On our first trip as a family to Disney World I hemmed and hawed about whether or not to purchase Disney Photo Pass Memory Maker. I figured between 2 IPhones and the 2 cameras I had packed we would have enough memories. On the first day of the trip one of my cameras decided to stop working and the other wasn’t working right, I took all of our vacation photos on my IPhone, and while I thought I had captured everything, when I got home and looked at my photo pass account I realized I had not.
In the end I purchased a few photos from Memory Maker, which added up faster than I thought it would, but I was still not satisfied. To this day I still regret not buying Memory Maker for that first trip. And I have purchased Memory Maker for every Disney Vacation since and it is worth every penny.
Here are my 5 reasons to purchase Memory Maker.
1. You get to be in the pictures
While I’m sure you will snap tons of pictures while on vacation Memory Maker enables you to be in the pictures. It is great to come back from vacation with lots of pictures of the whole family. Plus selfie’s just don’t cut it in Disney with all the beautiful scenery you want to have the background.
2. No handing off your camera
I know many people don’t like being in pictures, but I kind of love it. And I used to spend lots of my vacation time looking for some poor unsuspecting soul to take my families picture, much to my husbands annoyance. Now with Memory Maker I just find a Disney Photographer and get our picture taken, easy-peasy. And my husband never complains about getting a picture taken, on a few occasions he’s even pointed out photo pass photographers that I have missed.
3. Additional Photos
With Memory Maker you get some additional photos that you would have had to pay extra to have. Like if you book a character meal, many of the photos taken at the meal are included in Memory Maker. You also get ride photos like Rock N Roller Coaster and a video on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, along with many others.
4. Magic Shots
For the longest time I didn’t know that Magic Shots existed. Then on one of our trips the Disney Photographer asked my son to pose with his hands out in front of him. I wasn’t sure why, but it’s Disney so we went with it. When we checked our Memory Maker account later we were surprised to see Tinkerbell in my sons hands. We have gotten lots of Magic Shots since that first one including me holding balloons on Main Street and Stitch photo bombing our shot.
5. You can be in the moment
The first time Jackson met his best pal Mickey I was so distracted fumbling with the camera, trying to catch his expression, trying to enjoy the moment that I totally missed all of it. I didn’t get the picture and basically missed seeing his face light up. I was disappointed. But with Memory Maker Disney Photographers capture your kids reactions to their favorite characters, they have the best angle, they get the best shot and then all you have to do is enjoy the moment. One of my favorite pictures of Jackson is of him walking up to see Goofy. The look of excitement and confidence on his face is priceless and the photo is exactly as I remember it.
Memory Maker allows me to be in the picture and truly enjoy every moment without having to worry about missing the perfect picture.
Great tips. We are going in September. I'll have to do this and leave my big heavy DSLR camera home.
We broke down and purchased it the last time we visited. I remember wondering why the photographer had my daughter pose in a particular fashion and then I was so excited to find Tinkerbelle sitting in my daughter's hand when I went through the photos! Best shot by far.
This sounds like a great deal to buy. From what I hear, Disney can be a bit overwhelming with so much going on.
The memory maker was included in our package last summer. It was great!
We always buy the memory maker. You can add all the backgrounds to everything they take. I have turned 150 pics into 900+ not knowing what backgrounds, etc I want, so I do them all