Disney PhotoPass
Disney PhotoPass is Disney's professional photography service at Walt Disney World, the Disneyland Resort and other Disney destinations. PhotoPass photographers stationed around the parks take guests' pictures at landmarks, character meetings and other set locations, and the service also captures on-ride photographs and videos. Images are linked to a guest's account and can be viewed, downloaded or bought as prints and products. Taking the photographs costs nothing; guests pay only for the images they keep, either individually or through the Memory Maker package.
History
PhotoPass was launched on December 4, 2004, at EPCOT at Walt Disney World.[1] Disney's own 15th-anniversary account likewise dates the service's debut to December 2004 and notes that it first launched at EPCOT.[2] Before PhotoPass, park photography had been handled through third-party arrangements and prints bought on the day; PhotoPass brought the operation in-house and tied every image to a card the guest carried, so pictures from a whole trip could be gathered and viewed together.
The service then expanded across Walt Disney World and to other resorts, and steadily added capture points: character greetings, selected dining locations, and automated cameras on attractions. Digital downloads arrived in 2012, letting guests buy images online or in the app rather than only as prints in the parks.[3]
PhotoPass's package history tracks MyMagic+. An earlier all-inclusive download product, PhotoPass+, sold in 2012 and 2013, was replaced on December 6, 2013 by Memory Maker, a fully digital package integrated with My Disney Experience and MagicBands.[4]
At Disneyland, PhotoPass took a bundled route. MaxPass, the paid FastPass option launched in 2017, included unlimited PhotoPass downloads for the day, and its successor arrangements kept the bundle: Genie+ at Disneyland included PhotoPass downloads, a perk the Walt Disney World version did not offer in the same form.
How it works
A guest who poses for a PhotoPass photographer receives — or simply uses — a PhotoPass card, a park ticket, a MagicBand or the resort app to claim the pictures. The photographer scans the medium, the images are attached to the guest's Disney account, and they appear in My Disney Experience or the Disneyland app, usually within a short time. On-ride photographs are linked automatically when a guest wearing a MagicBand rides at Walt Disney World, or by entering the photo number shown at the ride exit.
Images can be viewed with watermarks for a limited period — 45 days at Walt Disney World — before they expire.[5] Guests can buy single downloads or prints, but the product most visitors encounter is Memory Maker: one price for unlimited digital downloads of all PhotoPass, attraction and participating dining photos from a trip, with a discounted advance-purchase price if bought at least three days before the first photo is taken.[6] A one-day version is also sold.
Magic Shots and studios
Many PhotoPass locations offer Magic Shots: the photographer poses guests as if reacting to something unseen, and a Disney character or effect is inserted into the finished image.[7] Seasonal and limited-time Magic Shots appear for holidays and anniversaries, and later variations include Super Zoom shots, delivered as a short zooming video, and Tiny World shots composed from a 360-degree camera. Disney PhotoPass Studios offer posed portraits against virtual backdrops, and private Capture Your Moment sessions can be booked for special occasions.
As of 2026, PhotoPass remains the standard way Disney sells park photography at both United States resorts, with Memory Maker as its Walt Disney World bundle and downloads bundled into Disneyland's paid Lightning Lane products.