Photo Package Questions

[Gatordad815]

Hi all! Though we have been on 4 RC cruises before, we have never purchased (or even looked into) a photo package. For our fall cruise (7-night Southern on Freedom), we would like to get photos. The cruise planner lists the all digital at $174.99, and the all digital + all prints package for $229.99. My questions:

 

1) Are these “decent” prices compared to typical prices (seems to me they are but I don’t have a frame of reference to compare)?

 

2) What size are the prints if we add on the prints?

 

3) Are the prints worth the $55 more? Seems I’d spend around that printing pics at home anyway, but of course if we get them from RC I’d have to get them home on an airplane without damaging them which may be a challenge.

 

Any thoughts/input appreciated!

 

[awestover89]

Those are fairly standard prices for online purchase, maybe a little cheaper than normal. I think we usually see around $200 for digital, $250 for digital plus print.

 

Prints are typically 8x10, but the actual photo portion is closer to a 5x7 with a decorative border.

 

For us, we don't really do anything with the prints, so we stopped getting them. But we're also a young couple so all of our photo albums are online anyway.

[Wordell1]

If you do the all digital package, you can have any photos you want printed for only $5 extra on the ship.  The price is OK, although I was able to get $149 for a recent 7 day on Liberty. 

 

I thought we got very good value - it would cost quite a bit for photos from a studio and you get more of a variety of photos from the cruise.

[sburrus4]

My 2¢ on prints - do you have an album you would put them in and look at them?  I, personally, prefer digitals and make a photobook from Shutterfly (or similar) and have that printed instead. Takes up less space than a photo album and you can use scrapbooking things like adding text about what you were doing, dates, etc. 

 

Also - Shutterfly gives away free photobooks all the time!  I like cheap lol. 

Edited February 18, 2020 by sburrus4

[banzaii]

We have only ever had the all-digital packages.  This gives far more control over what you end up doing and 'saves the environment' by only printing what you need.

 

My advice on the photo packages is to forget everything you have done on previous cruises and instead of dodging the photographers, take every opportunity to sqeeze more photos out.

 

Take your formal wear and glam it up for the cameras each evening.  At the end of you cruise, you should have around 300-500 picks which is worth 300,000 words.

[buzzard05]

If you are going definitely going to get a package, get it before you get on the ship.  It is unbelievably more expensive on-board (learned that the hard way over New Years.)  Also, if you are a little ways out from your cruise, you can buy the package you want at the prices you asked about, and then cancel and repurchase later if you see them cheaper (on the Cruise Planner).

 

Another thing to be aware of...

 

If you buy the digital package, you don't get a USB drive anymore with the pictures (at least we didn't).  You get a link that you can use while on-board to download your pics to your devices (on the ship's wifi).  Once you are off the ship, they send you an email (it took a few days to get it) with a link to an online gallery where you can download your pictures for 30 days.  After 30 days, the link expires (and I am assuming, so do your pictures)...so make sure you go on and download them quickly.

[Gatordad815]

13 hours ago, banzaii said:

My advice on the photo packages is to forget everything you have done on previous cruises and instead of dodging the photographers, take every opportunity to sqeeze more photos out.

 

Oh you’d better believe we will be stopping everywhere for photos! Embarkation, each port stop, dinner, pools, everywhere! It’ll be good timing too as we typically pay for a photographer for Christmas card photos of the kids, so having lots of these pics to choose from will give us the material we need for cards! 

[Gatordad815]

Thanks everyone for the input-all helpful!

[banzaii]

13 hours ago, buzzard05 said:

If you are going definitely going to get a package, get it before you get on the ship.  It is unbelievably more expensive on-board (learned that the hard way over New Years.)  Also, if you are a little ways out from your cruise, you can buy the package you want at the prices you asked about, and then cancel and repurchase later if you see them cheaper (on the Cruise Planner).

On the Black Friday sales, is probably the best time to buy if your cruise is after that date.

[Builder31]

If I buy the digital package, will they give me pics for everyone in my party? We will have people in 3 cabins.


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[Biker19]

33 minutes ago, Builder31 said:

 

If I buy the digital package, will they give me pics for everyone in my party?

 

Everyone should get a link after the cruise to download the pics. Ensure all pics are linked to your account while still on board. 

[SG65CB]

15 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Everyone should get a link after the cruise to download the pics. Ensure all pics are linked to your account while still on board. 

 

Can you clarify, will they have to buy three packages, one for each cabin? The photographers ask for your cabin number and enter it in the camera and then when you go look at photos you swipe your SeaPass card. Can three cabins of people all be on one package?

 

An unrelated question - do they give you a document giving you permission to print the photos? A couple of times (not with ship photos) I have been asked about the photos I am printing because they looked like professional photos and those are protected by copyright, some places won't print professional photos for you unless you can show you have the rights to print them. 

 

 

[Biker19]

31 minutes ago, SG65CB said:

 

Can you clarify, will they have to buy three packages, one for each cabin? The photographers ask for your cabin number and enter it in the camera and then when you go look at photos you swipe your SeaPass card. Can three cabins of people all be on one package?

 

Everyone in one cabin who appears in any pic will get those pics with one package. 

[TexasRCH]

You may have to buy three packages. You can link family members in separate cabins for a price.

you will be provided a copyright release so you can get them printer anywhere.   

[allisonb22]

18 hours ago, Builder31 said:

If I buy the digital package, will they give me pics for everyone in my party? We will have people in 3 cabins.

So we had a similar situation this past sailing on Anthem. It was my parents in one cabin, my sister and her boyfriend in another, and myself and my boyfriend in another. My mom was able to work with the woman at the photo desk and get the package to cover my parents, me, and my sister. Ususally, they said it only covers one cabin but since I was under 21 in another cabin they allowed me on their photo package and then they were nice and allowed my sister too. The only pictures we weren't able to get were any solo shots of my boyfriend and sister's boyfriend. As long as myself, my parents, or sis was in the photo, we were able to get it.