A Very Pin-teresting Tale

Let me preface this by saying there was a time in my life when I looked at tourists, draped in full regalia (backpacks, fanny packs, old school Canon camera with awesomely colored neck strap), and thought “I would die of embarrassment before looking like that in public.” So with that in mind, here is a picture my husband took of me right before boarding Pirates of the Caribbean in March of 2011:

That is what happens when you drink the Disney kool-aid ladies and gentlemen. Behold it in all its nerdy glory.

I blend in well. I'm a blender.

You can’t see my lanyard in this particular picture but I am an absolute Disney pinaholic. When I went to WDW for the first time in October of 2008 I saw people walking around with pin lanyards on but I didn’t understand what they were. They just reminded me of how my mom used to describe the pin trading that would go on when the Olympics were in Canada many years back. It wasn’t until our last few days of vacation that I really took an interest in them. I got a nice pink lanyard thinking it would be a great souvenir to keep my keys on when we returned home, and the person who sold it to me (at the pin stand just outside Tusker House Restaurant in Animal Kingdom) suggested I take a look at the pins they had there. I left that stand with Mickey & Minnie in their wedding clothes, baby Pooh with a honey pot, Mickey dressed as a ghost, and Lady & the Tramp. I was officially hooked after that. We were broke newlyweds and as far as a pin budget went we had just blown it, but as it is with any good addiction it eventually became something that I was willing to invest a whole lot of money I don’t have in to!

Now our pin buying routine consists of me purchasing a lot of about 25-30 pins from a seller on eBay about 4 weeks prior to our departure date. Usually these are hidden Mickey pins (pins given to Cast Members to trade in the parks), and there have been a few occasions where I’ve gotten some that were originally part of a starter set. Nothing fancy, but every now and then you get some interesting ones that you wouldn’t typically find on sale in the parks. I usually keep about 10 of the ones from the lot I receive and use the rest to trade in the parks.

If you are interested in buying lots from eBay I have a couple tips. As with any eBay purchase, make sure you’re buying from a trusted seller. I usually go through the sellers other items and reviews and make sure they’re an experienced pin seller to ensure that I’m getting someone who will be knowledgeable about pin trading if I have to make a return for some reason. Also make sure that they guarantee you won’t be receiving Sedesma pins, and that they explicitly state that all their pins are able to be traded at Disney parks. The latter statement constitutes a guarantee by the seller that they can be used for their intended purpose, so if you have a problem at the park and are unable to trade due to a bad pin, with any luck you can get your money back. You can also make sure that they guarantee there will be no duplicates in the lot. This has never been important to me since I always plan on trading all of my pins, and last time I specifically requested a duplicate lot because it made the shipping time faster. So if you don’t care about duplicates, sometimes those lots can be a little cheaper. I’ve never had a problem with any of the lots I’ve bought from eBay.

After all the trading is done and the ears are put up for the season, Dr. Dreiz and I like to display our pins on a cork board we picked up at Staples. We got the idea from some of the Cast Members that participated in the Disney college program when they told us that they frequently have cork boards in their apartments where they showcase the various pins they’ve been given. Here is our latest cork board: 

Every one of our Disney pins has its’ own special story. I can usually tell you where I was when I bought or traded the pin, and the significance of its purchase. For example, in the bottom right hand corner of the pin board about three rows up you'll see two baby versions of Belle and Tinkerbell. I traded for these when we took our nieces to WDW for the first time. They're twins, and every time I look at those pins I'm reminded of the magical time we had with them. I’ve included a couple of my favorites and a little story about each one, I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed acquiring them!

2011 International Food & Wine Festival : This is the first special event pin we ever purchased. We bought it right outside the American pavilion from a very nice Italian grandma type who insisted we head over to Via Napoli for their pizza. Turns out she was from the same area in Italy that my husbands grandma was from! We told her that we just found out that we were expecting a baby in June and she was even more insistent that I get some pizza in me. She was one of my favorite conversations from the entire trip. When you start pin trading you meet a lot of interesting Cast Members, especially at Epcot. If it's not too busy it's always fun to engage them in conversation, you may learn things about the park that you never knew!

Star Wars Rebel Alliance: This one is my second favorite pin in the collection. I had seen it on several occasions but for some reason always passed over it. Thinking back, I'm not sure why I didn't purchase it when we attended Star Wars Weekends. I finally decided on our last trip that I had to have it. It combines the two things I love the most in this world (that is until my daughter arrives in June): Star Wars, and Disney! They also have a similar pin symbolizing the Empire although I was unable to find it on the last trip. With any luck I will find it on the next one, and if not they are always in good supply on eBay. If you check out the pin board, you'll see that we have an entire Star Wars collection. My husbands favorite is Yoda holding a Mickey ice cream and waiting in line for a ride he is clearly not tall enough to be on!

