(Article last updated: December 5, 2017)
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 Disney Springs) but for brevity's sake, I've pared it down to a list of 20 unique Disney World souvenir ideas 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, check the Shop Disney Parks app (available for Android and iOS) which has many/most items from the parks
Now... on to the list.
In this article
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 Disney Springs
Price: Varies
Tips: Go early in your trip in case it takes days (usually can be done same day though) to get the personalized ornaments finished. The Disney Springs location has a wider selection than the Magic Kingdom location.
Pick a Pearl
Pick a Pearl allows you to pick an oyster from a tank, the very enthusiastic Cast Member cuts it open, and then you'll see if you got 1 or 2 pearls. The pearl(s) is/are then measured and put into a baggie.
Location: Mitsukoshi store in the Japan section of Epcot's World Showcase
Price: $17 (settings are separate)
Tips: Pick the hairiest, ugliest oyster to increase your chances of getting 2 pearls
A haunted portrait
At the Memento Mori gift shop, you can get a haunted portrait made of yourself (and lots of other things - it's a fantastic shop where you might find lots of things to buy).
Location: Memento Mori, near Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom
Price: $19.95
Tip: Only 1 person per portrait is allowed and it's not part of Memory Maker or the PhotoPass system
Mr. Potato Head Parts
Note: as of 2017 it appears that the Mr. Potato Head parts are no longer available.
At a toy store in Disney Springs, 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 Disney Springs
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, 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 in Disney Springs:
- Fill your own LEGO cup at the LEGO store in Disney Springs. Small cups are $8.99, large cups are $15.99.
- Pirate Treasure Chest at the World of Disney store in Disney Springs
- Jewelry Box at the World of Disney Store in Disney Springs
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 Disney Springs 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 Disney Springs, Test Track Shop at Epcot, The Contemporary Resort, Mouse Gear at Epcot, DisneyStore.com
Price: $84.95
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! Most music isn't available through iTunes so CDs are still the best option.
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) and Once Upon a Toy, Star Wars Galactic Outpost, and Star Wars Trading Post in Disney Springs
Price: Varies
Monogrammed Mickey Ears
What's better than classic Mickey ears? Classic Mickey ears with a monogram added to them.
Locations: The Chapeau on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, the Five and Dime at Hollywood Studios, 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 Disney Springs
Price: Free
Tips: Check the LEGO site for info on this event and register online ahead of time to reserve your spot
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 for a truly unique Disney World souvenir. The artists can do these in as little as 60 seconds. Check out this video of how they do it.
Locations: Disney Springs, 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: Single sitting portraits are $12, doubles are $20, triples are $24, or you can get a family of four for $27. Each portrait comes with three copies and you can buy optional frames for $8.95/each.
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: under $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 Disney Springs
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. For more info on how this works, see this pin trading guide.
Locations: Just about everywhere at Disney World but Disney's Pin Traders in Disney Springs 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 Disney Springs
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.
Unique Disney World souvenir idea honorable mentions:
- A signed art piece from The Art of Disney in Disney Springs
- Party and festival specific items, like those you can purchase during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party or the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot
- Trashcan salt & pepper shakers
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Do you have questions or other unique Disney World souvenir ideas? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
Pick a pearl is such a cute idea! I will definitely buy a passport from Epcot on our next visit – thank you for sharing!
My husband and I did the passports and we wrote down what we ate in each country. We had left overs for the hotel after but it was something fun to do.
As of October 2017, you can no longer buy parts for Mr. Potato head. They said they haven’t done that for about 6 years.
The Mr. Potato Head and accessories are no longer available. When we visited Disney Springs yesterday, we were told about a month ago Disney stopped selling them. The store employees said there had been rumors about them discontinuing them then one day, they came to work and it had all been removed. Something about quality problems at the factory in China.
I was wondering what happened to them. I was just there and looking forward to getting the accessories. Very disappointed:(
Mr potatoe head at home does NOT fit these Disney pieces I did what this said to and just picked pieces and didn’t get the head and I got screwed so no one got to play with the pieces and it was a WASTE and my kids were devastated .
I did this and they fit my Walmart-bought potato head fine. One of the best value souvenirs I’ve bought at Disney. I do have the “classic” version, not the newest version with the large block shoes.
Regarding personalized t-shirts: we wanted an image of Gaston with the phrase “And every last inch of me’s covered with hair”. No go! You cannot use song lyrics.
If you are going to do the pick a pearl buy the cage ahead of time from etsy. Huge savings. The frog that disney wanted $85 for I found it for under $10.
oooh lucky you!
