Affordable Souvenirs at Walt Disney World

There is no doubt that a Walt Disney World can cost a pretty penny, especially those travelling as families or out of country so saving even more for souvenirs can be worrisome. For many people however, like ourselves, souvenirs are an important part of preserving the memories that are made during a great trip.

The great thing about Disney World is that they offer an amazing range of souvenirs that fit everyone's budget! We've come up with this list of a few of our favorite souvenirs that we've picked up over our trips to WDW. These items are both affordable and fun, and allow you to bring a piece of Disney back with you without the guilt of feeling you overspent or broke the bank.

6. Walt Disney World Mugs: Cost - on average $10.00 - $20.00 each

Disney mugs come in a variety of sizes and designs to suit everyone's taste. These are also practical souvenirs as you can use them on a daily basis and relive those vacation memories as you sip your favorite cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate!

5. Walt Disney World Snow Globes: Cost - $8.00 each

As we mentioned in a previous post about our Disney Collection, Ryan decided to collect a snow globe for each time we visit Disney World. Our snow globes contain the year that we went so that we can mark the occasion, but there are a variety of designs to choose from.

4. Disney World Magnet: Cost - $7.00 each (prices vary depending on magnet)

Like the snow globes we decided to buy this for our fridge because it marked the year that we went on our trip. Plus we get to remember our trip every time we go to the fridge!

3. Disney World Car Decals: Cost - $6.00 each

We found all these decals at the Mouse Gears store in EPCOT. We can't wait to put these ones on our vehicle.

2. Walt Disney World Pressed Pennies: Cost - $0.51 a piece

The more clean and shinny the penny is, the better the result!

These are some of our favorite inexpensive souvenirs to collect! The great thing about these is that you can get as many, or as little, as you want. The pressed penny machines can be found all over Walt Disney World in resorts, stores, and around all of the parks. You can find a pressed penny machine for just about theme, character, park or attraction. It's like a mini treasure hunt trying to find all the pressed penny machines are WDW. Be sure to have your bag of shiny quarters and pennies on hand at all times because you never know when you might find one (although there are maps online that show you the location of each).

** Pressed quarters also exist and cost $1.25 a piece.
** The pressed penny binder is great for holding your coins and cost roughly $10.00

1. Magic of Disney Drawing Art: Cost - FREE!

Ellen's Alien

Ryan's Mike Wazowski

Ellen's Buzz Lightyear

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you! The last souvenir in our list is completely free! The Magic of Disney Drawing Art class at Disney's Hollywood Studios allows you to take a drawing class with a Disney Imagineer who guides you step-by-step through the drawing of a famous Disney character. Each class takes roughly 20 minutes. They don't duplicate the same character twice in the same day so you can keep going back throughout the day and know you won't draw the same thing twice!

This was something that we found out about prior to our 2014 trip and had so much fun doing it that we decided to do it three times over the trip. The Imagineer chooses, or allows the audience to vote on, what character is drawn that session & you get to keep your drawing at the end of the class. We are definitely not artists in any way but the instructions were clear and easy to follow which helped us to draw our pictures to the best of our abilities. This is great way to sit down and get out of the heat & excellent for all ages. You really can't beat a homemade (FREE) souvenir! 

We hope you enjoyed the list! It is definitely only a sampling of the great souvenir ideas that can be found at Walt Disney World. These are just the souvenirs we have purchased so far. We love that they're affordable but still a great keep-sake that we can enjoy at home for years to come!

