souvenirs - The Fairest Run Of All

I Got The OTHER Space Mountain Minnie Ears

May 17, 2022May 17, 2022Leave a comment

Remember when Disney came out with their original Main Attraction merchandise series in 2020? (It’s okay if you don’t; a lot of stuff happened in 2020.) Here’s Disney’s original announcement post, with the opening, Space Mountain set of Minnie ears, bags, pins, and more. Each monthly drop was plagued by the usual human and tech issues, including virtual holding rooms, glitching shopping carts, and resellers running off with huge hoards to sell online at massive markups. For the most part I just ignored the whole deal, as I hate shopping a) under pressure and b) without a discount. But...

The Fairest Gift Of All: An Epcot-Inspired Trip Report Addendum

February 1, 2022March 8, 2022Leave a comment

My January trip report has a coda! If you read that report (and you totally should if you’ve got several hours to spare; I like to use every word I know every time), you’ll recall I spent some time browsing the Mitsukoshi department store in the Japan pavilion. And although my November trip report doesn’t mention it explicitly, I ducked into Mitsukoshi on that trip too. These two instances have something in common. Of the myriad items I would love to own someday, I zeroed in on these SUPER squishy Shibu Inu stuffed animals. They were crazy dense and...

In Which Jenn Identifies A Gap In The runDisney Expo Market

August 6, 2021August 6, 20212 Comments

The Wilmington Marathon isn’t, say, runDisney or Marine Corps Marathon big, with fancy sponsors and thousands of participants. But it’s gotten big enough to have its expo in a convention hall, which is where I found myself for bib pickup the day before the race. There was all the usual stuff – official race merch, running store and athletic store booths, local businesses – and one thing more: discounted old race gear. Not for the current race, of course, but the organization puts on multiple events per year and was selling some leftover stuff from races past for, I kid...

Disney’s Twelve Days Of Sockmas Advent Calendar: Let’s Open ‘Em Up

June 10, 2021August 16, 2021Leave a comment

The full trip report is over, but the details still need filling in. Read on for more May 2021 WDW fun! WE’ HAVE A 2319!!!!!!! Twelve of them, actually. Okay, so, one of the items I picked up at Cast Connection was a sort of sock advent calendar, which offered twelve pairs of socks behind little cardboard doors. I figured it’d be fun to open a door each day after I got home from my trip. ADVENT CALENDAR SOCKS BOX ON THE OUTSIDE Normally advent calendars have 24 doors for December 1 – 24, so I suppose you’d start this one...

In Which Jenn Luckily Already Has A Splash Mountain Souvenir

July 10, 2020August 16, 20212 Comments

No doubt by now you’ve heard about how Splash Mountain in the Magic Kingdom had a 240 minute wait yesterday- for the gift shop. People were queuing up for a legit 2-hour wait to buy endangered ride merch. Sure, that’s kind of insane, but I do get the urge – Splash Mountain is a great ride, and as much as I’m down for the Princess & The Frog redo for a variety of reasons, I’ll miss it. It would be nice to have a memento. Alas, I’m not sure I’ll be back to WDW before it shuts down for the refurb,...

In Which Jenn May Have A Minor Minnie Ears Obsession

March 1, 2019August 19, 20214 Comments

Sooooo I seem to have developed a Minnie Ears problem. It all started innocently enough. All I did was wander into Epcot’s Mouse Gears gift shop to pick up an ear hat for Pat’s niece. After some deliberation, I selected the pink version with Minnie Mouse in the patch, and had her name embroidered on the back. All according to plan. While I was waiting for the embroidery to finish, though, I was drawn by a siren’s song to the rack of ear headbands. This was still back in the day when Minnie ears were in their nascent stages, and I...

In Which Jenn Locates Vintage WDW Souvenir Clothes

February 19, 2019August 19, 2021Leave a comment

I’ve mentioned this before, but in case you’re new and/or don’t have all my personal details memorized: my parents are in the processing of moving to NC, and are cleaning out their MD home to sell. This means digging through 20+ years of detritus, including the absolutely horrifying trash heap that is my childhood bedroom. Part of this is actual trash, and part is a study in the changing fancies of growing up: I’m talking posters of unicorns, stuffed animals, decades-old homework, and – I kid you not – a life size cutout of Star Trek: Voyager‘s Lt. Tom Paris....

In Which Jenn Digs Up Vintage Figment Merch

September 4, 2018August 23, 20212 Comments

What is it with my parents and hiding amazing vintage Walt Disney World souvenir banks from me?! Back in the end of May there was a pretty serious series of rainstorms in my area, which brought flooding with it. My parents, in their place in NC at the time, were concerned about the state of the basement in their Maryland house, so they called me up and asked me to drive over and have a look. There I am, stomping around the basement looking for puddles, my cell phone flashlight on because the bulb in the hanging light has...

In Which Jenn Shops At Disney Springs & Tries Blaze Pizza

July 30, 2018August 23, 2021Leave a comment

Since I spent most of this WDW trip in a conference, I won’t be doing a traditional trip report, but I definitely still have a lot of stuff to tell you about that will be loosely collected under the July 2018 trip keyword. Read on! When formulating my plan for a conference trip to WDW, I knew I wanted to use my free night to explore Disney Springs. I had merchandise- and food-oriented missions, and what better place to bask in the WDW glow if you don’t want to shell out for a park ticket? Still, I go back and...

In Which Jenn Earns Her Minnie Ears

July 26, 2018August 23, 20211 Comment

Since I spent most of this WDW trip in a conference, I won’t be doing a traditional trip report, but I definitely still have a lot of stuff to tell you about that will be loosely collected under the July 2018 trip keyword. Read on! I don’t usually put post-WDW trip haul posts – not because I don’t think they’re interesting, but rather because I rarely get enough to warrant the dedicated word count. I just don’t generally buy more than a souvenir at a time lest the percentage of my salary I give to Disney yearly dips from...