The depetion of the pin lanyard days 3 and 4

[CarolA]

I am lumping these two days together since Day 4 is pretty short!

Day 3 was July 4th. Today I was to check out of the Wyndam Palace and into the Swan. My leaving of the palace was easier since at 8 AM they decided to use some type of floor stripper on the floor below me which is being renovated!

After I left around 10, I went to DTD and bought a baby gift for a friend of mine. I went over to the pin store to see about the 4th of July pins and the line was WAY out the store. NO WAY, the pin was cute but really!

I then headed over to AK to get the passholders scavenger hunt. I traded pins with two kids there. One of them got at 2000 Valentines Day pin so I told him to make sure he only traded it for something he really wanted. It was around noon by now and I decided to get FP for Safari and eat at the Tusker house. Fast pass was about 30 minutes away so that worked out great. I ate on the patio outside Tusker house and was the ONLY person there for my entire meal.

Did the Safari and considering it was 1 pm on a hot day saw a lot of animals! The Lion was even up and growling Pretty neat.

By the way, Pal Mickey chats NON stop thoughout AK. There were times I did not even get him back on his clip before he was buzzing again.

I gave away a few pins while I walked around. As I was leaving I noticed that there was no longer a line to buy the 4th of July pin for AK so I bought two. I immediately traded one for the Chip and Dale pin with a man in line. In the parking lot I ran into Dave who works at MGM and was looking for Chip and Dale for his kids. I told him that he could have my Chip and I took his Mickey (Epcot). He was so happy and we had a great chat about retiring and working at Disney.

I then left AK and went to the Swan to check in. WOW! The heavenly bed in my room was beautiful and turned out to be very comfortable. I pulled on my swimsuit and went to the pool. I really liked the hammocks on the beach and spent a good hour reading there. I did get to witness one of the two annoying parents of the day (see below for number two!). It is about 90 degrees and hot outside, so Mom throws one of the hotel supplied towels down on the concert and tells her crying two year old to take a nap there. In the sun! HONEY, that is what the BED in the hotel room is for. Of course the kid was crying because he was tired and hot.

After a short nap, I went up to the club lounge on the 12th floor. Due to my company's agreement with Starwood I had been upgraded to a club room. I had read a lot about this club feature on the boards, but I have to admit it did not do anything for me. This is where I came across my second parenting issue. I don't have kids, but I figured out that if you tell the kid "stop running around and screaming or I will take you back to the room" 10 or 12 times the kid figures out you don't really mean it and is not motivated to stop doing the behavior!

I then walked over to MGM. MGM was pretty crowded, but it was right at 7 and I got into the 7:15 Indiana Jones show without a problem. I had sat on the side by the exit and hoofed it to Star Tours for ride to the moon at Endor right afterwards.

I then staked out my spot for Socery in the Sky! WOW! This was a great shoe. I traded with a budding pin trader and he got my Skyways pin which is no longer produced. The woman sitting near me said that is why she won't wear her pins anymore "kids always want the good ones" I informed her that my goal was to give pins away and I think she thought I was crazy! She gave me a good lecture on how I should go on EBAY and make all kinds of money. I just stared at her. (Especially after she told me she had stood in line for a total of around 4 hours that day to buy pins!)

I then walked to EPCOT in 15 minutes. I was really moving down that path! I got to Epcot in time to get a beer in the UK and make it over by China to watch the show. Once again great fireworks and the 4th finale was spectaular. Afterwards as the park was emptying out I gave away about 4 pins.

I considered going to MK to watch Specto, but wimped out and went to bed instead.

DAY 4. GOING HOME.

I had a 2 pm checkout from the Swan so after breakfast in the club lounge (once again, I was not impressed) I ran back over to AK to get my passholder scavenger hunt pin. (just in case you are wondering, I cheated! I got the ansewers off www.wdwmagic.com!) I also bought another Minnie 4th of July pin. I then came back and hung around the pool until time to leave.

Overall giving away the pins was a lot of fun and I think I will continue this in the future.

Thanks for reading!

 

[FFerret]

I enjoyed your report, Carol
I'm one of those budding pin traders--can't wait til my first trade!

 

[bobcat]

What a wonderful trip!

 

[Nanajo1]

Thanks for the report. Glad to hear you had fun giving your pins away. Random acts of kindness always pay off.

 

[cpl100]

I have never bought or traded a pin. My local Disney store doesn't even carry them. I am curious about the prices of pins and why people collect them? Is it just like a hobby or what?

Maybe I will join in the fun.

 

[CarolA]

Pins at Disney range from $6.50 up depending on the special effects (some light up, some slide) size and edition size. The July 4th MInnie pins were $10.50 each.

