Some Changes In Store For Disney’s PhotoPass for Walt Disney World

47 thoughts on “Some Changes In Store For Disney’s PhotoPass for Walt Disney World”

• I’m slightly upset that i bought the extention without realizing that it meant “60” from the photo was taken. Not extending my photos for 60 days. But they charged me anyways even though they’re not going to retrieve my photos. Is there anyway i could get my money back? Or at least my photos? 🙁

• My computer restarted while trying to purchase my cd as I didn’t realize our day at EPCOT was expireing and when I logged back in at 12:05am Est they where gone how can I get them back anyone know!?

• Can I still upload my own pictures from computer when making a photo book . If so, how ?

• what happens if my photos expire on the old site and I cant extend them will they still be sent to the new site so i can then extend them?

• Please listen to Julie my family was in WDW from 9/22 to 9/28. On 9/22 we lost photos in front of the Castle (photographer 1), 9/24 MNSSHP we lost photos of our family of 3 the special magic shot at the hearse and my parents lost their shots (photographer 2) also in front of the mansion different photographer our family and next my parents (photographer 3), same night on the bridge to Tomorrow land in side of the castle (photographer 4) I cried it still makes me sad! PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE PHOTOGRAPHERS USE YOUR CAMERA. The magic shots would have been lost but I would have had something.

  • Renee and Julie, We had photos go missing too. Its time consuming, but you should be having them scan your Magicband and your Photopass card as well, just to be on the safe side. When you still don’t get all your pictures, put in a request at one of the parks photo stores near the entrance. Sometimes people are in back of you doing inappropriate things and they also make hand gestures while on rides. These are some reasons you won’t get your pictures. We however, put in a request with the time we took our pics and what we were wearing and when we got home, the pics had been found and added back in. Sure enough, people behind us had made some hand gestures, but it turns out then weren’t obscene, so they gave us the pics. You won’t see them if there’s something bad in them. As for all the Photopass employees, they are all not of the same caliber. Sorry you guys lost your photos.

    • Hi Christine,
      How can you check your pictures while you are still in the park? Do you do this each day? (I am seriously technologically impaired.) I bought the Photopass+ CD offer and am taking my only grandchild to Disney in December. I don’t want to loose even one picture if it can be helped! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    • Julie, There is an official photo place at the front of each park. Everyday I went in before I left the park to make sure all the photos were there. Sometimes the lines are long because people are doing the same thing. One time we got poor help when one of our pics disappeared. I just stepped aside and asked for someone else to help, so don’t take no for an answer until you double check. (I consider the poor attitude of the Disney worker a fluke) The second person we had, filled out a form for us and asked us what time they thought we were at the photoperson or ride, what we were wearing, and how many in our party. They were able to find a few of the pics and I was very grateful for the help. Also, if you are staying on Disney property, I think all hotels are supposed to be using the Magicband by December. Every time you get your picture taken, have them scan your Magicband and Photopass card. At the end of your day, you go to the Photo store at the front of each park and have them merge all the pics together. You can look at them and see if anything is missing. Also, if you are taking a computer or have a smartphone, and you are scanning your Magicband, you can log on to your MyDisneyExpeience and click on Disneyphoto Pass and look at your pics anytime. We would all look at them on the bus or while sitting around the pool. The only exception is, the ride photos do not scan to your Magicband, they only go on your Photopass card. As soon as you get off any ride that has a picture taken, write the number down or sometimes they do it for you, or take a pic with your phone and then go to the counter and have the ride photo added to your Photopass card. They should give you a receipt with the number on it. If something happens, you have the receipt with the number on it. You can always go back within 48 hours of your ride and they can add it then if the lines are just to long to wait. Our family got separated on the last night, and my husband ended up meeting the Evil Queen. It was on his band, but I didn’t merge the two before we left Florida. I called up when we got home and they were able to add the missing pic off the Magicband and onto the Photopass card so it will come on our CD. Whew, thank goodness! Remember Julie, you can stop by the same photopass sites multiple times. Do some with the castle at night, some in the day, and maybe you’ll see someone that looks like they have a better view, or knows what they’re doing more than the last person. If you bought the CD, take advantage of every photopass person you can find. Have a great trip!! Let me know if you have any more questions. Here are the stores in each park. They are all at the front.
      • Magic Kingdom – Exposition Hall on Main Street
      • Epcot – Camera Center – Future World
      • Disney’s Hollywood Studios- Cover Story on Hollywood Boulevard
      • Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Garden Gate Gifts

    • Thank you sooo much Christine, I am printing out your directions and taking them with me! I never would have even thought about this if it weren’t for your post.

