Memory Maker Price Increase

18 thoughts on “Memory Maker Price Increase”

• I’ve used PhotoPass+ and Memory Maker and they’re both worth it to me. When you add in all the ride pics and character meals…it’s a good value. I have no need to worry about the battery on my phone being saved for pics [MDE more important! lol] and I know that the photographer will get a few good shots in and let us switch up people in the pics. Plus Magic Shots are AWESOME! Can’t get that with your regular phone handed off to the photographer!

  I get that Disney is ripping us off in so many ways, but it’s supply and demand. Disney is the only Disney and the faithful and newbies will continue to go. Also, these little price hikes are helping to finance the improvements of the parks: Pandora, Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land. People complain about lack of variety, but then complain about increased prices…yeah, it doesn’t work both ways people.

  So is Disney fleecing us? Yes! Are they going to keep on doing it? Yes! Do we acknowledge that fact and keep on coming? Heck yes…it’s Disney! 🙂

  • it’s this kind of thinking that is pricing a lot of families from ever being able to afford WDW. Disney didn’t need this crazy of annual hike on everything when they were building Epcot or MGM did they? Would have been better for themselves if they did, I suppose we weren’t all as obsessed and nostalgic as we are now.

    • Umm… actually… https://www.orlando-florida.net/cost-of-disney-world-tickets-through-the-years/

      “Epcot opened and it was a huge project which cost $1.2 billion to build. The only way for Disney World to cover the cost was to raise ticket prices.”

      There is absolutely a precedent for new attractions = ticket price increases. This is how Disney does business at their parks. If you read the entire article, it details which attractions/hotels/etc. were opened and what the price hike was each time to coincide with that.

    • That was an interesting article for sure. But I one thing to remember is the ticket books that were also required up until ’82. They stayed the same price the whole time.

      The mid 2000s actually see the biggest increases there, stupid yeti!

      I just think it’s scary the % increase that keeps happening and how high it is compared to inflation. As long as people keep going I’m sure Disney will keep it up, they know it’s like a drug for us. It would be interesting to see the hotels and multiday tickets done in the same way.

      Hopefully the bubble bursts at some point, Universal, I thought, would have more of an effect. You have to admit, it’s no fun that it costs more to go on Haunted Mansion now because Pandora

    • I should have spoke better after re-reading that, I’m calling the EE disco yeti stupid not any or you.

• I’m not happy about the price increase, but I still think it is a pretty good deal. I was just at WDW and got a lot of great photos with Photo Pass. Their lighting and angles and locations are always better than mine unless I want to spend a lot of time setting up for the shot. WDW’s is for the whole party for as many days as you are there. Universal is $90 for 3 days. Legoland is $50 per person. Seaworld is $79 for one day. Disney cruise is $300 for 7 days. Of all of them I find WDW has the best pictures and definitely seems like the best deal to me. That said, I did get it for $149.

• I don’t mind the increases, so much as I mind the timing of the increases. You shouldn’t sneak out an increase mid-year, just comes off as a cash grab. I understand why Disney keeps going up, and in simple terms, it’s because they can. They are going to keep increasing them until they reach the point they can’t. If a 5% of price this year, leads to a drop in attendance but profit still goes up or stays the same, they will keep doing it until the increase in price leads to a decrease in attendance AND profit.

• Isn’t this the same price as it was in 2015. I thought they lowered it to $149 back then. If that is the case then they are just ending the discount. Can anyone confirm this?

  • I was thinking the same thing because I had originally paid 169 and got a $20 credit when they dropped the price so to me it looks like they just went back to where they were before. To me it’s worth every penny and if you want prints you can get them at home from local store or online super cheap because they give you a photo release to do so.

• We go to Disney every year and have for several years now, but the price increases keep making it harder and harder. We had to cut out our annual beach vacation b/c we could no longer afford it and Disney. I know it takes a lot of money to run Disney World, but they are making a killing. There is no reason other than greed or no longer caring about the families that visit their parks to raise the prices to everything like they do.

  But with that being said, we always get the photo pass. We have 2 families that chip in so it helps some with the cost. We always end up with 300 or more pictures. And then we use those for Christmas cards or to make calendars! And it’s the best way to get everyone in the photo without having to impose on a kind stranger. They are really good and cute phots and we have some adorable ones of the kids over the years. But the price makes it harder and harder to justify.

• I thought this was a bad deal when it was $99.

  Iger out now!

