TOP 5 BEST Disney Keepsakes & Souvenirs | Best and Worst | 03/14/18
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- In this episode, the panel discusses the top 5 BEST keepsakes you could invest in during your Walt Disney World vacation like a haircut on Main Street USA or Memory Maker!
Support the DIS Unplugged Network on Patreon
/ disunplugged
How to save money at Walt Disney World:
• TOP 5 BEST Walt Disney...
For more information on the Walt Disney World Resort visit www.wdwinfo.com
For more episodes of The DIS Unplugged visit www.disunplugge...
Like us on FACEBOOK: / the.dis / disunplugged / thedisuniversal
Follow us on TWITTER: / thedis
Follow us on INSTAGRAM: / the.dis
Get A Free Vacation Quote from Dreams Unlimited Travel:
www.dreamsunli...
![TIMETHAI - ไม่อยากให้เป็นเขา (Why tho?) [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/o2qYlGVVtOw/mqdefault.jpg)
I know this sounds silly, but the last thing I did before I left our hotel was buy a cute gift card in the gift shop. I put $5.00 on it. I keep it in my wallet to remind me that I have got a start on my next WDW vacation. A promise to myself that I will be going back to use it. Makes me happy to look at it.
P.J. Driton don’t they expire though?
Hi Jessica. The cast member told me there was no expiration date.
Your idea is amazing! I love it!
@@monicasaucedo4739 My parents actually have a Disney credit card that we pay off our Disney World vacations with.
@@cfruge444 Oh that's great! I'd love to have one, so you're always reminded of your past Disney vacations & are always planning & going to new ones 😄
The maps! I LOVE the Disney park maps we’ve kept when we have gone to Disney! If you don’t go very often it’s really cool to see the park like it was in 1998, or 2007 and remember everything you did :)
This is such a great idea! Especially with how much the parks are changing right now. I think I'm going to start collecting them.
I have a binder full of maps from all amusement parks, but especially Disney. I even bought a print-out copy of a map from 1958 at the Disneland Gallery on Main Street.
Totally agree! As soon as we wrapped up filming I thought of maps and free buttons! Good call and thanks for watching!
My husband's family kept 2 maps from trips to Disneyland in 1964 and 1968. They are HUGE! Last year I had the 1964 map framed and it is hanging in my Disney themed office, along with a chalk portrait of my husband from 1964, and silhouettes of me from 1979.
I have all the park maps from my trips from 2016, 2014, and I may still have 2012. my plan is to have them all laminated sometime this year, so they last. We try to go every other year, so there's always something different. It's one of my favorite keepsakes.
A suggestion of mine would be a thing my uncle did about a year ago. He bought a small frying pan at target and a gold sharpie and got Rapunzel to sign it for my little cousin. A really unique souvenir she got that probably no one else has
Andrew Brandenburg hahaha thats adorable!
Andrew Brandenburg so creative!!
Idea came from Home Improvement, but good idea none the less!
Hearing Pete talk about the emotional connection he had to some of his keepsakes, I can totally relate!
In my attic I definitely have a few of my park tickets (those cards they gave in the 2000s) and my magicband from my 2016 trip
Dee McGee totally agree!! He got really deep!
I love the idea of making memory bins to separate the trips....that is really beautiful and something I think I'll try to do one day.
Dee McGee me too
Pete, what you said about your best souvenirs... thank you. Thank you for sharing that with us. It seemed very personal and I found it incredibly touching. I really related to what you said about dark days and just being able to connect with these items being enough to get through. I’ve been casually following your channel for some time now, but I am now a full subscriber. Thank you again.
I love this channel. I'm planning my perfect Disney vacation applying all their information and reccomendations. Also Pete's voice is heaven. Love listening to him talk.
Maritza Peguero, they totally helped me plan my trip a few years ago too! Now I'm hooked on their shows! Using them to plan for our next trip :)
Me too!
Pete is right. I still have the room key card, the luggage tag, but my favorites are the park maps that you can pick up in the resorts or entering the park. I love digging them back out and looking through the park and remembering that trip. And every time Disney changes something, they create a new map, so each set from each trip is special.
I'm an adult that did autographs on my last trip. I bought some field notebooks (pocket-sized) and made a cover using a print out of the Bon Voyage Breakfast "Journal". So I essentially had a journal with my dates of the trip and inside were character autographs. I had to do two separate books though because they were small. I ended up using one for face characters and the other for fur characters. It was a unintentional, but poignant happenstance that Joy & Sadness is the last two autographs in the book
I also had Flynn Rider sign my satchel.
I take coasters from everywhere! They come home and settle on the end tables in the family room. We often remark about who has which coaster and what happened that day. Zero cost.
All great and wonderful keepsakes guys! The memory Maker is absolutely a wonderful keepsakes! Coming from experience.....my daughter's first trip, she was 4. We didn't know about the CD they offered and just expected to go online and order the pictures. Well, when we got home and set out to order the pictures..they were $15 a piece!! We lost so many pictures because we just couldn't afford to get them all. So the last time we went, she was 11/12, we got the memory maker and boy was it worth every dollar!! Highly recommend
We used Memory Maker. For a 6 day trip, it was a great value. It's great if a kid is doing Jedi Training - tons of photos I didn't have to worry about.
We did the same thing when we went for 6 days. Best thing we bought on our trip!
My son had his first haircut at Harmony Barber Shop in January. It was fantastic! Toys and stickers to keep him entertained, a certificate, little bag of his baby curls, and Mickey ears that say "My First Haircut" all for $25. So SO worth it!