Our 2014 Walt Disney World Vacation pt. 1

Day 1: Saturday, June 14th, 2014

Our June 2014 Walt Disney World vacation was a highly anticipated trip for the both of us. It had been two years since our last visit and we couldn’t wait to get back! Flying from Atlantic Canada, we took two flights, connecting once in Laguardia, NY. Our flight departed at 6:00am and we were travelling internationally, so we had to be at the airport around for 4:00am. It was an early morning but full of excitement and anticipation. We had a seamless flight into Laguardia and had a one and a half hour layover before heading on to Orlando! The second flight was great and we arrived in Orlando around 1:00pm. We always use Disney’s Magical Express Transportation Services but opt to pick up our own bags. When you sign up for the Magical Express you’re sent two yellow tags to attach to your luggage. This notify's Airport/Disney staff to pick up your luggage and transport it to your resort and room for you. There is a waiting time so if you want to change when you first arrive at your resort, you may not be able to do so. While it’s a great service, it’s only the two of us and we find it just as easy to pick up our own bags and bring them with us on the Magical Express.

Our first time in NY

One more stop 'til Disney!

Before we knew it we were on the bus and heading to our resort – Disney’s All Star Sports Resort! If you’ve read some of our previous posts, you’ll know we always opt for the value resorts. Firstly, because they’re affordable and secondly, because they offer everything we need with a great theme. On our 2012 trip we stayed at Disney’s All Star Movies which was a great experience, we had no complaints. This time around, we considered going back to Movies but thought it’d be fun to check out all the value resorts so Sports it was! We arrived at the resort around 4:00pm and had the chance to grab some dinner (we hadn’t eaten much that day other than granola bars and plane snacks). We ate at our resort in the End Zone Food Court which offers a good variety of choices. Ellen opted for the make your own chicken salad and Ryan had the chicken dinner. After supper we headed back to our room to setup our window decorations. We had decided to decorate this time around and are happy we did, we had a lot of fellow guests admiring our window full of toys and Disney fun.  

After grabbing a bite to eat and getting settled in our room we were off to our first park of the trip – Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Our travel agent, Flight Centre, offered the opportunity to match/upgrade any offer Disney put out so when we noticed they were offering a free fifth park ticket with the purchase of a four-day pass (which we had already purchased) we jumped on the opportunity! Although we only had an extra evening to spend in the parks we couldn’t pass up a free ticket!

With our free ticket in hand...err programmed into our magic bands... we made our way over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While we would have another full day of our vacation to devote to Hollywood Studios, the main reason we choose to go to this park twice was because we wanted the opportunity to see Fantasmic!

Our first attraction of the day was Star Tours – the Adventures Continue. We went on this in 2012 and had indifferent feelings towards it. This time around however, it was much better! From what we understand there are several different versions of the ride so this must’ve been one of the more exciting.

We had some time before our FastPass for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror so we headed over the Animation Academy. We hadn't done this in the past but knew it was something we wanted to try this trip. We loved it! In this session we drew a Little Green Alien from Toy Story. We enjoyed this so much that we ended up doing it two more times on our full day at DHS.

After the class wrapped up it was time for our FastPass window so we headed to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This is an iconic ride at DHS and one our favourites!

By now it was after 7:00pm so we headed over to the Fanstasmic theatre to grab a good seat. We were pretty early and had about an hour to wait so we decided to get a Mickey Pretzel to snack on... yum! It started raining a bit so we pulled out our ponchos. We were worried the show might be cancelled or postponed due to the weather but we were happy when the lights dropped and the show began. Ellen was really looking forward to seeing Fanstasmic and we were not disappointed. It was full of classic songs, dramatic effects and a bunch of characters. It’s definitely on our must-do list for DHS now.

Waiting for Fantasmic!

A little rain never hurt anybody!

As you can imagine, when the show let out, it was dark and rainy and the area was packed with people leaving the park as it was close to closing time. We were passing by Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and couldn’t pass it up! We didn’t have a FastPass but the line was minimal and we were on our favourite DHS ride in no time!

3-2-1!!!!!!

We headed back to our resort after the roller coaster and called it a night. Little did Ellen know there was a surprise waiting for her in the room. Ryan had planned a Disney surprise through Disney Floral and Gifts by ordering a "A Magical Wish-Romance your Love" package and had it delivered in secret to the room. When we walked in the room she was surprised with her very own magic wand, a beautiful bracelett, balloon and sweet note. It was truly a magical and heart-felt surprise. We went to bed to rest up for a full and exciting day at Disney’s Magic Kingdom.