If you like Alex and Ani, the HUGE disney store in Downtown Disney sells exclusive A&A bracelets with disney charms. We got an enameled cinderella one, with “wishes really do come true” engraved on the back. Beautiful piece of jewelry that we continue to wear.
Great list! We especially love the haunted portrait, Christmas ornament, pearl, and resort memorabilia suggestions! We’ve collected all 4 of those and keep doing so because they’re so much fun! Thank you for the toy monorail idea; this would be lovely under a Disney Christmas Tree!
Will Mitsukoshi be open the last week in January 2016?
Great ideas! We’ve gotten a lot of these over the years, but I still got some new ideas reading this, so thank you!
Does anyone know if they still sell the ceramic Mrs. TeaPots and Chip tea set? If not, how long ago did they stop selling it? I LOVE tea and am a collector of unique tea sets.
I’m not sure about mrs. Potts but they definately still have the chip mugs
We are going back to Disney World Dec 2015. Does anyone know if they have any new Mr Potato Head parts? Last time I went 2 years ago there were not any new ones. Have they stopped creating new ones?
I guess you can remove the Character Drawing at Animation Academy since it is closing. I hope Disney is smart enough to move this to another location.
Great article! I love being on your mailing list!! 🙂
Last September when we went I took your advice an the pick a pearl in Japan inEpcot. I picked one of the ugly ones and I got a gorgeous 8 mm pearl with opalescent shades. The lady who opened it fr me told me I got the lucky one and it wa the biggest one of the morning. Later there was a little bigger one that someoneelse got but the worker still said I got the lucky one 🙂
We also like the Crystal store on Main Street, MK for engraved glass, including glass slippers we’ve had engraved for my daughter and niece with their name and date of visit.
I put up 2 Christmas trees every year… the 7′ tall all Disney tree (with a fiberoptic Tinkerbell topper & it’s on a spinning base!) and the smaller 4′ Souvenir Tree.
Every vacation we take I buy a Souvenir Tree ornament (or something I can make into an ornament) & when we do Disney, I always buy the ornament with the year. Of course I always buy at least 2-5 other ornaments for the all Disney tree 😀
Also for Monogramming ears is also available at the Dumbo big top circus shop.
Please consider updating your picture used for the silhouette section. The silhouettes with the characters (Mickey, Minnie, etc.) can only be done at Disneyland; the WDW Silhouette shops are not licensed to use any characters. We visited all the locations in WDW and found out the hard way that we couldn’t get DD with Minnie. Looks like we’ll need to plan a trip to SoCal. Thanks.
We just got back from our trip & I had previously read this post and knew I wanted to do the pick a pearl in Japan. I watched several people do it ahead of me and they were all getting white pearls size 7. However, as the post suggests I scoped out one that had nice long hairs on it and I got a blue pearl size 7 3/4. Super excited that it was larger & unique color! However the price to pick the pearl is now 17.00 and my necklace setting was 32.00 (without the chain). So much great information on this site! I was glad that I had all this information ahead of time.
These are great tips! Thanks for the post!
Loved the idea of the christmas ornaments! Going for my first time with my boyfriend and I would have never thought of such a cute personalized gift! Love the idea of getting another one day when we go in the future with kids!!
I had the custom t-shirts made in Downtown Disney for my boys’ birthdays. One had Buzz Lightyear and it said ‘To Infinity and my Birthday! I am 5 today! plus the date ‘ for my son Evan and the other one had Winnie the Pooh characters holding birthday balloons and said “Winnie the Pooh and my Birthday too! I am 3 today!’ plus the date for my son Kyle who had his birthday lunch at the Crystal Palace. The CM that made the shirts even made them each a customized Birthday Button with their names on them as a special surprise, which I thought was very sweet. The boys loved the shirts and the buttons and they got a lot of “Happy Birthdays” on their birthdays in the parks. Buzz Lightyear especially liked Evan’s shirt!
If you are not staying on property and will be in the park at least 3 more hours you can use package pick up at the front of the park. Another way to not have to carry stuff all day long.
Last Christmas my best friend gave me a really nice wooden Christmas ornament. It had my name and a picture of us engraved on it, she got one too! It was super cool and I found out that this company out in Colorado called Unique Custom Products made it. I will definitely be ordering from them this year …check out their website if you like wooden items @ http://www.custom-christmasornaments.com.