Mickey's Philharmagic: This pin is definitely not the most spectacular of the bunch. Not even close. But Philharmagic is my favorite attraction and a pin dedicated to it's awesomeness is a rare find. This is my absolute number one favorite pin. We bought this one outside Space Mountain on a rainy night during Extra Magic Hours, along with a Living With The Land pin. I have a Philharmagic shirt with the same duck butt logo on it, and it's my favorite thing to wear! I can't look at that pin without thinking of all the amazing sights and smells that come with seeing Philharmagic. I would argue that this particular attraction is part of the quintessential Disney experience. 

 

Pirates of the Caribbean cursed treasure: This is definitely in the top three. Nothing fancy, but it's a dead ringer for the ones in the movies, and it's about the same size I would imagine cursed pirate treasure would be. I like it so much because it looks like a legitimate coin and I always imagine Johnny Depp flipping it back and forth between his fingers and taunting Barbosa. There is also a version of this pin that has a Mickey head on it instead of the skull, but I wanted the one that looked like the movie version. 

Haunted Mansion Portrait: This is one of my husbands favorite pins. We purchased this one in Frontierland. It's a fairly large pin and requires two back to stay on the lanyard, one of which we always manage to lose! I love looking at this one and thinking "Is this room actually stretching!?" There were other versions as well that featured the scenes from the various portraits and included characters like Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse. 

Disney family car decals: these ones are special because they took awhile to find. I was dead set on getting one for each of us, which meant I had to go in search of a man, woman, and two dogs! I found all of these at Epcot, and even received one in the lot I had purchased on eBay. They are hidden Mickey pins, which means they are originally given only to Cast Members and are never for sale, so you can only acquire them through trading or buying them from a second hand source. During this vacation we also bought the matching decals to put on my car when we arrived home. On our last vacation when we found out we (mostly me) were pregnant the hunt was on for the baby decal and my husband even insisted that we get two just in case it was twins! Better safe than sorry I suppose! These mean a great deal to me and I will always make sure to update them as our family grows.

Animal Kingdom Lodge: This one brings back several memories. We first found out we'd be expecting our precious Ryleigh Noelle during a beautiful sunrise in a room overlooking the Arusha savannah. That in itself will stay with me forever, but if you've ever been to AKL you know that when you walk in to Jambo House the intoxicating scent of woodsmoke is something that you won't soon forget. While there we made sure to pick up one of the Happy Birthday buttons and one of the employees was gracious enough to write "Happy Birthday Baby!" on it, so that we would have it for the day when Ryleigh chooses to make her entrance in to the world.

 

 Well that about sums up my pin trading knowledge and experiences. If you're a fan of Mouse Tales on Facebook I'm always happy to answer questions related to pin trading, and on Thursdays at 9PM EST you can head on over to Disney Guru's Facebook page for a Q&A and I would be more than happy to answer your questions there as well, as would my husband Kyle (or Dr. Dreiz as he's known by his fans now!)

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-BOO!

If I had to pick one holiday to spend at WDW it would be Halloween. I've always loved Halloween (free candy, what's not to like?), and there really is no better trick-or-treating experience than the one you can have in Magic Kingdom at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. It was the perfect indulgence on our honeymoon, and well worth the extra $60.00 or so that you spend for the special admission.

What I love most about the MNSSHP is you get to see some of the characters that you otherwise wouldn't get to see on an average day in the park. Primarily, villains! Usually the only villain you're likely to see is Maleficent when she takes over the Dreams Come True! show on the Magic Kingdom stage everyday at noon, but at the MNSSHP they're everywhere, the Magic Mirror from Snow White even has it's own parade float complete with a "skeleton" band!

The MNSSHP starts off with a unique after-dark parade in Magic Kingdom theme park. Being as this was our first real parade viewing event (we usually skip them in order to get in the otherwise long lines), we scoped out our seats on the curb in front of the Liberty Tree Tavern about 45 minutes prior to the start time and trust me we were pushing it! I find that prime parade viewing spots are usually claimed about an hour or more before the parade starts, and special events are no exception and may even prove worse than a regular day. About 15 minutes later they began winding the rope around the curbs (the international sign to people without maps that a parade is about to begin!) to separate the crowd from the streets and after that you were lucky to get a spot 6 feet back, so long story short: get there early.

