I did do a search and found 500 pages worth of photo pass questions, so I thought it would be easier just to ask a quick question. Is the photo pass free, then you pay if you want to order pictures, or do you have to pay for the photo pass "feature" in order to be eligible for it? I don't really know what it is. Someone please explain! Thank you and sorry since I'm sure there's this same thread in those 500 pages.

Here's a quickie version (and others will add info, I'm sure):

Yes, it's free. You get a little credit-card like card that links the digital pictures taken throughout the parks (and there's TONS of photogs) to storage space on-line (also at several photo shops at the parks). When you decide which photog to approach, you give him the card and he takes the pic, swipes the card, and you're on your way. All of your photos for the entire trip are linked to the number on your card.

You can either buy pics one by one, or buy the rights to print any/all of your pics. I don't know exactly how much it is--I'm thinking around $130, but it's just a guess. You can buy pics at the park or on-line for a few months after the end of your trip (but not forever! They do expire).

Some trips, the pics have been great. The last two trips, I have been REALLY disappointed. However, I've seen other recent pics from other friends that have been great. You can "photo shop" the pics, add characters, frames, etc. That is fun.

Conclusion: Get the card and have bunches of pictures taken. Check them out at your leisure. You can decide then if you want to purchase or not.

Hope this helps!

Yes, that does help! Thank you very much! One thing...where do I get the credit card like thing? From the first photographer?

When you approach the photographer s/he will ask if you have the card, if you don't they give you one. As far as money goes you can buy each picture one by one for something like $15 a picture or you can buy the CD. You can also use more then one card and have them put on one CD, we had three different cards in our group.
With getting each pic at the park you can add borders, character signatures and get it centered better. Then they print them out for you.
When you get the CD you can do all that at home and when you change a picture by adding things you will now have 2 of that picture- one with additions and one with out. So you will end up with the possibility of having 2x as many pictures then when you started out.
When I bought my CD in October, before going they were selling them for $99. If you buy in the park or after it is more. My girlfriend and I split it and used the holly heck out of the cards while there, if we saw a Photo Pass Photographer we stopped and got pics of the whole group (6), just us (4) and just the kids (2). We ended up with 4-500 pics before adding stuff, once we added we ended up with about 8-900 on 2 CD's! I am pretty sure we got our monies worth ;). Also the fee you pay for the CD covers as many CD's as you need to get your pics on them.
If you want to see some pictures there are some in my Trip report the ones with the borders and all the photos in front of an icon or with a character are all Pics done by the Photo Pass Photogs. Also BradK has this site with tons of info on the whole thing- http://www.stitchkingdom.com/photopass/

In regards to the CD (or in general, for that matter,) this is a case where more is better. You have GOT to make sure that you get a lot of pictures so that you have a good number that you would want to keep in the first place. Get some funny ones done as well as some "serious" ones. Have fun with it. However...dont expect to take 10-20 pictures and find that 90% of them are great and you would want to keep them.

There are PP photogs at the water parks as well. They will give you a cool mini photopass card on a bracelet so that you can wear it while swimming. (You may end up getting mutiple.) Dont worry - you can combine cards online or at the photo centers on site.

When we went last our mantra was... "See a photog - get our picture taken and many times at that."

Another tip... throughout your trip check the pictures on your PP card. There have been reports of photos getting mixed up and you end up having pictures on your card that do not belong to you. Doing so throughout your trip will at least give you a chance to have shots retaken if you so desire.

We are traveling with other family, so we plan on putting all our photopass numbers together and splitting the cost of a CD. As long as they take tons of good photos, it will be worth it.

Check out Brad K's site www.stitchkingdom.com for some good basic photopass tips and some examples of what the photographers add to make your photos special! :) Cute stuff.

How does that work? Don't you have to give them one card? Unless you're taking pics together, I mean. Maybe there's a loop I missed!

Don't lose the card! We had 2 photo pass cards - one at a water park and one which went around all the other parks with us. We got home, it was lost. We hunted and hunted but it was gone. We bought the picture (1!) we got of my son at TL and added Tinkerbell and it is an amazing picture. After the window for using the other card was well past I found it in the boot of my car under the felt when I wa giving it a major clean one day - full of pictures of my daughter with the princesses which I'll never get. Did I make my point? DON'T LOSE THE CARD!!!

Tina - If I understand the CD correctly, it works the way the website does. In other words, all of the cards are entered under one account and then the CD includes all of the active photos from that account, with however many cards you can put together.

Chris

OH--OK. I see. I remember having to put in the number when I logged in. I don't remember seeing a place for multiple numbers, but then again, I wasn't looking.

Seems that this may be a loophole they close pretty quickly! You could potentially save a lot if you knew someone else who was there at the same time!

Seems that this may be a loophole they close pretty quickly! You could potentially save a lot if you knew someone else who was there at the same time!


On another site I go on they actually have threads for sharing the Cd's they get a few people that are going at the same time and they split the cost. I forget the details but it's probably about 4-6 people depending where they are buying the CD since I seem to remember it being $20ish per person.

My girlfriend and I split one in October but we were actually there together, I pre ordered it online and it cost us $50 each.

Well, how 'bout that? You learn something new every day!