The photo studio most people walk right past in the Marketplace at Disney Springs just quietly turned into one of the best five-minute detours on property, and it costs nothing extra to try.
I’ll admit it, I used to lump this spot in with every other green screen booth scattered around Disney property: fine in a pinch, forgettable otherwise. Not anymore.
Disney PhotoPass Studio at Disney Springs has swapped its old green screen setup for a new walk-up experience called Step Into a Storybook, and it’s open now with no reservation required. Guests start in what Disney calls the Collector’s Workshop, a small room decorated with vintage cameras, old park photos, and travel keepsakes, including a few nods to PhotoPass history worked into the props. From there, a photographer hands over a Story Medallion tied to one of two current themes, Toy Story or Frozen, and placing that medallion into a glowing storybook opens the door into whichever world you picked. Choose Toy Story and you’re posing in Andy’s room and Bonnie’s room, shot at that toy-box scale the franchise is known for. Choose Frozen and you land in Arendelle and on the North Mountain, complete with a built-in Olaf moment for anyone who wants their own snowman photo. Every photo links straight to your My Disney Experience account, and downloads are free with an active Memory Maker or purchasable individually, exactly like any other PhotoPass stop around Walt Disney World.
It’s honestly a smart move for this particular spot. PhotoPass has quietly grown into one of Disney’s more overlooked value-adds since it first rolled out photographers throughout the parks back in 2010, but the standalone studio locations, tucked away rather than stationed in front of a landmark, have always had a harder time pulling guests in. Giving people an actual themed set to react to, instead of a blank green wall and an after-the-fact background swap, is a much easier sell, especially at Disney Springs, where guests are shopping and dining rather than already primed for photo ops the way they are inside the parks.
Location-wise, the studio sits between Arribas Brothers and Marketplace Co-Op, right in the stretch of the Marketplace that’s easy to duck into between shopping or a coffee run. Current hours run 11 AM to 9 PM daily, though that’s always subject to change, so it’s worth a quick check in the My Disney Experience app before you build it into your day. The studio’s seasonal side isn’t going anywhere either. It’s currently running a Mickey’s Pumpkin Patch set as part of the wider Disney Springs Halloween season, and that setup stays open and unaffected by the new storybook side.
Here’s the detail I can’t stop thinking about, though: a teaser video reportedly playing in the studio’s queue shows a Maleficent-themed medallion that hasn’t launched yet. That would line up neatly with everything already swirling around Magic Kingdom’s upcoming Villains Land, and if Disney is planting a Maleficent Easter egg here months in advance, it’s a pretty good sign that villain-themed content is about to start showing up in more corners of Walt Disney World than just the one new land at Magic Kingdom.
If you’ve got a Disney Springs day on the calendar, this is worth carving out five minutes for, ticket or no ticket, park day or not.
We’ll keep watching for that Maleficent medallion and any other new sets that show up here, so check back with Theme Park Scope for updates, and follow us on social so you don’t miss it.
Which theme would YOU want the PhotoPass Studio to add next: something Star Wars, something Marvel, or a classic Disney villain lineup?
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