Avoid using mycruise photo.com

Celebrity is a great company but mycruisephotos.com are letting them down.

All

This is Buyer Beware....... Mycruisephotos.com has dreadful customer service... buy the hard copies onbard the ship and avoid getting a disc

Here is my story.....

I recently sailed to Bermuda on the Celebrity Summit... that part was amazing, however I had the misfortune of having to come in contact with their onboard photo service run by The Image Group out of the Cayman Islands... there online presence is known as mycruisephotos.com.

Prior to the cruise I got an e-mail asking if I wished to purchase a photograph package for my cruise.. great I thought and duly ordered it on line. The money was taken from my credit card and I thought how simple it would be .. get the photographs taken... then at the end of the week collect the disc and go home.... how wrong I was.

On the afternoon before disembarkation I went along to check my folio of photographs only to find that a lot were missing... I checked at the desk and they assured me that all photographs would be on the system by 6:30 pm that evening.. I went along at 7:00 pm...Oh dear the missing photographs were still not showing.. I was then assured that it would only be a little while longer....I returned at 9:30pm and still the missing photographs... were still missing.. ah come back at 3:30 am they said and it would be ready....I returned at 6:00 am on the day of disembarkation... but still no disc and still the missing photographs had not made it to the server.

We are having technical issues I was told... and we will mail the disc and we will also confirm by e-mail that all the photographs made it.....mmm that was on June 30th and it is now August.. And still no disc... oh and no e-mails to confirm that the photographs made it to the disc.

The saga does not finish there...after a week of not hearing anything I contacted the Image group by both phone and e-mail... they said ..let us look into that and they did... then sent me an e-mail saying yes there was a problem... yes it has been posted and yes it will be with you shortly.... I am glad I did not hold my breath..

After another week I contacted the Image Group again to complain that I have not received anything... they assured me that it had been posted and that due to the holidays in Bermuda it was delayed... I asked that a customer service manager contact me... that did not happen either..

So next action was to write again and I also wrote to the Execs Office for Celebrity... I did get a call the next day from Celebrity.. who expressed their concern ... but advised that I need to keep in contact with The Image Group...

I was then told by the Image Group yes your disc was sent of ... and they gave me a tracking number.. the tracking number does not have a final destination address.. any way the tracking number showed that a package was posted... but no action .. I checked again a week later and it said was at customs... I thought getting excited it would soon be here...that was July 17th and as I write today this has not changed. .... I have had a quicker mail from China..

Ok as I sit here today ... I have sent more e-mails to the Image Group...but no response.... not even an apology for the further delay.. You send an e-mail and it pushes a further Ticket Number .. I think I have 5 different ones now... and as I write another has popped up... this must be a common occurrence for them as no one will give you a direct e-mail address...

The sad thing here is that the image Group seem to have Vendor of Choice for this service onboard Celebrity and RCl as well as a number of others carriers... Given the service they provide I would urge caution to the consumer and also suggest that the carriers review who the vendors.

Again I say that this is not directed at Celebrity Cruises.... but is directed towards a vendor who captures the moments onboard and turns them in to memories ... or in my case and I know of at least 28 others failed to do so

Dispute the charge with credit card. Companies have a tendency to reply when their money is taken away.

We have not had good luck with photos on any of the Celebrity ships we have sailed on. Either the pictures are not good or it is difficult to purchase them. On my last cruise, I found a picture I liked and the clerk said it needed to be redone for some reason. I paid for it and they said they would send it to my room. It did not come, so I went back down and they had lost it. They returned my money and gave me another picture but said they could not give me the one I wanted. Then the problem is, you only find out these things at the end of your trip when you are trying to get off the ship.

Yes-- the previous poster gave the best advice. Call your credit card company immediately and file a dispute. They will immediately credit your account for the charge and contact the company. This will make the company either admit there is no disk and refund your money or re-send it fedex next day service.

 

Hopefully you will receive your photos which mean more to you than the money but at the least, you will not be out any money.

 

Good luck!!!

Hello Dj-Brian-D,

 

We are looking into this issue, and seeing if we can help The Image Group solve the problem. Sorry for any inconvenience so far.

