Most who have been to a Disney Park in the U.S. are familiar with a service called PhotoPass. There are photographers throughout the parks to capture professional images of your whole group on vacation. We have always found it worth it to buy a package and come home with tons of fun memories from the trip. When we recently visited Disneyland Paris, they too advertised having PhotoPass as well, but we soon found out it was nothing like the U.S. version. Read on to hear why we do not recommend purchasing PhotoPass here and what we did instead…
The Photopass Problem
When we purchased our vacation package for Disneyland Paris we knew this was a big trip and made sure to add on a PhotoPass package to capture our Parisian memories. As we got closer to our trip we quickly realized this may have not been the best decision. Here are the details on the offering:
Price
There are a few options to purchase photos:
You can purchase individual photos or prints
A 1 day of unlimited photos is €39.99
For an unlimited package (up to 10 days) the cost is €74.99
Those prices don’t sound to bad right? But what does Photopass actually include?
Availability
You can find Photopass at these specific attractions:
Meet Mickey Mouse, Fantasyland
Princess Pavilion, Fantasyland
Starport, Discoveryland
Star Wars: Hyperspace Mountain, Discoveryland
Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast*, Discoveryland
Big Thunder Mountain, Frontierland
Pirates of the Caribbean, Adventureland
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, (Walt Disney Studios Park)
Rock’n’Rollercoaster, (Walt Disney Studios Park)
Out of the 6 rides, 2 were closed during the time we were there. So there were only 4 opportunities for ride photos. And let’s be real, do people really care about a dark ride photo? It’s not exactly something you frame and hang on the wall. The three character greets listed are the only places where you are guaranteed to find a photographer (and most likely a long line too). We can’t tell you how many other character lines we saw and every one seemed to be missing a photographer. Every character we did met, we had to hand our own camera to a general cast member.
And that’s all folks. Seriously.
Just imagine, here you are in the most beautiful, picturesque park and there is no way to capture you being there. There are no photographers roaming Main Street or sitting near the castle. There are so many beautiful spots that are just screaming to be a picture backdrop and there is no one there to capture it. We can’t tell you how many people we saw attempting to take selfies in front of the castle. We did not fly to another country for an epic trip to take a sad selfie in front of the most beautiful castle. So Julie quickly got to work on another solution.
Another thing to note is when we arrived to Disneyland and realized how utterly useless Photopass would be for us we went straight to Guest Services and said we wanted to return it. They would not allow us to return it. So we were stuck paying almost 100 dollars for this service where we found no photographers in character lines and 4 measly rides. It was a waste of money and our biggest regret. (FYI after 5 days at the park riding rides multiple times we had less than 10 photos that were available for us) We suggest if you might be considering PhotoPass do not pre-pay prior to your trip. Get your PhotoPass pics and then purchase at the end of your trip if you find you get enough quality images to warrant the price.
Working with a Photographer
We ended up finding Silvy Maatman, a fellow Disney lover who happened to be a pro photographer. We planned a day to meet up and hang out in the park so she could capture some great pictures for us. We have done photoshoots in the past (see our Disneyland shoot here), but we planned this one to be more casual. We hung out all day and took pictures when we came across a good opportunity. We also were able to have a few outfit changes that day since our hotel was walkable. We had a blast hanging out with Silvy and ended up with some dreamy shots from our trip. So worth every penny. Check out some of our faves below:
In front of the gorgeous Disneyland Hotel.
Attraction Shots
Throughout the day we rode rides and found a lot of cool areas to capture some photos. Check out these photos in different lands and on attractions throughout the park.
Andrew’s favorite Pirate of the Caribbean.
At the entrance to Small World.
Exploring the Pirate caves.
We love this Adventureland entrance.
Care for some tea?
What is a trip to Fantasyland without a carousel kiss?
The spooky Phantom Manor.
Inside Walt’s restaurant.
Inside the ferryboat.
In front of skull rock.
Castle Shots
With a gorgeous castle, pictures here were a must. We grabbed a few during the day and then later in the evening as well. We loved how some almost look like empty park pics!
Night Shots
Silvy also loves to get some late night pics as well. We waited until the park was pretty empty and snagged these castle pics. And then we ended the night with the ultimate shot: an empty Main Street.
We were so glad to have Silvy on hand to capture some magical memories from this bucket list trip. If you can’t find someone to take photos for you we would recommend to at least get a tripod and remote to take some of your own pictures. You can ask people around you to take pictures but it can be tough because you never know if you will find someone at the right time. We can say we made it a point to ask people around the castle if they needed their picture taken together and people were SO grateful. It felt good to be able to save people from sad selfies.
