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View Full Version : Who else is a sucker for the overpriced photos they take at character meals?



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PoomShanka
08-18-2010, 06:57 PM
I can't help it. I fall right into the trap. My husband asks "Why do we need to buy a photo? We can just have the memory in our heads." I always tell him he doesn't understand anything, especially anything Disney. We take hundreds upon hundreds of photos ourselves and I always buy a CD with all our photopass pics on it, yet I still can't resist the character meal pics. :eyeroll:

We dined at Ariel's Grotto a few days ago for the first time, and the pic they took wasn't all that great (I looked exceptionally dorky) but since it was our daughter's first princess meal I figured I would go ahead and fork over the thirty plus dollars for the eleven cents worth of photos (BUT there was a 3D picture of Ariel on the cover of the folder!). I told the hovering photo lady that I would let our server know if I was going to buy them for sure, so she said that was fine. At the end of our meal, I told our server I did want to purchase them (I admit I was indeed thinking about where else our thirty plus dollars could go), and after a few minutes he came back and whispered "You know what? The photo people in the back have already left, so you can just have these" and he tucked the photo folder into my lap (it reminded me of the "Go ahead. Take those bananas" scene in Beverly Hills Cop). Then he said "I didn't want to see them go into the shredder!" Fabulous!! While I wouldn't have minded if just the pic of me went into the shredder, it was a really nice bonus to get those for free. After thanking him several times, we departed and did spend those "extra" thirty plus dollars on various other overpriced crap at the Emporium. It was a great day. :D (Of course it was a great day. We were at Disneyland!!!)

twindaddy
08-18-2010, 07:32 PM
Thats awesome!

We have bought about half the photos...and of course they are all sitting on a shelf somewhere...I say buy the first one and then from then on just take one yourself, unless its a great photo, which it usually isnt.

tinkandsnowmum
08-18-2010, 07:37 PM
That would be grandma, she can't help but get pictures all over the park Ariels Grotto, Goofys Kitchen, Splash Mountain ... just a special treat you know.

foolishmortal
08-18-2010, 07:37 PM
that was really cool!

We get them , because it seems the only family photo's of us we get are at DL.LOL!

I frame them up and put them on the wall in the hallway. It's great to see how the kids have grown over the years. Plus How DH and I have aged.:eyeroll::p

We are suckers for the Space MT ones too.:p

fairestoneofall
08-18-2010, 07:40 PM
Very cool. We've purchased it ONCE out of many, many photos.

Malcon10t
08-18-2010, 07:49 PM
We are one of those who buy almost every time....

ChurroGirl
08-18-2010, 07:51 PM
We get almost every ride picture but I have only ever purchased one meal photo and that was my birthday!

Escape2Disney
08-18-2010, 09:24 PM
I never bought them until last year. It was the first time I traveled with my service dog, and the photographer got a great one of him looking up at Ariel. I couldn't resist!

twindaddy
08-18-2010, 11:03 PM
We get almost every ride picture but I have only ever purchased one meal photo and that was my birthday!

I take a picture of them with my cell phone (ride pictures), then print it out at Target...I see MANY people doing that in, surprised they havent found some way to prevent that.

SigalTchelet
08-19-2010, 05:55 AM
I take a picture of them with my cell phone (ride pictures), then print it out at Target...I see MANY people doing that in, surprised they havent found some way to prevent that.

I have done that, but the quality is not as good.

stan4d_steph
08-19-2010, 06:09 AM
I have only ever bought one, and it was at WDW. I got a photo with Belle while wearing my marathon medal at the Akershus princess meal. Sometimes it's worth it to spend the money for a special memory.

lola2009
08-19-2010, 07:42 AM
Raises Hand. I jsut cant resist the family photos from the character meals. We don't buy the ride pics but we so seldom get a whole family shot that I have to buy them.

Pammer
08-19-2010, 09:14 AM
I've only purchased a character 'meal' photo when I did the Birthday Party in 2004 and they had the actual date printed on them; I did splurge then since it marked a special occasion!

I used to often buy the ride photos too (to my hubby's chagrin), but count me in as one of those who now use my camera (or cell phone camera) to snap the monitor display instead. The last time I remember buying a ride photo was at the Tower of Terror (WDW) in 2006; we rode about 4pm and had absolutely no one else in the vehicle with us...it was so cool!

leota's necklace
08-19-2010, 11:00 AM
I take a picture of them with my cell phone (ride pictures), then print it out at Target...I see MANY people doing that in, surprised they havent found some way to prevent that.


count me in as one of those who now use my camera (or cell phone camera) to snap the monitor display instead.

So this doesn't bother you at all, ethically?

