RCCL Cruise Professional Pictures

[bala1130]

There must be a better way for RCCL to sell their professional pictures. Did you ever wonder how many pictures they must toss at the end of each cruise? With the technology today, there must be a way to have the digital pictures available to you and only print the ones people buy at a more reasonable cost to us. With the cost of professional grade digital cameras coming down each year, I see fewer and fewer cruisers needing this service from RCCL. Your comments…

[ChipLondon]

Pictures are not tossed away, the print paper is washed and reused. If the service is being used by fewer guests, I am surprised to see the photo ares getting larger, pictures are still very much part of a cruise. Although I prefere my old ones. I look younger in them, and still have the same cloths anyway.

[jlbkty]

Even if they re-use the paper, the ink is pretty pricey. I wonder if they have found a way to recycle the ink also??

[akcruz]

There must be a better way for RCCL to sell their professional pictures. Did you ever wonder how many pictures they must toss at the end of each cruise? With the technology today, there must be a way to have the digital pictures available to you and only print the ones people buy at a more reasonable cost to us. With the cost of professional grade digital cameras coming down each year, I see fewer and fewer cruisers needing this service from RCCL. Your comments…

 

The main reason they will continue to have business for these photos is to get everyone in a pic. While I can take pictures of my kids, I am not able to get us all in 1 shot! We make use of this service each and every cruise. They have started to scan your seapass therefore giving you the ability to look at them on-line in the photo area. Pretty soon they won't print them, just have them taken this way.

 

I've also heard they are experimenting this face recognition. Your boarding photo will be used as the basis to 'look up' pics taken afterwards where the seapass isn't available.

 

While I do feel it is a waste to print so many pics that don't get bought I don't see them going away any time soon.

 

As an aside, I always get a picture of my kids taken on formal night. I then print off the permission form and take it to my local photo shop to get extra copies. A lot easier to me than dealing with taking it myself!

[MAZANDSTEVE]

I think we bought about 4, they are lovely and much better than if we had taken them. Long may they continue, they hold great memories.:)

They are not cheap, so I imagine they still make a hefty profit.

[Happy ks]

I'm probably one of the few who thinks they are a great deal. While not quite as professional as some we've had done on land, we don't pay a sitting fee, nor do we have to purchase any sort of package, only the pictures we want.

 

We wait until the last night, gather them all together and choose one.

[green eyed lady]

We always spend way too much on cruise photos but I love them. I'm not a big souvenir buyer so these pics are my souvenirs! And 1/2 the fun of getting them is the hunt to find your pics on the photo boards in the photo gallery :D

[Tyler80]

I have always enjoyed buying onboard photographs of my wife/family. The fun part about it is you can hit up every photographer onboard and then choose which photos (if any) you want to buy. Makes for great memories and excellent gifts for other family and friends. All while you're on vacation!

[Hobiecat01]

If I am not mistaken, RCCL has gone digital for pictures on the Oasis of the Seas. There is no more wall of pictures that we are all used to seeing. (That does take away from the fun of seeing other peoples' and your tablemates' wild pictures...) There are now several kiosks in the photo area where you can swipe your SeaPass card and access your pictures and have the ones you want to purchase printed. There is also a new option to purchase ALL of your pictures on a CD for, I think I heard, $295 on the first few days or more later in the week. That way you can get all of your pictures and be able to print the ones you want as many times as you want when you get back home. DW and I will be on the Oasis in April and I am very interested in seeing how this new way works.

----------------------------

Sea ya!

Ron and Lee

Canton, Ga

Proud RCCL Platinum Member

"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom,

in water there is bacteria." – Ben Franklin

We are proud Oasis Camel Cruiser – April 17, 2010

The Oasis Camels Website

Previous Cruises – 59 Days at Sea!

Carnival Mardis Gras - 3 Day Bahamas - April 1982

Carnival Destiny - 7 Days Western Carib. - April 1998

Princess Grand Princess - 7 Days Eastern Carib. - April 1999

Princess Sea Princess - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2000

Princess Grand Princess - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2002

RCCL Navigator of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2003

RCCL Mariner of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - April 2005

RCCL Freedom of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - 6/18 - 6/25/2006

RCCL Liberty of the Seas - 7 Days Eastern Carib. - 7/19 - 7/26/08

Planned Cruises

RCCL Oasis of the Seas – Our Friends Cruise - April 17, 2010

RCCL Allure of the Seas – Our Neighborhood Cruise - 2011

The BIG One - Southeast Asia 14 day – 2012?

