best value souvenir

[littlezar]

Hoodies! Like a PP, I'm always the first one to get cold and in the summer with the A/C kickin' I'll be wearing a hoodie.

Loved the refillable mugs we got when we stayed at Pop Century in 2010, so in 2012 (when we stayed offsite) I bought the same type of mug in AK (not refillable, but same size plastic mug) Use them almost daily.

Autograph/Photo book - My 6 year old still loves looking at both the 2010 & 2012 trip ones.

Animation Class Drawing - Fun, free class. No drawing ability required and super easy to follow along.

 

[kkandaj]

Christmas ornament/decor for me too. I bought a hidden Mickey silver star tree topper on our first family Disney trip and ornaments for the kids, that they can take when they move out (in another 12-15 years). I also bought the Mickey and Gang Christmas plate/cup for Santa that we use every year. This past May, I bought another ornament for our tree--and an ornament each for the kids of the character they enjoyed meeting the most on the trip. "Peter Pan" and "Ariel" sent them to the kids right before Christmas, so they could remember meeting them. I also wrote the year in Sharpie on the bottom.

But--I also love the silhouette cutouts that we had made at Downtown Disney. DD and DS were 3 and 18 months at that time. They are framed on my entry room wall, so I see them everyday. Not only reminds me of our trip--but how precious my little babies were. I think I paid $12/piece (which got me 3 cut outs of each kid), but they are priceless to me.

 

[Pigeon]

I'm unsentimental and think souveniers are just expensive, annoying clutter. The only thing we ever get are the refillable mugs because you get your money's worth. Even then, they get on my nerves after a while.

 

[pocomom]

http://family.go.com/crafts/craft-914186-pluto-travel-pillow-t/

We made these although we made them a little bigger, as well as a blanket version for our last trip. Kids loved it! Favorite souvenir for me was the memories!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

The best cheap souvenir I have found is the glass tankard at Liberty Tree Tavern for $5. I try and pick one up every time I visit. You do not have to dine there to purchase it. Just go up to the desk in the lobby and tell them you want to purchase the tankard. The tankard is standard size and has the Liberty Tree Tavern name and Mickey, Goofy and Donald as Revolutionary characters.

Oh my word! I can't believe there is a must-have souvenir like this that I have never heard of! I MUST have one. DH and I are way into American history and this has Mickey and friends dressed up historic revolutionary characters! Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I think for me, the pins are the best value. You can pretty much find one with a character you like for under $20 and sometimes under $10. Then, when you get tired of it, you can sell it or trade it for something else.

Some pins go up in value, too, so there's that to consider.

They are small and don't take up much space.

 

[shell8558]

I also love the ornaments. My absolute must have each trip! I have also got alot of use out of my beach towels. I purchased 2 of them a couple years ago as a purchase with purchase and the colors are still bright and vibrant. And every time we go for a swim, it brings back my magical disney memories!

 

[FigmntGirl]

When our kids were younger, they were into the pressed pennies. Even with buying the book to store them in, it's a pretty inexpensive way to say yes to what they're asking for. True, it's not used at home, so I can't say it's valuable for later but some things kids ask for would be so much $$ then end up at the bottom of the toy box in a week or 2.

I do like my jackets & coffee mug. Mugs are sometimes hard to judge if they'll be a good value. I bought one on Castaway Cay in 2007 that's a little scratched up but still has its orginal picture of Mickey & Minnie on a beach chair. I bought one in Aug 2011 saying Polynesian on it and the image has been 100% washed off for several months now. No one would ever know it was once more than just a plain, beige mug.

We started our pressed penny collection last year. Best souvenirs ever. We however still look for free souvenirs at the parks but they are so hard to find (except for the stickers almost everyone has one)

 

[clh2]

Beach towels are also a consideration as a souvenir. DD has always been in the water. And, in high school was on a swim team, as well as a lifeguard and seim instructor. So - while they were a bit pricier than some options, we got our money's worth out of them!

DD (who is now in college) likes to use beach-sized towels in the dorms, apparently - they cover up more!

 

[Disneylvr]

Mugs. t-shirts, pins and magnets are the most common souvenirs we buy. Also, if we can find magnetic car bumper stickers we like to get those too.