Hello Dj-Brian-D,

 

We are looking into this issue, and seeing if we can help The Image Group solve the problem. Sorry for any inconvenience so far.

 

Thanks I ahave also e-mailed the Chief Execs office at Celebrity

I did the same as the OP on our last cruise as we brought along my 17 year old DD and 70 year old mother who were in a separate cabin.

 

When arriving on board, I went to the photo rep and was told that since there was a minor in a separate cabin we would receive all photos from both cabins and we did!! Not a problem at all!!

 

We found the photo staff great.

 

Note: We did check periodically during the cruise to ensure the photos we wanted were on our account and if we found any missing - they were there the next day.

 

I am not saying that the OP may not have had a bad experience, just offering up the other side of the coin - I find you often get some of both.

Sorry to hear about your problems. We've purchased the disc on two RCI cruises and loved it! I hope they can resolve this quickly!

We too had a small issue with this company but found their customer service wonderful and they rectified the problem quickly and easily. I am sorry to hear they are not being as prompt with you.

We sailed Summit Eastern Carrib in March and almost had same issues as OP. We ordered a package disk 2 days before disembark and then waited and waited and waited - we had to check with photo desk at least 5 times - but much to our surprise (sarcasm intended) the disk was indeed available LATE on disembark eve.

 

However ... When we were home we found that the disk was locked down with copy protection and the access codes / SW installation to access were not working ... Had to contact their technical support two times to get it to work. It was a seriously difficult process - I work with technology every day and this was just painful. My wife was FURIOUS about it thinking the photos were lost.

 

So - we've learned our lesson and will likely only do hard copies going forward.

 

I certainly hope the OP's disk arrives soon and then I strongly urge the OP to read the installation / access process carefully before starting in ... Hope they have an easier time than I did !

 

Celeb - it's small things like this that can seriously tarnish your otherwise awesome product and brand. Outsourcing for cost optimization makes sense I suppose but don't lose sight of the fact that we the customers don't differentiate between you and your contracted service providers.

 

cheers !

Edited August 5, 2013 by acadian_dad

Thanks I ahave also e-mailed the Chief Execs office at Celebrity

 

Hi Brian,

 

Can you let us know your reservation number so we can further investigate and help solve this issue. Thanks!

Hi Brian,

 

Can you let us know your reservation number so we can further investigate and help solve this issue. Thanks!

 

if you e-mail me on bdouglas@saiontzkirk.com I can send it on

Just a tip - on our last two cruises we have found that, as Captain's Club members, purchase of the photo package has included all the prints as well as the photos on CD. The photo company staff on board have tended towards being hopeless. Some are great but the majority are not and we have experienced two extremely poor managers. Because of this, it has been far from clear that the package includes the prints but they did.

 

All you do is pop down to the photoshop periodically, collect your photos from the rack and ask for them to be put in your folder. They will make one for you the first time you go down. We always wait until we see the prints put in the folder - we do not make a fuss about this but have a conversation among ourselves until we see them go in.

 

At the end of the cruise, when it tends to be all confusion down in the photoshop, go along and collect your photo CD and prints. They claim that they check that all your photos are on the CD. They do not and both times we have photographs of others on our CD as well as most of ours. There have been bonus photos of us on the CD that they did not print and I just scan those that I have the prints for but are not on the CD. If, like the OP, something goes really wrong and the CD gets lost, you still have all the prints.

 

As I say, not great service but you can make it work for you with very little effort. From my point of view, I get photographs of the two of us together. My husband is not keen on his photograph being taken but now he thinks that he should have it done as often as possible so that we get good value from our package!

 

Sue

Edited August 7, 2013 by Project_gal

A question Sue, when you set up the put aside folder do they know you have a package

We stopped putting the pics aside (we do not buy the packages as we do not know use anything other than USBs, wish they would do these) after we were advised on one cruise that they had been instructed by Head Office not to do this as they had so many folders to look after.

