Pins & TSA

[disneyfav4ever]

I'm going to post this on the travel board as well. I'm still wondering how I should take my pins. I have three landyards, and was wondering if I would have a problem getting them through security if I took them in my carry-on. (Specifically, Philadelphia and Orlando.) I'd want to trade as soon as I got to the parks, so don't really want to check them, since I'm using DME, and wouldn't get to my luggage until hours later. And then I'd also worry about them getting stolen.

I'm also considering taking half in my carry-on, and some in my checked luggage.

What us the best plan? TIA.

 

[Cimorne]

I haven't had any problems travelling from Philadelphia - just make sure that you take the lanyards out of your carry-on and put them in the bins so that they can see everything. Have a great trip!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

We take our bag of pins plus 5 lanyards and have never had a problem I suspect Orlando would expect to see such things. If anything they will hand inspect your bags. Have fun!!!

 

[mickeysaver]

We had pins in a small pin trader bag as well as loaded on lanyards when we went to WDW in September. We had no trouble with them at all. Everything was loaded in our carry on bags because we wanted to get right into the trading at the parks on arrival day. I am quite sure that the folks at the Orlando airport are familiar with Disney pins. I got no hassle in Atlanta's airport either.

None of our bags were hand searched. We did witness on our departure day from Orlando an entire flight's carryon baggage was being hand searched prior to boarding. It looked nightmare-ish. They found nothing. And it took forever!

Good luck and happy travels. Maggie

 

[CleveRocks]

There's absolutely 100% NO PROBLEM with taking Disney trading pins on airliners. You can even take knitting needles. Take your pins and lanyards in your carry-on. Check out the "prohibited items" list at www.tsa.gov and you'll see what I mean.

 

[tink576]

Orlando is quite used to the whole pin thing, especially since it has been going on for so long...My Dad and I bring all our books/binders of pins with us as carry on's because we don't want to risk checking them (a total of 5-6 pin books). The worse we have is having to be hand checked when we go through the security check point to get to the gate. Sometimes you'll get a cranky worker, but normally the workers enjoy looking at the pins so it isn't a real hassle. Since you only have a couple of lanyard, put them in the bins with your loose change and such and I doubt you'll even be stopped.

 

[anne930]

We've never had a problem - we usually carry our pins in pouches rather than on lanyards, though. We split up our pins between our carry-on and each of the pieces of checked luggage. If one piece of luggage gets lost, we still have pins and it helps to distribute the weight. Just remember, you can also trade with the cast members in the Disney Store in the Orlando airport, so you can actually get started before you arrive at the resort.

 

[maelstrom]

They'll want to hand search your bag as it just shows up as a big black spot on the x-ray.

I had an issue at MCO with my pin bag awhile back. It went thru the x-ray and of course they wanted to hand search it. The guy holds up my bag and asks if it's mine and I say yes. And then he just stands there staring at me holding my bag. And I'm like, what? what do you want? And somewhere in there I said something about being confused, and all of a sudden his attitude changed to one of suspicion. But he wasn't making any sense. He didn't just say, "I need to hand search your bag, ok?". He was being so weird. So I ended up having this anxiety attack thing and looking so spazzy. My mom had to step in and tell the TSO that I was overwhelmed and having issues.

So now I won't bring my pin bag anymore because I'm tired of the TSA bull.