• Trying to buy the PhotoPass+ option online for our trip in Nov, and the package doesn’t appear on the mydisneyphotopass website. The standard package appears, but not at the discounted pre-sale price. Everything appears to be for those who already have photos to look at, not for folks who want to pre-order.

• I just got back from our trip and used Photo Pass Plus. Whatever you do make sure you also have your own camera and take good pictures with it. With the new Photo Pass I have had 2 different character picture sets lost, no Goofy and no Snow White. Tech support said there were technical difficulties and the pictures didn’t upload properly. I assume the photographer was in a hurry and didn’t scan my card properly.
  The new web site is slower than the old one. When I downloaded my pictures 3 were missing, there on the site just not in my downloads. Needless to say on my next visit I will not pre-order Photo Pass Plus. I’ll wait till I get home and see if it’s worth it.

• Quick Question – Just returned from our WDW with our family of 12. Some members of the family used the MagicBands for photos and some used the PhotoPass card. When I logged on to see the photos I either see the PhotoPass photos or the MagicBands photos – not both. Any ideas on how to order a CD with ALL photos taken during the trip?

  • I’m also trying to research this too…I’ve made sure I’ve linked and attached accounts too, but am afraid to view my photos on my account because my sister on a different account is the one that bought our photopass…

• The only issue I have with it really is the 45 days from the date of the photo. If you have a cruise and park trip for 2 weeks, the pictures at the beginning of your trip will expire 2 weeks before the pictures at the end. It just means that you have to be on top of getting your pictures/CD ordered.

• I just got home yesterday from a trip to WDW using the Magic Bands. They were not yet using the bands for Photopass. The CMs in Epcot Camera Center said that the Magic Bands linked to Photopass was coming, but Epcot would be last (not sure if that was their opinion or fact), but it would happen eventually. There is so much to link to the Magic Bands and it appears that everything is happening in phases. It will be nice when the entire system is RFID and the change is complete, but this is not a quick process.

  My User Name & Password was the same for my new account. I was able to link my Photopass cards to my app & view my pics as soon as they were uploaded to the system.

• I have two trips back to back. I have prepurchased the Photopass CD. For the first trip, we are not part of the Magic Band test so we will be using Photopass cards. For the second trip (which is a week 1/2 later), we will have Magic Bands. The trips are close enough that I can use the same CD for both trips. But now one trip’s pictures are on the card and the other trip’s pictures will be on the Bands. Now what do I do?

  • Check how long you can continue using the same PhotoPass ID. It could be limited to 14 days.

    • You can ask for it to be extended for split stays, back to back/longer trips. I don’t know how they process that if there is a gap between but it may be worth emailing them to see what they can do. We stayed 18 nights last September onsite and I showed my KTTW card and explained that we were there longer, and asked that my card only be activated from day 3 of our stay. There were no problems validating it for the entire length of stay so it seems you only need to ask. Good luck 🙂

    • Regarding the card vs magic bands, it may be your best bet to ask to use a card for both trips rather than link it.

• I’m going the end of Oct and had pre-purchased a CD a few weeks ago. I had to call and have the credit transferred to the new account – there’s no guarantee that the old and new accounts will have the same username.

  For those looking to prepurchase the archive photo CD for $119.95 you can get to it by this link

  https://mydisneyphotopass.disney.go.com/wdwmemories

  Once you hit “Yes, I Agree” to the terms it brings you to the log in page – the new log in page – unless you’re already logged in –
  and then to your cart where you can purchase it.

• Quick question: With the pre purchase of the Photopass+ are they no longer shipping out the gallery CD with it? I noticed tonight it is no longer on the list – at least it’s not on the new site

  • I just ordered mine 2 weeks ago and it arrived last week. It had the gallery CD with it.

    • Thanks 🙂

  • I just got my kit for the Photopass+ and it did include the gallery CD.I was disappointed that the CD did not include photos of the AoA where we are staying in December. It did have many wonderful photos, including Christmas decorations.