I read some where that you could have a personal shopper at WDW send you something you had wanted to buy but didn’t get to. I cant seem to locate the name or contact info for the personal shopper. My daughter wanted a princess sweat suit but they only had the pants in her size. We looked at several other shops but all that was available was the small. Anyway…any info would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
Sandy,
The personal shopper for Disney is Kellyspds.com!
I have some monogrammed ears. I have a Duffy who has his own set of ears. A cast member saw them and she even offered to monogram them. So, not only do I have monogrammed ears, but so does my Duffy. My son will be getting his on my next trip (it’s not the same if I order online).
The personal rings are awesome, my parents and I still wear them and we got them during our 2006 trip
Do you know where I can get a list of all the dog tag necklace engraving machines are? We saw one at the Star Tours shop for sure, and other places when we were there last, and my son has decided that he’d like to start collecting them.
Thank you soo much for this post. It was very informative, you had pictures, and it made me super excited to go to WDW in one month!
When my husband and I got engaged (in Disney) we bought one of the Mickey head ornaments and had it personalized with “Will You Marry Me?” and the date.
After we got married (in Disney) we got a second that said “I Do!” with our wedding date. I think those are my favorite souvenirs.
We will be there next week and my son will faint when he learns he can build his own lightsaber – he is obsessed!
Love your site!
When purchasing the Mr. Potato Head, I had a cast member give me a secret tip about it. I believe it’s about $15 dollars to fill the “pieces bucket” and then it’s a small amount of money for the pieces that do not fit in it. Well she informed to stuff the container with all the accessories I would need or want for my potato head and buy my potato head as if it were the piece that didn’t fit. It’s a cheaper way of buying it all in Disney and you get many more accessories!
Great article – thanks for the information. I’m super excited to find out about the shop that sells personalized t-shirts! : )
These are great ideas!
I’ve always wanted to do pin trading but I’m afraid I’ll get addicted and end up spending wayyy more money than I intend to. For my next trip I think I’m going to do the pennies.
I love to pin trade. It’s not big in the UK so I buy a large lot on EBay and then bring them every year to WDW. This year I’d love to get a pearl and put it inside Cinderella’s carriage, that looks awesome. I didn’t realise you could pick your own pearl or a carved ring so this is something I am desperate to get. I’ve been every year since 2007 but somehow I seem to miss these.
Love all of these ideas! We are going in November and can’t wait to get some of these! I do have to add, natural things too! For example when we stayed at Fort Wilderness last year, my daughter was so happy and content to keep a pinecone which we now use as décor in her room. So I’m assuming anything like that could also be used.
Great post! I think we’ve gotten almost all of these through the years. I like how you have it all organized..definitely repinning this!
I used to be a cast member at Once Upon A Toy. There are a few tricks to the potato head box and the bigger one as well. You can fill the photo head if you want to buy one and many of the objects fold in half pretty easily, i’ve also seen people fit some pairs of shoes into the potato head. Make sure if you get one to lay it in the box horizontally on the bottom so that way you can fill on top. The put all the smaller items like eyes,arms etc around him.
For the giant potato head fill the shoes first with smaller pieces likes arms, eyes the little extras like mickey ice cream bars then fill the rest. Same goes for this potato head if you need the body fill up the body then put it into the container this time it does not matter the way it lays. Also look at the pieces you are getting see if they can bend and fold or fit into the other somehow. Some of the shoes bend in half thus making it easier to slid into the container in different already packed places. Also not sure if they still have it but the buzz lightyear body piece that potato heads wears as pants can fit right under the containers hat on top so leave that till last as it will also help keep everything inside. You can always ask a cast member to help, there is usually one on potato head duty. I recommend going mid morning before it gets busy because then they have more time to help you since there are not alot of guests.
I know there is also a build your own lightsaber area in the train room which is the third room in. A cast member is usually there to help with building the lightsaber. It is the exact same station to the one in Hollywood studios except it is double sided. So making it there might be better then draging a lightsaber all over hollywood studios or if its a last minute thing.
Very helpful. Thanks
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).
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.
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!
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.
Thank you so much for the tips! I’m taking notes for our next trip!
You used to be able to get a pearl at the waterparks too. Did they do away with that?
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!
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!
What store/location was this? My kids would love this as a souvenir!
I believe it’s the shop located in the exit area of the Journey Into Imagination w/Figment ride at Epcot.
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!
What size frame do the silhouettes need? I’m considering bringing a photo mat for the characters to sign and using it to frame the silhouette.
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 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.
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.
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?
I don’t think it’s ‘set’. From the images, it looks to me like it’s a cage with a clasp and the pearl is lose inside of it? Hope that is helps (and is correct!)
*loose
Loved these ideas!