warning about "free" photo session on dream

[elainmir]

I agree photographers should get paid but prints of what they've taken shouldn't cost 1500 bucks...priced better I think they'd sell more...our photographers at school now have gone digital instead of printing everything and costs went down also...I just can't see the prices they are asking you to pay..

Edited January 4, 2016 by elainmir

[Miss Kellybean]

My fiance and I were recently on the Victory and thought this would be a great engagement photo session. We expected the package to be a few hundred but we were completely heartbroken to learn it was well over $1000. That was more than the cruise, drinks and shore excursions! I was never angry. Just heartbroken. I just couldn't justify the cost but absolutely loved the photos!

 

When we get married in March (on the Victory), we are preparing for the $3000 photo package. Looking at local photography, it is actually on par or slightly higher. But that is for the wedding - not 9 photos!

 

I am thankful for the OP's insight and wish I had known prior to our session so I could have a realistic budget in mind.

[cruiseonthebrain]

This is right in line with what they charge for wedding photo packages. You get the same level of talent, probably more time, they actually photo shop blemishes, etc out of the pics. We loved our wedding photos- our photographer was brilliant. I only wish we had had this option for him to do a honeymoon cruise photo shoot for us.

 

Also- there is usually a bit of room for negotiation for these sessions.

[teddybear231]

My father retired a few years back and started his own photography business , to which he has become quite wellknown for. I said to him he should advertise for the low price of paying for his cruise , he should become someones personal photographer.He would take unobtrusive pics at dinner around the ship and even on excursions...provided they were paid for by the customer. At the end of the cruise he would put together an album as well as give the customer all digital copies of pics he had taken. Now for the person who grabs a few 8x10s this isn't a great idea but for the group or family that is traveling together this could offer up some savings....he thinks I'm nuts,I say I'm thinking outside the box.

 

Wow that would be perfect for our family reunion cruise!

[RaiderFaninNM]

Have you priced pictures at home? Have you bought pictures for a recent HS grad? The prices are in line with what you pay on shore, so you should not be shocked.

 

You are not kidding!!! :eek:

 

Having my last graduate this past year, and after seeing him go through a photo shoot, then picking the pics we liked, then the pricing...........:mad:

 

This sounds about right and close to what we paid for his senor pictures, I guess it does not hurt to ask the price before hand.....

Edited January 5, 2016 by RaiderFaninNM

[nydney1]

My father retired a few years back and started his own photography business , to which he has become quite wellknown for. I said to him he should advertise for the low price of paying for his cruise , he should become someones personal photographer.He would take unobtrusive pics at dinner around the ship and even on excursions...provided they were paid for by the customer. At the end of the cruise he would put together an album as well as give the customer all digital copies of pics he had taken. Now for the person who grabs a few 8x10s this isn't a great idea but for the group or family that is traveling together this could offer up some savings....he thinks I'm nuts,I say I'm thinking outside the box.

 

 

You are not nuts. We met a guy on the Concuest who does this for a living.

 

As far as the free photo shoot goes, yes the shoot was free. They are hoping that you fall in love with the photos and buy a package. My wife is a photographer and thinks the prices are right in line. I thinks she's nuts, but she thinks I'm crazy so I guess that is why we get along. (10 years+)

 

You just have to think that you are paying for a professional photographer on location. If you are looking for that, then the prices are not bad. I agree they should give a heads up about the price before you spend a couple hours getting photos taken.

[kristinp36]

I think it is fair to provide your experience....but I feel the prices are in line with what I would expect to pay for a private family photographer and edited prints. It would be nice if you were able to buy a couple prints for around $75-$100 each.

 

Keep in mind that there is alot that goes into professional photography. It is not someone snapping a picture with their camera and printing something a Wal-mart.

 

Professional equipment and training.....they aren't just someone off of the street. Knowing about lighting, shutter speed, aperture, iso...they are needed to take quality photographs. They also need to know about angles and posing to ensure everyone looks thier best.

Time spend with your family for the actual shoot.

Time spent editing photos after the shoot...usually 20-30 minutes per photo they show you.

Time spent preparing the package to show you...including printing and putting the book together with an appealing flow.

Quality archival paper....they use high quality paper which can be very expensive but necessary to deliver a quality product.

Time spend meeting with you individually to present the final product.

Etc.

