Rumors of runDisney moving to PhotoPass for Race Photography

WDW Magic is reporting that runDisney is going to move to its own PhotoPass photographers for race photography (instead of current vendor, MarathonFoto). The change is rumored to go into effect for the “Dark Side” Star Wars Half Marathon weekend in mid-April. Though I haven’t seen official confirmation yet, this has been a hot rumor in parts of the runDisney community.

If this change actually comes to pass, it could be a nice upgrade for runners. Currently, MarathonFoto charges $80 to download your photos for 1 runDisney event. Meanwhile, an advance purchase (i.e., 3 days before your runDisney event) of Memory Maker (Disney’s photography product that allows for photo downloads) costs $150 (and includes all photos from your Disney World trip, not just those during the race.) As you can see, anyone running multiple events during a given race weekend will end up saving money under the PhotoPass system. (For a 2 race “challenge”, the savings would be $10. For a 4 race “challenge”, the savings would be $170.) People running a single race who don’t care about any non-race “in park” photographs might end up disappointed under this system, but at least Disney’s single photo download prices ($15 per photo) are half of MarathonFoto’s single photo download price ($30 per photo).

I’m really hoping that we get an official announcement of this change soon. It would be a welcome upgrade for Elyssa and me.

NOTE: I probably am even more excited as Annual Passholder, since I already have PhotoPass as part of my AP package.