Disney’s Memory Maker is an add-on item that gives you access to on-ride photos and photos taken by Photopass photographers for one packaged cost. Ultimately, the same question always comes up – is it worth it?
Let’s take a look.
Price
Pre-purchase (buy at least 3 days before trip):
$169
Buy during or after your trip:
$199
One-day price:
$69
Prices current as of December 2021.
What does Memory Maker include?
With Memory Maker, you get every on-ride photo and every photo taken by a Photopass photographer that you link to your My Disney Experience account. You then have the ability to download every photo and video. Additional stock photography is often included of characters around the various parks.
You can take your own photos around the parks and at character encounters, but the ability to have everyone in each photo taken by a photographer is a nice bonus. The photographers will also set up Magic Shots, photos with fun characters or items digitally added, for you at various locations. Who doesn’t want a photo holding Tinkerbell on your hand? Or chasing Remy in Paris?
Is it worth it?
Memory Maker’s value is tied directly to how long your trip is, how large your group is and how many pictures you think you’ll seek out during your stay.
If it’s your first trip, Memory Maker is probably a good idea. Capturing all the new memories is part of the fun. Don’t miss out on all of those wild on-ride photos and great character encounters, especially if you’re not sure when you’ll next make it back to Disney World.
For returning visitors, trips that are lengthier (four days or longer) will see far more value than a shorter trip. That’s based on the sheer number of photo opportunities you’ll find during your trip. Shorter trips are all about maximizing time, which usually doesn’t mean waiting in line for a ton of photos.
What do we do?
Personally, we’ve had trips where we bought Memory Maker and trips where we elected to pass and buy the few photos we wanted directly.
On a seven-day trip, we accumulated over 200 pictures. On a shorter three-day trip, we only had a handful because we wanted to optimize our time on attractions. There’s no need to pay $169 in advance for a trip where there’s only a few photos to download.
Memory Maker is absolutely worth it if you’re planning to meet a bunch of characters, go on rides for the first time or attend a special event. It’s not worth it if you don’t plan to stop at many photographers or if you’re only visiting the parks for a day or two.
