Buying portraits as taken or wait till the end?

[scrapmamma]

Some people say wait till the end and there might even be a discount closer to the end of your cruise.

 

Some people say to buy the pictures as they are taken because they will discard them if they aren't claimed.

 

I'm not sure what to do? Can I wait till the end of the cruise and decide which portraits I want to buy of our family?

 

Thanks!

[ChefSusan]

It's a craps shoot - sometimes photos are available throughout the cruise to purchase, and sometimes they are taken down to make room for others. If it was me, and we were buying pictures, we would judge them on a daily basis just to be sure.

[WayTooCool]

Go ahead and buy them as the come out -- if there's something you really like you risk not having it. We had SEVERAL good portraits made last trip, they did a wonderful job. I actually looked like I wasn't hung over! The Little Woman was still sunburned -- there's just so much you can do with a bright red nose.:D

[msmayor]

We looked at our pictures each day they came out, and attempted to keep track of them throughout the week. At $20/pop, we were not going to just buy them all week long.

 

On the last day before debarkation, we gathered all the pictures together and first separated into two piles: "Possible" and "heck no".

 

We immediately put the "heck no" in the discarded photo bins.

 

Then we sorted through the "possibles" and chose one family shot, one kids' shot and one of DH and I to purchase. We also chose to buy our embarkation photo.

[okwriter]

I don't recall any specials on the Sensation in January.

 

What I do remember, though, is liking one particularly photo and being unable to find it later. I say: buy as you go, but do so only if you love the photo(s).

[tef43]

Some people say wait till the end and there might even be a discount closer to the end of your cruise.

I haven't seen them offer late-cruise discounts in years.

 

Some people say to buy the pictures as they are taken because they will discard them if they aren't claimed.

Possible. A lot of it depends on whether they have room in the gallery.

[snydermann]

We must buy all our photos as soon as they are posted, otherwise they show up missing.

 

The ones we don't like so much, we autograph and sell on ebay.

 

:p:p

[tkere]

If they are not missing they are in huge piles of photos that you have to go through. Its really hard to find and I missed the photo I thought was the best. I won't do that again.

[Rotnkid49]

We looked at our pictures each day they came out, and attempted to keep track of them throughout the week. At $20/pop, we were not going to just buy them all week long.

 

On the last day before debarkation, we gathered all the pictures together and first separated into two piles: "Possible" and "heck no".

 

We immediately put the "heck no" in the discarded photo bins.

 

Then we sorted through the "possibles" and chose one family shot, one kids' shot and one of DH and I to purchase. We also chose to buy our embarkation photo.

 

Ditto! We do the same although we have gone through the piles of pics that are put on the table which takes forever, but better than buying all of them as they are taken & wasting money.

[lillian marie]

I buy them as they appear but I'm real picky on how good they are. We only buy them if they are excellent--meaning everyone is smiling and looks great.

[beachseasand]

Originally Posted by msmayor

We looked at our pictures each day they came out, and attempted to keep track of them throughout the week. At $20/pop, we were not going to just buy them all week long.

 

On the last day before debarkation, we gathered all the pictures together and first separated into two piles: "Possible" and "heck no".

 

We immediately put the "heck no" in the discarded photo bins.

 

Then we sorted through the "possibles" and chose one family shot, one kids' shot and one of DH and I to purchase. We also chose to buy our embarkation photo.

Ditto! We do the same although we have gone through the piles of pics that are put on the table which takes forever, but better than buying all of them as they are taken & wasting money.

__________________

Lynne

 

I do this too! Although you do have to keep track of the photos through the week. But as they say at $20 pop I only want to buy my absolute favorite.

[jetskier]

I havent seen discounts on photos on any of the 21 Carnival cruises I have been on in 5 years. I would buy them as you go because it may become harder to find later as more photos are put up and the earlier ones taken down and put in piles in a basket on a table.

 

Dave

[JohnStevenGordon]

Some people say wait till the end and there might even be a discount closer to the end of your cruise.

 

Some people say to buy the pictures as they are taken because they will discard them if they aren't claimed.

 

I'm not sure what to do? Can I wait till the end of the cruise and decide which portraits I want to buy of our family?

 

Thanks!

 

Dunno I bring my own camera and I take better pictures. They were nice on the Dream and didn't bug us for pictures. We told the guy on the first day to please pass our table in the future and he did. Third cruise and they finally listened. They did bug us on the first formal night trying to walk into the dining room but I would show them my camera and they would back way off - mine is better then theirs, hehehehe

 

Anyways might as well wait to the end and see if there is a discount. NOt like someone else will buy yours. Less chance of getting distroyed too.

[GlendaleCruiser]

I don't recall any specials on the Sensation in January.

 

What I do remember, though, is liking one particularly photo and being unable to find it later. I say: buy as you go, but do so only if you love the photo(s).

 

 

I do the same--no specials on the Conquest or Dream. Actually, i don't ever remember them discounting pictures later in the week. That would just encourage cruisers to leave them there and they pile up too much.

