Photo kiosks on Oasis

[labeachcomber]

Recently sailed on the Oasis and I thought the photo kiosks with the facial recognition were a great idea. I did however miss looking at the walls of pictures and trying to find our own photos while catching glimpses of other passengers photos.

 

I have a couple thoughts about the photos onboard that I've been thinking of since we got home.

 

1. What is the point of every stateroom having their own binder full of printed photos if they are all available to see on these kiosks? I'm going to guess that 95% of these photos go unpurchased. Think of all the time, the paper, the ink, and the energy it must take to produce these photos and deliver them to the individual folios. Do they really think that by physically handling the photo, it might make you want to buy it? Perhaps, but likely not.

 

2. Maybe this means then that they need more kiosks and less room for the folios. Or do it like on Celebrity, where you were allowed to see your photos on your tv in your cabin which was fun. What they didn't realize was that people like us would take photos of the tv so we could capture the image, albeit a slightly lesser quality since it is a picture of a pixelated picture. On Oasis, they had some type of digital watermark over the photos so you couldn't do this.

 

3. My biggest gripe is the cost. I didn't look at these kiosks all that carefully, but wouldn't it be nice if you could choose a photo and then select the size you want? I don't want an 8x10 for $24.95 -which I think is highway robbery- but I might be willing to by a 5x7 or 6x8. Seems like it would be so simple to do. (Since we never really thought all that much about buying photos, we didn't really look at the purchase options too much. I'm hoping that somebody doesn't come back and say that this is indeed an option, since there was one photo we would have considered buying if not for the cost.)

 

I understand the point of the kiosks, which seemed to be mainly to make a book, but it seems like in the digital age, we should be allowed more options, and the wasted printing of thousands of photos no longer needs to happen.

[floridaheidi]

I agree totally with you. The prices were outrageous. I'm sure RC has done some data analysis to figure out the drop dead highest amount people will pay for pictures and they are using that high end amount. However, there has to be a way for regular people on a regular budget to get a few of the photos without spending so much money. I would have gladly purchased some 5x7s of a few of the pictures, so I know RC is missing out on my money and a lot of other people's too. I heard so many people saying how expensive it was and just walk away.