Ship's Photo Prices

[DJD-Houston]

I'm trying to plan my budget for my first ever cruise this summer (Serenade of the Seas in Alaska in late July). I tried the search feature but it isn't working at the moment. :(

 

Can anyone help me with the price list for photos taken by the ship's photographers? I'm interested in prices for casual photos such as boarding pics as well as formal portraits. Are all pics the same size? Or are there size options to choose from (4x6, 8x10, etc)? Do they offer a digital option? I've also heard that they sometimes offer discounted packages, is this correct?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

Deborah

[Grandiva]

They are now offering photo packages. Sorry, I can not quote you any prices. The only picture we purchase is the formal night. 8x10 is $19.99. Least expensive photo was $9.99. I think they are 5x7's

[Gator0178]

I just got off the Sovereign a few weeks ago. The 8X10 is $19.99. The smaller ones are slightly cheaper, and they do have packages, but none we cared for.

 

Since you said that it is your first cruise i will offer you this advice that I wish I had gotten:

 

1) Wait until the end to buy your pics. People make the mistake of buying pics early and then see a pic they like more. You wouldn't have bought the first one.

 

2) Gather all of the best pics you like in one place, rather than in 12 different places. They place the pics by event such as "boarding" or "dinner 1st seating"

 

3) Don't buy multiple copies on the ship. There is a release form on line that you can print out and have as many copies of the photo you want for much cheaper!

[DJD-Houston]

I just got off the Sovereign a few weeks ago. The 8X10 is $19.99. The smaller ones are slightly cheaper, and they do have packages, but none we cared for.

 

Since you said that it is your first cruise i will offer you this advice that I wish I had gotten:

 

1) Wait until the end to buy your pics. People make the mistake of buying pics early and then see a pic they like more. You wouldn't have bought the first one.

 

2) Gather all of the best pics you like in one place, rather than in 12 different places. They place the pics by event such as "boarding" or "dinner 1st seating"

 

3) Don't buy multiple copies on the ship. There is a release form on line that you can print out and have as many copies of the photo you want for much cheaper!

 

 

Gator and Karen,

 

Thanks to you both for your quick replies! And, Gator, thanks for additional advice as well!

 

As to Gator's point #3, this is part of the reason why I would be interested in purchasing digital copies of the photos rather than prints. (Other reasons are that I would like the option of cropping to my preferences rather than taking the photo as they have decided to print it, and it would allow me to print a higher quality reprint than scanning and printing from their print.) Does anyone know if they offer this option? I would think this would be a higher profit margin for them since they would be able to burn multiple images onto one CD rather than incurring the ink and paper costs involved in printing each photo. I know I for one would be likely to purchase more photos if I could get them digitally rather than only as prints.

 

Does anyone know the costs for the smaller prints? And details on the photo packages?

 

Thanks again! ;)

 

Deborah

[rstout]

I asked about getting the photos on a CD on the FOS last week. I was told about $40 for one picture and hundreds of dollars for all. There are 6x8 photos taken when you get to ports, and action shots around pools and other places onboard. The photo when you get onboard and the ones you pose for with backgrounds are 8x10. I can tell you the four 8x10 package was $69.95. The eight 8x10 package was $119.95. There were other packages including 6x8's, but I don't know those prices.

[calval]

We just got off the Serenade of the Seas in San Fran as it worked its was to Alaska. Pictures were basically 19.95 or 9.95. Some friends asked about digital files and were told $40 or $80 a picture.

 

I think the above posting is great. Wait until later in the cruise. That way you can select the ones you want for sure. Also, we have many times had coupons books in the room that come from the travel agent or some promotion that had a buy one, get one offer. We used two of thiose this trip.

 

Lots of good tips from posters here. Hope it helps. And have fun, you'll love the ship. We hated to get off after our two week Panama Canal trip.

[WhiteSoxFan]

If you plan on buying more than a few pictures the packages are the way to go. They only offered them (on the FOS) the first three days of the cruise. The nice thing is you can upgrade your package later so you can purchase a smaller package and then just stack up your photos until the end. At that time you can upgrade to a package that will match the purchases you want to make.

[newyorker123]

This might be a stupid question but how do you keep all of your photos together to wait?

