Waiting to buy photos till last day?

[Lemur]

I searched the database but was unable to find any information on this question. I hope the HAL board can help me.

We've booked a Panama Canal Cruise next year. We would like to wait to buy any photos from the ship's photographers until the last day, so that we don't impulse buy photos that we don't like but are the best of the current bunch (most of our photos are not great because we are not that photogenic).

So, has anyone employed this tactic? If so, is it a good idea to do this on a 17-day cruise?

I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks for reading,
Lemur

[RuthC]

What you suggest is my standard routine. There are a couple of ways I've seen this done.

One method is to find your photos, and ask the photo staff to place them in the same slot on a back display board. That way you can add to the pile whenever you go through the gallery.
The other method is to have the photo staff keep all the photos in a separate folder. Whenever you check your photos, pull them, then ask the staff member to add them to your folder (it will be kept by cabin #). On the last day, have them pull the folder, then make your choice.

Works like a charm.

[Krazy Kruizers]

By the end of a 17 day cruise there is no way they can diaplay all those photos.

You will find that many of them will be in huge stacks and you will have to go through them.

We just got off the Zuiderdam's 10 day cruise and the stacks around on some of the tables was unbelievable.

If I were you, I would check every 5 days and take the best of that bunch.

The photos are not cheap.

[Lemur]

Originally Posted by RuthC

One method is to find your photos, and ask the photo staff to place them in the same slot on a back display board. That way you can add to the pile whenever you go through the gallery.
The other method is to have the photo staff keep all the photos in a separate folder. Whenever you check your photos, pull them, then ask the staff member to add them to your folder (it will be kept by cabin #). On the last day, have them pull the folder, then make your choice.

Thanks for the wise advice RuthC! We'll make sure we do that on our next trip. I knew the HAL board would come through!

cheers,
Lemur

[ger_77]

Our family of 6 was on the Rotterdam recently and we had tons of photos taken during the 2 weeks onboard. We had the photos put into a file which we signed out the day before disembarkation (they wrote up a charge slip as if we were being billed for all of them - which would have come to over $5,000 if we had taken all of them), and took them to a lounge where we spread them out and were able to decide which ones we wanted to purchase. When we returned the balance, they tore up the charge slip and we signed only for those we were buying. It really works well, especially if there are more than a couple of you together.

Smooth Sailing!

[mrsltg]

Definitely do as others have said and group your photos together. Also, immediately get rid of any photos you know for sure you don't want. This will help tremendously when you want to go through the stack and decide for sure.

Bon Voyage!

[peaches from georgia]

Is the photo gallery on Vista ship still right in front of upper level MDR? When we were on the Oosterdam when it was a new ship this location created a huge traffic jam to get into the DR every night. It was just so convenient for some people to look at their pictures (the purpose of the location, of course) even if it caused a backup for everyone else.

[yogi2929]

We've been able to group our pictures together for just this reason. The Volendam used sheet protectors in a binder and the Westerdam used large manila envelopes marked with your cabin #.

[ziggypup]

My tactic is to beat my wife to the photo display area. This way I can destroy 75% of the pictures. This way I don't have a $400 dollar photo bill at the end of the cruise. And this method also allows me more time in the casino because she is wandering around looking for photo's that aren't even there anymore. Hee Hee Hee

[olefin32]

I like the way ziggypup handles it!

[RAJKR74]

We find the photo station to be conjested at times with everyone trying to locate their photos. I would think the cost of photos that are displayed and then thrown away to be expensive to the cruise line.

At Disney World a couple yrs ago we found they have a great system for taking photos. When you went up to one of the many photographers around the park they would give you a bar coded plastic card which was scanned after taking your photos. Then scanned by every photographer that you would have take photos of you around the park.

After you were done with the park you could go to the photo store, enter your card number in a computer and all the photos would be displayed for your viewing. You could order the photos on site or wait until you got home, pull up the web site, view the photos and then place an order for Disney to ship to you. We took over 20+ photos and viewed them all at once when we got home. We ordered the ones we liked the best. Disney even had a few borders that could be placed around your photos. We were very pleased with the ease and quality of the photos. The Disney system saved tons of time not having to look for them on a display board plus the cost savings and time in printing the photos. Disney would hold your photos on their web site for 30 days after they are taken.

Current Disney prices for a 5x7 photo costs around $12.95. Two 5x7 of the same photo is $23.00. They have numerous "packages" you can order also.

I wish HAL would look at some type of system like this. They could incorporate the computers up in the crows nest for access to passengers to view photos on board.