That may have just been that particular ship where the photo staff were really lazy and poor, which we covered in our post cruise feedback

 

As a result of this and also because the quality has dropped so much in recent cruises, although we have pics bought our average cruise spend has dropped from a level that the package would be of interest to the purchase of the welcome pic only on our last cruise. I am not expecting portrait studio quality but for the price paid, a little more picture shot framing and attention to detail would not go amiss. We cannot be the only people wearing glasses (so think about flash bounce) or who do not like parts of the ships superstructure growing out of our heads (gangway pics)

 

We are also disappointed that the gangway pics no longer have the rim frame of various shots of the port of call, that was why we might purchase one per port because it gave an additional talking point when showing our elderly relatives. Now they are just cheap snaps another cruiser could take but not at cheap snap prices

 

I hope the Celebrity rep feeds this back to the company, less for higher prices is poor form!

Edited August 7, 2013 by uktog

A question Sue, when you set up the put aside folder do they know you have a package

We stopped putting the pics aside (we do not buy the packages as we do not know use anything other than USBs, wish they would do these) after we were advised on one cruise that they had been instructed by Head Office not to do this as they had so many folders to look after.

That may have just been that particular ship where the photo staff were really lazy and poor, which we covered in our post cruise feedback

 

As a result of this and also because the quality has dropped so much in recent cruises, although we have pics bought our average cruise spend has dropped from a level that the package would be of interest to the purchase of the welcome pic only on our last cruise. I am not expecting portrait studio quality but for the price paid, a little more picture shot framing and attention to detail would not go amiss. We cannot be the only people wearing glasses (so think about flash bounce) or who do not like parts of the ships superstructure growing out of our heads (gangway pics)

 

We are also disappointed that the gangway pics no longer have the rim frame of various shots of the port of call, that was why we might purchase one per port because it gave an additional talking point when showing our elderly relatives. Now they are just cheap snaps another cruiser could take but not at cheap snap prices

 

I hope the Celebrity rep feeds this back to the company, less for higher prices is poor form!

 

They have known that we have purchased the package before they set up our folder. All of the folders with ours seem to have been for packages.

 

Perhaps we are lucky but we have not had a problem with the quality of photographs. In fact, in the past I would have said that I was not very photogenic and I now have some great pictures of me. It the managers and some/most of the staff I have found objectionable.

 

Personally, I dislike the frames round the pictures and my one complaint would be that the CD now includes the frames. I guess that they cannot win on that one!

 

Sue

Just thought I'd chime in with our recent experience aboard Silhouette in the Med. We took a zillion pics during our 12-night trip and when my family decided they wanted to buy more than just a handful of pics, and since we had unused OBC, I realized that we were probably better off buying the entire package. I wanted only the digital images as we don't have any use for printed photos anymore and I wanted to reduce our luggage weight by not having to carry the nearly 5 lbs of paper for the remainder of our post-cruise European jaunt!

 

But I was geniunely worried about actually receiving our pics (and the correct unlock codes) on the "Get The Picture!" DVD. Would they include all the photos we took? Would they unlock correctly and totally? Might we have a DVD with nothing on it!? Would they be in a high-resolution JPG format as promised?

 

In addition, there were many photos taken where the photographer had not asked us for our key card or stateroom number. So how do they properly assign these pics to our stateroom? They promised that facial recognition would automatically do this. I was skeptical.

 

And finally, we had two different, but account-linked staterooms. Would all of the pictures from BOTH of our staterooms make their way to the same DVD (as promised)?

 

So, given all the concerns, we spent the extra $100 for the digital and print package. I figured the prints would be my insurance!

 

Anyhow, I am happy to report that the Get The Picture! app installed, all 91 photos extracted properly, everything unlocked, and I was able to export every JPG file. As a bonus, there were many digital pics for which we missed grabbing the prints!

 

So we had a good experience with both the photographers, the service and receiving our photo package!

I refuse to buy any photos from the ship. I think they are way over priced. I can not believe how much they charge. Its like paying 9.00 for a small popcorn at the movies.

I know this is a once in a lifetime trip for some people and they are willing to buy for that reason. I think they would sell a lot more photos if they were a reasonable price. Not to mention how must the photographers pester you to take your picture.

I have heard the same problems from many people, not worth the hassle to me.

Norma

I refuse to buy any photos from the ship. I think they are way over priced. I can not believe how much they charge. Its like paying 9.00 for a small popcorn at the movies.

