There might be a million different souvenirs you can buy at Disney World (and I’m convinced 90% of those are located at the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney) but for brevity’s sake, I’ve pared it down to a list of 20 items I think you’ll like.
Some general advice on souvenir shopping:
- buy it when you see it, you may not see it again. There are lots of items unique to a location and there’s a chance you won’t come across it later.
- If you’re staying on-site, you can send gifts back to your hotel for free so be sure to take advantage of that if you buy too much to carry.
- If you think of something after you leave that you wish you’d picked up, contact Kelly Lichtenwalner who is a personal shopper at Disney World.
Now… on to the list.
Personalized Disney ornaments
Remember your family vacations by buying an ornament from each destination. Disney offers Disney-themed ornaments in a couple of locations and you can even get them personalized if you’d like.
Locations: Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Days of Christmas in Downtown Disney
Price: Varies
Tips: Go early in your trip in case it takes days to get the personalized ornaments finished. The Downtown Disney location has a much wider selection than the Magic Kingdom location.
Pick a Pearl
Pick a Pearl allows you to pick an oyster from a tank, the employee cast member cuts it open and inside and then you’ll see if you got 1 or 2 pearls. The pearl is then measured and put into a baggie. You can choose to have it set in jewelry right at the store if you want or take it with you in the baggie.
Location: Mitsukoshi store in the Japan section of EPCOT’s World Showcase
Price: $15 (settings are separate)
Tips: Pick the hairiest, ugliest oyster to increase your chances of getting 2 pearls
Character Drawings
At Animation Academy, a class is held every 30 minutes to teach you to draw a Disney character.
Location: Animation Academy at Hollywood Studios
Price: Free!
Tip: Classes are less crowded later in the day. After you get home, frame it for a nice memory of your trip.
Source of Animation Academy Images
Mr. Potato Head Parts
At a couple of spots in Disney World, you can fill up a container of Mr. Potato Head parts (many of them exclusive to Disney parks) for a set cost.
Locations: Once Upon a Toy in Downtown Disney
Price: $20 for the box, $50 for the large potato head container
Tips: Buy Mr. Potato Head at home because it takes up too much space in your box ($5 usually), get plenty of arms as many of them are specific to Disney, each location has pieces that are unique to it but the Downtown Disney location is the biggest, pay for big pieces separately as they can take up too much room in your container, cast members will help you pack if you’d like
Other options for stuffing a container with parts: fill your own Lego cup (at LEGO store in Downtown Disney), Pirate Treasure Chest (World of Disney store in Downtown Disney), Jewelry Box (World of Disney Store in Downtown Disney)
Resort-specific Merchandise
A couple of years ago, Disney started doing away with resort-specific merchandise so the gift shops contained generic Disney World items. The resort-specific items have returned. I like getting beach towels but you’ll find everything from cups to t-shirts to magnets.
Locations: all Disney resorts
Price: Varies
Source of resort merchandise images
Carved rings
At a few spots in Disney World, you can have a ring carved to your specifications with various symbols or initials. You can choose between different materials like gold or silver.
Locations: Cart in Downtown Disney near Little Miss Matched (seasonal), cart near Pirates of the Caribbean, Mexico section of EPCOT
Price: $20 and up
Monorail set
How awesome would it be to have THIS under your Christmas tree?
Locations: Emporium at Magic Kingdom, World of Disney at Downtown Disney, Test Track Shop at EPCOT, The Contemporary Resort, Mouse Gear at EPCOT, DisneyStore.com
Price: $84
Tips: There are other pieces that can go with the monorail to form a larger playset. Other pieces include Cinderella’s Castle and The Contemporary. Don’t be afraid to ship it home from Disney World or buy it online if it’s too large to transport.
Music CDs
You can buy the music from various events at Disney World. And, if you’re like me, you get kind of teary-eyed at Wishes and need to have that music available to cry at home too!