 

I shoot as a hobby but know many professional photographers. It takes talent to get a series of good photographs of people....I stick to nature.

[Babycat]

The problem lies in the deceptive practice of failing to provide full disclosure. You've paid for that cruise and you lost valuable time that could have been spent doing other activities. That's just poor business.

[asdjl]

It's too bad you had to buy so many, and couldn't choose a smaller package

I do not think it's too much, in terms of actual cost, per time, equipment, etc but I would not have been prepared to spend so much either, a smaller $100 package, etc would have been more possible

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited January 5, 2016 by asdjl

[ObstructedView2]

why would anyone think that they would be the same price at the other $20 8x10's on the ship? A "Private" hour long session with your family and you think it would be the same price as a cheesy fake background quick picture at dinner time? If it was...all 3,000+ guests would do a private hour long session. Of course they have to charge more or everyone would want a private session and there isn't enough time during the cruise to do that

Do you realize you resserurected a post that is 5 years old..

 

 

:eek: :eek:

 

 

 

 

 

[russandcheryl]

Do you realize you resserurected a post that is 5 years old..

 

 

:eek: :eek:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Has anyone done this more recently?

What are prices now?

[les37b]

I sent off for printing (finally) a 160 page A3 sized photo book to a company called Photobox, my photos taken on board and ashore iwith my Canon 6D, GoPros, mine and wife's iPhone 6S plus, kids canon 650s to make a nice mixture and probably 800 to 1000 photos.

 

£45 seems like a bargain to me. :D (less than $60) t

[VASOXFANN]

Yeah, that's kind of how our wedding pictures worked out on the Freedom. We had NO IDEA what to expect and the pictures were AWESOME - every one! Since it was our wedding, they got us... hook, line, and sinker! <sigh>

 

At least since it was our wedding cruise they seemed to be giving us a bottle of champagne at every turn somehow... LOL

 

HEY! Maybe that's why we ended up buy the wedding package we did! LOL <kidding>

 

Us too. The pictures were more than the wedding package :eek: They are gorgeous though, and the price was on par with the pics from my first wedding IN 1993 - and much better quality. We received 3 canvases that look like works of art, and everyone tells us they are the best wedding pics they've ever seen :o

 

That's probably why they make the wedding packages so affordable...so they can sock it to the happy couple with the pics :rolleyes:

[Athankfulheart]

We did the dream shoot on our first Dream sailing in 2012 and I remember giving people a heads up on the pricing when I returned. We used the photo shoot as a way to do something fun on a rainy last sea day , not even planning to purchase any. We had a policy of buying 1 photo on any sailing and honestly, we never fell in love with any of the many cruise photos we have purchased.

 

When you think about the prices of the typical 8X10's vs the quality, the $30ea pricing on the very artistically shot and professionally retouched after a free "sitting" is not that shocking. What was the killer for us was the 10 photo minimum. That was the part that I took issue with not being forewarned on.

 

In the end, deciding that although it was outside of our budget, it was just money, and we left the ship with 11 photos instead of our usual 1 and we were very happy. In that same sailing we had already purchased our 1 photo for the trip. When you look at the 1 photo next to the 10 you can very quickly see what we paid $300 for. We have never before and not since had an album of photos that captured our relationship. This photographer was a very talented artist.

 

50 years from now, when we are long gone, I believe these will be very special to our children and remind them thier love for one another. Thats worth all the money in the world.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Athankfulheart

[maldenmusic]

Beware of anything that is "free." We have bought a couple of pictures but usually the ones where we are getting off the ship at the ports.

[BallFour4]

I agree photographers should get paid but prints of what they've taken shouldn't cost 1500 bucks...priced better I think they'd sell more...our photographers at school now have gone digital instead of printing everything and costs went down also...I just can't see the prices they are asking you to pay..

 

The costs for the package cover the expense of the package. Carnival has a photographer dedicated to the customer for a period of time, expensive Nikon cameras, flash equipment and that photographer is not on deck capturing images of other cruisers. It's also a profit center for Carnival.

 

I've owned a mobile DJ and emcee business for 15 years, weddings cost more than corporate events. On a simple 4 hour reception my guys carry 10k worth of gear. Double that for lights and a photo booth.

 

For most things like this you get what you pay for, and a price point was set for some guests to like it, some not.

 

.