Where does the line get drawn? My husband created art for a Disney product that you could find on the shelves at the Park. If you liked his art, would you take a cell phone photo of it, rather than buy the product (and thus possibly help him get another gig doing Disney art?)

Sure, Disney is a Huge Corporation (tm), but they spent the money to install the photo systems, pay for the processing, pay for the CM's to run the concession....

Back on topic, I've only bought one ride photo, to commemorate the day I felt brave enough to actually take my hands off the grips in the Splash log.

PoomShanka
08-19-2010, 11:01 AM
I bought a ride photo this last trip because our 3-year-old daughter's horrified face on her very first Splash Mountain ride was hysterical.

At Disney World a few years ago there was a snippy cast member doing his best to try and prevent people from taking photos of the screens after the rides. It might have been on Tower of Terror; I can't quite remember. I have not seen it happen at Disneyland myself.

Malcon10t
08-19-2010, 11:06 AM
I buy a lot of the ride photos and character meal photos. We also take a pic of the ride photos, but never print them, they are more of a "look at this". I don't have a problem with that myself. I would say we buy them aout 50% of the time when we have others with us!

Teddi
08-19-2010, 11:11 AM
We have done it about half the time (character breakfast). I try to always take advantage of my free pic (disney visa). Never done the ride photos (at disneyland, and only once at another park).

Pammer
08-19-2010, 11:26 AM
So this doesn't bother you at all, ethically?
Not really...as previously mentioned, the quality isn't nearly as good so I'm getting what I'm paying for (essentially nothing)! ;)


Where does the line get drawn? My husband created art for a Disney product that you could find on the shelves at the Park. If you liked his art, would you take a cell phone photo of it, rather than buy the product (and thus possibly help him get another gig doing Disney art?)

Sure, Disney is a Huge Corporation (tm), but they spent the money to install the photo systems, pay for the processing, pay for the CM's to run the concession....?
If I liked the looks of it, yes! But now I think you're comparing apples to oranges...are you saying that no one should take a photo of something they like/appreciate ANYWHERE and should only spend the money to own it outright? That would mean that no one should be using their camera in the park AT ALL. That doesn't make sense to me.

BTW...I took a photo of the new Monorail print they have up in The Disney Gallery because I really liked the looks of it...are you saying that's not right either? If so, I did buy the print on canvas so that should excuse me! :D

TowerofTerror
08-19-2010, 01:11 PM
I wont buy it unless its for a special occasion

twindaddy
08-19-2010, 01:17 PM
So this doesn't bother you at all, ethically?



No, its doesnt, and as others have mentioned, the quality is usually worth what I paid.


I could argue the point with you, but that would be a full blown thread hijack, but lets just say the example of your husband and his art is not comparing apples to apples.

twindaddy
08-19-2010, 01:18 PM
Not really...as previously mentioned, the quality isn't nearly as good so I'm getting what I'm paying for (essentially nothing)! ;)


If I liked the looks of it, yes! But now I think you're comparing apples to oranges...are you saying that no one should take a photo of something they like/appreciate ANYWHERE and should only spend the money to own it outright? That would mean that no one should be using their camera in the park AT ALL. That doesn't make sense to me.



I see great minds think alike, maybe its a Sacramento thing? :p

Pammer
08-19-2010, 01:22 PM
i see great minds think alike, maybe its a sacramento thing? :p

Must be! :D

leota's necklace
08-19-2010, 01:36 PM
are you saying that no one should take a photo of something they like/appreciate ANYWHERE and should only spend the money to own it outright? That would mean that no one should be using their camera in the park AT ALL. That doesn't make sense to me.



No, what I meant was if a photo is offered for sale, and you (not YOU, the general you) decide that you don't want to pay for the photo and instead make a copy for yourself that gets printed out later (like another poster has done), that seems skeevy.

And it's not apples/oranges at all, I don't think. My husband has created an image. If someone likes that image and they take a pic of it and print it out and hang it on their wall, they've stolen his art. Disney has created an image and offered it for sale, and someone else has decided to gank that image and print it out rather than pay the price that Disney feels is fair.

Geez, I'm not saying you shouldn't take PHOTOS. :) I'm saying that taking pictures of images offered for sale and making your own images from them (i.e., reproducing the original product that was offered for sale without paying for it) is a little ethically sketchy.

twindaddy
08-19-2010, 01:52 PM
Geez, I'm not saying you shouldn't take PHOTOS. :) I'm saying that taking pictures of images offered for sale and making your own images from them (i.e., reproducing the original product that was offered for sale without paying for it) is a little ethically sketchy.

I dont want to hijack this thread, but I disagree with you, and I will leave it at that. But we part as friends..... :~D

Pammer
08-19-2010, 02:30 PM
No harm, no foul, Leota's necklace...how boring it would be if we all did nothing but agree with each other all of the time, right? :D