Basically, throughout the Disney cruise ship there were different areas where the Disney characters would be. Most of these areas were around the various dining rooms, and were setup with nice backdrops, lightboxes, etc. Some of them were just areas of the ship with a good background for taking a shot -- these were typically done without lightboxes and the photographer just had a double flash on a flash bracket mounted on the camera.
Unlike at the Disney theme parks, when they take your picture on the cruise ships, you don't get a number or ticket. You just frequently stop by the photo store on the cruise ship, called Shutters, look on the numerous posting boards for your photo(s), and then you either buy them or you drop them in a receptacle if you don't want them (to free up space on the posting boards). They of course offer several package options, where you can buy any eight 8x10's and eight 6x8's for something like $150. You can also switch packages if you notice that you seem to be getting more 6x8's and fewer 8x10's, etc. You can also just buy individual photos. For the most part, the formal photos (at dinner or posed shots with the backgrounds and lightboxes) were 8x10, while all the floating photographer shots were typically 6x8. They would also frequently send out an official Disney photographer on the off-ship excursions into Rome, Florence, Pompei, Monaco, etc. They were wearing an obvious uniform and would be positioned on the tours to take pictures of Disney tourists with an appropriate tourist backdrop, etc. I was envious of these photographers, because they were able to take in the tours while still working for Disney. They also took numerous boarding photos with characters, a background map of the area, etc.
Turnaround time for photos taken on or near the boat was just a few hours -- 1/2 day at the most. Any photos taken while on the off-ship excursions or late at night (like during the dinners) were typically available the next day. They print everything, and although my party only purchased about 50% of the shots taken, I was noticing that most of the guests were buying most, if not all, of them.
Again, I was surprised at the equipment they were using. I saw a lot more D80's than D2Xs. None of them had Canon equipment. I couldn't see the model number of all of the Nikons, but some of them looked very small -- definitely no bigger than my E-500. Two of the Disney photographers did comment on my Olympus E-500 (again it was a rather big setup at times when I would use the Stroboframe bracket and the rather large Vivitar 285hv). One said, "Nice setup...let me get out of your way...you don't need me..." He looked at my LCD after the shot and said, "Nice shot...the flash bracket helps a lot, doesn't it?" I then made him take a photo, too. He then showed me his shot on the Nikon LCD and said, "It's a toss-up." I thought he was being very nice considering that I felt a bit like a poacher, but I did tell him that I was spending a fortune at Shutters each day. Another female photographer confessed that she personally owns an E-1 in addition to other Nikon gear above and beyond the Disney issued stuff, and said they were really nice cameras.
One funny thing happened at one of the formal dinners. I brought my E-500 with flash bracket to get some photos of the other people in our party on the boat (two other families met up with us to go on the cruise), and when I was done taking some couples pictures and pictures of the kids, the group, etc., the table near us asked if I could get a group shot of them, and without any hesitation I said sure (my family and friends were quietly making fun of me for it). But right when I started to setup the shot and pose them better, etc., it dawned on me that they probably thought I was a Disney photographer. I was in a suit (formal dinner) with Disney logo strap around my neck holding my room keycard that looks rather like a nametag, and then I had that big ol' camera kit thing going on, too. So I said, "You do know that I'm not a Disney photographer, right?" Turned out that they thought I was, so I told them I would still take the picture and email it to them or something, but they declined and apologized repeatedly. I think they thought I would've charged them or something or maybe they just didn't want to inconvenience me. I guess that would've been genuine poaching though, as that would've prevented a photo sale for the Disney staff.
I think with a portable dye-sub printer, I could've made a small fortune working out cabin #6018....haha.
--
Chris
