Automated PhotoPass coming to select character greeting locations

By WDWMAGIC Staff · Thursday November 15, 2018 8:00am ET · "PhotoPass"

The Magic Kingdom's Town Square Theater will begin using an automated PhotoPass system, the first in a planned roll-out to nine locations.

Expected to begin soon with the Tinker Bell meet and greet, the new system will use an automated camera system instead of the traditional PhotoPass photographers.

A kiosk at the meet and greet will show the guest the captured image, with a touch point to scan with a MagicBand to associate the image. Much like those found at on-ride photo locations.

In an update from Disney since our original post, it is confirmed that there will still be over 100 locations where Disney PhotoPass photographers will be capturing images, and nine locations will feature the automated systems. Moments from the experience will be captured from start to finish, giving the guest a variety of images to choose from.

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I just saw a picture of a M&G from one of these cameras and they look terrible.
I won't attend any M&G that uses these unless another employee is there to also take a picture with my phone.
There is no way this can be true.
↩ replying to jpeden
What makes you say that?
runDisney has occasionally experimented with not having PhotoPass at some character stops, and having the character attendants insist that you can't hand them your camera/phone. It inevitably ends up in a flustercluck of people handing their device off to the person behind the in the queue, and repeating that process down the line. It significantly slows the process down, thus reducing capacity, as everybody fumbles with their devices and stops to check the pictures, rather than a simple click-and-go.

If (when) a similar trend pops up at the in-park photo ops, perhaps they'll rethink this decision. Meet & greets are atrociously low capacity for the staffing required, and having live photographers significantly speeds things up, even if it is another person on the payroll. Plus, I always heard that PhotoPass CMs were easy additions, as they are seen as a method of monetizing a location; nobody is going to pay extra for a garbage photo from a glorified photo booth camera
I never would have believed they would remove Photopass entirely from princess meet and greets at DL, but they did. Quite a while ago. So no problem believing they would make this move at WDW.

It will take some time for guests to realize how they are getting so much less for their money, but will eventually start selling fewer Memory Maker add ons. No problem though. APs already have it built in. They can just add it on to other tickets at the next increase to force purchase.
Would be nice to find out if this is true before I renew my gold pass.
↩ replying to Johnny Hess
Can you share a link to the photo?
I wonder how long before they remove the characters themselves and just have a photobooth with cardboard cutouts. Or maybe they'll splurge and replace them with animatronics.
↩ replying to drizgirl
This is where I saw it first... I just have to say that I despise this idea...
Automated PhotoPass coming to Walt Disney World meet and greet locations
Well that makes the memory maker option a no go...
This is such a terrible move. All it will do is slow the line down as families find other people to take pictures for them.
↩ replying to drizgirl
No no no. The answer is augmented reality. People already are attached to their phones. So with AR they just point it at their kid and BAM! memories for a lifetime.
Should work very well because we all know that kids aged 1-12 will sit perfectly calm and pose for a picture perfectly every time.
I hope the feedback on this is horrendous and that they stuff this idea where it belongs.

Not that I have a strong feeling about it...

One of my favorite pics from WDW was when my 3yo daughter met Tinker Bell — she was mesmerized and we have a bunch of close-up shots that are amazing.