
Earlier this year, Disney announced a new addition to the Photopass service called Photopass +. For a fee of $200 ($170 if preordered) you will receive the photo CD with all of the photos from your trip and a photo CD with over 400 stock photos. What makes this service different from the standard Photopass is that you get all of your ride photos, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique/Pirate’s League photos, and photo packages from the dining locations that take your picture.
As a regular Photopass customer I was excited to try this new service, and I have to say that I am very happy with it so far. Photopass + must be ordered more than 14 days before your arrival at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. This is because they mail your CD with stock photos and a voucher that needs to be redeemed for a Photopass + card at any Photopass location on property. The Photopass + card is valid for 14 days and must be presented to have the ride and dining photos added to the card. Luckily Disney gives this card with an attached lanyard, so it's less likely to be lost, however, they only issue one card per voucher (more about this later).

Now I'm going to address what I feel is a huge drawback to this service: you only receive 1 Photopass + card. You can only receive the dining photo packages and have the digital copies added if you physically present the Photopass + card to the Photopass cast member. If you don’t have the card with you, then you don’t receive your photos. The same goes with the ride photos...they can only be added when the card is physically presented at the photo desk. Ride photos can be added up to 48 hours after the ride as long as you have the photo number (a picture can be located without the number, but it’s time consuming). The problem here is that if you have a large group that splits up for rides, someone will have to return to the photo desk within 48 hours to have the photos added. This could potentially be very time consuming and take away from park touring time. I think the Photopass + service could be improved if Disney added a key tab Photopass + card that can be given to family members, so that someone doesn’t have backtrack to make sure all the photos are added to the account. The main Photopass + card could be the master card that is needed for the dining locations while the key tab card could be auxiliary cards that only allow the guest to add ride photos and regular photos.

I have loved and used the photopass service since my family’s first visit. The addition of Photopass+ is a huge improvement to this service, in my opinion. And the Attractions+ is another improvement to what has gotten to be a better service. Make sure to talk to your Mickey’s Dream Vacations travel agent about the pros and cons of this service. It’s something that I definitely think should be factored into your Disney vacation planning.
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Jerry Daly - Disney Travel Planner
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