Best souvenirs for kids

[christineka]

We had one or two of those light spinner toys. I'm never having another. Sorry. I've realized between the great deals at the disney outlet and the disney obsessed grandparents, my kids have plenty of disney clothing. I think I am too late to buy pins off of ebay. (We leave next Monday.) How much do they cost at the park?

So, kids really don't play with Mr. Potato head? Even if we had two of them? (I remember my brother and I playing Mr and Mrs potato head together, but not sure of our ages.) I thought it wold be something I could resell when tired of. My just under 3 year old was given a little disney engine for Christmas, which he loves. (Not sure what the grandparents paid for it.) The toy plane sounds like a good thing for ds2.

 

[Mugglemama]

Another big thing for our son is stuffed animals(I just bought them at the Disney store before our trips though, not in the park) He loved to carry his "baby" through the parks and take it on the rides with him . It's a pain to drag around just one stuffed animal, so I can't imagine having to carry around multiples but just another suggestion.

we seemed to have found a pretty good solution to the "hassle" of carrying around stuffed animals in the parks, quite by accident! a couple of years ago we let the kids pick out stuffed animals at the Disney Store a few weeks before our trip to DLR. these "babies" were small, and a lot like beanie babies in that they are floppy and "weighted". these were extra easy for the kids to carry around themselves, and i think they only cost us around $5 each. they had all the classic characters...goofy, mickey, donald, etc.

 

[geekypeach]

My kids (2.5 and 6.5) play with our Potato Head ALL the time. And, yes, they do have lots of Star Wars themed stuff. AKA, Darth Tater *snicker* My kids are really into pretend and imagination type stuff, I so I guess go with your gut and your kids personality with any toy you buy.

Warning about pin trading: while you can certainly start out very, very cheap, pin trading is far and wide known for getting very addicting and very expensive. You either need to go extremely easy on it and just accept what you have, or know that you or your kids might desperately want to finish 'just this one collection.'

Kind of the same can be said for the pennies. While my DD6 and I love the pennies, I doubt my DS will, and neither does my husband. They would never look through them again, but my DD flips through the book all the time.

The spinny things drive me batty too. I hear you there.

 

[MagicalMomAZ]

Pin Trading fell short for my kids. First there were certain ones they didn't want to trade....& explaining that to a 3.5 yr old was tough! Then the lanyards got too heavy so they were stashed away anyway...

But hats...HATS are their thing. THey love them. Ears..wizard...Mike Wizowski - it doesn't matter, they're hat crazy!

And now that Lego's are big w/ DS, I imagine we'll go to the Lego Store...

DS has been playing Potato Head avidly since he was 2....He dresses 1 as a princess & then KILLS it bc it's a girl & girls have cooties. ::SIGH::

 

[christineka]

There's a lego store too? Lego always seems to be very expensive. My kids enjoy legos, but we do have a tub full of them. (From dh's and my childhood.)

I'm wary about buying those ear hats. They are cute, but I had several as a kid and they were broken in my messy room. My kids take after me. I'm actually considering buying myself a baseball cap style hat just to tuck up my very long hair since I intend to wear my baby on my back part time. My kids, however, almost never wear a hat, though maybe if they had one that fit, they'd wear one. That's a good idea. I think that only dd2 has a hat she likes. Can you buy hats at that disney character outlet place? I have the coupon.

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

My DS2 also LOVES the potato heads. Seriously, we play Potato Heads for at least an hour a day, although he's not so good at getting the parts in the right places (there's often eyes where the arms should be, noses instead of eyes, etc.). One of his favorite toys from our trip last year is a plastic boat with 5 of the Small World kids in it that we picked up at the little gift shop outside the IASW ride. You can take the kids out of the boat and he's always having them ride in a truck or fly around the room or something.

His real favorite souvenir, however, is the photo book a friend made of our trip after we got home. I know you can make them on Shutterfly and other photo websites. But he looks at the book with all our Disneyland pictures in it nearly every day, and loves to talk about it. It's one of his favorite bedtime stories - I hear "read the Disneyland book, Mama" at least once a week when I ask him what he wants for his bedtime book.

 

[Rosanne]

My girls are 3 1/2 and almost 9. I have to admit Disney is our one splurge although we do go on the cheap pretty much. We have gotten potato head pieces the last three times (We go twice a year and just went in December). We got My Little Pony pieces the last two times. Boy, you can cram a lot of those little MLP outfits in a box. For us, we NEVER buy an actual potato head from the Disney stores. They take up too much room. We bring one or two from home in our luggage (which, of course, we leave in our hotel room) and just buy parts we know we can't find anywhere else. The almost 9 year old isn't really into the potato head but she did fixate on the Cruella DeVille purse for the potato head and made sure we crammed one in the box. We can fit quite a bit as long as we don't waste space on things we already have, like the head or plain white arms. We have such a fun collection of Potato Head and MLP at home. My dad is really great at putting together PH with my little one and it has created great memories for them.

 

[Liltx]

The My Little Pony stuff fits perfectly on Zhu Zhu pets. Mine are tired of the ponies now so they use all the stuff on the hamsters. I must say it is too cute!

Monica

 

[KCmike]

Pin trading is up there for my kids as well. It gets costly but they have them displayed at home in their rooms in nice framed picture boxes. Plus they got little books like the coin books to carry them in.

My kids have been to WDW and DL and have pins from all the parks and its fun to show off with your lanyard. We met someone from Chicago during a Fantasmic! showing and he gave us a pin from Toyko Disney which the kids went nuts over.

