Top Ten Free/Cheap Disney Souvenirs

Disney is expensive.  Airfare, hotels and park admission.  Paying to get there and stay there is just the beginning.  Fortunately, there do exist SOME souvenirs you can take home without spending too much.  Here are my top ten:

1. Pressed Pennies.  Costing a total of 51 cents, these are some of the least-expensive souvenirs.  They may be small, but they have always been fun for me to find in my purse long after my trip has ended!  Disney also sells little collectible books to keep your pennies in (but probably worth more than your collection)!

2. Mickey Ear Shampoo Bottles.  If you've already paid for a Disney hotel, why not take a bunch of these home?  If you use one even a little bit, Mousekeeping gives you a new one when they clean your room, and leave the old one, too!  I love the little mouse ears on the caps.  I have a small collection myself!

3. Disney World Pens.  Another room freebie, but I think you only get the one.  I took mine home and it adds just the right touch of magic to the mundane.

4. Postcards.  I don't remember how much a postcard cost when I was there, but it didn't break the bank.  They have some pretty cute ones.  I keep the one of Mickey and Minnie riding Dumbo with the castle in the background on my bookshelf.

5. Mickey Swirley Straws.  If you are dining at a Disney restaurant, you have the option of Mickey straws for about 50 cents (actually 40-something, but I'm rounding up).  I know this because when Jim & I last ate at Be Our Guest Restaurant, we ordered using the kiosk instead of ordering ahead (I recommend ordering ahead--you'll miss the suits of armor getting into coughing fits, which isn't too appetizing), and one of the options was a Mickey Straw!  We got 2 and they are so cute.

6. Mickey Foam Keychains.  They have these up next to the registers at most souvenir shops in Disney--little one-inch balls of foam with 2 foam ears glued on, on a short ball chain.  About a dollar each, they are great souvenirs!  Simple and durable, they come in a couple different styles--Mickey, Minnie, Tinkerbell, princess, and rainbow!  There are probably more by now.  Tinkerbell has cute little wings on the back, and the princess one has a tiny tiara!

7. Photos.  If you can't spring for the Memory Maker (which is a great deal if you're using PhotoPass anyway), just use your own camera.  The Disney photographers (especially the enthusiastic ones) love taking pictures using your own phone or camera.  You can also look at and share the pictures as soon as you have them taken, which you can't do with PhotoPass!

8. Park Maps.  For friends who love Disney but can't get down there often, an up-to-date map can be a great thrill!  It's also nice to have for yourself!  I have one from my Disneyland Paris trip years ago, and from the new Disney Springs in FL!  I like looking at maps and remembering my favorite rides and experiences, and it's fun to see if something has changed since the last map!

9. Drawing Lessons.  The Art of Animation resort offers daily free drawing lessons of your favorite Disney characters!  I have one of Tigger and one of Mickey!  They used to offer these in Hollywood Studios at the Animation Pavilion, but since it is going under a great overhaul, they have moved this experience to the resort (I only know this because I asked. I was very indignant about my favorite part of the Studios being taken away!)

10. Stickers.  I see a lot of large, circular, doctors-office type stickers floating around the parks, having fallen out of pockets, bags and small hands.  There are some specific to certain events, experiences and places, but the only source I have found so far was my hotel.  I was in the Pop Century gift shop and there was a dry erase board with trivia questions on it.  I asked the cashier if there was a prize for getting all the answers right, and she said she'd give me a sticker (I'm 31 and this got me excited)!  They were all about Big Hero 6 and I had recently seen it, so I got all the answers correct, and she gave me a whole bunch of stickers (probably because of my glee and air-punches after "winning") of all different characters!

There are, of course, hokey gifts you could bring back to friends and family, like an empty water bottle labeled "Disney Air" or one you filled at the Cinderella fountain labeled "Disney Water," which, for the right audience, I'm sure would be a hit.  I hope these not-so-hokey souvenir ideas make your shopping easier, lighten your load, and provide lots of good memories from your trip!

Finding Remy

This past year's Food & Wine Festival at Epcot featured a fun new addition: Remy's Ratatouille Hide & Squeak!

For about the price of a pin (I think it was $10), I picked up this adorable game board map of Epcot with ovals around it.  Here's how to play:

The ovals each had a country written on them, and a corresponding sheet of stickers of Remy with different ingredients.  You had to find which ingredient Remy was posing with in that country and match the corresponding sticker.  

Here he is in Germany with some bread:

China with tomatoes:

And so on and so forth...

We also made sure to enjoy all the food & wine, of course!

And continued our search!

Peek-a-boo!

The less-obvious ones were the best (frustrating yet rewarding), like in France (above) with the garlic in the middle of the "jardin," and in the gondola in Italy!  

(I love all those poles with Spaceship Earth in the backdrop)

We found someone else during our Remy search!

I have to say, the one in England was the hardest to find!  I heard a desperate father asking a security guard if he knew where Remy was in the UK and he had no idea.  I hope he did and just acted like he didn't, you know, to preserve the magic!  

After finding them all, we took the game map to the Port of Entry to claim my prize:

You could pick from an array of these Remy pins, which were replicas of the drawings on the game stickers.  It was hard for me to decide, but I thought this was the cutest!

They stamped this on the back of my map so I could keep it and not cheat!

Reading the small print now, it seems I didn't even have to put any stickers on--just buy the thing and you get a pin!  But that wouldn't have been worth it at all!  The search was a fun thing to add to our enjoyment of the festival, and I felt I earned this pin!  I hope they do something like this again next year!

Duffy Goes to Hong Kong

On our October '15 trip, I was very excited to meet Duffy, the Disney bear, as I had in 2012.  At that time, he was in his pumpkin suit, greeting visitors to the left of the entrance for the World Showcase.  This time, it was Daisy who was greeting guests, so I decided to come back later for whenever Duffy was due.

Duffy was never due--it seemed to be Daisy's new spot.  We didn't ask anyone, but we got some news before we left the park.  I have my own little Duffy with magnetic hands and feet (and back of head) who we had in our PhotoPass photo in front of Spaceship Earth.  The photographer said, "Oh, Duffy!  That makes me so sad!"  We asked why, and she said it was Duffy's last day a few days earlier, and that he was going off to Hong Kong Disney!

This was a display at one of the Downtown Disney stores--it had tons of cute stuff, plus a large array of Duffy merch.  This giant Duffy happened to be in that pumpkin costume I remembered!  They were still selling the bears you can dress up, purses of his face, and lots of outfits.  I don't know if they'll be phasing Duffy out of the park completely, but all I know for right now is that he is no longer greeting guests in WDW.  I wonder if he is in CA, and I wonder if we have seen the last of him!  I know he originated in Tokyo Disney, and I guess he did not catch on over here.  Sorry, Duff!