I want to add one "extra" - Memory Maker or a Dessert Party?

PirateFish989

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 2, 2007
My fiancé and I are going to Disney World for our Honeymoon June 11-20. We have 7 day base tickets and are staying at POFQ. Everything has been paid for and all ADR's and FP+ have been made.

By the time we go, we will have saved up enough money to splurge a little. It is our honeymoon and we want to be able to have drinks and dessert at dinner if we want and not have to pinch pennies once we are there. That being said, we certainly won't be able to go all out and buy whatever we want. We are planning on looking for a piece of Disney art to bring home as our main souvenir.

For the past couple of weeks I've been looking into adding one "extra" to our trip. I've researched Memory Maker, dessert parties, fireworks cruises, boat rentals, and spa services. I've narrowed it down to either Memory Maker or the HEA Plaza Garden View Dessert Party and I'm having a difficult time deciding on which one.

I can see the pros and cons of each.

Memory Maker
Pros - fun pictures with both of us, magic shots, ride photos - all that we probably wouldn't get on our own
Cons - I'm having a hard time justifying the $169 purchase ahead price. The last time I purchased a PhotoPass CD (just the terminology dates my use!) was in 2011 at Disneyland during a Girl's Only Trip and it was only $50 (roughly) so $169 seems pricey!

Dessert Party
Pros - not having to stake out your spot 60 minutes ahead of the show, not having to fight crowds, dessert! (also not having to deal with a grumpy husband)
Cons - I've read every review I can find of the party and the reviews of the dessert are so mixed. This also doesn't solve the issue of fighting crowds exiting the park after the fireworks.

Right now, I'm leaning more towards Memory Maker, but what is your opinion? If you were picking just one extra, what would you choose?
 
Memory Maker for sure! It's wonderful not having to ask someone to take your picture for you. I also do a better job of making sure we get more pictures since I've already spent the $$.

That said, they will still take your picture using your camera if you want. I don't care for the dessert parties because I can't eat enough sweets to justify that cost.
 
Memory Maker!! You will get all your ride photos and you can stop for photographers all over parks as often as you want. Then when you get home you can add borders, change to black & white, and edit them how you want! My family of 4 usually comes home with 400+ pictures.
 
If it were me, I'd choose Memory Maker, just be sure you stop for a lot of the Photo Pass photographers. You'll have these photos to look back at for many years to come. While the benefit the dessert party provides in not having to fight the crowds, with a little planning you can do well on your own finding a good viewing location. The desserts themselves do not come close in justifying the cost of the party.
 


Memory Maker since it lasts longer:).
Isn't there a lower price if you buy it in advance or is $169.00 the lower price?
 
Isn't there a lower price if you buy it in advance or is $169.00 the lower price?

$169 is the lower price. It increases to $199 if you don't buy in advance! :earseek:

Thanks everyone! I've been leaning towards Memory Maker anyways and I love the idea that I can use those pictures as part of a photobook of our trip.

My next question: to get the lower price I need to buy in advance (but more than 3 days before first use). At what point should I purchase? Now? A week before our trip? The first day of our trip is June 11.
 


Memory Maker. I splurged on it for my trip this past November that was just my fiancé and I and it was so worth it. The pictures turned out great and since we knew we were paying for it, we made sure to stake out all of the photographers throughout the parks. We came back with so many more pictures than usual.
 
Honeymoon Memories = Memory Maker!!!!

Find out where all the special photos are, it's not obvious when you are there.

There is no reason to buy at any certain time prior, I doubt any deals will come along.

Buy it when you can afford to pay for it so it's done and out of the way of your wedding plans.
 
I think Memory Maker, but I do want to add this caveat: with MM, it's easy to become dependent on the WDW photogs, and you miss out on a lot of shots you might have taken yourself. We've done it the last three trips, and I wouldn't do it without it, but I also wish I would have been quicker with my own camera because as I started to put together a photobook of all our our trips (my wife's Christmas present) everything ended up feeling staged (even the ride photos all look the same) and most of my trips end up looking the same. So if you didn't have Memory Maker, you could still get all the iconic shots by having the photogs use your phone or camera and, knowing that it's up to you to document the trip you might end up with a lot more and better pictures that more accurately and emotionally captured your trip. I wish I had a smaller camera beyond my phone that might catch a lot of those little moments that just get lost.

Just something to think about.
 
Without a doubt, memory maker. Think of all of those wonderful vacation photos you will have. It’s so great to actual be in the picture with your spouse as opposed to taking turns taking pics of each other. Add in candid ride photos and magic shots. It’s money well spent and memories to last a lifetime.
 
Another MM vote and you can make it worth your time. We take longer vacations and average 800-1700 MM pictures every trip.
 
Normally I'm not a fan of memory maker, we get it for free with my AP and have used it for one picture in over 10 trips, but it's your honeymoon and you will want those pictures. I did the dessert party when it first started and we were disappointed, it was before you had the option of the garden view and they allowed people to get up and stand at the rail when the FWs started, thus blocking anyone who was actually sitting at the tables near the rail. The view wasn't that great and the food not so great. We aren't huge dessert fans and even if we were, there is only so much sweets one can eat.

I'm not sure if they still allow you to buy the pictures individually, but we used to do that instead of memory maker because we didn't want that many, one or two a year maybe.
 
Another vote for Memory Maker! Honeymoon pics are memories that will last a lifetime. You can still see HEA without the dessert party, just grab some ice cream or a cupcake on Main st. and stake out a good spot ;)
 
This is getting redundant, but Memory Maker. It's your honeymoon, you will treasure those photos forever.
 

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