 

I look at the pics every night. If I love it, I buy it. If I don't like it I discard it immediately. If I'm not sure then I leave it and come back to try and find it again the next night. You really run a risk if you wait too long as they will take ALLLLLLLL the pictures and pile them in a heap on a table toward the end of the cruise and they won't even be sorted by port, formal night, dining room or ANYTHING. You could be there for hours. Not worth it.

[ArthurIhde]

i will wait till the end,that's my idea!

[anewmac]

we wait till the end, but what I do is find my photos as the days go on and stack them behind the most recent pic and disgard any heck no's right off the bat. just keep the "well maybe's"

[akers123]

We waited until the last night. There was one that we could not find; however they have a book of all the proofs and then they can print you a picture.

 

We did the same as another poster, Heck No and Well See and then just went through them that way. We did buy a few candids that we knew we wanted along the way; however the formals we waited until the end.

[MrPete]

First of all, there are no discounts.

 

Second, every cruise I've been on, they try to make you think THEY will throw away early taken pictures.

 

They do not!

 

We look at our pictures daily, and throw the bad ones away. We purchase all our pix at the end, those being the best of the lot.

[BigRed93]

We wait and get ours towards the end. Never had a special offered. Look through them almost everyday and toss the ones I would not buy. If I don't want to look at them, I don't want anyone else to either.:p

 

Then decide the last night. If I can't find them, then it wasn't meant to be.;)

[travel girl23]

I have never seen a discount on pictures. On one cruise, I waited until the last day to buy our boarding picture. By then, they were in a huge stack of pictures along with several other days. I never did find it and wished I had purchased it earlier. I go each day and check our pictures and throw away immediately the ones I definitely do not want. That does make it easier. I usually purchase within a day or two. Wish there were discounts but I have never seen one on any of our cruises.

[samikitty]

We throw away the "no way" pictures as we go and pile up the maybes. We buy the ones we want at the end of the cruise usually the afternoon of the last sea day. They always stack up the pictures somewhere, in my experience they do not throw them away.

 

Just in case they do, yhey also keep a proof book at the register. So, if you can't find the one you are dying for and you know when/where the picture was taken they can find it in the proof book and make a copy for you.

 

You do not have to worry about them getting destroyed either. If the picture you want has a big smudge or a tear or crease, they will print you a new copy no problem (in other words, you do not have to buy the one on display if it is damaged).

 

Of course, on my last cruise, we were able to go the entire trip without a single photo taken! Not an easy feat, but we did it! That makes it really easy to decide which of those "have to have" $20 pictures you need.

[blindrid]

We looked at our pictures each day they came out, and attempted to keep track of them throughout the week. At $20/pop, we were not going to just buy them all week long.

 

On the last day before debarkation, we gathered all the pictures together and first separated into two piles: "Possible" and "heck no".

 

We immediately put the "heck no" in the discarded photo bins.

 

Then we sorted through the "possibles" and chose one family shot, one kids' shot and one of DH and I to purchase. We also chose to buy our embarkation photo.

 

We pretty much do the same as sometimes there is a wait for dining and they are relatively close by so it gives us something to do. We sort the maybe's as the week goes by. There are very few maybes so it makes any decision to buy or not relatively simple. I just don't want pics laying aroudn the cabin to make sure they are not damaged.

[Tbay-eh]

Go ahead and buy them as the come out -- if there's something you really like you risk not having it. We had SEVERAL good portraits made last trip, they did a wonderful job. I actually looked like I wasn't hung over! The Little Woman was still sunburned -- there's just so much you can do with a bright red nose.:D

 

I can relate to the sun burn part - our family - me, husband, daughter and son had gone an excursion and were all bright red and shiny in our portrait - I had it done in black and white instead and we all looked tanned and healthy. It looks like and old fashioned portrait and I have had great comments on it. I took it to Walmart and down sized it then copied about 10 wallet size from it. We got the photo free for signing up for the casino - and last day got a $20 frame for $5. Only have ever bought 2 on all our cruises - just print pictures I want from our camera

[travel girl23]

 

they also keep a proof book at the register. So, if you can't find the one you are dying for and you know when/where the picture was taken they can find it in the proof book and make a copy for you.

 

This is what I love about CC. Learn something new every day. I did not know this and wish I had back when I couldn't find our boarding picture. Thanks for the info.

[HeidiHo]

This really has nothing to do with the OP's question but several years ago we went on a cruise with our kids. My DD was 14 and there was another girl her age in our group that she hung out with all week. They had pictures taken together all over the ship but they could never find then in the studio. Not even right after they should have been put up. The only thing we could think of was that other kids on board were possibly saw their pics and to be mean, tossed them in the discard bin. I suppose they could have been stolen outright but that's unlikely since there's a sensor on them that sets off alarms if you leave the area with unpaid for pics. Not that we would have purchased all of them but we might have purchased one or two as a memento.