Some advice regarding Shutters from some lessons learned last week

[SnackyStacky]

I'm not a big fan of Shutters, either.

First of all - the prices are just ludicrous. Yes, it's a business. Yes it needs to make money. Yes, you have to pay for licensing of the characters/logos, etc... But $13 for a print that would cost me about $1 at Walgreens? That's a 1,200% markup. That's SICK!

Second - what a WASTE of paper printing up all of those photos that will most likely be thrown away. Perhaps prices could be lower if they weren't using up so much ink and photo paper printing up pictures that will NEVER be purchased?

Third - I found the staff less than helpful. I had photo mats signed at Guest Services, and I wanted a picture of Mickey with the kids with the cute border/background to put in them. So we waited in line and had our picture taken with Mickey. I scanned my Key to the World card at a Shutters kiosk. I should mention the picture was taken at 9am, and I checked for it after dinner. We were on first seating. Picture wasn't there. Checked our folder. Wasn't there. Asked staff member. The response was a very short: "Check the wall."

Checked the walls. Couldn't find the picture. So they had to do a manual search that took 24 hours.

I finally got the picture - but I wanted a 4X6, and it was printed as a 5X7. They can't resize the picture. That's INSANE. I took the thing to Walgreens and it took all of 1 minute to resize the picture. That's from hard copy. That's not working with the digital copy which Shutters should have had, somewhere.

While they did take some great photos, $350 for the CD, or $13 - $20 per print was just not in my budget.

Between the inflexibility, the rude staff and the extreme pricing - I was less than thrilled with Shutters. And it sounds like even those who do pay for the CD have problems.

What really boggles my mind is that they scanned my Key to the World card for character photos. I totally understand how facial recognition can fail on pictures taken where they don't scan your KTTW card. So they can't necessarily get those into the folder or onto your electronic stash of photos. But how does that happen with the ones where they do scan your card?

 

[truck1]

Yes, thank you. That is the number we called.
Not until we had this issue did I realize that they were a vendor and not Disney.

Welcome. I forget how we got the number, since weve had minor issues in the past. I know theres a handful of things that are contracted on the ships. The spas are another.

 

[chapmanfam]

We also had problems with Shutters. Our stateroom hostess (Maricar--we miss her!) accidentally swapped our cards with our neighbors across the hall when we went to Magic Kingdom, so when we ran our card through the kiosk the day after, we had lovely pictures of that family. We figured it out fast enough, as did the other family, and told Shutters what was going on. We were promised the photos would be corrected "later on, give us a couple hours".

We tried again that afternoon, and again that night. Still the wrong family was coming up on our photo card. We were told that the photos were there, but the systems were taking "too long" to update, and that it would be corrected by morning.

The next day, we got a phone call saying that our photos were there. I went in and checked. Same family--not mine. I talked to them again. Again I explained which room likely had our photos since we had theirs. I was told it would be taken care of.

Every time I checked that last sea day, they had the wrong photos. I was told they'd finally been found, and Shutters verified that there were at least two pictures of our youngest daughter by describing two the photos we were looking for (of course, we'd had 9 taken, which isn't a lot, but even so--two isn't even close to what we were looking for). Anyway, Shutters said the photos would be printed out and to check back after dinner.

After dinner, we saw the last show and then got youngest into bed (note: we didn't leave her--she was with her Grandma!!). I was supposed to meet hubby at 10:45 in Rockin' Bar D for Pub Night with Tisa, and went to check the photos. I left the stateroom around 10:20.

Not only were the photos not there, the ones they printed were--again--our neighbors. They kept asking, "Aren't these your family?" Clearly they weren't--they were a family of more color than mine.

By this time, I had talked to our neighbors and they had gotten their photos straightened out already, and said they saw ours. But Shutters could not figure it out.

By 10:55, I was 10 minutes late to meet hubby, and the guy at Shutters couldn't get my card to scan at the kiosk at all. Finally, when it did, it wasn't even my family at all! It was some random family I'd never seen! I told him (again) I was late and asked if I could order photos in the morning. He said no, I had to order them by 11 p.m. That is, in 5 minutes. And they couldn't even find my family's photos on my own KTTW card--to say nothing of the ones from the Magic Kingdom.

