F1guynz Posted March 6 Report Share Posted March 6 (edited) Have the photo benefits been amended recently? At the Chef’s Table, everyone had their photos taken, and towards the end of the evening, the photographer came back with printed copies (how early 2000s is that). There were no digital copies available, and she mentioned that free photo diamond vouchers were no longer eligible for photos taken in specialty restaurants. Sounds more like one of those policies enacted on a single ship in the fleet than company policy. I am going to check with our genie tomorrow about this. Edited March 8 by F1guynz Make title more meningful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted March 6 Report Share Posted March 6 23 minutes ago, F1guynz said: free photo diamond vouchers were no longer eligible for photos taken in specialty restaurants. We do not have photos taken often but we recently ran into this as well. I’m not sure if it’s a “new” policy or not. But yes….apparently photos taken in the restaurants are not eligible for the free Diamond benefit….which completely sucks b/c that is generally the only time I will be patient enough to have my photo taken. So now, we just wave the photographers “off” at the restaurants. What a waste of money to have them print the photo and drag it back to the restaurant with that cheap paper “frame”. F1guynz, JustMeJoe and RCIfan1912 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted March 6 Report Share Posted March 6 2 hours ago, F1guynz said: she mentioned that free photo diamond vouchers were no longer eligible for photos taken in specialty restaurants. This is true. I don't know when it changed exactly. We first noticed this for our March 2023 sailing on HM. It's been like that for every other sailing we've been on since then. But I don't know exactly when the changed happened. WAAAYTOOO and F1guynz 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrimsonCruiser Posted March 6 Report Share Posted March 6 We got hit with this surprise in Jaime's last year. We assumed the photos were going to be treated just like the ones taking in the MDR, so we happily posed and everything. Then, half way through our meal we're being presented with the photos to buy. We said "oh no we don't need the print/frame, we have the photo package" and that's how we found out it's an add on charge. I do wish they made it clear that it wasn't included like allllll the other roaming photographers >.> F1guynz, WAAAYTOOO, RCIfan1912 and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattycruise Posted March 6 Report Share Posted March 6 Happened to my family June of ‘22 in Chops on Oasis. It was Father’s Day-I thought it was for that occasion! They ran a special, I think 5 for $50. thru just for this in Chops on Anthem-$30 per pic-no thanks! both times were dinner. They do not come around at lunch. WAAAYTOOO, RCIfan1912 and F1guynz 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnK6404 Posted March 6 Report Share Posted March 6 Yes, they apparently changed it sometime last year. We had the same experience on Wonder last November. They took our photos in 150 CP and returned later with printed copies in a portfolio and asked if we'd like to purchase them. They also explained that specialty dining photos are no longer included in the photo packages. When I asked when this change occurred, the photographer stated over a year ago. I immediately showed him my phone with the typical "framed" photos (with the border, name of the restaurant, ship name and date) from our JAN sailing on Wonder (included in package that sailing) taken in 150 CP the same year and he was shocked! Needless to say, we were annoyed and skipped the photos. I cannot understand why they would exclude specialty dining venues. I can understand weddings, etc... It's listed in the CP... F1guynz, WAAAYTOOO and CrimsonCruiser 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted March 6 Author Report Share Posted March 6 5 hours ago, JohnK6404 said: the photographer stated over a year ago We also have some taken on Brilliance last November in specialty restaurants that were included. i think next time we will get heaps of photos taken, let them go away and have them printed, and when they come back will just say no thanks. I don’t ever want printed copies as it takes me too long to digitise them properly. JohnK6404 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeronicaS1970 Posted March 6 Report Share Posted March 6 Strange, on Liberty last May we had our photo taken in Giovanni's and I was able to get it with my D+ free photo benefit. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXcruzer Posted March 7 Report Share Posted March 7 Had a photo taken in Teppenyaki last night on Odyssey, we were told when they brought the print back out that we couldn’t use our C&A free print benefit. WAAAYTOOO and F1guynz 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoppy2cruise Posted March 7 Report Share Posted March 7 A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new2cruzing Posted March 7 Report Share Posted March 7 21 hours ago, VeronicaS1970 said: Strange, on Liberty last May we had our photo taken in Giovanni's and I was able to get it with my D+ free photo benefit. Likewise, we had our pictures taken at Chops on Ovation in May 2023 and the 3 pics were included with our photo package, go figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeronicaS1970 Posted March 7 Report Share Posted March 7 Once again, Royal doing something different on different ships. Not surprised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattycruise Posted March 8 Report Share Posted March 8 3 hours ago, VeronicaS1970 said: Once again, Royal doing something different on different ships. Not surprised. Royal’s motto should be: Consistently inconsistent VeronicaS1970, CrimsonCruiser and RCIfan1912 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted March 8 Author Report Share Posted March 8 I don’t understand why they would go back to printed photos, I only want digital. I can print any photos I want and I can crop the frame from the photos if I want to. CrimsonCruiser, RCIfan1912, WAAAYTOOO and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted March 8 Report Share Posted March 8 This seems dumb. Who cares what the backdrop is. Is a picture at Chops that much more desirable and memorable than from the MDR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXcruzer Posted March 8 Report Share Posted March 8 1 hour ago, smokeybandit said: This seems dumb. Who cares what the backdrop is. Is a picture at Chops that much more desirable and memorable than from the MDR? The photos that we have been shown in the specialty l restaurants this week come on a “venue specific” cardboard frame and have all been color corrected and photoshopped prior to printing and brought to you. Still, I agree with you, a picture is a picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXcruzer Posted March 8 Report Share Posted March 8 5 hours ago, F1guynz said: I don’t understand why they would go back to printed photos, I only want digital. I can print any photos I want and I can crop the frame from the photos if I want to. This week for the specialty dinner photos, they were giving a link to the digital version with the purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted March 8 Author Report Share Posted March 8 6 minutes ago, TXcruzer said: This week for the specialty dinner photos, they were giving a link to the digital version with the purchase. They didn’t provide this option to us, and you could not view the photos in the photo gallery. They were only available for purchase directly from the photographer. Perhaps it is something they are trialing on certain ships, as some seem to have experienced it while others have not. Also, we were trying to use our C&A free photo coupon as we have done in the past, but it is no longer available for use with specialty restaurant photos. CrimsonCruiser 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXcruzer Posted March 8 Report Share Posted March 8 1 hour ago, F1guynz said: They didn’t provide this option to us, and you could not view the photos in the photo gallery. They were only available for purchase directly from the photographer. Perhaps it is something they are trialing on certain ships, as some seem to have experienced it while others have not. I will say we could not see the photos in the kiosk nor in the app, like you; but were provided a website and an access code on our receipt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted March 8 Author Report Share Posted March 8 2 minutes ago, TXcruzer said: I will say we could not see the photos in the kiosk nor in the app, like you; but were provided a website and an access code on our receipt As we could not use our C&A free photo coupon we did not purchase the photos. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted March 8 Author Report Share Posted March 8 1 minute ago, F1guynz said: As we could not use our C&A free photo coupon we did not purchase the photos. I did ask whether we could acquire digital copies and the photographer said no which was the other reason we did not purchase any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiseGus Posted March 10 Report Share Posted March 10 Early February on Symphony the specialty restaurants pictures were the printed varity (yes I hate that also) but we had left the restaurant before the photographer returned. They were avaliable to view in hard copy at the photo area. We used are diamond coupon there to purchase one. Future I'll ask photographer before letting them take photos if digital, if answer is no I won't waste my time letting them take any pictures. I don't want hard copies, to difficult to transport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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