Photo Package: Read before you buy

[CruisingNole]

Just off the Oasis and purchased the all digital photo package. CD/USB are no longer issued on board, instead you receive a link in your email that allows you to download the photos 4 days after cruise. Email was received yesterday and all 186 of our photos have a barcode and ID number printed on the bottom left of the image. Confirmed with others on the cruise that their photos have this as well, even those that bought their photos printed on board.

 

I've purchased photos in the past and have never had this issue. Currently getting the run around from Royal and their photo partner, The Image Group.

 

So unless you're OK with obviously visible barcodes and ID numbers printed on your photos, or you don't mind spending hours in photoshop editing the photos you paid $250 for, I suggest you save your money. 

 

I certainly hope this is an error and it is resolved. I will return with any updates. Just wanted to give folks a heads up if they have future cruises and have purchased the photo package.

 

 

[Biker19]

I think that bar code has been there for a while - I see them on the printed versions at least a year back. It may also depend on the ship.

[John&LaLa]

50 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

I think that bar code has been there for a while - I see them on the printed versions at least a year back. It may also depend on the ship.

 

I just crop them off, been that way for several years

Edited December 7, 2018 by John&LaLa

[rasmonkey]

I recently returned from a Harmony sail a couple weeks ago and have logged into my photos.  My photos do not have a barcode but they do have an eight digit number in white at the bottom right corner of every photo.  I guess it's not that bad, but definitely not as bad as a barcode.

 

Question for you.  It says you're able to download all of your photos via a zip file, but I've tried and tried and have not been able to select all to download all at one time.  When you select multiple photos the "download" button disappears!  And there is no "select all" button that I can see.  I have 242 photos and do not want to download each individually, that is ridiculous!  I am tech savvy yet can't figure this out.  Any help?  Their FAQ was no help.

[not-enough-cruising]

That barcode will be covered by nearly any picture frame. I have photos going back at least 2 years with this barcode. 

[KevInPitt]

One word (and ten seconds): 

 

Scissors.

[rasmonkey]

3 minutes ago, KevInPitt said:

One word (and ten seconds): 

 

Scissors.

 

I don't have scissors strong enough to cut my monitor and I doubt the OP does either.

Edited February 12, 2019 by rasmonkey

[Stick93]

You got 186 photos for $250. I got 187 photos for that price on anthem last year. Yes they have the bar code on the bottom which I easily (one word - 10 seconds) “cropped”. I think next time you should save your money and buy all those photos on the ship. You will have great memories and for the money you spent will save all those “10 seconds” it takes to edit your photo. 

 

Sorry but I think most people disagree with the save your money bit. The photo package is the best deal you can get if you are a family that takes photos. 

[Balsam12]

Each to their own, but for me, $250 is a drink package on a five day cruise.... much better value 😀

Admittedly, I don't have children, but a few happy snaps with my own camera or even on my phone will be good enough for me, and they won't have numbers or barcodes on them either.

 

[rasmonkey]

52 minutes ago, Balsam12 said:

Each to their own, but for me, $250 is a drink package on a five day cruise.... much better value 😀

Admittedly, I don't have children, but a few happy snaps with my own camera or even on my phone will be good enough for me, and they won't have numbers or barcodes on them either.

 

Each to their own, but you could also buy 100 bags of popcorn (ridiculously priced at $2.50 on an all-inclusive RCI  cruise) for the audience of a show.  But my guess is the OP likes, and therefore values, the photo package.

[Balsam12]

19 minutes ago, rasmonkey said:

Each to their own, but you could also buy 100 bags of popcorn (ridiculously priced at $2.50 on an all-inclusive RCI  cruise) for the audience of a show.  But my guess is the OP likes, and therefore values, the photo package.

Interesting idea, although popcorn tends to make me thirsty, and if I used my 250 on that, I wouldn't have the drink package...

 

What a conundrum we have now.

 

[Wanna Be Retired]

I always buy the photo package.  On the ships where they do the e-mail link I have always been able to download them on my phone right there on the ship.  They even assist me while I do it.  It does take some time but I can do it while I have a drink.  I print them directly from my phone.  Maybe it has changed, I don’t know.  I’ve also been able to pay them $10 to download to a thumb drive.  That might not be an option anymore either.  I scrapbook my photos so I just cut the ends off.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

On 12/7/2018 at 3:10 PM, CruisingNole said:

So unless you're OK with obviously visible barcodes and ID numbers printed on your photos, or you don't mind spending hours in photoshop editing the photos you paid $250 for, I suggest you save your money. 

Aren't all the photos the same size/orientation (or at least just two orientations- horizontal and vertical)?  Set up an Action in photoshop to crop the picture just enough to eliminate the bar code, then run it as a batch.  Bam. Done.  You might need to do an Action for each orientation.

[Iamcruzin]

14 hours ago, rasmonkey said:

 

I don't have scissors strong enough to cut my monitor and I doubt the OP does either.

Yes. People do not realize that not everyone wants to print pictures. I have boxes and boxes of pictures from years gone by. Once digital became available I stopped spending the money to print. I set up my screen saver to run a photo slide show. I see the  photos everyday as opposed to the ones in boxes and albums that I haven't opened since 20th Century.  As for editing the barcode, Well I can edit any photo taken with my mobil phone. Why pay for something that you have to edit?