 

[michelleh1]

can some one tell me more about the MLP stuff? does it fit the full-sized ponies? I haven't heard about them yet, and I have 3 dd's. thanks!

 

[azdisneylover]

One thing we did when we went to DL was when we purchased something to drink (slushy type Tinkerbell Twist drink), we got it in the souvenir cup, mug, etc. We have 3 kids, so we made sure we bought the drink at least 3 times to get each a cup during our stay. We saved our Mickey plates (hard black plastic), cotton candy containers, popcorn buckets, got paper DL plates and napkins (WWS) etc. Now, we have Disney night with Disney chicken nuggets, home made slushies in their souvenir cups, and napkins to make it taste better! LOL
Our kids did pick out fridge magnets in DCA store where I got a new coffee mug with my B Day gift card! They did buy Legos in the Lego store on the last day of our stay at the park. We mentioned to the kids for us to see most of DL, DCA and DTD before they made a decision on where they would like to buy something, and on our last day we would go to where ever in the parks and get it! They all decided on Legos!
Have a wonderful time at DL!

 

[thewritegirl]

I wanted to add about the pins - I just went ahead and placed an order for 20 of them on ebay. It was "buy it now," choose exactly how many you want, for something like $1.13 per pin and free shipping. I figured that way, if the kids want to trade pins, they can, and it wasn't much money. If you look on the Disney website, individual pins can get really pricey.

I've also heard the tip about the Mr. Potato Head - it's a set price for a box, and if you buy the head there (which you can get anywhere, or probably already have), it's just wasting space. So, just fill the box up with the unique Disney pieces.

Oh, and I bought some t-shirts on the Disney shopping site, one for each of us. They were 4.99 for the kids and 5.99 for the adults. Super cute. I'm going to wait to give them to the kids until our first full day in the park.

 

[WannaseePooh]

The best souvenirs we got at Disneyland, were the necklaces that light up and blink in different patterns. These are great for Halloween and any other night time outing. I can always tell which kids are mine Many a parent has asked where we got them. The other great buy was a Disneyland beach towel I bought for myself. As soon as we got home the kids wanted it , they are always fighting over who gets to use it for swimming or beach days. Next time I go I am buying four of them

 

[Kayla's Mom]

can some one tell me more about the MLP stuff? does it fit the full-sized ponies? I haven't heard about them yet, and I have 3 dd's. thanks!

The MLP stuff is only at WDW unfortunately.

 

[darph nader]

My wife bought our grand-daughter a "My first Disneyland T-shirt" back in 05. (I believe)

 

[rszdtrvl]

I bought a bunch of the MLP clothes on ebay. I was bummed out when I found out they didn't sell them at DL, as I am a MLP collector.


This is what they look like :

And a couple more of single ponies :

I need to get the Potato Head stuff this year!! I have been searching yard sales and thrift stores for a lonely Potato Head, but have not found one. If nothing else, I will just buy one. But I am not going to stuff the head into a box!!

This year, I am also getting the "Princess" tiara mouse ears! I have a tiara I wear every once in a while around the house (a plastic kids one). Just because.

I think Mouse Ears are always a hit with the kids. As well as pencils (to use at school). And my son always buys a 4-pk of the mouse head lollipops to bring home to friends.

 

[333laura]

We were at DL in December with my seven-year-old daughter. She received several Disney gift cards for Christmas, and she used them to purchase an adorable red polka-dotted Minnie satchel and matching black, sequined ears on a headband with a red shimmery bow (which you can see at disneystore.com). It was such a cute combination! She also bought a 2010 pin, and she made two of her own beaded necklaces. Everything came from the Emporium on Main St. Very happy with all of her purchases!

 

[mt mommy]

I don't remember if you said you had boys or girls. But, my DS age 6 loves cars, trucks etc. At WOD he found a matchbox/hotwheels type car that is a MICKEY car!! It has the ears of Mickey and it's black and red. IT is the COOLEST thing. I think it was maybe 6$ at the most. They also had a pluto one too!!

Just an idea!

 

[christineka]

I don't remember if you said you had boys or girls. But, my DS age 6 loves cars, trucks etc. At WOD he found a matchbox/hotwheels type car that is a MICKEY car!! It has the ears of Mickey and it's black and red. IT is the COOLEST thing. I think it was maybe 6$ at the most. They also had a pluto one too!!

Just an idea!

That's the sort of thing my little boy would love. My older one is into star wars.

I went out and bought the potato heads yesterday with some toys r us coupons. My 5 year old is in love with those things. My 6 year old spent some time making funky faces. I anticipate that potato heads will be the toys of choice for 5 yo and 3 yo (nearly 3 anyway). I think my older girls are getting too old for toys. They like little dollhouse kinds of things. They're not into jewelry yet.

I bought a bunch of those light up bracelets and necklaces at the dollar store. That way my kids can wear them in the evening without having to spend a bunch on them at the park.

Oh, and I found Disney music at target. I wanted to listen on the long car ride to disneyland.

 

[Mugglemama]

another souvenir we've bought that ended up getting lots of use and enjoyment, are the kids' dishes that they sell at WOD.

just like at the Disney Store, you can get plates, bowls, cups, and silverware that match, all themed in different disney characters. we literally have cups the kids have been using for 7 years, and dishes nearly as old. we have some more recent stuff too, but the kids never want to get rid of the old ones, so we use it all. you can get an entire set for less than $20 (i think).