How does Carnival handle its photos?

During my last two cruises, I clearly remember a photo gallery occupying the perimeter of the atrium on deck 8 or 9. Hundreds upon hundreds of printed photos lined the walls. You'd dig through them, until you found your own. Then you had the option of buying it, for $10 or more apiece, depending on its size. Most photos didn't get bought and went to waste. I always thought it was bizarre; if Carnival lowered the photo prices, more people would buy them, and fewer would go to waste. But profit over reason.

 

How does Carnival handle the photos today? Do they still use massive galleries of paper photos? Or did they switch to digital somehow, with only the chosen photos getting printed? Like, by displaying photos on huge touchscreens, where you can select yours. Or by tying photos to your Sail & Sign card, similar to how Six Flags parks do it with their photo cards. If this is true, how did the prices change?

Edited June 13, 2018 by LandlockedCruiser01

They still print them out and put them on a wall.

On our last cruise (and recent ones I’ve read about) they’ve started putting your pictures up for purchase on the Carnival Hub app. I’ve heard they’ve also put them up for purchase on your stateroom TV but we never turn on our TV so I can’t confirm that. No more photos all over the photo area, but there are kiosks to use to look up your photos if you don’t have the Hub app or never check the TV in your stateroom. Personally I can’t imagine not having the Hub app. It’s free with an interactive ships map, a list of daily activities, you can make purchases and view your account, it’s amazing!

How Carnival handles photos is completely dependent on what ship you are are on.

The Vista and Horizon have the facial and S&S card recognition with digital photo retrieval, Absolutely no photos printed until ordered by the passenger. The digital "album" can be viewed on the HUB app or at the kiosk in the gallery, the interactive TV access did not work properly when we were on the Vista. The price of the digital photo range from $9.99 to $14.99, and they really push the digital download and print at home option by upping the price of physical prints by about $2 more than on ships that only have actual prints to look through.

The "older" ships still use the printed photo method where you physical search through the gallery walls. Prices for the photos range from $12.95 - $21.95 (as of Jan'18). If you want any of these prints put on a USB you first need to buy the physical print then they charge you $1.00 per photo to download.

It depends on the ship.

It depends on the ship....

 

Breeze in Feb --- all was electronic, you view on tablets, and order from that.

Glory in May --- all printed.

As others have said, it depends on the ship. The Magic they don't print them until they're ordered. You can order from one of the tablets they have set up around the ship or you can order them directly from your phone using the Hub app.

How do you know which photos are yours? LOL!

Pixels Photo Gallery

Photos are displayed daily in Pixels Photo Gallery, usually by the very next day. Due to limited space, the displays are changed daily to make room for new photos. Photos are available for purchase and are charged to the guest’s Sail & Sign card. For prices, click here.

On ships with Pixels Digital Photo Gallery, guests can view their photos on iPads at the photo gallery, on their stateroom interactive-TV or use the HUB App on their smart phone or tablet. With just a click, guests can order digital copies that will be downloaded to their device, order print copies which will be delivered to their stateroom or delete photos they do not wish to purchase. For prices, click here.

Pixels Digital Photo Gallery is currently on the following ships: Carnival Breeze, Carnival Conquest, Carnival Horizon, Carnival Magic, Carnival Panorama (arriving in 2019), Carnival Paradise, Carnival Victory and Carnival Vista.

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1153/~/pixels-photo-gallery-and-dreams-studio

How do you know which photos are yours? LOL!

 

They use facial recognition and they also ask for your room number when you have your picture taken. When you login to view your pictures, you see only your pictures. Unlike having to look through 9874398 pictures like before and trying to find yours. MUCH MUCH MUCH better system now that they're digital.

Anyone know if the Sunshine will be getting the new photo system in her dry dock later this year?

On the Paradise in May, the new photo system was in place. No more hundreds of photos on walls, you have to use a computer to select the ones you want. We never buy photos, so I don't know the details of how it works, but there are staff around to help you. Much nicer not to have people clogging up the walkways trying to find their photos amongst hundreds of photos.

It's good that the new system is going in place. I hope it'll go fleetwide soon. While I'm a bit of a luddite in terms of technology, the massive waste of paper and the possible lack of recycling with the old system was my main gripe with Carnival. Now, if they could only do something about the rampant cutbacks. :D

They still print them out and put them on a wall.

 

 

Not always, depends on the ship. Pixels is the digital version of the photo galley and is available on at least the Horizon and Vista. Carnival is entering the 21st century with its HUB app as well.

On the Paradise in May, the new photo system was in place. No more hundreds of photos on walls, you have to use a computer to select the ones you want. We never buy photos, so I don't know the details of how it works, but there are staff around to help you. Much nicer not to have people clogging up the walkways trying to find their photos amongst hundreds of photos.

 

 

Or once they found a photo, trying to sneak a phone photo of the print they liked.

Carnival is entering the 21st century with its HUB app as well.

The Hub app is one piece of Carnival technology I don't care for. When I cruise, like to pretend my smartphone doesn't exist, because I associate it with work. (Hey, I did say I was a luddite. :)) But the Pixels digital gallery is great. Even if Carnival doesn't pass the savings onto the passengers---which I'm pretty sure it won't---eliminating wasted paper is never a bad thing.

Is there a way for Carnival to recycle the rejected pictures?

Magic is now electronic - loved it. We ordered one photo & had it sent to my phone. I was then able to airdrop it to the couple we were traveling with and upload to my computer. If we need a print, we can always upload it to any store with a photo shop.

Is there a way for Carnival to recycle the rejected pictures?

I recall seeing a photo reject bin on my cruises. It looked different than regular trash cans. I hope the unbought photos were actually recycled. Cruise ships have a bad reputation for being environmental hazards as it is. No need to contribute to the stereotype.

Edited June 18, 2018 by LandlockedCruiser01

I recall seeing a photo reject bin on my cruises. It looked different than regular trash cans. I hope the unbought photos were actually recycled. Cruise ships have a bad reputation for being environmental hazards as it is. No need to contribute to the stereotype.

Take the Behind the Fun tour. One part of it shows the recycling center in the ship (just thankfully not the black and gray water handling). You will see all types of paper including photos compressed, baled, and stacked any ready for offload once back in port.

 

Sent from my STV100-2 using Forums mobile app

I was on the Conquest last week and all photos were available on the Carnival Hub app. No printed photos in sight.

The ships with the digital photo galleries splash everyone's photos on all the walls and columns in huge sizes so walking through you see every bad photo taken.

Has anyone heard if digital download will be available on Carnival Miracle after drydock in March 2020?

On 6/24/2018 at 10:47 PM, Elaine5715 said:

The ships with the digital photo galleries splash everyone's photos on all the walls and columns in huge sizes so walking through you see every bad photo taken.

Not meaning all everyone’s photos. Just a few random selections. In case anyone was going to skip photos for that reason. And most of them are excellent photography and subjects.

My cruise this past April on the Paradise was my first experience with the digital photo lab and facial recognition software. We found that the facial recognition was poor, at best. We had photos for other people show up in our hub app - and it wasn't even a close match on the facial recognition stuff sometimes. And many of the photos that we took never appeared. Also, sometimes pictures of my sis and I would show up in my hub app and sometimes it would show up in hers, but never both. We were in different cabins. Not sure how it all works, but it could use some tweaking.