Edited February 13, 2019 by Iamcruzin

[rasmonkey]

1 hour ago, Iamcruzin said:

Yes. People do not realize that not everyone wants to print pictures. I have boxes and boxes of pictures from years gone by. Once digital became available I stopped spending the money to print. I set up my screen saver to run a photo slide show. I see the  photos everyday as opposed to the ones in boxes and albums that I haven't opened since 20th Century.  As for editing the barcode, Well I can edit any photo taken with my mobil phone. Why pay for something that you have to edit?

 

Exactly. If we're paying for this service we shouldn't have to do digital editing on the back end, whether we're savvy enough to do or not.  And I do have Photoshop and know about actions and batches, but I think I'm in the .01% of people that can say the same, so that's not a valid answer either.  We're paying for a service that should require nothing more than downloading the product we paid for.

 

Now once again, the question I posed here is that I don't see a way to download my entire batch of photos in one zip file like the site says I can. Can anyone point me to how to do this?  This has to be a simple thing that I'm just missing.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

2 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

Why pay for something that you have to edit?

 

21 minutes ago, rasmonkey said:

Exactly. If we're paying for this service we shouldn't have to do digital editing on the back end, whether we're savvy enough to do or not.  And I do have Photoshop and know about actions and batches, but I think I'm in the .01% of people that can say the same, so that's not a valid answer either.  We're paying for a service that should require nothing more than downloading the product we paid for.

I totally agree you should not have to edit the pictures.  There should be no bar code or numbers on the photos. 100% agree.  However, let's talk reality.  The bar codes and/or numbers ARE on the pictures.  I highly doubt you're going to be able to get the pictures without them.  Maybe if enough people complain, they'll stop doing it.  BUT, that doesn't help people with the pictures right now.  

 

And not everyone is going to know about batch actions in Photoshop.  So my post might help someone get the pictures they want. 

[rasmonkey]

9 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

 

I totally agree you should not have to edit the pictures.  There should be no bar code or numbers on the photos. 100% agree.  However, let's talk reality.  The bar codes and/or numbers ARE on the pictures.  I highly doubt you're going to be able to get the pictures without them.  Maybe if enough people complain, they'll stop doing it.  BUT, that doesn't help people with the pictures right now.  

 

And not everyone is going to know about batch actions in Photoshop.  So my post might help someone get the pictures they want. 

Fair enough about the Photoshop tip! 🙂 

 

And FYI, as I mentioned earlier, I just got back from Harmony a couple weeks ago and my photos online do NOT have the barcode! (just numbers)  So if the barcode is not standard then the OP has a legit gripe for having the barcodes on their photos.

[rasmonkey]

On 2/13/2019 at 11:05 AM, rasmonkey said:

On 2/12/2019 at 1:13 PM, rasmonkey said:

Question for you.  It says you're able to download all of your photos via a zip file, but I've tried and tried and have not been able to select all to download all at one time.  When you select multiple photos the "download" button disappears!  And there is no "select all" button that I can see.  I have 242 photos and do not want to download each individually, that is ridiculous!  I am tech savvy yet can't figure this out.  Any help?  Their FAQ was no help.

 

Now once again, the question I posed here is that I don't see a way to download my entire batch of photos in one zip file like the site says I can. Can anyone point me to how to do this?  This has to be a simple thing that I'm just missing.

 

FYI, in case anyone was having the same download issue I was having, I got a response from their customer support.  "Sorry for the inconvenience.    Please make sure to change the screen settings on your computer to 90 or 100% in order to view the download button."  So all you have to do is reduce the browser window size by pressing the [CTRL] and [-] buttons to shrink the window and then the download button shows up.  Select all and then download via zip file.  Then to put your browser window size back to 100% press the [CTRL] and [+] buttons.

[CruisingNole]

On 2/13/2019 at 6:35 AM, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Aren't all the photos the same size/orientation (or at least just two orientations- horizontal and vertical)?  Set up an Action in photoshop to crop the picture just enough to eliminate the bar code, then run it as a batch.  Bam. Done.  You might need to do an Action for each orientation.

 

I didn't think of this, but it's a great suggestion, thank you. Thus far, I've only edited a handful manually and this weekend I'll set up the action and run the batch.

 

As far as an update to my original post, I did contact RC and expressed my dissatisfaction.  RC said a 3rd party company is contracted to handle photography and were very adamant that any issues with photos must be brought to this company's attention. RC would assume no responsibility and would not get involved whatsoever (even though I purchased the photo package on RC's website and the charge on my credit card statement was from RC). Gee, thanks for being an advocate for your customers.

 

The 3rd party is some overseas company that call themselves "Our Cruise Photos." Their website says their name is actually "The Image Group" and they are supposedly located in the Cayman Islands. However, Wendy Ying (who has a Chinese phone number) responded to my email inquiry. After starting in America, then Cayman Islands, and now China, the sketch level was high and I had a feeling this would go nowhere. 

 

I explained I simply wanted my photos without the barcode and numbers on them. She said she would contact "the ship" and see what could be done. Several weeks passed, no response. I followed up and was told "the ship" is unable to help. The bar codes and numbers could not be removed and they would not edit them for me. Thanks, have a nice day.

 

After some back and forth, they eventually agreed to refund $50 to my MasterCard because of the inconvenience , and said that they would "consider" informing future customers that photos will be watermarked in such a way, prior to purchase. 

 

So now you know.