 

Thanks, Diane

[newyorker123]

Sorry, that was an incomplete sentence! How do you keep your photos together and not have them get separated? Just a little confused here.

 

Thanks again, diane

[MarinerBride]

I'm not sure about other ships, but on Mariner in December, instead of arranging pictures by event, they had arranged everything by our stateroom number. A lot of the photographers will swipe your card before they take your picture - for others, they find some way to figure out who you are. They also had computers that you could use to view your pictures.

 

Also, even though the picture is originally printed as an 8x10, you can request to purchase it as a a 5x7 or smaller. I don't remember the prices, but I know that we opted to have some reprinted smaller.

[KandMGIn]

Sorry, that was an incomplete sentence! How do you keep your photos together and not have them get separated? Just a little confused here.

 

Thanks again, diane

 

You walk around, find your pics, and put them one behind the other all in one place. No one has ever messed with them when we do that. By the end, we usually have about 30 pics all in one spot and it makes it easy to go through them.

[Tabbymom]

Below are the excerpts on photos from my review. Most of the candid shots (shore excursions, pool party, around the ship) were 6x8; most of the posed pictures (formal and casual) were 8x10. There was no indication of a digital option. Besides the pictures themselves, there were other daily specials which might include a frame, scrapbook, etc.

 

 

The photo studio had large wallboards with a folder for each stateroom; most of the pictures were put in that folder unless they couldn’t identify the stateroom, then they were put on a different board. There was one board for arrival at CocoCay, one for Wave Runner pictures, etc. You were asked to move your pictures to your folder when you found them. Later in the week our pictures started landing in the folder even when we had not given the photographer our SeaPass card; we learned that they had face identification software! Once they had enough pictures with your stateroom, they could identify you on the pictures without it. A little scary. They also had special packages available for purchase through 11:00 pm Tuesday night; some were 6x8, others 8x10, and more combo packages. Without a special, the price was $9.95 for a 6x8 and $19.95 for an 8x10. We learned that as long as you purchased any package, you could upgrade and add to that using the specials all week. So you really didn’t have to make any decisions other than to purchase a package. And they ran different specials each day. We made our final decisions on the last day and bought the pictures then.

____________________________________________________________

After breakfast, we went down to the photo studio to make our final selections. After some hard choices we narrowed it down to six 8x10’s and two 6x8’s. Our $79 package entitled us to 4 and 2; we ended up paying only another $29. So we saved $10.

[nednrom]

Below are the excerpts on photos from my review. Most of the candid shots (shore excursions, pool party, around the ship) were 6x8; most of the posed pictures (formal and casual) were 8x10. There was no indication of a digital option. Besides the pictures themselves, there were other daily specials which might include a frame, scrapbook, etc.

 

 

The photo studio had large wallboards with a folder for each stateroom; most of the pictures were put in that folder unless they couldn’t identify the stateroom, then they were put on a different board. There was one board for arrival at CocoCay, one for Wave Runner pictures, etc. You were asked to move your pictures to your folder when you found them. Later in the week our pictures started landing in the folder even when we had not given the photographer our SeaPass card; we learned that they had face identification software! Once they had enough pictures with your stateroom, they could identify you on the pictures without it. A little scary. They also had special packages available for purchase through 11:00 pm Tuesday night; some were 6x8, others 8x10, and more combo packages. Without a special, the price was $9.95 for a 6x8 and $19.95 for an 8x10. We learned that as long as you purchased any package, you could upgrade and add to that using the specials all week. So you really didn’t have to make any decisions other than to purchase a package. And they ran different specials each day. We made our final decisions on the last day and bought the pictures then.

____________________________________________________________

After breakfast, we went down to the photo studio to make our final selections. After some hard choices we narrowed it down to six 8x10’s and two 6x8’s. Our $79 package entitled us to 4 and 2; we ended up paying only another $29. So we saved $10.

 

The FOS didn't keep folders -- we were told that we could gather and put all of our pictures in a slot to keep them together. They do move the pictures the first 2-3 days so we didn't gather them up until the 4th day and we put them on the welcome aboard picture board. They didn't move those pictures around and no one touched our pictures until we decided to purchase a few. The special they had was to buy 4 8x10 and get a free leather portfolio.