Automated PhotoPass Cameras Now in Use at Two Popular Magic Kingdom Meet-and-Greets

Walt Disney World guests who enjoy a Magic Kingdom meet-and-greet may get a bit of a surprise when meeting a few of their favorite friends. Two locations (one old, one new) are now using automated PhotoPass cameras.

Tinker Bell Meet and Greet

We’ve been monitoring the automated PhotoPass situation for several months nowcheck out our first post here — and now both meet-and-greets in Town Square are using them. Essentially, the automated cameras are  inserted in a wall (or a box along a wall) across from the meet-and-greet area.

Automated PhotoPass

This is Tinker Bell’s meeting space, where the automated cameras have been in place for testing for a while. We also spotted them at Mickey and Minnie’s meet-and-greet this week.

A character handler is still in place, so guests can request the handler to take photos with their own cameras or phones, but the official PhotoPass images will be captured via the automated boxes. What this means for those heartwarming (or chuckle-inducing) candid shots remains unclear. What we’ve seen thus far is a focus on posed photos. In this regard, the automated cameras may lead to disappointment for guests who are accustomed to the casual shots a human PhotoPass photog would capture.

Automated PhotoPass

After your automated shots are taken, you’ll scan your MagicBand at a nearby terminal to connect the images to your account.

Automated PhotoPass

We suspect the automated PhotoPass locations will remain pretty controversial, but guests should know there are still 100+ locations in the Parks with human PhotoPass photographers, so be sure to catch those memories when you can!

What do you think about the addition of automated PhotoPass cameras at meet-and-greets? Will you miss the cast member interactions and possible candid shots? Let us know in the comments!

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Sarah is a former high school English teacher, mom of three, and a (nearly) life-long writer. She's worked with AllEars.net since 2018 and loves sharing the Disney magic with AllEars.net readers.

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9 Replies to “Automated PhotoPass Cameras Now in Use at Two Popular Magic Kingdom Meet-and-Greets”

  1. I think automatic cameras could be good when combined with human photographers, simply because they could be installed to take shots a human being couldn’t get to. But automated cameras should be there to assist the human photographers as another tool, not to replace them.

  2. Horrible! I Will not bye purchasing memory maker of this trend continues. The photo boxers are NOT the same as live human beings for capturing the magic.

  3. I was hoping to make being a photospot photographer my retirement job. Since that won’t be happening for another ten years all those jobs will probably be gone by then.
    Hope I am wrong, you can’t replace the interactions with the photographers with automation.

    1. I agree with all of you I think they should leave the automatic cameras to take pictures during the middle of the rides they would be the best for that. George don’t give up on Photopass all together yet maybe someone in leadership will reverse this & bring back some CM’s & hire more since Photopass CM’s was reduced!

  4. I believe having automatic cameras at meet & greets is a big mistake guests enjoy the Photopass photographers. I believe only the spots on the rides where pictures are taken should be the only place for automatics. This began when Photopass was put under Entertainment which was a mistake. Ways of doing things that work for Entertainment may not work for Photopass & visa versa the other way. Photopass should be put back under their own leadership like it used to be.

    1. I didn’t enjoy the one Photopass photographer who refused to take a picture with my phone. It was at one of the places with multiple princesses and the other photographers had no issue taking a picture with my phone. But the last guy refused.

  5. We have experienced this with Tinker Bell, the photos were awful. No one, including TB knew where to look and the candid interaction was lost. Sad and disappointed to hear it is now at Mickey!

  6. This upsets me so much. A huge part of the Disney experience is the interaction with the characters and the great moments the photographers capture. I hope this does not last and they bring back the photo pass photographers. Some things are irreplaceable.