DIY Disney

The excitement and anticipation of waiting for a Walt Disney World vacation to arrive can often be unbearable! Sitting around and praying that time will go by faster so you can just be there is often the mindset that many people get into and that was definitely the case for us once we officially booked our 2014 trip!

Rather than just sitting around and hoping our trip was here, we decided to get into the Disney spirit before the trip and do some DIY (Do it Yourself) Disney inspired crafts and activities. By doing these things it helped pass the time leading up to the trip, added to the excitement we were already feeling about going, and gave us an outlet to show off our Disney side.

The first craft that we made was a Disney inspired "countdown" board. Ellen bought a small chalkboard from a local thrift shop for $1.00 and we hung it up in our foyer right by our door so we walked by it everyday. Ellen painted the wooden frame white and then designed a Mickey inspired image in chalk on it. In the head portion we put "days until Disney" number and in the ear sections we placed the number of weeks until we got to go. Since we booked our 2014 trip in February and didn't go until early June, we had plenty of countdown time on it. This was fun because we started with over 100 days originally and we were able to see it drop over time to 0 day-by-day!

Countdown Board

We got the idea for our next craft after seeing a number of people who decorated their resort window with Disney themes during our 2012 trip. We decided when we went back in 2014 that we wanted to decorate our window as well. We knew we were going to take some of the Disney figurines we owned to place along the windowsill, but we wanted something to span the entire length of the window and that is where the next craft idea comes in...Disney Streamers!

We found this great Disney inspired scrapbook paper at a Michael's Craft Store which had multiple character's heads on it including Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald and Daisy with a variety of expressions and colours. Ellen came up with the great idea of cutting out each individual square and making a single hole punch in each corner of the square. We then took two blue and two yellow coloured string and cut it to roughly 5 foot lengths and fed it through 12 squares spaced equally apart and taped the images in place. When we got to our hotel room we taped them from the top of the window and ran it to the bottom and spaced them out from one another. It spanned the entire window perfectly. We then put up our Disney figures running along the bottom of the window. For good measure we added a Canadian pennant to show off our nationality.

The window display turned out great and we saw a lot of families stopping to look at it and take pictures of it :) It was well worth the little bit of time it took to design and it only took five minutes to set up once there!

Close Up of Window Display

Full Window Display

When we were finished making the window streamers, we realized we still had some paper left over. We decided that we would take the left over paper and design customized Disney envelopes to leave tip money in for housekeepers, which many Disney enthusiasts call "Mousekeepers". We got this idea through other Disney craft sites prior to going and thought we would try it out ourselves. We wrote the word "Mousekeeper Tips" on the front of the envelope and then glued the Disney craft paper onto the corners of it. You can easily add Disney stickers or stamps to this to put your own twist on it! This was another fun craft project that made the wait for our trip feel like it was going by a little bit faster.

Example of Envelope

*Note - Just before we left for our trip we were reading other Disney discussion boards and found out that the term "Mousekeeper"is not an official term used at Disney. Some housekeepers didn't take the tip money found inside designer envelopes that said "mousekeeper" on it because they didn't recognize the term. In order to ensure they took our tip money from the envelope we simply made sure to leave them on the pillow of the bed we slept in and attached a sticky note to it that said "housekeeping tip inside." They took the tip inside each time.

Finally, everyone knows the worst part of any Disney vacation is when it's all over, but you can always relive your trip by going through the photos you've taken! Of course you can purchase some great Walt Disney World frames to put some of your favorite photos into, but you can also display them in your own unique way...

Disney World Frames

By simply taking a piece of string, along with a variety of clothes pins of different colours or finishes, you can create a wall piece that allows you to show off more of your vacation photos, rather than throwing them into a photo album. The other great thing about this type of display is that you can quickly swap out a photo and put another one in if you want to put pictures up based on some sort of theme or just want a change! 

Wall Display over our T.V.

