Man I love this place. So helpful.
I somewhat disaggree with waiting until the end of the trip to buy the souviners.
Part of the fun of some souviners is to use them or have them during the stay. Like the light up things for the night, balloons, shirts, etc...those things are so cool to do or have for the entire trip. It adds to the memories.
We will probably just pay for the smaller souvenirs out of our pocket instead of their budget. Their budget is more for keepsake type items (plush dolls, toys, etc).
i always buy our dd t-shirts @ the
disney store here or
walmart. go to the dollar tree to buy a lot of the glow sticks or just trinkets for the trip for them to play with in the parks. be sure and go to the mickey mart in dtd cause they have a lot of things where you can buy 4 things for just $10. it's easy to get caught up with all the merchandise and buy, buy, buy! be sure and go in the biggest disney store ever in dtd. i always buy our dd a t-shirt every yr and there only like $22. some you can get cheaper.
have fun!
I also buy my daughter's Disney shirts ahead of time at the Disney store. Usually they have a sale where you can buy shirts for $5. We let her pick out 5 or so shirts she cannot wear until our next Disney trip and then whenever she wears the shirt she remembers her trip. She wears them for every trip and enjoys being "Disneyfied" while there.
We live in Southern California and are regular visitors to
Disneyland. My kids attire is about 50% Disney (closer to 90% if you count the Marvel items). We usually pick up Disney clothes wherever we can find them cheap (the old online Disney outlet was great for this). Will definitely have to check out the DTD stores. Thanks for tip!
One of the easiest and cheapest souvenirs we have enjoyed over the years are the pressed pennies. We give each child a roll of quarters and the correct amount of shiny new pennies to go with it. There are some darling ways to keep all of these in the creative disigns here on the DIS. We have our boys collect them in the books that we purchased at Disney. It is so fun for them to search out new penny designs in the parks. They have enjoyed this so much and now they have even found some friends that they trade with. This is also a fun inexpensive gift to bring back for their friends and cousins etc.
I agree with the pressed pennies. There is a website that has a list of all the pennies in WDW. We made a list of what characters my son really likes and where to find the pennies for them. Each park had it's own index card. Then it was like a treasure hunt trying to find where the machines were. We also got all the ones at the ride exits, for the rides that have them.
We bring M&M tubes filled with pennies and quarters, and keep more in the hotel room. I also have a small coin pouch I carried for the finished pennies. Our first day we buy the penny collector book and each night we look at them all before putting them in the book.
We will definitely be doing pressed pennies. Have tons of change around the house anyhow so I can consider this a "free" souvenir. Plus I'm sure the kids will love emptying out the M&M tubes.
@ratlenhum
Do you know the name of that website off the top of your head. If not, I'm sure I can just "google" it and come across something.
The other thing we have done is to have the kids earn disney money for chores etc. and put it all on a gift card for them to use while there. We use the when it's gone it's gone approach. Usually though they have plenty left on the card when we return.
We also handle all her Disney money. We let grandparents know that we will going to Disney. This way for Christmas or Birthdays they can send her a gift card for Disney she can spend at the parks. We divide her money by the amount of days we will be there and she can spend "so much" a day, which usually works out to $20 per day or so.
I have found pretty much every park has about the same souvenirs for the most part. Most things can be found in DownTown Disney. You know your children. If you think they are more likely to find something else they want save their money for the end. However if they are more than likely to be happy with what they got and understand the concept than let the spend till it's out.
Yes we plan to buy them each a Disney gift card with about $20/day.
We definitely reward them for chores but also love the birthday idea. I think I also read on some other Disboard post that one member credits her kids for everyday that they go on a walk. She told her kids it wasn't exactly how fast they walk but how far and it definitely helped get them in shape for all the walking around WDW. Brilliant!
I have also heard that most merchandise is also available everywhere and that alot of the unique merchandise (i.e. resort specific) merchandise is no longer available. I think that is a shame but just helps us to do one big shopping spree at the end of our trip. We'll probably review the pictures of the items that liked and see what they want. At Disneyland they have a World of Disney store in DTD where they pretty wide variety. I am assuming they have a version of this in WDW. The drawback is that any ride specific stuff
may not be found in DTD but only at the ride gift shop (or kiosk) itself. If any of the kids are really pushing for these items and we (parents) are pretty sure they would enjoy and for more than a moment we may pick those up right there and then and just have them "package deliver" it to the room.
If you have a smart phone there is an app that lets you see the running total of exactly what is on the gift card.
Awesome! What is the name of the app so I can download it?
@Megkel I'm interested in the name of the app too if you have it.
) along with their autographs and pics.
