When to Buy Photos

[A&G]

Do you buy your shipboard photos each day or do you wait until the end of the cruise?

 

Alan

[mahdnc]

We tend to wait towards the end of the cruise because it is easier to manage your total spending and easier to make better choices about which photos to buy. Also it simplifies the task of having to store the photos throughout the cruise.

[Char]

Do you buy your shipboard photos each day or do you wait until the end of the cruise?

 

Alan

We ask the photo staff to start a folder for us and each day we choose pictures that we like and they keep them till the end of the cruise. The last day of the cruise we look at all the pictures and decide which ones we would like to buy.

[old bag]

Char ... great idea!

 

We've bought photos at the beginning and end. I always like one formal family portrait, which I purchase as soon as it is printed, but I typically wait till the end, but have often found it tough to find the photos I initially liked.

 

This time, I'll ask for a folder! (though I will still buy the family portait as soon as it's printed!)

[98Charlie]

Char - Great Idea :) We too usually wait until the end of the cruise. We will only buy one or two per cruise at most and want to have choice of all of our pics.

 

Charlie

[uktog]

We tend to wait until the end for the Formal ones - only because we need several nights formal/informal till we get the tummy in but still smile routine sorted out. Our best ones were on the summit this year - I had my doubts at the time they had us lying down on a white sheet (me husband and teenager) - they are the best pics anyone has ever taken of us as they are so natural and look as if we were having fun - even if I was wondering how am I going to get up from here elegantly or any other way for that matter:)

[MSBYRDY]

We too, select what we like and have them put in a folder behind the counter. At the end of the cruise, we can easily get that folder and sort thru to decide which we really want.

Marilyn

[boatman]

We budget 100 for photos and take all the formals as well as some informals. We have all photos put in a folder for us to review at the end of the cruise and upon the morning of debarkation we visit the photo shop, sift through a few and bargain with the guy. We finally offer 100 for the entire pholio including the book of 4x6 pictures of the ship. There are twenty or so pictures in this book. We have never been turned down. We walked once but the guy said ok, ok at the last minute. Its a great deal.

[jjbko]

We budget 100 for photos and take all the formals as well as some informals. We have all photos put in a folder for us to review at the end of the cruise and upon the morning of debarkation we visit the photo shop, sift through a few and bargain with the guy. We finally offer 100 for the entire pholio including the book of 4x6 pictures of the ship. There are twenty or so pictures in this book. We have never been turned down. We walked once but the guy said ok, ok at the last minute. Its a great deal.

Great idea, I will try that on my next cruise in January on the Mercury.

[A&G]

Now there is an idea, bargain for your photos:D Has anybody else done this successfully?

 

Alan

[mahdnc]

Now there is an idea, bargain for your photos:D Has anybody else done this successfully?

 

Alan

 

We have been tempted to do exactly that but never had because we were never willing to walk if the bargaining was unsuccessful.

[Andym]

Last year we saw a guy taking his photos and putting them in a book. When he had collected them all, he walked out. The photo guy had also seen him and stopped him. The guy said he had forgotten to pay .......right!!!

[Cruisin Rick]

Just beware of buying any photo or cruise video if they must mail it to you. We had quite an ordeal getting a refund from Ocean Images who contracts the photo's on Mercury. They lost the master copy. Celebrity was little help with the matter either. I had to dispute the charge with Visa to get any action. Sad customer service.

[safein]

This is one area I wish Celebrity would standardize with all their ships. While I do understand that Ocean Images calls the shots, there doesn't seem to be a set policy with the photography sales. When we sailed on the Century in 2002, we were able to buy a package for about $100 which included any photos we wanted. This had to be done within a day of sailing since getting any pics could be a crap shoot. I mean, what if none of the pics you took came out good. Great deal, so we took it. The next on the Millie, we asked about the same package. The guy looked at us like we had 2 heads and said it wasn't their policy but he would keep a folder with our cabin number on it and as we saw our pics, we could take them off the wall and we could decide at the end of the cruise. We did just that. On our most recent cruise on the Infinity, they said that they didn't do that. I had to tell them that I needed to show my husband the pictures so they reluctantly agreed to hold our photos.

 

Plus, the prices have gone up for the 4x6 pics! They now have these fancy borders and extra smaller copies of the photos,even if you don't want or need them. Too bad this can't be an option whether or not you want the borders or extras. Now we have these extra pics that we don't know what to do with!

 

Sorry this is so long,but I'm hoping that as always someone from Celebrity reads these boards and makes some changes.

 

Anita

[Sky Sweet]

We ask the photo staff to start a folder for us and each day we choose pictures that we like and they keep them till the end of the cruise. The last day of the cruise we look at all the pictures and decide which ones we would like to buy.

 

Hi Char :)

 

I didn't realize that option existed. Thanks for the wonderful suggestion :)

[A&G]

We are going to try the folder trick. We buy far to many photos throughout the cruise, so a folder of photos that we can choose from at the end of the cruise sounds great.:D

 

Thanks

Alan

[CaptData]

I also pick them out and get them tohold them for me if possible (Hal did not allow this). I do buy pics, a least one on each trip.

[cruisebliss]

I wait until the end of the cruise to purchase my photos. I used to buy them on a daily basis, but that ended up costing too much.

[ellit]

This will be my first time on a cruise, so I was just wondering what kind of pictures do they take daily? Is it just pictures of you and your family?

[A&G]

Hi "Ellit", where you cruisin' to? There is usually a photo person wandering the ship everyday taking photos of onboard activities. There is the obligatory photo just before you embark which usually contains some pretty aweful backdrop of parrotts in the jungle or some other cruising theme (I have not seeen a good photo yet). Then there are photos as you leave the ship at each port, often with your arm around some Jamaican or similar and of course the more formal photos before and after dinner every night. There are generally several backdrop themes and again choose your backdrop carefully as many are pretty cheesy. The photos are then available the next day for viewing and what we have been discussing here is when to buy your photos as they are expensive and if you buy on a daily basis then the photo tomorrow may be a better shot than the one today, so it seems as most people here are saying wait until the end of the cruise and then chose.

 

Alan

[98Charlie]

This will be my first time on a cruise, so I was just wondering what kind of pictures do they take daily? Is it just pictures of you and your family?

As A&G described, there will normally be an abundancy of photo ops. On some cruises I swear it is a training ground for paparazzi :eek:

 

We buy very few photos but have ours taken at most every opportunity. One of the best photos of us ever was taken on a cruise. (Along with about a hundred that would frighten small children.)

 

Enjoy the cruise,

 

Charlie

[A&G]

Just back from Summit and we can confirm the photo desk was happy to put our photos away each day in an envelpoe under the desk. On the last day we chose just a few and I think, as a result, we saved money this way by not buying too many.

 

Alan

[constantcruiser]

If you want a group photo, the photographer will usually arrange a separate time and place so that everyone doesn't have to stand in line and then try to scrunch together in front of the standard backdrops. The first day aboard we called the photographer, and she scheduled times to take photos of our family of 11 on two different days in some unique settings around the ship.

[Lsimon]

We usually go the last full day. We pull all of our photos together and lay them out and pick the ones we want. That way we won't buy one photo early on and then decide we like a different one taken later, with a similar shot, instread. We used to buy a lot, not buy a couple each cruise. Especially since we have a bunch of similar ones from earlier cruises.

 

We may ask for the folder thing. Might save time hunting for our pictures the last day.

[TSCOTT]

We usually wait until the last night to purchase our photos. I love the idea of bargaining and will definitely try this when we cruise next April. I don't think I'll take the chance of walking away, however.