Edited October 25, 2016 by BallFour4

[russandcheryl]

can you pre book the private photo session ??

Need to make sure we get the port and time we want...

[sprint180]

Thanks for the heads up. That is really misleading I agree.

 

Yes I have done senior pics. Paid the photographer $400. We got 89 amazing photos and a disk with all of them on. We can print or have printed as many as we like.

[ledelstein]

We did this photo session on the Dream also in August.

They quoted us the same prices. I wanted the whole book so bad!!

But they did allow us to buy individual photos.

I bought 4-8 x 10s and it was $120.

 

My daughter had senior pictures this year and the price of this Dream sessions book is right in line with what I've spent on her pictures.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[wampuscat7]

We usually buy a few photos. RCI offered a package for $199 on our last cruise, which included unlimited photos from the ship's photographers at the usual locations. Probably wouldn't do that again since we only liked about 15 photos or so, and probably would have only bought 5 or so if we had paid for them individually.

 

 

This is true, but some RCI ships also have a specialty photography area/staff that has special sessions like OP is talking about. Those photos are not included in the regular package. (They also have smaller packages. I paid $150 for 10 digital photos, which I much prefer to Carnival's hard copy method.)

 

The studio/special session photos on RCI are just as expensive, if not more so, than what OP is talking about. I think the packages started at $500 for 5 digital prints. I've also seen similar packages offered at all-inclusives.

 

If the quality is good, I don't think the Carnival prices are outrageous.

 

 

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[Havingfun2010]

Have you priced pictures at home? Have you bought pictures for a recent HS grad? The prices are in line with what you pay on shore, so you should not be shocked.

 

You can go for a photo shoot at WalMart or JCPenny for a fraction of the price. The pictures are the same. No need to buy from the company that comes to the school. The price is ridiculous for a cruise line that promotes itself as the Walmart of the Seas. They need to provide the same cheap services that is expected in such a store/ship.

[tandemcruzr]

I see you're still at it. :(

[sparks1093]

You can go for a photo shoot at WalMart or JCPenny for a fraction of the price. The pictures are the same. No need to buy from the company that comes to the school. The price is ridiculous for a cruise line that promotes itself as the Walmart of the Seas. They need to provide the same cheap services that is expected in such a store/ship.

 

I've never seen CCL promote itself like that, although detractors do quite frequently;).

[MistyRo76]

I agree. Those prices seem to be pretty much in line with what a professional photographer would charge for similar work on land. In fact, compared with what we were charged for our wedding pictures and for a photo shoot of our first son, this sounds like a bargain.

 

The photographer didn't lie. The photo shoot was free. I don't see anything outrageous or anything to be "warned about" here...

 

We get professional pics taken of our daughter every year and we pay our photographer $300 for the session. Then she includes digital copies of all of our pictures (usually 300-400) and and we get a release for full reproduction rights at no additional charge. I can then make my own photo book online for 40 pages at a cost of around $30.

 

For my wedding the same photographer charged us $1700 to have two photographers with us for over 8 hours, digital copies of all 2500+ photos and a release for full reproductive rights.

 

I think at the very least, Carnival should provide pricing for the photos taken during this "free" session so the person can decide in advance if it's worth their time to have the pics taken in the first place. If you know in advance that the pictures are too expensive for you to buy any, why would anyone waste their time taking them? And the cancellation fee should have definitely been mentioned at the time of booking the session.

[Larry6905]

I don't know what happened here but we had the Dream Studio do photo shoots twice once on Vista and once on Dream. We never heard about a $90 cancelation fee. Although I saw that on some spa packages if you failed to give 24 hr notice.

Back to photo shoot. For me it was wonderful. No different than any other (professional) photo shoot.

Both times, on Vista and on Dream were very professional. The lighting and settings were beautiful.

You can spend as much as you want. I felt they were very reasonable.

In the past I've stood in line to have photos taken. Now that I am in 70's the Dream Studio was easier and much better quality. These are photos that will be cherished for many years.

The photographer we had on Dream in Feb 2017 was Jessica Rosslee. She did an excellent job and never pressured us into anything we didn't want.

Jessica listened to our needs and wants and delivered a beautiful book. Now the beautiful Caribbean Sea is really there behind me, not just a painted back drop.

You can use this photography service for reunions, senior photos and life events.

I plan on using them again.

Happy cruising