Tag Archives: Disney Souvenirs

Currency With Character – Disney Dollars

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Last month the news broke that Disneyland and Walt Disney World will no longer sell Disney Dollars.  Guests who have Disney Dollars and wish to spend them can still do so, but the Disney Dollar is going away.  As one would expect, Nick’s got quite a collection of this “Currency With Character” for us to discover.  Have a great weekend, Disney friends!!!

Currency With Character – Disney Dollars

By Nick

Disney Dollars were introduced in 1987 at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

For an in depth history of Disney Dollars, please check out disneydollars.net.

I bought my first Disney Dollars at the Disney Store in 1992, for use on my first trip to Walt Disney World that year. I saved a few, and have picked up more through the years.

Let’s start with the earliest dollars, 1s and 5s.

A waving Mickey greets us.

“May be used as legal tender only at Disneyland Park, Walt Disney World Resorts and the Disney Stores.” “Disney Dollars may be spent or collected and saved as souvenirs and are redeemable at any time before or after any time of inactivity.”

Series 1991.

Treasurer, Scrooge McDuck. Of course!

A Series

 .

A lovely illustration of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle on the back.

Goofy looks proud to be honored with the 5 Dollar bill.

For my second trip to Walt Disney World in 1994, I picked up a few more Disney Dollars, including this fiver.

Same disclaimer as to where the dollars could be used, but with a notation that they could only be used in the U.S.A. and Puerto Rico.

The highlight of this is the absolutely beautiful illustration on the back.

1993 was Mickeys 65th birthday, and this momentous occasion called for a special dollar, and Mickey is decked out in a tuxedo to celebrate.

1993 was also the year that Mickey’s Toontown opened in Disneyland, which is commemorated on the back.

Disney Dollars even came with their own fun envelopes. “Currency With Character”. Cute!

In the future, I’ll share some Disney Dollars from the recent past.

Do you have any Disney Dollars?  Will you spend them or save them as souvenirs?

To read more about Nick’s amazing Disney collectibles and his many Disney adventures, visit the Disney Musings Blog (where this article first appeared).  You can follow Nick on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Pinterest.  You can also listen to Nick, our friend Dave, and me on The Disney Exchange Podcast where we talk about our love for all things Disney – new episodes every Sunday morning.

7 Elements of a Great Disney Vacation

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RM-BalloonsFor our family, after so many years of Disney vacations, there are certain aspects…particular elements I’ve identified that make each trip fantastic and unique.  So many things are the same – which is what brings us back, right?  Favorite rides, beloved snacks, c’mon! The pre-show dialogue for Soarin’ or MuppetVision3D, the upside-down singing ‘possums on Splash Mountain or hearing “We Wants the Redhead” on Pirates or even the smell of Rome burning on Spaceship Earth are all awesome and have each become an expected treasure on every trip!  Today I’m talking about the DIFFERENCES that are important.  Gee, this is harder to explain than I thought it would be.

There are very identifiable somethings on each and every Disney vacation that make a trip memorable.  If our vacations were all exactly the same, it would be hard for us to distinguish one trip from another – see where I’m going with this?  Every Disney vacation is memorable for a particular list of reasons – I’ve thought long and hard about this!  Here are the…

7 Elements of a Great Disney VacationRM-Fiesta-Donald

1. Characters – Because he’s my favorite, I’ll use Donald for this example.  On one trip to Disney World a few years back, Raymond and I ditched the kids allowed Megan and Joseph some time on their own one morning.  In Magic Kingdom, Raymond and I ran into Frontierland Donald and were able to have our picture taken with him – I remember how tiny he was and how I had to lean down to hug him.  During this year’s Princess Half Marathon Weekend, I met Fiesta Donald at the Mexican Pavilion in Epcot.  He was particularly funny and made ma laugh a lot.  And let’s not forget the Donald interaction that made me a fan for life.  All the same character – but each interaction was completely different and made unique memories for each vacation.

Cast Member in Norway Pavilion2. Cast Members – Some of them are generic – pleasant, but generally unmemorable.  I’m talking about the extra-special, Pixie-Dust-specialists that make your day, or even your entire trip, extra Disney-ish.  I talked about the critical importance of Cast Members in this post and I stand firm by my assessment – Disney Cast Members are crucial in making each vacation magical and memorable.

3. The Perfect Souvenir – Lots of times, it’s a single Disney pin trade that we remember because we found a particular pin we’d been hunting for.  Maybe it’s several pins – like the Orange Bird collection I started in 2012 and completed in 2014.  We fondly remember the Disney cruise we were on when we bought Remy for our kitchen.  Every time someone compliments my watch I think about our first Food & Wine Festival trip last year for our anniversary.  See?  Inexpensive or a splurge – the perfect souvenir can set one Disney vacation apart from another in your mind.

4. A Particularly Memorable Meal or Snack (or two or three) – Because it’s such an importantRM-Magic-Kingdom-Parade-Watching-1996 tradition to sit down together and relax at the end of the day, our family tends to remember particular table service dinners the most (Flying Fish comes to mind as one of the best memories).  Food and fun combos make me recall certain moments so clearly – having Mickey bars in Animal Kingdom just after getting completely soaked on Kali River Rapids.  Enjoying some Casey’s Corner fare while waiting for the parade on Main Street USA in Magic Kingdom – I remember it so well and that was 19 years ago!

5. Magical Details – There are always new discoveries to be made!  Hidden Mickeys, footprints in the walkways in Animal Kingdom, the windows on Main Street USA or in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, interactive queues…too many to name, but finding new and interesting, funny or clever Disney touches makes us happy – AND makes great vacation memories.