Princess Cruises - The Med – 14 day – 2013?

[GXmanDC]

They've made a huge change to Photography on the Oasis. Check out this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1104722&referrerid=323293

 

They no longer print all of those pictures.

[MrsPete]

Pictures are not tossed away, the print paper is washed and reused.

I teach photography and had no idea this was possible. I'm going to investigate this technology.

 

Not really about cruises, but about photography in general: People are buying fewer professional pictures these days. Fewer school pictures, fewer professional pictures of any kind. I think there are two causes:

 

1. Digital cameras these days are very cheap, and just about everyone has one -- even if it's poor quality. Yet not everyone is a good photographer. I thought I was pretty good 'til I took a professional class years ago and learned differently. I'm still not the best, but that class improved my work immensely. Just composition makes such a difference; throw in lighting and other techniques, and the difference between a professional and amateur photographer is tremendous.

 

Yet many people don't appreciate quality -- they just want a picture, any picture, which I suppose is fine, though it isn't what I want. So many people consider an overly-dark picture with the top of people's heads cut off (maybe even taken with a cell phone) to be equal in quality with a professional picture.

 

2. People have access to scanners. So many of my students buy just one copy of a professional picture, scan it, and print it themselves (usually illegally, and often they don't even know that it's illegal). Often they print these on cheap home printers and the lack of quality is evident immediately . . . and becomes more evident as time goes on. I have a few curled, faded pictures on the board in my room.

 

As this technology becomes more and more accessible, photographers are going to up their prices higher and higher. They can't afford their investment in time and equipment -- not if people are going to buy one photograph and copy it. More and more photographers are going to online photo proofs, which cannot be copied, or which are of such low quality that you wouldn't want to copy them, or which have a copywrite mark over the top. I sympathize with them.

[MrsPete]

They've made a huge change to Photography on the Oasis. Check out this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1104722&referrerid=323293

 

They no longer print all of those pictures.

That's a nice change. I hope they implement it company-wide.

 

Speaking only for myself, I would probably buy more pictures if I could choose them sitting in the quiet of my own room (or even back home after the cruise). I don't like feeling that I'm being pushed by the people waiting behind me.

 

Another benefit, though not one that'll happen often: Sometimes you end up in a group picture, and strangers come and buy it. I'm thinking of a picture of my daughters (taken in the kids' clubs) that I picked up, considered buying, but put back down. A day or so later I'd gathered enough pictures that I decided to buy a package, and I thought I'd go back for that picture to "round out" my purchases. Oops. Someone else had already bought that picture. And why not? His kid was in it too! If we'd been choosing from a screen, that picture wouldn't have disappearead, and I too would've bought it. It would've been one more sale for the ship.

[yogimax]

Does RCCL do the photography or an independent contractor?

[richs52]

I have always thought that is was such a waste of ink, paper and time as well to print all of those photos. I am one who would never buy these pictures, so usually just walk past when they are taking photos, or politley say that I'd rather not have my picture taken of approched.

[akcruz]

Does RCCL do the photography or an independent contractor?

 

I believe it is an independent contractor that is in charge. This is the website you to in order to print off a copyright waiver to allow you to copy their pics.

 

https://www.image.com/index.html

 

BTW, for those that say the pictures are expensive, I was recently at a ski resort and the same $20 8 x10 you can purchase on board was $36 and you couldn't get the copyright waiver!

[GXmanDC]

That's a nice change. I hope they implement it company-wide.

 

Speaking only for myself, I would probably buy more pictures if I could choose them sitting in the quiet of my own room (or even back home after the cruise). I don't like feeling that I'm being pushed by the people waiting behind me.

 

Another benefit, though not one that'll happen often: Sometimes you end up in a group picture, and strangers come and buy it. I'm thinking of a picture of my daughters (taken in the kids' clubs) that I picked up, considered buying, but put back down. A day or so later I'd gathered enough pictures that I decided to buy a package, and I thought I'd go back for that picture to "round out" my purchases. Oops. Someone else had already bought that picture. And why not? His kid was in it too! If we'd been choosing from a screen, that picture wouldn't have disappearead, and I too would've bought it. It would've been one more sale for the ship.

 

I think they are implementing it on other ships or at least some version of it. On Liberty last month I went to the kiosk in the photo center. I inserted my Sea Pass and was able to browse through a number of photos, including the casual shots the photographers take while you are around the ship, at dinner, at parties, etc. How did they group those shots into my folio? It must be some type of facial recognition software.

