Purchasing Onboard Photo packages

[sherlynn]

Has anyone purchased the onboard photo package; either the disc with all your pics or the photo book? It seems a bit pricey to me and I'm thinking I could likely make a better photo keepsake book myself once I'm home with our own digital prints.

[Lionesss]

I agree it is very pricey!

On our last cruise we were platinum, and had a discount coupon in our C & A book.

We used all three and purchased a total of 6 pictures.

Next cruise we are now Emerald, and will probably do the same.

A lot of the package pictures are posed, some from the islands, but not like it used to be random shots.

We live with our camera and take a lot of pictures.

Sea Ya

[Familygoboston]

We did on Allure last April. A bit of background, we usually don't pose or even buy a single print when we cruise (we do usually grab our two freebies with our crown and anchor coupons though ;)) My DH is an avid amateur photographer and his photos are usually stunning and well lit, but he's NEVER in them. Also, last year our DD graduated from HS and he did her yearbook photo but no others like you get if you hire a photographer; (the family, the sisters, etc) they were both busy and since she didn't have to make an appointment....so :rolleyes: It never happened.

 

So on Allure we did go ahead and pose on the white backgrounds on the nights we were dressed nicely knowing we could purchase a package of digital images that he could "fix" up and print himself. We stuck to the white background because we really didn't want the other backgrounds, and they are not easily changed or cleaned up in PS. (Some of the backdrops are getting a bit tired or dirty, the white is easily fixed) We paid $200 and got all of our images and a key to "unlock" 15 when we got home. This was more than enough for us as we were looking for a "studio session" which would have easily cost 200 here in the Greater Boston area, and then we would have had to pay for prints. DH was able to to do all our own prints. Also, you get a release which allowed us to use the images to make calendars and holiday cards through Shutterfly.

 

So the up shot is; I think it's worth it if you will get family photos that you otherwise would not get or would pay more for. If you are handy with a camera, you can certainly take your own "in port" or " at the dinner table" photos for a lot less! If you want to do both and get the unlimited package- you would get all the photos.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Familygoboston

[bb24]

We got the digital package during our cruise this past March. We made sure we stopped at virtually every photo opportunity offered so that we could make the most of it. I love having the welcome aboard photo and each of the port photos! It was also nice to have the dinner photos each night. A bonus for us is that, since we took our welcome aboard photo with the family we were traveling with, all their pictures ended up on our disc too!

 

One thing I have noticed with printing though, is that unless you print a 5X7 it will cut the frame of the picture off. I ordered a copy of most of them through snapfish doing the 4X6 penny prints and NONE of them are useable unless I trim them. 5X7 is the way to go.

 

Also, make sure you check every picture carefully before your disc is printed. We didn't notice until we got home that some of the dates were wrong--they were dated a week before. Luckily it was only the dining room shots, but I would make sure in the future that everything was correct on all of them.

 

We haven't decided whether to do the package for our upcoming cruise. We are going with our entire extended family, so I think we will end up doing it. We all want a large family pic and being able to print them ourselves will make it worth it.