• I agree with everything said above, however, sadly people continue to come to WDW and prices will continue to increase. I have been Coming to Disney since 1995 almost every year and I have kept some of the receipts from those years and the price increase is ridiculous. At the same time Disney has an issue with excessive people in the parks and people complaining of long lines. The only option I can think of (other than building another theme park) is to raise prices to discourage people from coming . I did recently read that there was a 1% drop in attendance which is probably a combination of the price increase and Universal / Harry Potter.

  @Bubbalicious – As for Memory Maker. To me it is worth it. I am the family photographer and am rarely in a shot until I used Photopass. Now I ensure we take photos as a family often with the Disney Photographers to not only get myself in the photo but to maximize the value…I easily end up with 300-400 individual shots. This makes the cost much more attractive and I have photos to remember.

• I agree with everything said above, however, sadly people continue to come to WDW. I have been Coming to Disney since 1995 almost every year and I have kept some of the receipts from those years and the price increase is ridiculous. At the same time Disney has an issue with excessive people in the parks and people complaining of long lines. The only option I can think of (other than building another theme park) is to raise prices to discourage people from coming . I did recently read that there was a 1% drop in attendance which is probably a combination of the price increase and Universal / Harry Potter.

  @Bubbalicious – As for Memory Maker. To me it is worth it. I usually take all the photographs and am never in a shot until I used Photopass. Now I ensure we take photos as a family often with the Disney Photographers to not only get myself in the photo but to maximize the value…I easily end up with 300-400 individual shots. This makes the cost much more attractive and I have photos to remember. If people keep coming we will continue to see price increases 🙁

• I agree with everything said above, however, sadly people continue to come to WDW. I have been Coming to Disney since 1995 almost every year and I have kept some of the receipts from those years and the price increase is ridiculous. At the same time Disney has an issue with excessive people in the parks and people complaining of long lines. The only option I can think of (other than building another theme park) is to raise prices to discourage people from coming . I did recently read that there was a 1% drop in attendance which is probably a combination of the price increase and Universal / Harry Potter.

  @Bubbalicious – As for Memory Maker. To me it is worth it. I usually take all the photographs and am never in a shot until I used Photopass. Now I ensure we take photos as a family often with the Disney Photographers to not only get myself in the photo but to maximize the value…I easily end up with 300-400 individual shots. This makes the cost much more attractive and I have photos to remember.

  I wish the Disney prices overall wouldn’t go up but if people keep coming we will continue to see price increases 🙁

• I told them that I think it was despicable to increase the price mid-year without any warning, and if they were going to do it, they should do it at the same time as the inevitable room, ticket, and dining plan increases. Their response was a very glib Disney has the right to increase the prices at anytime.

• The prices for individual print outs, if you want to do them at Disney, has also gone up dramatically. One 4×6 printout now costs $17 (just yesterday the cast member explained someone with photopass could print out 20 4x6s for $20). Advance warning… nope. Of course you can “save” by buying packinges starrting at aroun $100 in addition to what you’ve already spent . The cast member was clearly embarrassed having to explain this to me at Disney Springs this morning.

• Yet another squeeze of the wallet. I’m a Disney believer, but every time they do something like this, I have to wonder whether they care anymore about making WDW affordable. It’s things like this that have led the economics reporter of the New York Times to talk about a “velvet rope economy,” where today’s parks bear “no resemblance to crowded but affordable amusement parks where Americans of all classes waited in line together, as I remember them from my childhood in the 1980s.”

  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/insider/velvet-rope-economy-series.html

  We don’t use Memory Maker, and frankly I think it was a waste of money before the price went up. But I know a lot of folks do like it. I know that we’ll never hear why. I also know that the Walt Disney Company will continue to find ways to squeeze the middle class while catering to those (like me) who can afford to save up enough money to stay at a monorail park.

  We are going next in November and will stay at the Polynesian Village, in large part because it’s where my parents and I stayed the first time I went. In the process, we will spend somewhere in the range of ten times as much as my parents did. My kids will get a great experience — and as a family, we will have a wonderful time. But given the price, it also will be the last time we will go — especially given the fact that the only other industry that has jacked up its prices as much as the amusement park industry is higher education.

  Apologies — I know much of this is OT, but yet another price increase kind of set me off.

  • Disney has got to be out of reach for most families these days and the extra fees just keep coming. Dinners or park admission which cost more of they occur a busy time of year, $40 a day for “preferred” parking, or $20 for regular parking/day on top of admission over $100/day per person. Will you get to get on everything you want….nope. Oh, unless you want to spend several hundred dollars more per day for a VIP tour or to access the park exrptra early to guarantee “minimal” wait for beloved rides. I’m at Disney right now. Big Disney nerd with a generous family income. Next year, Hawaii. It’s more affordable.

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