A lovely Beauty & the Beast thing.
THE OTHER MERCH:
-I was finally able to find more Merch that I liked. A really big Beauty and the Beast thing that I only saw here. Generally, the stuff at the far corner of the Springs has the best Merch- the Art Store, plus the Diamond/Glass showcase stuff, and the one with all the figurines. This is generally one of my "last stops" in the Springs, then I later return to actually buy the things I wanted.
Poor, Unloved Wish Stuff:
-Man, this is so sad. I wasn't a fan of
Wish, finding it pretty bland, but oh man seeing just TONS of this merch through all sorts of WDW shops (even at ANIMAL KINGDOM!). It's just piles of stuff that nobody wanted, and so they put these huge 50% discounts on everything. Stuff like "Asha, Queen Amaya and Asha's Friend" in sets and everything. They're gonna be offloading this stuff for YEARS.
Encanto was a surprise hit on
Disney+, but the merch was somewhat limited. But this is the only stuff I've seen for Dolores and "End of Movie" Isabela!
Seriously, for such a gigantic, elaborate piece, they could have done more on the faces.
ME ACTUALLY NOT BUYING FROZEN MERCH:
-Now,
Frozen is basically my favorite thing ever. I was already a fan of Idina Menzel BEFORE the movie came out, and finding out she was gonna be a Disney character and do Elphaba-tier
Wicked songs? I was set and decided I was gonna love it before it even saw release. But it even blew away my expectations and I liked it even more than I thought I would. I buy every dang
Frozen thing I can find... which is why it's outstanding that I saw TWO THINGS here that I didn't buy!
The first thing was a lovely set of dolls of 10th-Anniversary Anna & Elsa designed by Brittney Lee herself. Lee is the character designer for Elsa in
Frozen- I've listened to a podcast with her where she explains, choking up as she did so, that "People are gonna LOSE THEIR MINDS over Elsa" and that "A lot of guys, and some of the women, fell in love with her", and more. These were very cool-looking, but kind of "out of character" (both have almost dark, mischievous smiles, kinda?), with some neat designs. I would normally have been tempted, even if I hate bringing expensive things home in my suitcase. BUT! ... $300? Really? I mean $150 is kinda common for Disney Designer Dolls, so a double-set being twice that I guess isn't as extreme as I was thinking, but that's a HUGE price tag and again, the exchange rate sucks (it would be like $400 Canadian).
I actually asked a staff member in the Magic Kingdom (the Belle's Bookshop store sells the dolls too) if they were selling and she just admitted flat-out "Not really". The theory was they were just too expensive and people weren't blowing money on the dolls as much as they used to. They said
Frozen is STILL a big merch-mover for the company but it just wasn't enough this time. One of the ******* servers I'm on even had someone copping that they bought the set the first day it came out, assuming they'd sell out quickly... and they've been around for months.
The second thing was a big
Frozen 1 statuette thing featuring Anna, Elsa & Olaf. Again, I was tempted... but it was HUGE, I had little room for it, and it was like $329, again a huge amount of money in Canadian dollars. I thought it was nice enough, but the expressions... were kinda weird? Anna looks stunned or dead-eyed, and Elsa's making an expression that's half-surprise and half "in the middle of a word in
Let It Go". People I showed the pic to were thinking Anna looked "like she'd SEEN some (expletive)" and were even snarkier about it.
So amazingly, despite my usual lack of control with regards to
Frozen merch, I actually turned down these two things.
-I did find a nice Frozen Triptych thing of three different pieces for the characters. The individual things were on prints that were again too pricey, but I did eventually find a smaller version containing all three at MK, which I DID buy.
MAX AND POWERLINE! I couldn't find non-framed (ie. $45) versions of this stuff or I'd have been tempted.
OUTSTANDING ART:
-Probably the nicest stuff I saw here were these AMAZING "mixed-media" pieces involving Tinker Bell, Gisele and a few other characters. This stuff was AMAZING but again way too expensive. Amazing to look at, though. Now I kinda wish I'd gone back to the Springs to check it out. This is some of the nicest stuff I've ever seen at Disney, but obviously only for the super well-off. I can't remember the prices but anything framed at Disney is out of my zone.
-I checked out the ceramics/glassware shop, as I always do. I think I spent less time there than I normally would, but it was fine. Some of these things are impressive, while others just look... off-model and weird.
-Ultimately, I actually did by an art. This lovely picture of Megara from
Hercules! And eventually I bought two Frozen pins.
