Where have all of the photopass CM’s gone?

iluvdoombuggies

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 7, 2009
We are at Disney now and have hardly gotten any pictures:(. All of the usual locations with photopass have no one there. So upset that I purchased the memory maker. I the past we got tons of photos and it was worth it. It’s been a totally waste for this trip.
 
*shrug*

May just be an anomaly? maybe they staff based on crowds? Is it a bad weather day?

I was there from Nov. 10 - 16 and felt there were no shortage of photopass photographers at all the "hot" spots (they had short (3-4 families) lines waiting for those spots). I even encountered photo pass photographers that were looking for guests to take photos of. I got a precious one with my daughter holding up a "Happy Thanksgiving" sign (right on Grand Avenue) while we waited for the rest of the group on Star Tours. I think our Photo Pass photos were over 200 (that includes multiple shots of the same scene/ride).

I think we got probably 5-6 different photo pass "scenery" shots per park per day and probably could have done more had we wanted to go out of our way and wait. Usually one or two as you are entering the park, at various landmark spots and usually another one or two on the way out. Since every park had a Christmas Tree .. plenty of photo opportunities there.

Definitely hit some I hadn't seen photographers set up before - (In front of the Little Mermaid ride, in front of Haunted Mansion, Rapunzel's tower (at night), Mad Tea Party (at night)).

You definitely have to hunt them out, though. To me, they can get lost in the crowd if you aren't looking for them.
 
Maybe you're overlooking them. If you're not actively looking for Photopass CM's then their very easy to miss them. I always see them out and about
 


We are at Disney now and have hardly gotten any pictures:(. All of the usual locations with photopass have no one there. So upset that I purchased the memory maker. I the past we got tons of photos and it was worth it. It’s been a totally waste for this trip.
Are you somehow missing them? Stop at guest services and Ask ....
 


I had that experience one day at Epcot in May. It had rained earlier that day, but once the rain threat was over the photographers didn’t reappear. I didn’t see a single PP photographer and I WAS looking for them. I didn’t have any trouble finding the photographers after that day, but it was strange that they were nowhere to be found for several hours.
 
I have Photopass because of my AP. My DH will not wait in a line that has more than 5-6 people (okay neither will I) so I find that we rarely get even 10 pictures per trip. Plus I don't really see that many photographers out there. I doubt if I would ever pay for Photopass.
 
We are at Disney now and have hardly gotten any pictures:(. All of the usual locations with photopass have no one there. So upset that I purchased the memory maker. I the past we got tons of photos and it was worth it. It’s been a totally waste for this trip.
We totally agree on the lack of photopass photographers. We had a hard time finding many during our last trip and they're basically non-existent at the water parks anymore unless you're going during the 2 prime months of summer. - I think that's actually official now, as when we went the first week of September and found 0 photographers at either parks, the CM's said that they only have them at water parks during the prime summer months. Blah.
 
Funny this is brought up...

We were just there last week: Dec 2 - Dec 7. My wife commented a few times on PP CMs not being at their usual spots on Main Street in MK and Hollywood Boulevard in HS. For example, in many past trips - we are passholders - there would be maybe 5 CMs lined up from the start of MS to the Partners statue; this trip there were no more than 3 that I ever saw. Similar story for HB in HS. Same times of the day as previous trips and on multiple days for MK.

There were also other instances where character M&Gs were without PP personnel. Now, I know in some cases this is typical but it was enough of a drought that it caught our attention as well. On our Epcot day we went to visit Mulan and the character attendant told those of us in the line there would be no PP available. A lady behind us was miffed about it and asked why. The CM told her the PP were elsewhere in the park (paraphrasing) to which the lady replied (again, paraphrasing) with "why would they be outside when it's pouring down raining", which, it was.

With all the above I think enough of us are noticing the same thing for it to not be just our imaginations. I'm absolutely sure YMMV on this kind of thing but I'm telling you what my family noticed last week.
 
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Interesting! In May I noted how many Photopass photographers we saw - we saw quite a few and in some different spots than usual. We are headed back in a few weeks and I’m interested to see if I notice a difference.
 
We were there Dec 1-7 and really did not notice fewer PP. We did note at Epcot that there were none available for the the Santa's around the world Showcase. The other thing we noticed were PP people hanging out in non traditional locations. We saw one that was almost hiding in France next to the camera where you can look through and see the Eiffle Tower. Not taking pictures unless asked but otherwise sort of hiding in plain site.
 
On our Epcot day we went to visit Mulan and the character attendant told those of us in the line there would be no PP available. A lady behind us was miffed about it and asked why. The CM told her the PP were elsewhere in the park (paraphrasing) to which the lady replied (again, paraphrasing) with "why would they be outside when it's pouring down raining", which, it was.
It's not very "Disney" to say "due to short staffing" but that's probably what it was.

Remember, they will go away all together with the automated cameras, coming soon to character encounters near you.
 
We were there Dec 1-7 and really did not notice fewer PP. We did note at Epcot that there were none available for the the Santa's around the world Showcase. The other thing we noticed were PP people hanging out in non traditional locations. We saw one that was almost hiding in France next to the camera where you can look through and see the Eiffle Tower. Not taking pictures unless asked but otherwise sort of hiding in plain site.

The Santa's in WS have never had PP photographers except for maybe in the America pavilion.
 
Was at Epcot yesterday and did think there were less than in the past, particularly in the countries. France used to have three, only had one .None in China
 
Was at Epcot on Sun, HS yesterday, MK Mon and today. Not really noticing less Photopass CMs, and that's something we would pick up on since my wife likes to grab every Photopass CM she can find to maximize her photo collection.

Having "Zero" as a new magic shot at DHS is awesome!
 
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I was just there from 11/30 - 12/9 and didn't notice a lack of photographers. I've got over 600 photos from that time frame - and we weren't always actively seeking out photographers.
 

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