Sidenote: at about this time a woman and her approximately two year old son began to maneuver their way towards us, stepping over about 2 dozen people in the process, and finally planting herself on top of my husbands foot. Now keep in mind we've been there for half an hour, and will continue to wait for at least another 40 minutes before the parade starts, we are the definition of the word "squished", and up until this point I have managed to coexist nicely with people that are so close to me I can see their dental fillings. ANYHOO, this woman has the nerve to knock several dozen people out of the way and plant herself right in front of the rope, using her 2 year old as a battering ram, and then to top it off she asks my husband to move his foot out of the place that it's been resting quite comfortably for the better half of an hour. We give each other a grimace and oblige, after all she has a little boy and we were more than happy to move out of the way for him. Then to my horror she pulls out one of the rainbow Mickey Mouse light sabers that they sell on the little street cars after the sun goes down and the little boy, just doing what kids do, begins to flail it around wildly, as though he's fighting off every Sith lord in the whole star system. Can you guess what happened next? I'll let you think about it. Ready? If your guess was that the light saber got introduced to my face, you were correct. It was a pretty sickening smack that caused the sequined Minne ears I was wearing to go flying off my head. I was astonished, and my husband looked on in horror with his mouth gaping open and a "Did that really just happen?" look on his face. So at this point I'm expecting Mom of The Year to apologize profusely or maybe tell Junior that swords aren't proper toys in super crowded areas, but no, instead I get a look that says "How dare your face scratch my precious little snowflakes $15.00 glow stick!" And so that was my first experience at a Disney parade! Luckily for me the kids dad was walking up as this happened and I'm not sure whether it was due to actual moral fortitude or my husband being 230 pounds of solid (315 pound bench pressing) muscle, but he politely told the little boy to put the sword away as the mother continued to scowl at me.

"Oh bother"

And so begins the actual parade. The lights are dimmed throughout the street and silence falls amongst the crowd of thousands. A whisper of hoof beats begins in the distance and slowly becomes louder, at first I thought it was being piped in to the speakers around us but soon saw that what I was hearing was the Headless Horseman himself riding through the streets and opening the parade, waving his pumpkin head above him! Shortly thereafter we were treated to favorites like Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, Brer Fox, Brer Bear and the whole Winnie the Pooh gang in full costume. Cruella DeVille, Captain Hook, The Evil Queen, and the Red Queen from Alice and Wonderland all made appearances as well.

Another great feature, with or without kids, is the trick or treating at the candy stations that are set up in specific places throughout the park. Most of the ones I went to were located inside shops that also featured larger portions of the free candy for sale, all of which was made by Goofy's Candy Company. This was convenient because if you happened upon a particularly delectable piece you could purchase it immediately without having to hunt it down. There is no limit to how many times you can visit each candy station, and they are just as generous to adults with no kids as they are to the little ones, which can actually save a pretty penny when it comes to having some extra snacks around. Usually my husband and I get a snack or two from the Confectionary every night to eat when we get back to our hotel room and after the NNSHP we are usually able to skip a day or two of this.

The Haunted Mansion is a must because they have all kinds of Halloween decorations, and it's such a special thing to see a classic Disney ride all dressed up for the season. During the MNSSHP they have actors outside the Mansion telling ghoulish tales or interacting with the audience atop the hearse that is stationed out front. If you're really not in to parades, then that is the time to get in line for the rides with the traditionally longer wait times. Only select rides are open during the MNSSHP so I would suggest making sure you know which ones they are so you avoid unnecessary walking. This might be the time to hop on Peter Pan's Flight, as the line for that ride always seems to be in triple digits especially if you're there during the summer.

Cinderella's Coach in Fantasyland

Even if you aren't in to trick or treating or parades, you may want to pay the extra $60.00 and enjoy the Halloween party simply because it is a much thinner crowd. When the party begins, they check your tickets, give you a wrist band, and usher out those who have not paid the additional admission. So if there is that one ride you haven't been able to catch a break on all day, this may be your chance. Granted it is October, and the crowds are usually a lot thinner to begin with.

We'll be back at WDW in 16 days and plan on attending not only one, but two MNSSHP's! I really look forward to seeing how much has changed in the last three years, what has been added, and what has been done away with. But one thing is for sure, it will be magical and wonderful, and something completely worth spending the extra scrapbooking money on!