Variety of Clothes Pins

We are not the most artistic people in the world, but with a little imagination and some time you can easily do these craft projects or come up with your very own Disney DIY's! Taking the time to do these can help pass the time before you trip, get you in the Disney spirit, and keep you in the Disney state of mind long after the trip is over. Have fun!

Must-Do Attractions at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is an amazing park to visit during your Disney World vacation. Often a hit with younger families because of the animals, it shouldn’t be overlooked by other visitors as it has a lot to offer! Full of amazing shows, interactive attractions and a bunch of wild animals, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a day we always look forward to.

While this park isn’t necessarily smaller than the others, it does have fewer thrill attractions and often has reduced hours (closing between 5pm and 7pm compared to Magic Kingdom staying open until midnight or 1am). For us, Animal Kingdom is often a more low-key day but is still filled with fun & excitement!

Below you’ll find what we consider to be must-do attractions at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and other’s that are noteworthy. We’ll look at the various sections of the park – Oasis, Discovery Island, Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, Asia, and DinoLand U.S.A. - and all that there is to do in each!

When you first arrive at the Animal Kingdom, whether via car or Disney’s bus transportation, you’ll enter through the same main entrance. The first section of the park you’ll enter is Oasis. While we’ve yet to visit the main attraction here, The Oasis Exhibits are a collection of gardens and pathways with tropical plants and wildlife. It’s a self-guided tour that gives you a glimpse into some of the animals that live at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

From Oasis, you’ll cross a bridge to enter all of the other sections of the park. Directly in front of the bridge is:

1. Discovery Island – To get to this section of the park, you’ll walk from Oasis and cross a bridge which will put you directly in front of Discovery Island.

Major Attractions & Must Dos:

• It’s Tough to be a Bug! – Inside the Tree of Life, this 3D show features a variety of characters of the Bug’s Life movie. The characters are funny and interactive and with your 3D glasses on, you’ll experience everything close-up (and a few other fun surprises).

Secondary Attractions:

• Discovery Island Trails – Situated around the outside of the Tree of Life, you can see a variety of animals including porcupines, lemurs, and tortoises and get a closer look at the tree itself.

TIPS: At all sit-down and theatre-style shows, like It’s Tough to be a Bug!, we try to get seats along the outer edges. We try to be the first few in the theatre and then move all the way to the other end of the aisle or choose an aisle in the back of the theatre that other's don't want to sit in. This allows us to get out of the theatre quickly once the show is over & move on to the next attraction!

It's Tough to be a Bug! We're ready for the show with our 3D bug glasses!

2. Camp Minnie-Mickey – When facing the tree of life after just coming off the bridge, turn left and then turn again at the first left you come across.

Major Attractions & Must Dos:

• Festival of the Lion King – This is one of our favourite attractions at the Animal Kingdom - and certainly our favourite show. It’s a live performance with amazing performers – acrobatic performers, singing performers, dancing performers – everything! I don’t have any words to describe how great this show is – it gives me chills every time I see it!

TIPS: Be sure to get in line for the Festival of the Lion King early! Although the shows are on a set schedule, the lines often fill up well before start time

Festival of the Lion King - this picture does no justice to amazing performance! 

3. Africa – To get to this area of the park take your first left when facing Discovery Island & the Tree of Life and head straight back.

Major Attractions & Must Dos:

• Kilimanjaro Safaris – hop in a safari truck and explore the African-style savanna.  You may see giraffes, lions, hippos & rhinos to name a few!

Secondary Attractions:

• Panjani Forest Exploration Trail – While we have yet to explore this part of the park, this walking tour boasts the opportunity to discover birds, gorillas and even more views of the hippos!

TIPS: It’s often advised to visit the Kilimanjaro Safari first thing in the morning. The lines will be drastically shorter and you’re more likely to see the animals in an active state as the weather tends to be cooler in the early mornings.