I was beyond upset at this point. I was in tears. I was missing my last evening with hubby (Pub night, and the infamous last skit, was only 30 minutes long and I'd missed 10 of it), and the guy with my card kept saying it was my stateroom hostess who was at fault for swapping the cards--as though they had no responsibility for fixing the problem the last two days. Honestly, we'd figured it out the first morning, as did our neighbors. I don't care if Maricar had swapped everyone's cards--once they figured it out, it shouldn't have been too difficult to swap our cards back or something. Blaming her was in poor taste and considering how hard she worked, it was also blatantly unfair.

Undaunted, he simply told me, "Wait here, I'll go check, I will be back in 10 minutes." I told him I was late about six times by this point but he didn't listen, and he simply left to go look into the photos.

This was such a nightmare on the last night of what had been an awesome, amazing, fantastic cruise. I went to the counter and told them that I wasn't going to wait, if I couldn't order the photos, so be it, and I was done. And I left, very upset, teary-eyed...and within three steps a manager (Rama) caught up with me, introduced himself, and promised me that he would personally take care of the problem. He asked me to come back after the show and that it would be fixed. I said I would.

Thankfully I hadn't missed the skit (they started late, whew!) and Tisa's rendition of R-E-S-P-E-C-T, followed by the skit (see below) made me laugh.

Hubby and I went back to Shutters after the show, and not only had Rama (in 20 minutes flat) found my photos, he had corrected the card problem and we were able to order 10 photos.

For all that upset, they gave me one extra picture of the characters to go in the portfolio we bought with the pics.

I wish I'd had more time to peruse the pics, because although they extended the order time till midnight, I was pushed to go through everything and order quickly. I didn't want to do the CD (after what we went through, and with the OP's story, I'm glad I didn't), but I loved the photos I ordered...but in the rush to order I ordered one extra of my two girls that wasn't as good (it was a backup choice) and missed the photo of my oldest with Peter Pan. Argh!

It drives me nuts that Shutters is run so poorly. Disney is so phenomenal with their details, and Shutters is definitely the weakest link in a fantastic experience. Yes, the photos we ordered were gorgeous, but the ones I shot (and the ones the CMs shot with our camera) were fine--and I didn't have to stress out and end up in tears over them.

I hope that Shutters and/or Disney figure this out. Disney should just do this on their own--I'm sure they have the staff and they have the resources not to outsource this piece.

Think it over, Disney--this was my ONLY problem in what was otherwise an incredible dream vacation. We've "drunk the Disney Kool-Aid" and are now DCL converts. We can't wait to go again...but believe me, we'll be approaching Shutters with massive trepidation!!

Here's the Staff on the Magic doing their skit, "If I weren't at sea...this is what I'd want to be."

https://twitter.com/AlohaKarina/status/241006376988577793/photo/1/large

 

[Codie]

We had some struggles too but all fixed fairly easily. It's good to know to be on alert. I think the price is ludicrous and I was disappointed at a COMPLETE lack of candid photos...even with the characters. If I am going to pay $350 I want that camera snapping every minute it can and around the ship and castaway cay too. And really they already printed all those prints, it is offensive to ask for another $50 IMO. Plus I was disappointed the aqua duck camera wasn't working. I wish they were more like photo pass. Why when I pay for copyrights do I only get the picture with the frame they choose?? I should get the naked picture and the one with the frame and any other frame I want!! On the plus side, shutters did seem a work in progress that they were trying avidly to improve. Just wish I wasn't part of the guinea pig process.

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[MickeyMinnieMelanie]

All in all, how much time is spent going through all of these hard and electronic copies to make sure they are correct? I was planning on buying the CD (especially since this is our last disney cruise for a long time) But, all of this sounds like a nightmare and a lot of time spent checking everything. How many kiosks are available? Are they busy?

 

[Codie]

All in all, how much time is spent going through all of these hard and electronic copies to make sure they are correct? I was planning on buying the CD (especially since this is our last disney cruise for a long time) But, all of this sounds like a nightmare and a lot of time spent checking everything. How many kiosks are available? Are they busy?

Kiosks are reasonably available and located in various places. One thing I didn't know is if you buy one of the smaller packages you still get the whole DVD and then you can choose your pics at home. We spent a lot of "quiet" time sifting through pics deciding when that could have been done later. Total time spent making sure right pics were on the DVD was maybe an hour.

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[MickeyMinnieMelanie]

But if you buy the smaller package you don't get all of the pictures taken on the CD right?

 

[piglet33]

Another thing to look for is when you're ordering picture cards like the ones for Christmas, make sure they include the 8x10 or 6x8 picture that you also had to purchase with them. They didn't with our order, and it took them over an hour to find it. I just remembered that they didn't put envelopes with them either, and I had to ask for them too. So make sure you open the envelope and check for these things.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

But if you buy the smaller package you don't get all of the pictures taken on the CD right?