I know this is a once in a lifetime trip for some people and they are willing to buy for that reason. I think they would sell a lot more photos if they were a reasonable price. Not to mention how must the photographers pester you to take your picture.

I have heard the same problems from many people, not worth the hassle to me.

Norma

 

Try paying for a session with a "real" photographer on dry land. You'll find the prices on board to be MUCH CHEAPER. Especially because you can keep trying for that "just right" family picture over a number of days and you are not obligated to purchase pictures you don't like.

 

I'm definitely not one who needs a family portrait every single time I cruise, they get a little cheesy. But if you need one, a cruise is a great place to get one (or more)!

I refuse to buy any photos from the ship. I think they are way over priced. I can not believe how much they charge. Its like paying 9.00 for a small popcorn at the movies.

I know this is a once in a lifetime trip for some people and they are willing to buy for that reason. I think they would sell a lot more photos if they were a reasonable price. Not to mention how must the photographers pester you to take your picture.

I have heard the same problems from many people, not worth the hassle to me.

Norma

As with many things in life, the value proposition improves with quantity. One or two photos at $20-$30 each is very expensive and not a good value. Take over a hundred shots and then getting at least a few dozen great photos--all for $300.00 is not bad at all. :)

 

Try paying for a session with a "real" photographer on dry land. You'll find the prices on board to be MUCH CHEAPER. Especially because you can keep trying for that "just right" family picture over a number of days and you are not obligated to purchase pictures you don't like.

 

I'm definitely not one who needs a family portrait every single time I cruise, they get a little cheesy. But if you need one, a cruise is a great place to get one (or more)!

I agree that, compared with most portrait studios, the cruise ship is a bargain. And if you are like my family, and took literally one hundred photos, the $300.00 for all the digital and print photos was truly a bargain! :)

 

And some will point out that the cruise photographers are not consistently good, and I agree. However, you will usually find one or two good photographers onboard, and even with the not-so-good photographers, if you are persistent and have them shoot enough, even they will take a few good ones purely on odds and luck. Remember, the cruise line does not pre-charge you with sitting fees. It costs you nothing to run around and have your picture taken! :D

Edited August 13, 2013 by Terpnut

I really like being able to purchase pictures on board, but I would not take a package for just the two of us. However, I have some lovely pictures that I would never have gotten, because how often are you willing to dress up in formal wear and go have your picture made, if not on the ship. Many of these photgraphers are really good. I asked one of them, jokingly, to "make me look thin" and he did!:)

Just to up date everyone... I finally have received the disc.. all the photographs were there...ok some quality issues but none the less all were there and we were able to open the pictures succcessfuly... However this was a new disc not the original this is still not arrived an I guess it never will.

 

Thank you to the Executives office at Celebrity for their assistance .... I am sure that their input had something to do with the new disc being released.,,,,

 

I still do not understand that it took six weeks to get a dsic to me and I still stand by the Buyer Beware statement.

 

As for Celebrity they should take note that there are some issues they need to address with this vendor... not only the mixed levels of service but also the issues I have read about people having difficulties with open and printing...

 

Thanks to everyone who commented...

Quantum of the Seas Nov 23 to Dec 1. My personal story: bought a 480.00 package on a digital DVD (trying to save money) just to come home with locked pictures. Now I have to wait 12 days until the ship come back to home port. The staff must of the time were useless.

Today is Dec 11 and I hope that my photos will make it home before xmas.

 

 

 

Celebrity is a great company but mycruisephotos.com are letting them down.

All

This is Buyer Beware....... Mycruisephotos.com has dreadful customer service... buy the hard copies onbard the ship and avoid getting a disc

Here is my story.....

I recently sailed to Bermuda on the Celebrity Summit... that part was amazing, however I had the misfortune of having to come in contact with their onboard photo service run by The Image Group out of the Cayman Islands... there online presence is known as mycruisephotos.com.

Prior to the cruise I got an e-mail asking if I wished to purchase a photograph package for my cruise.. great I thought and duly ordered it on line. The money was taken from my credit card and I thought how simple it would be .. get the photographs taken... then at the end of the week collect the disc and go home.... how wrong I was.