Locations: Throughout Disney World
Price: Varies
Personalized Chinese Parasol
Pick up one of these beautiful parasols and they’ll write your name in Chinese on it to make it even more personal.
Locations: Kiosk in the China section of EPCOT
Price: $10-14
Star Wars Merchandise
Buy lots of unique made-for-Disney Star Wars merchandise including build-your-own light saber and Build Your Droid.
Locations: Tatooine Traders at Hollywood Studios (exit area for Star Tours)
Price: Varies
Monogrammed Mickey Ears
What’s better than classic Mickey ears? They’re even better with a monogram added to them.
Locations: The Chapeau on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, the Five and Dime at Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Days of Christmas in Downtown Disney (Updated 9/10/2012: no longer available there), Mouse Gear at Epcot and DisneyStore.com
Price: $13.95 and up
Tips: Depending on how busy the stores are, it can take a while to get your monogram completed. Arrive at the store earlier in your visit so you can pick your ears up before you leave (sometimes a few hours later).
Lego Mini Model
There are lots of great things to buy at the LEGO store, but once a month the store offers mini models for free.
Locations: The LEGO store in Downtown Disney
Price: Free
Tips: Check the LEGO site for info on this event.
Silhouettes
Have a silhouette drawn to remember your child’s age at the time of your trip or have one done for a special occasion like mother’s/father’s/grandparents day. The artists can do these in as little as 60 seconds. Check out this video of how they do it.
Locations: Downtown Disney, EPCOT near France, the Magic Kingdom on Main Street (a cart in an alley about halfway down on the right as you enter the park) and in Liberty Square at Magic Kingdom
Price: $9/each (you can get it framed as well for an additional cost)
Pressed Pennies
One of the cheapest souvenirs in all of Disney World are pressed coins which you can find just about everywhere and collect in pressed coin books.
Locations: All throughout Disney World
Price: 51 cents per pressed penny
Tips: Check out PressCoins.com for listings of all of the machines at Disney World.
Personalize any merchandise
Take items you’ve purchased elsewhere and have them monogrammed however you like.
Locations: Adrian and Edith’s Head to Toe at Hollywood Studios
Price: < $10 per item
Cookbooks
What better way to remember your trip than to make some of your favorite dishes at home? There are several different cookbooks to choose from.
Locations: Best selection is at Mickey’s Pantry in Downtown Disney
Price: Varies
Engraved glass items
This outdoor store sells glass items (including beer steins) and you can have them engraved for a more personal touch.
Locations: Glaskunst store in Germany section of EPCOT
Price: Varies
Passport
You can buy these passports at EPCOT and then have them stamped in each country.
Locations: Gift shops at EPCOT (easiest is probably Mouse Gear)
Price: $10
Pins
You can trade pins with other people (including cast members) but you can also buy pins that you want as a souvenir for your trip.
Locations: Just about everywhere at Disney World but Disney’s Pin Traders in Downtown Disney is the largest. You can also purchase on DisneyStore.com.
Price: Varies
Personalized t-shirts
From DisneyWorld.com “Select your favorite T–shirt color, size and style, and choose from more than 400 pieces of character art. Add a pre–written phrase, or embellish your shirt with your own words. Then, watch your design as it’s made!”
Location: Design a Tee in Downtown Disney
Price: About $25
Tips: You get to try on shirts in the store so you know which size to buy (very large sizes are available here and not as easy to find in other stores). Depending on how busy the store is, it might take 30 minutes or an hour for your shirt to be finished. No profanity or sports team names are allowed on the shirts.
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Hopefully that gives you a good list to get started with your souvenir planning. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments.
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{ 23 comments (add yours) }
Loved these ideas!
You can find a beautiful pearl cage to match with your
pearl for a fraction of the cost at Epcot if you buy before you go.
Check out the etsy store at :
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AOSDESIGN
$7 is really affordable! Thanks for the tip.
Do you know if Disney will still set he pearl if you bring your own cage?
