Best Disney Souvenirs ???

[Allstar Kids]

Hi,

We're getting pretty excited now. This is our first family vacation, and we have 3 young children. We have found these boards really helpful with the planning of our trip and have taken loads of good advice on board. We will be staying with the mouse in October on site at the All Star Movies. We've booked character meals and tickets for MNSSHP and are now just counting down the days....can anyone tell us which Disney souvenirs we shouldn't come home without? We have a 5, 3 and 2 year old. We intend to take them to the giant Disney Store at Downtown Disney, so they can choose their own gifts, but I also intend to do some shopping for Christmas. What should I look out for?

I just can't wait to go shopping.....


A very excited mummy!!!!

 

[Eeyore4me]

I'm excited for you! We'll also be there in October at the Pop Century. On each of my child's 1st trips our MUST HAVE was their Mickey Ears! You can get their names embroidered on the back right at the hat shop near the front of Main Street. While at home they stay on the heads of favorite stuffed animals. And we also got a pressed penny book and my kids LOVE looking for the machines all over the different parks.
HAVE a Great Vacation!!

Lauren

 

[LisaZoe]

I'll second the Mouse Ear hats and pressed pennies as both are inexpensive and take little space in the luggage (hats can be worn on the trip home to make the magic last longer).

I'm really not a souvenir person as I try to keep the "knick knacks" to a minimum but I do want to have some kind of reminder of each vacation so I started buying a Christmas tree ornament on each trip. Another thing we got on our DLR trip last year was a light-up toy (Tinker Bell on the castle). DD still plays with this at home and it was small enough for her to carry while we waited in line for rides. Since many of the queue areas are slightly dark, it was also a fun toy to watch

For our upcoming WDW trip, I'm going to try doing some pin trading and will also have some for DD to wear in case she wants to trade. I bought Disney pins on eBay for about $3 each and will use those to trade for others while at the parks. This way, those souvenirs will be very inexpensive and will hopefully mean more than just a pin we bought at a store. We'll see how it goes!

 

[swilshire]

Our Mr Potato head from Once Upon a Toy was a real hit. There have been several threads regarding these if you look back. The fun part for the adults is seeing how many parts you can fit into the box. Then the kids get to play.

Sheila

 

[cvemom]

The Mickey Ears and the pressed pennies are definitely a yes but when you go to the Disney Store to buy make sure you get an Walt Disney World Exclusive. Don't get anything you could buy at home or at your local Disney store. I always make sure our gifts are strictly ones that are only sold at the park.


Don't forget to get that special WDW personalized Christmas ornament with the kids names and the date. We have qite a collection on our tree. One from each visit.

Have a great trip

 

[sarahsmom73]

Get your kids autograph books! DD still loves to show everyone her autographs and talks about all of the others she want to get!(She is now 3 but was 2 1/2 at the time of our trip!).. Also buy each one a small phot album and put pictures in after your trip for each one. It has made the trip seem like we were just there!

 

[momxx5]

I agree that the autograph books are a big hit.

I also agree to get something that is WDW exclusive. At Once Upon A Toy store in Downtown Disney there are many toys....Star Wars, Princess Polly Pocket type toys, etc that you can buy at Walmart for less.

My boys are a bit older, but I always let them pick out a t-shirt from their favorite ride. Last year everyone got Typhoon Lagoon t-shirts because that is something you are not going to see at the Disney Store(or anywhere else). This year the boys picked shirts from Test Track, Rock-n-Rollercoaster and Star Tours.

The World of Disney store (at DD) has some really neat exclusive stuff too. They had a plastic type Disney Princess bracelet for $6. It was perfect for my 2 yr old.

I purchased some things on clearance at the Disney store to take with us and hand out as treats(souvenirs). That really helped with the budget too.

 

[insmom]

I like the pressed penny idea but how many pennies can you get in the book? I want to be sure that I have enough shiny pennies with me for both my kids.

I will most definatly will do the autograph books for both of my kids too. I wanted to do the pins because I thought those would be fun to have.

 

[Allstar Kids]

You guys are fantastic. This is just the sort of info I was after. I love the pressed pennies idea. We always end up with loads and never know what to do with them. We will make a point of looking out for the machines for these.

I'd forgotten about the mouse ears. My husband and I visited 6 years ago (before we had children) and the kids all looked so cute. They will make a great keepsake.

Autograph books are a must and the boys are already talking about who they want to sign in their books. I think this will be their very first purchase when we arrive at the All Star Movies.

