How popular is lanyard pin trading?

[val2001]

I have never seen anyone do this, but I have read about it from a friend who posts on another non-Disney related board.

My dd's are 7 & 4. Do you think they'll be askking to do this because they'll see others on the cruise doing it? Truthfully, I'd prefer to skip it and same my $$$. But if "everyone's doing it", as kids are known to say, should I plan on this expense? Should I plan to purchase lanyard and a few pins before we start cruise?

 

[feenie]

Hi, if you can pick up some pins in advance on sale it can save you a little money later. DH really got into it. I was suprised.
I just ordered some pins on the disney store website. Plan on spending at least 6.50 per pin if you purchase them in the shops, so the breakdown of under 3 per pin is not bad.
The cast members are really nice about showing you their pins.
(and taking your cheesy ugly one in trade!)
keep in mind that Disney employees can only trade for pins that have the Disney trademark on the back.

 

[DBMagic]

Go to Cheappins.com. They have authentic Disney pins for CHEAP. I've ordered from there without any problems. I ordered doubles for my DD's before our cruise so they could trade and they had a great time doing it.

 

[jwann]

I don't think the kids would feel left out if they didn't pin trade. MOST of the kids didn't. My 2 sons (5 & 8) LOVED pin trading and its a great part of our Disney experience.

 

[CACruiser]

My son was 7 last time we went. He was just getting into it and LOVED to trade pins. The cruise line has some special pins you can only get on the ship! If you are going back to WDW after your cruise...people will often BEG for you to trade these.

I liked to just wear my lanyard around as I collected.

I got so tired of being asked.for my DCL pins..I removed them from my Lanyard.

There were starter kids last time I was in WDW. You get a lanyard and four pins. Two to keep and two to trade.

It's SO easy to get carried away, but it sure is fun! I took all the pins I collected on my last trip and put them in a shadow box mounted on my wall. I remember my wonderful trip all the time!

I also had my family choose one Disney charachter that best represented them.

I am the Little Mermaid-A redhead who loves the sea and land!

DH is Goofy-No explanation needed.

DS is Buzz Lightyear-An interest in science, space, etc.

DD is Tinkerbell...a little blonde pixie with attitude.

I also scanned these four charachters and put them in our scrapbook with the explanation of why we chose our charachters.

So, you can get a LOT of milage out of collecting, depending on how you approach it. I would set a budget for your kids....with mine, they got $25.oo in "pin money". No pun intended.

This does'nt include their lanyard and starter pins. Those were gifts. They mainly bought little pins.

LisaCA

 

[GeneralMax]

My kids loved the pin trading. My best advice is to look at the Disney store at home before you go. You can often find pins on sale. Buy extras of the these. the crew memebers will always trade with the kids and the pin booth has a book to trade from. This was enough to make my kids happy and to keep me from breaking the bank on pins.

 

[pdolan]

We let our DDs (then 2 and 6) pick one pin a day last time we were at WDW and it worked out great. It was inexpensive compared to purchasing sweatshirts, princess gowns and all of the other expensive stuff at the shops and they still like to look at them and talk about why they bought each one, etc. We are crusing next month and plan to bring their lanyards with their old pins and make room for new ones! It was so much fun, that my husband and I even got into it and we never thought we would.

 

[jlp651]

BF and I really got into this-even though I thought he wouldnt...it was a blast...we only made 2 trades...and since we look for "collectors pins" we only traded with CM's (I'm sure later down the road as we build our collection we'll venture out!) 1 CM gave us a really cool tip...they will trade there collector type pins...but look for the bold character pins that the kids will love! Now that we have our set of "special pins" from the first trip...I know what to look for to trade and to buy with a childs eye so that the kids get what they would like!
I traded one minnie mouse dressed as belle for Mickey at the Helm. and when I looked at her lanyard about an hour or 2 later it was gone!!! I'm glad some kid (probably a little girl) got a really cute pin!

What can I say we're kids at heart!

 

[BWVPam]

My kids loved this on the cruise. I think we got our best pin trading in on the 7 day cruise. The cm's are great and they are wonderful with the kids. My son practically attacked every cm he saw to find out what pins they had on. It is great fun!!!
Pam