I got into pin trading in 2000. I then attended a pin event where there were probably a 1,000 people 90% of whom were trying to take advantage of someone to get a "better" deal and 50% of those appeared to be heading for EBAY for a profit. I decided that this was NOT what I come to Disney for. I now trade with kids and cast members. I will trade with adults, but they have to act like they want the pin. I am personally offended by people who walk up to my lanyard and say "Nothing I would want" in a belittling tone. What they never get a chance to find out is that I have some EXCELLENT older pins that thye probably would want!

I now buy pins I like for things like holidays I am in Disney and stuff like that.

 

[cpl100]

Thanks for your reply. I would hate it if someone treated me that way too. How rude and insensitive.

 

[cowtownmom]

I just became a budding pin trader on our trip. I didn't realize there was a special 4th-of-July pin! Oh how I wish I had seen them! I shopped a lot that day, but didn't see any. What did they look like??

 

[Simba's Mom]

Thanks, CarolA. I'm very interested in your experiences giving away pins. On my last trip, I vowed to do the exact same thing. But I kept chickening out-once, I finally gave a pin to a CM in Fantasyland and asked her to give it to an "appropriate" little girl (it was a Cinderella pin)-to this day I hope she did. Like you, I've met too many "sharks" and now only trade with kids and CMs. So if you have any more tips and experiences giving away pins, I'd love to hear them.

 

[CarolA]

Here is what worked for me. My first pin donation was to a cute little girl at the Off Kilter show. I was sitting on a bench near her and prior to giving it to her, I tapped one of her parents on the sholder and requested permission. I think the reponse from that one was what encourged me. The parents were both very nice and a few minutes later the little girl just walked up and gave me a BIG hug!

On another occassion I was walking by the pin center at Epcot and saw a little girl (7 or 8) putting on her new pink lanyard with a few pins on it and I just handed her one.

My best method was after Illuminations. The first night I was walking back against traffic thru a handicapped area and I saw a young girl there with her grandmother so I gave her one. On July 4th I just leaned against a tree and as traffic thinned out I saw a family coming out and gave a princess pin to the girl and a Mighty Ducks pin to a the boy. I gave away a few others to families that were sitting down waiting on the crowds to thin while I was leaving.

I found that it worked best to have the pin I was giving away next in my pocket instead of on the lanyard. If it was a girl pin I just looked for a girl. That way I could hand it off and keep going which I often did. I think a few people were too stunned to say much, but everyone was very appreciative. I would say most of my pins went to early school age kids. The first little girl was proably 3 and I gave one to a little boy who could not have been older then 2. He liked it, but did not seem to know what to do. His family was nice. With those two I made sure the parents knew what I was doing because sharp objects and toddlers don't always mix.

I did try to avoid families of 10 simply because I was not prepared to give away that many pins at once. Now that I have done it, I can't wait to do it again. The first time is the hardest.

I found myself trading my pins with CMs for "kid friendly" pins. For example I traded one that was kind of a movie poster for a Cinderalla pin. The CM told me that she thought the movie poster might be a better pin and I told him what I was doing. He reached into his pocket and gave me a pin to give away! SO COOL!

The part I was not sure about was special needs kids. I saw one little boy and started to go over, but.... I did not want the family to think that I was acting out of pity or something. Still don't know the right way to approach that.

The first time is a little strange, but after that you wind up with the biggest grin on your face and if you are solo like me it livens up the people watching.

 

[FFerret]

Carol--

My little boy is autistic so I've gained a real crash-course lesson in working with special needs kids. I understand completely about how you feel with what-will-the-parents-think, but just think about the big smile on the fam's faces. Say something dismissal and shrugs your shoulders or something; something like--I'm just giving these away randomly

If it still bugs you I guess you can always give another away to another child nearby right after so they can see you really are being generous and not pitying. Just as a little side note though, sometimes a lttle pity is just what a special-needs parent needs. I hope I don't run across the opposite but I've read too many disturbing posts about how uncaring guests have been to people/kids with disabilities.

Either way keep up the good work! The world can sure use more Random Acts of Kindess (RAOK)

 

[CarolA]

FFerret.
Thanks. I am not sure I would actually notice an austic child. I have a friend whose child is autistic and it is not like you can see that!

I like your idea of giving pins to other kids around to make the family understand.

My mother works with what I refer to as dramatically handicapped. I say that simply because these are adults who you would never misstake for not being handicapped, the kind whose wheelchairs breath and talk for them. I know they would love the pins.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Thanks for the tips. I also will be solo on my next trip, and last time when I gave away a few pins. And I found myself looking for "kid-friendly" pins. All I could think of to look for was Princess pins. Are any Disney characters OK? Have you ever encountered a child who said "No, thanks. I don't like that character."? What are some universally popular characters for kids?

 

[epcotfan]

Terrific report Carol! How kind of you to give away pins to little traders! I'm sure you made a lot of folks happy!

 

[FFerret]

You're absolutely right, Carol--autism can be pretty invisible