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[stifle]

After my recent visit I want to share some tips and thoughts about the PhotoPass+ service. Advanced tips at the bottom.

For those who don't know, PhotoPass+ allows you to make one single payment for unlimited high-quality digital photographs taken by Disney photographers (with their distinctive tan jackets). The standard price is €49.99 and for this price you can add photos for 10 days and download them for 365 days afterwards. But if you're a Passeport Annuel holder, it gets better. You get your usual merchandise discount on purchase of the pass (making it €44.99 for Francilien/Classic/Fantasy passport holders or €39.99 for Dream passport holders) and you can add photos for a whole year and download each photo for a year after it was taken.

If you're like me, you'll lament the horrible, dark, grainy pictures taken on someone's phone, often by a stranger, that clog up Facebook feeds all over the world. It's great to be able to remember and share your Disney trip with beautiful, well-lit and perfectly-framed photos at your character meets, and to recall the look on your face the first time you were loaded into the Columbiad cannon, as you accelerated to 100km/h on Rock & Roller Coaster avec Aerosmith, or when you were enjoying () the view from the 13th floor of the Hollywood Tower Hotel.

You can pick up the PhotoPass+ in any hotel boutique, at any ride's photo sale point, and at a selection of stores in each park. The annual version is sold in New Century Notion's Flora's Unique Boutique in Main Street, USA, Walt Disney Studios Store, and possibly a few other places.

The standard PhotoPass+ comes with a lanyard and one or two smaller cards with the same barcode that you can give to friends and family. The annual one is a single plastic card.

To view the photos, use the Disney PhotoPass app (on iOS and Android), visit www.disneyphotopass.eu, or ask a cast member to scan the card at any store that sells photo prints.

To use the card with a park photographer, simply hand it over to the photographer as soon as you go to meet the character. They know exactly how it works and many will take extra photos knowing that you will appreciate them. When your encounter is finished they will scan the card and hand it back to you.

To use the card for ride photos, you have 3 choices. You can use the Disney PhotoPass app to scan the QR code for the photo on the display screens after the ride, you can key in the five-character code on the app, or you can tell the cast member at the photo sale point your photo number and hand over the card to scan.

During and after your holiday you can review the photos and order prints through the PhotoPass website, or download and share them freely via social media etc.

[stifle]

Advanced tips

• The PhotoPass+ card is separate from your park ticket so you are at liberty to share it with others.
• You do not need wifi or internet access to add ride photos to your card immediately – you can scan the code or key in the number at any point and then return to the app but it must be the very same day when you are in a wifi zone to download them.
• If your ride photo doesn't appear, pay attention to any numbers that were skipped on the monitors and try keying them in on the app. I've rescued a Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast photo this way.
• Never be afraid to ask the cast member to take a few more photos if you want to try a different pose with a character. As you won't be also taking pictures with your own camera, you're still going to be faster than the other guests.
• Most if not all of the character meet & greets have a photographer, even though only three or four of them are marked as having one on the park programme.
• If adding a ride photo, it's usually better to get the cast member to add it for you at the sale point than to add it via the app. This is for several reasons. First it means you don't look like a cheapskate in front of other guests as appearing to take a photo of your photo on your phone when you're actually scanning the code. Second, you don't need internet access. Third, the cast member at the booth can make basic modifications such as centring the photo – particularly useful in Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast where the guest sitting on the right can sometimes be out of shot if they're leaning out as the picture is taken. Fourth, and particularly relevant on The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror and Pirates of the Caribbean, the cast member can zoom in to show you and your fellow guests' reactions in high definition.
• The PhotoPass app allows you to add photos to your camera roll/gallery or share them directly.
• The app is also quite temperamental about showing photos and will sometimes replace them with icons for a while – if this happens just wait a few minutes for it to go back to normal.

Thank you for reading this far, and a final public service announcement. If you're riding Pirates of the Caribbean or The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror and aren't in the back row, don't raise your arms. You'll probably block another guest's face in the photo

[Mileto]

Thank you, stifle! So complete and detailed as always! 

I liked your last mark  makes me think of A photo 

[Rob3770]

Thanks for the tips.
Just looking and the price is 49 Euros, if we are with a 2 year old are these passes worth the cost as we won't be going on any big rides?

[Ohana]

Also something to add that I found really useful, you can buy your pass plus at any point, so if you don't want to dive in and are worried you'll waste your money and not get many photos, you can just load up the normal free photopass, then buy it on your last day.

I didn't want it at first but then I saw my meet Mickey photos and decided to buy it as the cast member showed me all the photos id got so far. The cast members are great and willing to show you every last image if you want.

Also with pp+ all photos you print are €5, a massive saving!

[Komble]

Also with pp+ all photos you print are €5, a massive saving!

A silly question but it is free to download the photos isn't it?

Thank you so much, Stifle! This post was really helpful. I've been thinking about whether the Photopass would be useful for my February trip (I'd love to have a photo capturing my face the first time I ever ride the 'bigger rides' such as ToT, Space Mountain and Rock 'n Rollercoaster!)

[stifle]

Thanks for the tips.
Just looking and the price is 49 Euros, if we are with a 2 year old are these passes worth the cost as we won't be going on any big rides?

It depends on whether you'll meet a lot of characters and want a lot of pictures. It's €15.99 to purchase one download, €19.99 for one print and one download, or €35.99 for a pack of 3 photos printed, each with frames and downloads. So it is for you to decide if it's worth it. As mentioned above, you can transfer all your photos from a paper card (obtained free from a photographer) onto a PhotoPass+ on purchase of a PhotoPass+ within 7 days.

Komble: once you've purchased the PhotoPass+ there is no further charge to download the photos.

[Disney Matt]

It seems there is A LOT of information to take in.
My poor head hurts lol!

The only question I have is if I went to meet Mickey & got photos (this is saying I have PhotoPass+). Do I just scan my card thing afterwards on the way out?

[Ohana]

You give it to the CM taking the photos, just like with every meet and greet they scan it there and then as soon as they've taken the photos.

[haribosmum]

If you have a photopass+ and want to buy a print when there, do you get it in the frames?  My daughter's bedroom wall has 3 visits worth of photos in the various frames and we'd want to add to it.  I saw that it's 5 euros to print but didn't know if that is just the photo itself, anyone know?

[stifle]

The frame is extra, between €4-17 depending on how big and how fancy it is.

[Jo316]

Thank you for all that fantastic info x

[haribosmum]

Thanks, one last thing :-)

We have another part of the family going to Disney and our days overlap (we are sun - thurs, they are mon - fri) would we be able to buy the photo pass between us and share out the pass (I believe we get 1 big and 2 small passes)?  just thinking of another way to save some money!  we're happy to share the online account details with them.

[stifle]

Yes, that's absolutely fine

[kazziep]

Thank you- this is such a helpful guide. Definitely going to get one of these when we go