DISNEY BUCKET LIST STUFF:
-So like I said, I knew this would be my last trip for a WHILE, so I made sure to check out some things I'd never seen before. I'd known from some Cast Member instagrams that the Splitsville bowling alley was actually a popular hangout for staff, so I checked it out. VERY impressive set-up, especially as even with the huge building they shove a surprising amount of alleys in here- every which-way there's a section of them, pointing in different directions. There's even an old-timey restaurant themed to the 1950s between a couple on the upper level! It's a mix of intimate and "There's 900 people here".
When I bought my tickets from Attraction Tickets it also gave me a free Magic Band, which I figured I'd pick up- it was at Planet Hollywood. Apparently they must do this a LOT, because the clerk at the gift shop immediately knew what to do and just walked a half a step over to pick one up out of a pile, haha. And I took that opportunity to actually wander through the facility. I always had kind of a "thing" against checking out restaurants if I wasn't gonna actually eat there, never mind not wanting to inconvenience people by edging up to their tables to take pictures or look at movie memorabilia, so I'd never done this before. Trying to stay out of the way (not easy when even this MASSIVE restaurant is densely packed and has servers bolting every which-way) I managed to look at some stuff. But to be honest the really good stuff is easily found at the front- Dorothy's outfit from
The Wizard of Oz and the like. But I checked out all three tiers, saw the videos on the big screen up top, and more.
The "Hidden Entrance" to Enzo's Hideaway, in the Edison's back corner.
Among my favorite "Theming" things- "Expensive Attempts to Look Shoddily-Made".
Another "Bucket List" item- checking out the Edison/Speakeasy! The Edison always had a neat look (and again I've seen some glam CM pictorials set here so I know it's popular with staff), but again I'd never wanted to just barge in to take pictures. But it was around 10pm when I went in, and it was pretty quiet with only stragglers. Their bathrooms look REALLY cool, and there's this neat multi-station sink right between the two. And also... the SECRET PASSAGE! Yeah, I read there's a secret passage here- there's an unmarked (*checks pic* uh, never mind) door right by the bathrooms... that leads you right to the Speakeasy at Enzo's Hideaway!
The Speakeasy itself is pretty cool, but as some have noted, it kind of loses the "Little Hideaway" effect by being this gigantic room with tables the size of trees. But there's a lot of "graffiti" on the walls and it's very well-themed- rare for a Disney Springs restaurant.
THE NIGHT GOES ON:
-One surprising thing I found on this trip was... it wasn't getting dark until LATE. I mean, really late- like 8pm. This surprised me, because I was fairly sure I remembered my past April & May trips resulting in Disney getting super dark by 5-6 pm. Thankfully the Springs don't close until 11, so I still had time.
One of my favorite little "ambiance" things in all of WDW is the area where Enzo's Hideaway is. It just looks REALLY cool at night, and like nothing else on Earth- how many things have this little "cylindrical tower" with the neon signs and then you go down another level to the entrance? And there's a bridge and stuff. I dunno- it's just neat.
Sadly, and this is funnily enough my biggest regret from this day, I didn't have time to go to Ghirardelli. I always made this a thing, ever since my first visit in 2014 when I couldn't find a real restaurant to eat at (I didn't realize EVERYTHING needed reservations) and just ate junk food all day. I usually get a milkshake or something here. But after cramming Boathouse, ice cream and Polite Pig into a 5-hour stretch, I was feeling bloated and was finally at my limit, and didn't want to make myself sick on my very first night.
It wasn't until very late by the time I made it to the corridor with House of Blues, which was rather empty- it's often a "late night visit" to just check out the store (where I never buy anything- just check out the Blues Brothers statues and look at the huge bar close by), but this time I borderline forgot where it was and had to circle back. Also down this corridor is a Star Wars shop and a Marvel shop, neither of which was that outstanding (though there's some really good Star Wars dolls out there now.
I theorized that I'd come back here again one night after a shorter park-day, but I found I was usually too tired after most days or there wasn't enough time left, and most of the merch I liked was available at MK shops as well, so I never found the reason to. Oh well.
It wouldn't be until I went home that I realized I'd forgotten to go to the
Lego Store ENTIRELY. Not that I was ever super enamored with it. But I also forgot to go to LOVEPOP! They have a really nice set of cards themed around all sorts of things that you can make into "pop-up" things and I totally glossed it over, walking right by it and then never seeing it again. Again, it wasn't until I got home and saw my Lovepop
Frozen card that I had noticed my error. Though to be fair I still haven't actually put that card together, lol- it spent months and months in a bag on the floor of my room and then I just left the unopened card on a chair.
To be fair, Lovepop has a REALLY tiny unit and it's easy to miss, especially as it's so close to the entrance that I find myself rushing by it at beginning and end of the day.
OVERALL:
-A fine enough Springs adventure. Started a bit too late for my liking- 3:30-11 maybe? Okay that's a LOT, but I could always cram in more, and I could have checked out some other shops.
. Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!