If you purchase a small package (10 or 20 pictures) you have the option of either printed pictures or the CD (which does have all the pictures on it in small thumbnail size). They "unlock" whatever number of pictures for you to access (if you buy the 10 picture package, they "unlock" 10 pictures on the CD so you can access them at home).

 

[Mel2421]

How much is the small package?

 

[kcashner]

Like the OP, we ended up checking our printed photos and CDs to make sure we were not missing any photos.

Another thing to check - the dates (and ports) on our embarkation photo were were wrong on the CD but not on the prints.

-Kay

Oh, that's a real jewel! Wonder if everyone on the ship had their CD messed up.

 

[collectoraholic]

We bought the CD on our June 2nd 8-Nighter out of NYC and we had so many problems it was ridiculous! The last of which was FINALLY resolved LAST WEEK--more than 3 months after our cruise ended! We had missing pics, other families pics on our CD, incorrect sail dates as well as length of cruise and location on our embarkation pictures. The list goes on and on and on. Needless to say, we won't be buying another CD from Shutters for quite some time, I'm sure.

 

[su_A_ve]

STILL trying to get shutters to fix some of the issues we had:

* Missing print that WAS placed on the folio
* Replacement of 5 damaged prints
* Half the prints on the photo CD do not have borders
* NONE of the CD photos have EXIF data, therefore you can't sort by date taken on photo software

I put two tickets in with shutters and they have not replied back after the initial reply. Sent a message to some contact that was posted on the FAQ, and never got back to me...

 

[PrincessShmoo]

How much is the small package?

10 prints = $149.00

 

[Codie]

But if you buy the smaller package you don't get all of the pictures taken on the CD right?

You get the whole cd. But when you get home you get to pick your ten in the quiet of your own home. You still can't mix an match state rooms (which is dumb). But if you decide you really want twenty or all. You can upgrade after your cruise. I wish I had known that. I would have bought twenty and then decided in an unrushed process if I wanted all. But all done

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[Bear3412]

Is there a way to check the CD, to make sure it's correct, while still onboard without a laptop?

Can you receive your CD prior to last day?

TIA

 

[Codie]

STILL trying to get shutters to fix some of the issues we had:

* Missing print that WAS placed on the folio
* Replacement of 5 damaged prints
* Half the prints on the photo CD do not have borders
* NONE of the CD photos have EXIF data, therefore you can't sort by date taken on photo software

I put two tickets in with shutters and they have not replied back after the initial reply. Sent a message to some contact that was posted on the FAQ, and never got back to me...

I
I found the no picture data very frustrating but figured that was just a glitch. We are all so accustomed with GPS cameras to having location and date and time it is a little annoying not to have it but I don't pretend to know the intricacies of that whole system.

I actually wish that many of my pics didn't have borders and frames. I thought it would be like photo pass where they come frameless and you frame and add to it.

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[Codie]

Is there a way to check the CD, to make sure it's correct, while still onboard without a laptop?

Can you receive your CD prior to last day?

TIA

You can't check actual cd without Internet and you have to do it on the one computer that you ent to save your pics on. The cd is more like a hyperlink to an Internet website. And you can only use it once. Very annoying IMO. They DO however quickly scan through an iPad barrage of your pics and say are they all there are they all there ok ok??? And at ten pm as you are trying to catch a final activity, drink, kids to bed and suitcases out your door you say um yeah sure.

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[LoriS]

You can't check actual cd without Internet and you have to do it on the one computer that you ent to save your pics on. The cd is more like a hyperlink to an Internet website. And you can only use it once. Very annoying IMO. They DO however quickly scan through an iPad barrage of your pics and say are they all there are they all there ok ok??? And at ten pm as you are trying to catch a final activity, drink, kids to bed and suitcases out your door you say um yeah sure.

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I am very confused by this. If I buy the cd of all my pictures, they are not really on the cd? What happens once you use the hyperlink? Are you then able to download all the photos to your computer? Any help would be appreciated, we cruise next Saturday.

 

[su_A_ve]

To verify what pictures are on the CD, is straight forward - it's whatever pictures show up on the electronic displays using your KTTW.

So, if there are any pictures on your folio, NOT on the display, then you need to let someone know right away. They will then add them. If you see pictures on the display but not on your folio, then those pictures are probably on the displays and you need to look for it.