It only takes a few second to look at them. If lines are long maybe they won't take the time to look, but they should. This is a service people are paying for. Would it be okay for you wedding photographer or photographer for a family photo session to make these mistakes? We usually have lots of pics we love. Some photographers are wonderful. Others don't care at all.

They actually can't see the photos. There is no way to do so.

Magic is added after the fact, and can be adjusted if you contact the guest support team.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[jcammans]

I had preordered photopass+ last year for our honeymoon. When we got home, we were missing about 1/2 of our photos.

I worked with tech support and got about 1/2 of the missing photos back, but that means that we were still missing about 25% of our photos.

For example, one specifically I knew within about a 2-3 hour window was a magic shot of stitch that was taken on the bridge over to tomorrowland. Although the tech support guy that I was working with was very helpful, they never found that photo.

If you are looking for missing photos, they want you to know the 1 hour window and exact location in the park where the photo was taken. They would also like if you have another photo of the members of your party and what you were wearing that day.

Unfortunately, I did not track times/places of when and where my photopass+ photos were taken, so I was unable to search for a lot of them. Going into the trip I never thought that I would have to keep track of that stuff but I was wrong.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to take note of the time and location of your photos. It will save you in the long run!!

I would use this service again, but next time I will be taking good notes so that I make sure that I can get all of my photos.

 

[vicky33006]

We went in March and this was my first time ever using the service. I was so surprised at how many photos were missing. I also ended up with a ton of other people's families..I felt so badly about that. They were able to recover all of our photos though because I realized at the end of the trip that many were missing and that we ended up with the wrong ones. I was able to get most of them back while in WDW.

The photographers were an interesting experience though. I had read on here about how happy they generally were to take your pic, so that's what I expected. Some were..many just took a few and went on. One...was really angry with us. I still don't know what we did to make him so upset. We were in Epcot on our last day and DS had ended up in the ER the day before after having a seizure so I was still a nervous wreck...but was happy my boy was OK. I asked the PP guy to take our pic, and he looked upset. So I said, "It's our last day...we just wanted a pic in our favorite park (but I really did say it in an upbeat happy tone. I was feeling happy!)." He looked at me and said, "I really don't care what you're doing." He took the pics...and oddly enough they were some of the best of the trip. He was just so mean though.

I can't decide whether to use the service again. Some of the pics are wonderful, so I'm leaning toward yes, but I have to admit it caused a lot of headaches for the last trip and the idea that I somehow should document what time and where we are when each pic is taken is a bit daunting. I'll have to think about it some more.

 

[mlittig]

I had quite a few missing photos on my last trip and it took multiple phone calls and e-mails to track them down

 

[Punzie]

We went in March and this was my first time ever using the service. I was so surprised at how many photos were missing. I also ended up with a ton of other people's families..I felt so badly about that. They were able to recover all of our photos though because I realized at the end of the trip that many were missing and that we ended up with the wrong ones. I was able to get most of them back while in WDW.

The photographers were an interesting experience though. I had read on here about how happy they generally were to take your pic, so that's what I expected. Some were..many just took a few and went on. One...was really angry with us. I still don't know what we did to make him so upset. We were in Epcot on our last day and DS had ended up in the ER the day before after having a seizure so I was still a nervous wreck...but was happy my boy was OK. I asked the PP guy to take our pic, and he looked upset. So I said, "It's our last day...we just wanted a pic in our favorite park (but I really did say it in an upbeat happy tone. I was feeling happy!)." He looked at me and said, "I really don't care what you're doing." He took the pics...and oddly enough they were some of the best of the trip. He was just so mean though.

I can't decide whether to use the service again. Some of the pics are wonderful, so I'm leaning toward yes, but I have to admit it caused a lot of headaches for the last trip and the idea that I somehow should document what time and where we are when each pic is taken is a bit daunting. I'll have to think about it some more.

Should've reported him. I am not big on complaining there but some people deserve to be reported. And lot of times people rationalize not just on wdw but anywhere "oh maybe they're having a bad day" but they are being paid to do a job and that doesn't include taking your crap out on other people. That is part of being an adult.

 

[MentalVacation]

Current Photopass Photographer here, a few things you might not know.

1. Our cameras are attached to a PDA and it's set up so that we can't see the pictures we take. The only way we can see it is if the camera and PDA aren't connected, which is not a good thing. That's how photos get lost.

2. With the new website rolling out, we could only do certain magic shots at certain locations. Also with magic shots, the only thing we do is pose you and take the picture. We don't actually add the balloons or tinkerbell or whatever. Our quality assurance team does all of that.

Also, for future trips, try and remember the time and location your missing pictures were taken. It's not fun when someone comes in to look at pictures and their picture in front of the castle is missing and all they remember was that it was taken somewhere on main street in the afternoon.

this is good to know. How much training do you get as a photog? I ask because we've generally been pretty happy in the past but this trip has been NOT impressive. Between dark pics and oddly, a bunch of photogs cutting off our FEET in all the shots (this is amateur photog 101, people!?!) to the sort of lack of attention to detail like a serious CM photobomb (like centered between DH and I and above children, staring off in annoyance/boredom about 5 feet behind us, totally messing up the NSSHP castle/costume shot -- the only one we took.... How could the photog have missed that? It is funny...but not, since I really really wanted to use that fam pic for our holiday card this year! Gah!

I'm not particularly happy with our PP+ experience this trip either -- a LOT of them are missing. I just sent a very long and descriptive email hoping they can track them down. I was able to pinpoint fairly carefully the times/dates/other details so crossing my fingers. BUT I do think it sort of takes away from the value/'magic' when I have to hunt/worry/obsess. And then when they are sort of half-hearted generally (we had SOME fun ones, but most are just kind of meh)....well, meh.

 

[MentalVacation]

Should've reported him. I am not big on complaining there but some people deserve to be reported. And lot of times people rationalize not just on wdw but anywhere "oh maybe they're having a bad day" but they are being paid to do a job and that doesn't include taking your crap out on other people. That is part of being an adult.

Agree. On all counts. That is not cool.

 

[dawnmichele]

I hate to hear about cranky, crabby and/or crappy PP Photographers! My fantasy life is to be a PhotoPass Photographer, and although I can't promise I'd always be perfect, I would love to be there cheerfully taking your family's pictures and doing my best to make them look like something you'd want to frame and hang on the wall!