On the afternoon before disembarkation I went along to check my folio of photographs only to find that a lot were missing... I checked at the desk and they assured me that all photographs would be on the system by 6:30 pm that evening.. I went along at 7:00 pm...Oh dear the missing photographs were still not showing.. I was then assured that it would only be a little while longer....I returned at 9:30pm and still the missing photographs... were still missing.. ah come back at 3:30 am they said and it would be ready....I returned at 6:00 am on the day of disembarkation... but still no disc and still the missing photographs had not made it to the server.

We are having technical issues I was told... and we will mail the disc and we will also confirm by e-mail that all the photographs made it.....mmm that was on June 30th and it is now August.. And still no disc... oh and no e-mails to confirm that the photographs made it to the disc.

The saga does not finish there...after a week of not hearing anything I contacted the Image group by both phone and e-mail... they said ..let us look into that and they did... then sent me an e-mail saying yes there was a problem... yes it has been posted and yes it will be with you shortly.... I am glad I did not hold my breath..

After another week I contacted the Image Group again to complain that I have not received anything... they assured me that it had been posted and that due to the holidays in Bermuda it was delayed... I asked that a customer service manager contact me... that did not happen either..

So next action was to write again and I also wrote to the Execs Office for Celebrity... I did get a call the next day from Celebrity.. who expressed their concern ... but advised that I need to keep in contact with The Image Group...

I was then told by the Image Group yes your disc was sent of ... and they gave me a tracking number.. the tracking number does not have a final destination address.. any way the tracking number showed that a package was posted... but no action .. I checked again a week later and it said was at customs... I thought getting excited it would soon be here...that was July 17th and as I write today this has not changed. .... I have had a quicker mail from China..

Ok as I sit here today ... I have sent more e-mails to the Image Group...but no response.... not even an apology for the further delay.. You send an e-mail and it pushes a further Ticket Number .. I think I have 5 different ones now... and as I write another has popped up... this must be a common occurrence for them as no one will give you a direct e-mail address...

The sad thing here is that the image Group seem to have Vendor of Choice for this service onboard Celebrity and RCl as well as a number of others carriers... Given the service they provide I would urge caution to the consumer and also suggest that the carriers review who the vendors.

Again I say that this is not directed at Celebrity Cruises.... but is directed towards a vendor who captures the moments onboard and turns them in to memories ... or in my case and I know of at least 28 others failed to do so

Edited December 11, 2014 by shakdrew

Quantum of the Seas Nov 23 to Dec 1. My personal story: bought a 480.00 package on a digital DVD (trying to save money) just to come home with locked pictures. Now I have to wait 12 days until the ship come back to home port. The staff must of the time were useless.

Today is Dec 11 and I hope that my photos will make it home before xmas.

 

Our personal story, Celebrity Reflection, 7 day Eastern, bought the all inc pkg for $224. Came home with over 250 sheets of pic's and the CD which down loaded and unlocked okie dokie.

 

There must be a step you are leaving out from the instruction sheet??

Our personal story, Celebrity Reflection, 7 day Eastern, bought the all inc pkg for $224. Came home with over 250 sheets of pic's and the CD which down loaded and unlocked okie dokie.

 

There must be a step you are leaving out from the instruction sheet??

 

I have also had a problem with my digital photographs from our latest cruise. After being sent a software fix [for my operating system] I unlocked and exported the pictures [supposedly successfully] but only about half are actually available on the website. For the remaining, there are only thumbnails available.

 

However, I have no great complaint. The customer service on board was wonderful - the first time ever that I did not find it terrible! Despite hitting my issues over the US Thanksgiving period, every email I sent to support was answered promptly, allowing for the time difference. They have contacted the ship and requested that they send me a cd with all my photographs on in jpeg format. I am not expecting a quick despatch because the ship was Eclipse - now doing 14-night sailings and Christmas post delays have already kicked in here - but am optimistic that it will arrive.

 

Even if the CD does not arrive, I already have all the prints and they, alone, are great value, IMHO.

No steps left unturn, it is a bad disc. I had them on the phone, they never apply my credits to the disc. Screenshots were sent to them. At that point they realize it was a bad one. I hope today my new disc will be mail to me like they promise.