I think the idea of buying personalised Christmas ornaments is wonderful and I will look out for these.

Thanks for all the help. We've spent a year planning this trip and really can't believe it is now just around the corner. I already would love to book again for next year but I guess we should start saving again first......Maybe 2006!

Happy holidays!

 

[lovesdumbo]

I have 3 children the same ages-5 1/2, 3 3/4 and 20 months. My kids LOVE Mr. Potato Head. I purchased mine in 2001 so I'm looking foward to adding new parts. Also at Once Upon a Toy they had theme park versions of several games. I bought Candy Land. My kids also enjoyed Disney shaped crayons-a big wheel like pack-I bought Mickey and Friends and Pooh. The crayons do however break very easily but they still color. My DD(5) was desperate to pick out something on our last day in Jan. I had brought toys I had purchased at home so I didn't hear any give-mes during the trip. So we went in a store at AK and she looked all around and picked out a Mickey shaped pen. I also really LOVE the plastic souvenir popcorn buckets. Each park has its own design. They are great for sorting small toys at home and I had read here that some folks use them for movie night at home. And I also love the die cast ride vehichles.

If you're doing Christmas shopping you can ship the stuff home and avoid sales tax which sometimes nearly covers the shipping.

Have a great first trip!

 

[ErinInCT]

Don't forget to save your soaps & shampoos from the hotel! We LOVE those and hoard as many as we can & pull them out periodically to remind us of our trips. This will be our 1st with kids so I hope we don't go overboard in the souvenir dept! As it is, it seems like dd4 has every princess item ever created!
I love the ornament idea. Will definately do it!
Where can you buy the ornament?

 

[Memaw2Wm]

Originally posted by insmom
I like the pressed penny idea but how many pennies can you get in the book? I want to be sure that I have enough shiny pennies with me for both my kids.

I will most definatly will do the autograph books for both of my kids too. I wanted to do the pins because I thought those would be fun to have.

The pressed (or smooshed as we call 'em) penny books ($6.00)hold 36 pennies @ 51¢ each and 6 smooshed quarters @ $1.25 each.

I save my pennies and quarters all year. This year I'm putting them in empty mini-M&M tubes ... my granddaughter loves layering them up ... 2 quarters, then a penny ~ repeat.

The GK also like collecting autographs and I usually get them a resort t-shirt and another one that they pick out.

We've also bought the Disney Potato Head last summer.

DGD made a princess crown @ DTD, but it was pricey and she hasn't touch it since.

 

[Eeyore4me]

You can buy all different kinds of ornaments at the Christmas Store at the Downtown Disney Marketplace. They have so many and there are people right there waiting to personalize them for you.

Also, we already had a Mr Potato Head & didn't really need another but my kids LOVE "making" a Potato Head on the computer every time we go. They have computers all around the Potato Head display and you can design your own with everything! After you're done you can print it out and it has the date. Just another cute free souvenir that doesn't take up a lot of space!

Lauren

 

[erinch]

we have a huge collection of disney beanies from all our trips (the small ones used to be 5.95, but have crept up in price); many of them are WDW exclusives

Last trip DD bought her school backpack (tinkerbell) and some other school supplies there

 

[blowinbubbles]

Originally posted by Memaw2Wm
***snip***I save my pennies and quarters all year. This year I'm putting them in empty mini-M&M tubes ... my granddaughter loves layering them up ... 2 quarters, then a penny ~ repeat.
***snip***

OMYGOSH! This is a great idea! I was trying to come up with a good idea for keeping the quarters and pennies easy to get to. Was going to buy a quarter dispenser off the 'net, but it's silly to go through the trouble of buying a $1.00 item online!

And I'm sure that my young'uns won't have a problem with polishing off a couple of tubes of mini M&M's, either!

 

[summerrluvv]

On our second trip to WDW for the Halloween Party we bought DS a Captain Hook costume from DTD and also bought the matching hat. We took the hat to the shop in the MK that embroiders the names and they put "Captain Nicholas" on it. He still has the hat and wears it all the time. He had a pirate bday party in January and wore it to that and will probably be a pirate for halloween this year and will wear it for that too. They will embroider any hat that you purchase at WDW, just take your receipt!

Each year we usually get a photo album and a picture frame with the year on it and a pen and paper holder with WDW paper that sticks on the fridge.

I always say I'm not going to spend a ton on souveniors but I end up spending a TON on things for DS. He loves all the playsets. Of course I think he has every single one made now, so I'm not sure what we'll do next trip