 

My theory is that they base it on the first picture taken when we boardrd. For the "welcome aboard" photo of our group (4 guys, two cabins) the photographer asked for "one Sea Pass per cabin." My photo folio contained that initial group shot, plus many others of my cabin mate and myself. There were a few shots of my brother and his friends in my folio, he was in our initial welcome aboard photo. I think the software must have included those shots becasue his mug was in that first picture.

 

Anyway, I love the new system. I never liked searching through all of those printed pictures. Also, when you order them from the kiosk you get them "fresh," without the fingerprints of everyone who browsed through the pictures displayed in the photo center. And, as you pointed out, you get the chance to buy the pic before someone else does.

[BabyMoon2007]

I think they are implementing it on other ships or at least some version of it. On Liberty last month I went to the kiosk in the photo center. I inserted my Sea Pass and was able to browse through a number of photos, including the casual shots the photographers take while you are around the ship, at dinner, at parties, etc. How did they group those shots into my folio? It must be some type of facial recognition software.

 

My theory is that they base it on the first picture taken when we boardrd. For the "welcome aboard" photo of our group (4 guys, two cabins) the photographer asked for "one Sea Pass per cabin." My photo folio contained that initial group shot, plus many others of my cabin mate and myself. There were a few shots of my brother and his friends in my folio, he was in our initial welcome aboard photo. I think the software must have included those shots becasue his mug was in that first picture.

 

Anyway, I love the new system. I never liked searching through all of those printed pictures. Also, when you order them from the kiosk you get them "fresh," without the fingerprints of everyone who browsed through the pictures displayed in the photo center. And, as you pointed out, you get the chance to buy the pic before someone else does.

 

When you were on Allure was it also an option? Did they have a cd price for buying all pictures taken?

[kernow]

That's a nice change. I hope they implement it company-wide.

 

Speaking only for myself, I would probably buy more pictures if I could choose them sitting in the quiet of my own room (or even back home after the cruise). I don't like feeling that I'm being pushed by the people waiting behind me.

 

 

When we were on the Celebrity Eclipse last summer they had the photos on the TV in our cabin. We had the TV set to the music channel one day and all our pictures started scrolling across the screen. It was a really nice way to view them and as the cruise went on all the new ones were added. There were even ones our son had taken at the teen club.

I guess this will eventually happen on the RCL ships too.

 

Julie

[Puffinater]

We have not purchased pictures in a very long time. We now just say no to all the requests. No sense in taking them if we have no intentions of buying them.

[eldolko]

Does anybody know the quality of the images on the photo CD? Does the images have the original camera resolution or is it scaled down to a lower resolution.

[nydiana]

I have iPhoto on my MacBook Pro. It has the facial recognition software. Once I have identified a person it scans all my unidentified photos to find others with that person in them.

 

It also uses the digital GPS encoding to mark all the various locations. So I can bring up a map and view all the pictures from a specific location.

 

 

As far as RCI photos go I would like to see a smaller size like 5X7 or 3X5. I like to buy some pictures but don't like the 8X10 size.

 

Diana

[Raptor2010]

Does anybody know the quality of the images on the photo CD? Does the images have the original camera resolution or is it scaled down to a lower resolution.

 

We purchased the DVD on the Oasis and the quality is great. There are two sets of pictures on there, one labeled "Original Images" and one "Print Ready Images". I know not many will agree with us on this, but we felt it was well worth the $349 we paid :p It is a vacation and we like being able to look back on the pictures and remember the fun times we had on the cruise. We also made sure we had our picture taken at EVERY opportunity so we would have many different pictures on the DVD.

[addicted2]

Oasis still prints all the pictures they are just placed in folders with a number from your sea pass card on it. It is way easier to view them than trying to search the walls for your photos. We have always purchased at least a couple pics from each cruise. I would think it is easier to print every pic from a memory card and display them. Otherwise everyone would wait until the last day and they would be overloaded with orders.

[fancycroozer]

Oasis still prints all the pictures they are just placed in folders with a number from your sea pass card on it. It is way easier to view them than trying to search the walls for your photos. We have always purchased at least a couple pics from each cruise. I would think it is easier to print every pic from a memory card and display them. Otherwise everyone would wait until the last day and they would be overloaded with orders.

 

 

We were on the Allure in January and they did it this way also. Very, very easy. Hope to see all ships going this way. Sometimes seeing them on a screen is not the same as when they are printed. They just look different sometimes.