    • Thanks Judy
      I don’t think they have updated the CD since they launched PP+ and suspect that AoA wasn’t open when they were collecting the pics for the gallery. I have mine from last year (which I think is the same as the current one) and one I bought a few years prior, which has some different images on. Thanks for the feedback. Strange, it doesn’t mention anything about the Gallery CD on the main info page but I went into the help section and it states there that it is included. You’d think they’d want to be showing all that you get to push sales. Have a great trip 🙂

• I noted that the special offer for pre-ordering the CD doesn’t seem to show on the new site. It’s still showing at the old one, I’m hoping it will still be available. We don’t leave for Orlando until October 1st, so I hadn’t ordered it yet…

  • The pre orders havee always been via a separate link and not on the usual PP site so I think what happens here is that you order as usual, but when you go view your account it should (in theory) show up as a credit on the new website rather than the old one (??) I’m also wanting to order and was wondering whether the pre purchase is still going to be available if I procrastinate any longer. Once the new site is fully functional from what I understand, they will simply transfer the credits from your account on the old site to the new one . Someone correct me if I’m wrong as I’m not too sure, but this is my understanding of it

    • Thanks so much Lee!

• Julie, we too have received the magic bands I’m super excited to try them out!! We leave in 2 weeks. I’m turning in our voucher just in case photos of character meals, rides etc we have already pre purchased. Don’t want to miss out on anything like that we can always ask when we get to the photo center.

  • I’ll go by and turn it in. Can’t wait to use the bands either. Michelle have a great trip. Rikki, thanks for a great post.

    • Ooh you too!! 🙂 how can you not have a great trip?! It’s disney 🙂

    • Thanks! I know all the changes can be confusing…hopefully once all the kinks get worked out, it will be crystal clear.

• I made a pre-purchase for Photopass+ and was sent a voucher. It said to take the voucher and redeem it for a Photopass+ card. I also have magic bands. We are leaving next week. Question is with the new magic band do I need to turn in my Photopass+ voucher?

  • Yes…take and turn in the voucher. From there, they will explain how to best go forth with the situation, whether that means that you will still use the older PhotoPass cards, or, if indeed, your photos will be stored on the MagicBand. Not being down there currently, I am not 100% sure if the bands are able to be used just yet. It seems that Disney is just getting ready for when they will fully use them, if they aren’t already.

• So, for those of us who are staying off-site and not using the My Disney Experience bands, we still use the old site, correct…or no? It’s a little confusing! LOL!

  • So…if you are traveling to Walt Disney World, you will use the new site. No matter whether you are staying on property or not. The new site is going to be the only site for Walt Disney World Guests. Whether you have a Magic Band or not.

    • Thanks for the clarification Rikki

• I’ve pre-purchased my Photopass CD. Do you know if I will be able to use the Magicband or will I still have to use a Photopass card?

  • For now, I would say the card…things are still being worked out with the Magic Bands…so, unless you are using the Magic Bands during your trip, I would assume the card would be what’s used.

• Do the photos have to be linked to the same magic band (or only one band of the travel pary) to put them on one CD? In the past our travel party has had several cards so if we split up we still could have photopass pictures taken, then we have added multiple card numbers to our account and combined them. Does this elminate that option?

  • From the website it looks like the cards are still around for a while. Or at least, they still have place for you to add the number of an extra card to your account. So I would think that as long as that option is still available, the cards you get from the photographers in the parks should be no problem to add on as there is no personal ID allocated to these and no way of telling who they belong to. What I’d be watching for is if and when they remove that option if they do indeed to all magic band/RFID card with this. Disney has a habit of making these changes with little or no warning so I’d be fully prepared to be on a trip thinking I had one system going, only to discover half way through that they have changed it, lol

• Photopasss shares shouldn’t be allowed in the first place.

  I’m glad Disney is clamping down on cheaters, as everything costs more for those of us who use things properly as a result.

  • I don’t really have an opinion either way on whether I see it as cheating or not. I agree, I don’t think it should be allowed and if it were my business, I’d be doing what I could to put a stop to it. But what I do know, having been approached a few times by people asking if I wanted to share, is that I do NOT want anyone else to have access to my family vacation pics. Heck they could delete, edit them, place an order before I’m done …… Quite happy to pre purchase.

  • Who says its cheating? Because you don’t do it makes it cheating? Besides, how does this cut down on cheating? They are still accepting photopass IDs.

  • I have a small group of friends that I travel with to WDW. We do share the Photopass CD. We do not feel like it’s cheating at all. We are all in the pictures and it’s our trip. Good grief.

    • Barb, Sincere apologies if my comment offended you. To clarify, I don’t actually see what you describe as a share – traveling as a group makes sense to get one PP as a group. I think what the previous poster referred to was people who use their PP for their trip and then pass it to another party who are vacationing right after. That is very different to a group of friends/family staying at separate resorts or hotels who are putting their photos together in one place.

      I do see the new system as a means to at least deter sharing by different parties across separate trips by closing the window in which the photos remain active on the account. This means that to share, the two or more groups would really need back to back trips, or close enough.

• Do you think this will hamper the use of Photopass shares?

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