6. Live Entertainment – On a Disney cruise, on the Boardwalk, around Epcot’s World Showcase,Epcot's Voices of Liberty parades, musicians, comedians, magicians…For us, finding these unique and wonderful entertainers makes our vacations extra memorable.  I will remember the details of the first time I heard the Voices of Liberty forever.

7. A Hilarious Happening…that will later become an inside joke.  Megan’s face when she found out SHE was the Rebel Spy!  Joseph “getting engaged” to Drizella at 1900 Park Fare.  That snake in the China pavilion at Epcot…all these and dozens more unexpected, unplanned and perfectly wonderful moments are precious – like souvenirs in our memories that set each Disney vacation apart from the rest.

I really want to know!  What elements for a great Disney vacation are on your list? 

A Disney Souvenir of a More Permanent Nature

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Mediterranean LandscapeOr maybe I should call this post, “A Disney Souvenir More Naturally Permanent.”  You be the judge.  We live in the country, The Fam and I (well, mostly just Raymond, Junior and I do now).  When I say “the country” I mean we live on a farm – the kind with crops instead of animals, but it is totally normal for me to take the dog out in the morning and hear both roosters crowing and cattle lowing or mooing or complaining – whatever you want to call that boisterous bovine nonsense at 5:00 am.  Our neighbors do raise livestock.

What does living in the country have to do with Disney souvenirs?  Thanks for asking!  I’ll Hillside in the Mediterraneantell you about it.  In August, 2013 – after dreaming about it for many years – we took a Disney cruise in the Mediterranean.  As you might expect, we did and saw some wonderfully amazing things.  Oh, the places we went!!!  While we were in there, we noticed some very beautiful pine trees.  They were almost everywhere and looked a bit like cartoon trees – shaped like umbrellas, their lovely arched branches atop tall, tall trunks, provided shade in a way we found charming and so different from anything we’d seen before.  We asked our guide in Florence, Italy about them and were told they were simply “Mediterranean Pines”.  Back home, a little Google research revealed they may also be “Umbrella Pines” or “Stone Pines”.  Whatever their name, I thought they were lovely.

Pine Tree Groot!

I AM GROOT

Raymond, being the agricultural expert in the family, took it upon himself to surprise me with some actual Mediterranean Pines to grow in our very own backyard, side yard, adjacent field, and so on.  He ordered both seeds and saplings from a couple of different suppliers in far away places like California.  He carefully nurtured the tiny trees and carefully tended the seeds when they sprouted.  The net result is that now, after a year, we have some half-a-dozen baby Mediterranean Pines well on their way to providing some beautiful umbrellas of shade from the hot Louisiana sun.

So, the point of all this is to say – sometimes a tee shirt is a great souvenir.  Sometimes something that will last for years and years while reminding you everyday of one of the most wonderful experiences of your life – all while keeping you cool in the summer (eventually, anyway) – is the very best souvenir of all.

What’s your favorite Disney vacation souvenir?

If you want to read all about our adventures on the high seas in the Mediterranean, start here.

More Disney Pin Ponderings

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Minnie Mouse Chalkboard PinYou don’t have to be a Disney pin trader or even a pin collector to appreciate what great souvenirs the right pins can be.  Commemorating a special milestone, a beloved ride or attraction, a favorite character – is easy and relatively economical with Disney pins!

We do like to pin trade – as entertainment versus serious hobby.  We love searching out pin boards and books at out of the way locations.  We also like meeting and visiting with Cast Members as we peruse their pin collections.  Mostly, more than anything, each of us loves to find a pin or two that we…gosh, “connect with” is such a weird choice of words here…find meaningful, I guess, would be more what I mean.Disney Pin - Mickey Mouse Animation

I can’t speak for the rest of The Fam, but I can browse rows and rows of pins in stores and spin those pin display racks for a long time and still walk away empty handed.  Then, once or twice during each Walt Disney World visit, I’ll see a pin that just grabs my interest!  Maybe it’s a particularly cute version of a classic character that I’ve never seen before.  Maybe it’s a double pin set (Doug and Mr. Fredrickson, for example) that is too cute to resist.  Maybe, pins with a certain year on them – seriously, I normally don’t care, but this year was an important year in MY life, so having a pin with the year on it meant more to me.  You get the idea.  I love it when I find a pin I’m sure Raymond, Megan, or Joseph would LOVE and I can buy it on the sly and surprise them with Disney's Hollywood Studios 25th Anniversary Pinit later – sometimes, on rare occasions, I can curb my enthusiasm enough to hold on to a pin until Christmas and slip it into someone’s stocking.

If you’ve never visited the Disney Pins Blog, it’s a really fun place to hang out – even for us casual pin traders/collectors.  I particularly love looking at the upcoming releases of Disney Cast Member pins – I formulate plans for how I may score one or two (or five) on an upcoming trip.

Pins come in singles, doubles, collections, mystery sets, and more.  Currently, though, according to the Disney Pins Blog, the color-coded pricing of general pin stock is as follows:

  • GREEN = $7.95
  • RED = $8.95
  • BLUE = $9.95
  • YELLOW = $11.95
  • PINK = $13.95

Think about it – if you’re looking for an easy to carry souvenir, a keepsake, a memento – for a maximum of $13.95, you can take home something durable – a lasting, timeless piece of your Walt Disney World vacation to remind you, in the years ahead, of a very happy and special time.

For my tips on getting started with pin trading, read this.  For an explanation of Chaser Pins, check here.  Want to make pin collecting into an adventure?  Read this.

Do YOU love Disney pins?  What’s your favorite pin?  What pin do you want to get next?