We are taking a trip in June with my husbands sisters,
their families, his parents & our kids! I bought the
souvenir Mickey ear hats on eBay in advance! Some were from the
personalized shop & had names! I used my trusty old seam
ripper & removed the names and paid a little more than $5
per hat with shipping!!! I bought a large lot, 10-20 hats, even the
coolest princess ones, not just plain Jane colors! Many still had
the price tags, $13.95-$24.95 EACH! We bought ahead of time to save
money, a huge chunk of money! Also, I bought a bunch of trading
pins off eBay, some we may not like but can trade at the parks for
ones we do like! Hope it helps!!! Love your ideas & tips!
Thank you!!!
Really, really good tip. Thank you for sharing.
We went last spring break. My 12 year old daughter, we
thought, would be all about the pin trading. Nope. She was all
about the push pennies. It became a game. We hunted at every park
to find sets of them. She collected 2 books. A highlight to be
sure.
You can get a printout from customer service of all the locations of the penny machines and the impressions on them. My husband also collects them and it was amazing how many are in the parks. The report was pages and pages long. We keep it in our purple bin and get a few each time.
Somebody recently told me that the print-outs aren’t accurate anymore. Not sure if/when the lists will be updated.
Where would I find books to put the pennies in? Since my kids’ first trip is coming up, I thought it would be cool to get pennies each year that we go and when they are older it would be something “new” we could do to hunt for machines we haven’t hit yet.
You can buy them once you’re at WDW or online at http://www.yourwdwstore.net/Pressed-Coin-Books_c_426.html
We’ve only been twice but got the silhouette cutouts done both times. You actually get two copies since they fold the paper in half when cutting, giving you one version and then its reflection. It’s a cute reminder of the ages they were when we went.
We’re taking our kids (4 &6) this summer and I look forward to get their silhouettes made. I have mine from my first trip in 1983! I’ll have to find a neat way of framing/hanging these in our home!
At the world of imagination, you can get a sturdy jigsaw
puzzle made out of photo taken there(with disney backdrops). The
kids still love to put the puzzle together 2 years later–it’s made
out of a sturdy foam. One of the best souvenirs we bought!
Thank you so much for this post! We are taking our 5 and 3 year old for the first time this summer and I want to soak it up as much as I can. There are some great ideas in here that I am TOTALLY going to do!
You used to be able to get a pearl at the waterparks too. Did they do away with that?
Thank you so much for the tips! I’m taking notes for our next trip!
Great ideas! One of my favorite items from our trips is a bracelet–they were available at several different places–you bought the bracelet and then added charms of different type to it–mine is all “Mickey Parts”–Gloves, shorts, hat, etc–but you could do princesses, Muppet characters–I saw so many different things. I loved being able to pick out my favorite things for on it.
My other favorite item is the handcarved wooden animals we got at Epcot in the World Showcase Mexican pavillion. The artists who make them are on site, if you are there at the right time you can see them actually making them. We have a porcupine and a lizard–and next time we go I’m sure we will add to our collection.
where did you get the bracelet and charms? my daughter would love that!
thanks everyone. we are going in june. cant wait. my head is spinning with all the info. i am trying to be prepared and get the most out of our trip.
We were staying at Pop Century and they had all the parts to make them there, but I saw them at quite a few other gift shops throughout Disney World, some with different parts. I am pretty sure that Mouse Gear at Epcot had them. Hopefully they still do, my “Exploded Mickey” bracelet (as I refer to it) is one of my favorite souvenirs from all of our trips.
Just wondering what the bracelet was called. I’d love to start one for my granddaughter who will turn one on Sunday and is celebrating at Disney World with her parents this year (shhh! ) A good place to celebrate since she was concieved there too!
I wonder if u can just call WDW and ask them where to find all the shops that have the charms. They seem to be extremely helpful with ther things. It’s worth a shot.
I got my mother one of those plants they sell from Living with the Land. They are inexpensive (I think it was around 5 bucks) and make a great little gift.
I didn’t have any issue with bringing it through TSA (probably got a sleeping agent that day).