 

[pjlla]

Photopass CD! Takes up very little space, makes sure that the whole family can be in the photo, and gives me lots of fun photos for the scrapbook! Plus my last two Disney trips were mother/child trips and it would have been hard to have good pictures of the two of us without Photopass!(I know, I know....lots of friendly strangers would be willing to take pictues for us...but I get tired of blurry, headed-cut-off, crooked pictures taken by kindly-but-inept fellow tourists!). Wrth every penny of the $99 I've paid in the past...especially if you take advantage of every Photopass photographer you pass.......P

 

[gillenkl]

One of the best values from our last trip was a Splash Mountain tshirt for my DD13 - about $25 - but we've gotten out money back and more. Literally as soon as I wash it and it's back in her drawer - she's wearing it again. We normally never buy tshirts but she loves this ride.

My kids love Legos - so they love a trip to DTD Lego store where they fill up a bin of Legos - I think around $25.

DH and I have prints we purchased and these are framed in our home. I collect Animal Kingdom items because my dining room is AK themed. We tend to buy things for our home that serve as trip reminders.

It really depends on your taste and interests as to what the best value purchases are.

 

[rdevine10]

For me, its magnets. Not just Disney, but anywhere we travel. They are cheap, easy to transport and serve a purpose (and make me smile everytime I go to the fridge!).

For Disney, when staying on property we always get the mugs. My kids and DH use them at night for ice water when sleeping. I use them for work, etc.

DH often likes tshirts, and my kids always love one small stuffed animal (much to my hatred!).

 

[patsal]

A magnet or Christmas tree ornament, the photos I take. We have never been big souvineer people, it is enough to have had the travel experiences. I have a small turtle magnet from Hawaii, magnet from Spain, Italy, teacup from England, etc. I guess in all of my travels it was more important to enjoy the experience rather than search out another thing to have to lug around and find a home for or worse dust!lol

 

[brertoad]

We collect pins, if we see one we have to have we'll get it when we are at WDW. Same with ornaments too, but only if it's something special.

For other things, I like to shop at the Disney Store online for special deals, instead of buying in the parks, I save a lot by checking out what's on sale online.

 

[dpswift]

Pins we started on DS's first trip and I always buy a few 1 or 2 of his choice and some that are memories of that trip(favorite ride, birthday, holiday, hotel we stayed at). I keep them on a lanyard(he now has 2) on a hook it his room it is great to take down on occasion and see how his interests have changed over the years.

He also uses refillable mugs on a daily basis, and I love my 2 Tervus mugs that I bought on our Disney cruise. Not cheap but if you compare it to the quality of other travel mugs it is worth it.

 

[tzeitel]

For the family we get a dated ornament and a photo frame .

For DH it was a baseball hat - he wears it everyday. For me it is the refillable mugs, although I wish they had the individual resort mugs like they used to When we went to DLR I got the Halloween mug, it is now my favorite! For DD I make a small photobook at Walmart, she loves them and they are about $10.

 

[livsmom04]

We have several but we use the refillable mugs everyday whether its for water, coffee or tea.

We always have to get an ornament for our tree each time we go too. And lots of magnets (you can never have too many of these!)

And of course we have to have the photopass!

 

[momxx5]

For our family the best value souvenir's were t-shirts from their favorite rides.

T-shirts from the rides are something that you could only get at WDW. Each child got to pick out a shirt. They had a great souvenir tied to great memories and it added to the school clothes.

Too many toys/mugs/stuffed animals were also available either the the (local) Disney Store or even Walmart, etc. So my main goal was to allow them to get something that they could only ever get at WDW.

I have saved all their t-shrits over the years, for the days when I will be able to make each a quilt of memories (shirts from sports teams played, trips, concerts, etc).

My girls, when they outgrow their fav shirt they bring it to me and ask me to "add it to the quilt box". Now if I only had the time to start the sewing....DS is already a college freshman.

 

[bookgirl]

My best 'value' souvineers have always been items that served a practical purpose. That way I get to see them often and they remind me of a great vacaton while also serving a need so not just a dust catcher.

Tervis Tumbler which is my water glass at home

Keychains Using a Micky head one for my car keys right now

Magnets that I use not only at home on the fridge but also at work to hang stuff on my desk.

While I do like knick knacks, they collect dust and frankly at this age I'm just flat out of room.