what to expect

[hat's mom]

What is the best strategy in attacking my children's "I wants" while at Disney? What kind of souveniers are sold so hopefully I can buy them cheaper elsewhere before we arrive?

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Hi hat's mom

What has worked well for us and many families is to set an amount ahead of time that your child is allowed to spend on souveniers and then make sure they know that when that is gone there is no more. It is really neat if you can give the money to then in Disney dollars. How much you give them depends on thier age and what you expect them to buy with it. Will they have to buy a t-shirt if you want them to have one or is that a mom and dad treat? What about snacks? Even that extra candy bar that they don't need? Also think about if you will give them total freedom or not in spending their money. I always reserve snack veto power so I can forbid a icecream cone 10 minutes before dinner time.
Their age also will determine how you give thte money to them. For a teen, giving it all to them at once might be ok. For a younger child, I would divide it into days and give them a part each day. What they save from one day can be spent the next. If they find someting that they really want, they can wait enough days until they have that much money. Often they decide by then they do not want the item anyway. Another rule that works well is that I will NOT carry any stuff they buy in the parks. We can go back at the end of the day, or they can carry it. DS does not like to carry stuff so this too cuts down on inpulse spending.

AS far as buying ahead, many people do this but I find DS still is attracted to the stuff in the stores. There are outlets in Flordia that you can get great prices at but I am sure someone else on the board can tell you more about this.

They have evey Disney item you could imagne at WDW. Everything form a dollar staw to 10,000.00 paintings. And everything in between. One thing is that the quality on most stuff is very good.

We have already bought t-shirts on the sale on disneystore.com for our trip this year.

Sorry this is so long. Good luck and happy shoppping.'

Jordan's mom

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Hi Hats Mom,
I'll let you know what worked great for us. We let the kids know ahead of time that they could buy one souvenier a day. Plain and simple. They both picked out those spinning light thingys on the first night. After that, my daughter picked out a stuffed animal everyday and my son picked out a pin. This was just fine for our budget. THere was no asking for something else after they bought their one thing, so I think this was fair to the kids and adults.

One tip though, tell your kids to tell you right away when they see something they want, even if they are not sure. My daughter saw this stuffed leopard at Animal Kingdom and told us about it about five minutes after we passed it! Well, when it was time to leave my DH and I must have went into every store in that park, but could not find that leopard!! LOL We found many other leopards, but not the one she saw - and she didn't want another one. We told her we would just find something really cool at Illuminations that night and that we had to get out of the Park before the parade. Now, my kids do not cry about much and certainly do not throw fits in public places - we were walking out of the park and DH and I looked down at DD (4) and silent tears were streaming down her face. We just felt horrible. So, we took her to the Rainforest Cafe shop, which is just on the way out of Animal Kingdom. They had EVERY animal you could imagine - and after seeing her face, I would have let her buy everyone of them! But she finally found a leopard she felt happy with. Mind you, it was not the origianl one, but still made her smile. POINT OF STORY - Have your kids tell you right away when they see something they like, so at least you can find it later in the day if they haven't changed their minds.

As for snacks and things like that, we are on vacation and I pretty much let them get what they want. Because of that, they really only ask for one ice cream or treat a day. My one exception is soda. Only one a day - I hate that stuff.