The giraffes are friendly and often come close to the truck

4. Rafiki’s Planet Watch – While in Africa, head to over to the Wildlife Express Train. This train, which runs non-stop all day, will take you up to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Although Rafiki’s Planet Watch isn’t on our overall must-do list at Animal Kingdom, when we decide to go up, there are a few places we make sure we visit.

Major Attractions & Must Dos:

• Wildlife Express Train – the train that takes you from Africa to Rafiki’s Planet Watch is a relaxing and fun way to get to your next attraction. It’s easy to navigate and departs every 5 minutes or so!
• Affection Section – this is an area where you can interact with and pet various animals. When we visited in 2014, we met some very cute and very patient goats.

Secondary Attractions:

• Habitat Habit! – This is an outdoor discovery tail that offers educational tips on how we can better share the world with animals.
• Conservation Station – There’s often a live demonstration here with cast members bringing out various animals. There’s also a lot of information about how Disney cares for its animals.

 

On the Wildlife Express Train

Enjoying the ride

5. Asia – To get to this area of the park, you can either head over to the left from Africa or, if coming in from the main entrance, you’ll want to head to your right when facing the Tree of Life.

Major Attractions & Must Dos:

• Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain – this is a  roller-coaster style train that takes you up, around and inside a mountain that is home to a yeti! It’s full of sharp turns, dark tunnels and unexpected twists.
• Kali River Rapids – prepare to get wet! In a river raft with others, you’ll make your way down the river with deep drops and overhead water spouts that will be sure to leave you feeling refreshed.

Secondary Attractions:

• Flights of Wonder – this is a theatre-style show full of various types of birds in an action-packed and educational performance. If you’re in the area close to show time, you may see a cast member calling a group of birds over to get people’s attention. We saw a flock of parrots come flying towards us unison – it was really cool!
• Maharajah Jungle Trek – Another self-guided walking tour, you’ll see various birds, bats, tigers and komodo dragons!

TIPS: Expedition Everest is one of the more popular rides at Animal Kingdom, especially in Asia so it’s good to have a FastPass or visit early on in the day. As mentioned above, you’re almost guaranteed to get a bit wet, if not soaked, on the Kali River Rapids. If you want to avoid this, bring a water-proof poncho with you or dress accordingly.

What a view!

Heading over to Expedition Everest!

A little blurry, but this is us (3rd row) on Expedition Everest

Part of the Flights of Wonder show, these birds came flying in overhead

6. DinoLand U.S.A. – To get to this area of the park, you can leave Asia and make a left and walk straight past Expedition Everest or cut across the bridge that connects Asia and Discover Island. If coming in from the main entrance, you’ll want to take your first right after you enter Discovery Island and then make another right to cross over another bridge.

Major Attractions & Must Dos:

• DINOSAUR – this is Ellen’s favourite ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom! In a jeep-like vehicle, you’ll be on an indoor track that has you looking for dinosaurs in the dark (not completely dark). It’s a bumpy ride with twist and turns that is sure to keep you excited the whole way through!
• Finding Nemo: The Musical- This is an excellent 40 minute stage show in which all your favorite Finding Nemo characters come to life in puppet form and are manipulated by actors in full black suits who blend into the background while operating them.

Secondary Attractions:

• Primeval Whirl - This is a small carnival style roller coaster that spins 360 degrees. It is a short ride and reminded us of a ride you would find at any country fair. 
• Tricera Top Spin – This is a dinosaur themed version of Dumbo and Aladdin’s Magic Carpet ride in Magic Kingdom. We haven't done this ride for that reason and feel it’s best to leave for the kiddos.

TIPS: Because Animal Kingdom is limited in its overall thrill attractions, DINOSAUR can see long lines so you may want to consider a FastPass to avoid long wait times.

DINOSAUR!

Animal Kingdom is an exciting and educational part of any trip. It has something for everyone from animal encounters and sightings to thrill rides and outstanding performances. While we consider it to be one of our more low-key days, it offers no shortage of excitement and fun that everyone will enjoy. 

See ya next time, Animal Kingdom!