Photo Package Availability

[Dan-P]

I've been looking for quite some time now, to see the price of a photo package for our 05-MAR Navigator sailing. It has yet to show up as available. In the past we have always had them available to pre-purchase several months out.

 

I looked on the MyCruisePhotos.com website and it appears that none of the Royal Caribbean sailings after early March are providing photo packages for pre-order. Disney and Celebrity (the other companies serviced by MyCruisePhotos) shows sailings out through April and even early May in some instances.

 

Did I miss an announcement from RCI somewhere along the way about this? Maybe RCI is getting ready to switch to a new photography contractor, etc...?

 

Thanks for any insight.

 

Dan.

[ToddMnIT]

Dan, I am in the same boat. I am surprised more people are not commenting on this. I have a March 19th cruise and have been looking also. Does anyone have an insight into why this is?

[moopetguy]

I'm afraid I don't have any information but I'd be glad if they are changing vendors. I've been dissatisfied with the current contractors on several occasions. Some of the issues I've experienced:

 

• Poor framing of photos. Are these professional photographers?? A great photo (in terms of her pose and lighting) was taken of DD on board Oasis, but part of her arm was cut off in the photo (not centered) :mad:
  
• Poor lighting and/or print quality. When DW or I wear darker-coloured clothing (e.g. navy or black), it often washes out into most backgrounds.
  
• Poor print quality. The photographic paper often isn't cut or trimmed properly (read: perfectly), leaving a white sliver, often angled, along an edge of the print.
  
• Grandeur (and probably some other ships in the fleet) does not yet have the ability to produce digital photo packages; prints and cruise DVD only. They claimed it would have been manual and "too much work" to produce a photo CD/DVD, because they'd have to look through every single photo in the thumbnails to find ours. I call bollocks. They can reprint photos very easily by scanning the barcode of the prints they put up for display; that can identify the RAW or JPEG file they need right away. I told the photo gallery manager I was willing to PAY for them to produce a CD/DVD; no dice. I guess they don't like my money. :confused:
  
• Typically, they print 8x10s for formal photos. These are much too large for me. I can't fit that many 8x10s in my office at work :rolleyes: They'll reprint them as 4x6s or 5x7s, but they'll charge the same price per print. :mad: I know there's no sitting fee because it's built-in to the cost of the prints, but I'd rather pay for that separately and then pay a fair price for the prints themselves, especially when downsizing. Also, the reason why I prefer the digital copies is so I can print the sizes and quantities I want (and my family members want) when I get home. I can't predict in advance how many prints and of which poses my family wants.
  

To summarize, if we're expected to pay top dollar for professional photos (which like I've said, I'll pay), the prints and the service had better damn well be good in every way. Which IMO, it's not.

 

 

Okay, rant over. :rolleyes:

[ToddMnIT]

I am suspecting they are changing vendors. Maybe contract negotiations. Just surprised there is not more chatter about this.

[moopetguy]

I've been looking for quite some time now, to see the price of a photo package for our 05-MAR Navigator sailing. It has yet to show up as available. In the past we have always had them available to pre-purchase several months out.

 

Your sailing is listed now. There is another thread along a similar line of discussion but I thought I'd post an update here in case anybody didn't see or isn't subscribed to that thread.

 

They seem to have sailings up to the end of April for most or end of May for some ships.

[Dan-P]

Your sailing is listed now. There is another thread along a similar line of discussion but I thought I'd post an update here in case anybody didn't see or isn't subscribed to that thread.

 

They seem to have sailings up to the end of April for most or end of May for some ships.

 

Thanks for the update. Wonder what the huge delay was. We board in five days. Kind of cutting it close for those that like to do these things in advance.

 

Dan.

[Erwin Family @ Sea]

We also had a delay, finally up now!

Edited February 29, 2016 by Erwin Family @ Sea

[serene56]

Thanks for the update. Wonder what the huge delay was. We board in five days. Kind of cutting it close for those that like to do these things in advance.

 

Dan.

 

Can you let us know what the package price was onboard for this package?

 

I see listed on the dailies= for 50.00 off

[Dan-P]

Can you let us know what the package price was onboard for this package?

 

I see listed on the dailies= for 50.00 off

 

I just stopped by the photo gallery on the Navigator of the seas (8-day itinerary) and the following prices are what they currently have running for the digital packages.

 

Here is the current breakdown for digital (all pics come on a USB thumb drive):

 

1 digital photo = $20

8 digital photos = $139.99

15 digital photos = $224.99

All digital photos = $299.99

 

For reference, the all digital photo package we pre-purchased online was $249.99.

 

I'll keep an eye out to see if they have any specials later in the cruise.

 

 

 

Dan.

[ToddMnIT]

Thanks for posting that. It's the same as the online price now

[Robotcake]

It was my understanding that we could buy photos after the cruise. Is that not the case?

[serene56]

Thanks for posting that. It's the same as the online price now

 

I am seeing 299 online.

 

are you seeing 249?

Edited March 7, 2016 by serene56

[moopetguy]

It was my understanding that we could buy photos after the cruise. Is that not the case?

 

The mycruisephotos.com web site does not show past sailings, only future ones for pre-purchase. And this FAQ gives an explicit "no" to post-cruise photo purchases:

https://support.ourcruisephotos.com/support/solutions/articles/203934-royal-caribbean-international-purchasing-photos-after-your-cruise

 

If you bought at least some digital prints on board, you can easily buy more later by purchasing more credits to decrypt additional JPEGs from the CD/USB. But if you leave with nothing in hand? You're probably out of luck based on the official policy described above.

 

If you left your CD/USB on board, or it broke/doesn't work once you get home, they will contact the ship and try to find/recreate it and send it to you. Another FAQ from their site says they keep images on board up to 6 weeks after the cruise for this reason. So it seems they don't upload them to a centralized server to make them available online.

[sprky]

:confused:I was wondering what the problem was too. We sail May 22nd and our sailing is not available. It only shows one available through May 1st??

[bmsm6]

Can you let us know what the package price was onboard for this package?

 

I see listed on the dailies= for 50.00 off

 

Can anyone confirm whether the unlimited photo packages are discounted on board? I see for Allure the pre-cruise price is $300 for all digitals or $400 for all digitals and prints.