As a kid I used to love coming up with fun things for characters to sign. One year it was a diy vinylmation, one year it was a parasol, one year it was an encyclopedia of Disney characters so they all had their own page
Oh Pete, I do the same thing. I keep my tickets, Playbills, wrist bands, or anything and I frame them for a certain year. I started that after seeing a friend doing the same thing with his marathon number and medals. I used to have some bins but they would get all messy and wrinkled so now it's just some cheap frames and I use that and display them.
My uncle and I had the silhouette done when I was little in Disneyland. It’s hanging in his bedroom. I always smile when I see it. ^_^
My kids loved the Epcot Kidcot Masks/sticks. Much like the AK Wilderness Explorers, these are fun and free.
Yeah and kids love them!
I love this! Pete talking at the end made me emotional. I would like to add the pearls from Japan pavilion at Epcot. They’re great keepsakes
Do a best and worst autographs
That's a great idea!
Worst: went in 1998 and was told by Uncle Louie from Jungle Book that he couldn't sign because he was an orangutan. I was crushed.
MrYouarethecancer isnt it pretty obvious that Louie's hands amd arms can hold the pen and book
We have Daisy Duck autograph that clearly says Daisy D*ck! It's on a photo map and hangs out our wall! I often chuckle as I walk past it!
I can relate so much to what Pete says at 17:55. I have a shoebox in my closet holding a Disney Parks shopping bag, a Magic Kingdom Map, the Disney Parks notepad and pen from the hotel, a streamer that I picked up after watching Great Moments in History with the Muppets, the bookmark that Belle gave me from Enchanted Tales with Belle, my fireworks dessert party wristband, my birthday pin from my 12th birthday, and the tiara that I got from the Bibbity-Bobbity-Boutique when I turned 6. A lot of people might look at these things and think of it as trash, but I look at it and see memories and moments that easily top a shirt or stuffed animal.
I love getting a parasol when I go to the parks . They are great to have on a hot day. When I get home, I write the year on the handle with a metallic paint pen.
thanks for this video you guys! I just booked my first Walt Disney world vacation and am going through a bit of a sticker shock, so it was nice to hear a reminder that you don’t need to load up on a bunch of pricey souvenirs to make the trip worthwhile.
Kelly Sloss, out of all those souviner recommendations I endorse the Memory Maker. We were in the parks for 6 days and it was the best thing we purchased for our trip. I highly recommend it. Yes. It's expensive, but of you take the cost and divide it by how many days you're going to be in the parks the cost really is managable.
My girls said that the photo book I created when we got home was the best souviner of the trip!
I coming from Australia in family of four looking at memory maker do they have to print photos or can U do that urself when get home off a USB or similar?
Wow Pete, I feel like I experienced a piece of your soul! I save room keys, and cruise cabin keys, and the admission media cards! I put them in business card files. I have them in date order. Some of them are really beautiful in a way. There is usually a date, a room number, different color schemes. I love just leafing through it. Although, since I am single, no kids, I know that one day my sibling, or maybe my nephew will be the one to wind up my physical existence, will look at this stuff, and throw it away! But it meant so much to me in my lifetime. In a way they constitute a part of my soul! (I keep boarding passes too!)
The photopass photographers will take a picture using your camera for free to allow for everyone in the family to be in the photo.
tgraber The silver pass doesn't include Memory Maker unfortunately. So I appreciate that they will take pictures with my phone too.
Heather Mooney I've actually never been to disney hoping to go over Christmas this year but have been doing a lot of research mainly listening the @Disunplugged guys as well as some other disney bloggers so I'm hoping I'll have enough information to make the trip fun even though it's an extremely busy time to go as a first time guest at Disney
tgraber I've recently published an e-book on Amazon, with travel planning tips and tricks that you might find helpful - especially for your fist visit. You can find a link to it on my Instagram, which is suzthedisneydreamer. Congrats on your first trip - you are gonna love it!!
Fast pass fast pass fast pass, make sure you have my Disney experience, and make your fast passes. If you want to see characters, character dining is the easiest way to see multiple characters at a time get autographs, and get a bite to eat, without waiting in any lines or worrying about being rushed for the crazy 2 year old that can’t wait to meet Mickey. Also staying on property is worth the extra money, seriously, off property, majority budget friendly hotels are garbage, they look great in pictures, but you’ll have strep throat when you wake up the next day, or there is a drug deal going on 2 rooms over, on Disney property it’s clean, great quality, free transportation, great customer service, and it’s way more magical then waking up in a run down hotel room that may or may not have had a hooker in it the night before you got there... don’t get me wrong, there are good hotels, BUUTTTT they are priced the same as Disney rooms with less amenities, or priced at budget prices, but has hidden fees that add up to double the price of the room. I live in south Florida and go to Disney about once a month or so, if you want a magical, special, unforgettable time, go to a Disney resort, make fast passes, reserve your dining, and enjoy yourself, yes it’s busy, but with reservations, and fast passes it won’t bother you.
tgraber I just went with my family during the week of Christmas and New years 25th-29th. Let me know if you have any questions. December weather is cold... Especially at night, so be prepared.
going along with the scavenger hunt thing, Pirates adventure: treasures of the seven seas is also a lot of fun. you are given a map to find each location, and once you find the treasure for that map you return and get a card. theres a total of 5 different maps and once you finish you get a special ending and you get a special 6th card with your 5th one and if you put them all together they create an image, but you also get to keep every map. you can play on your own time but if you do all 5 non stop you can do it in an hour to an hour and a half, and to make it easier, it only takes place in adventurland
I LOVE the Best & Worst shows, especially the winning combo of Pete, Sean, Charles, and Steve. Great perspectives!!!
Memory Maker is SO worth it for solo travelers as well. When I visited the parks solo it was so nice knowing I would have someone to take high quality photos of me and I’ll have them forever. Especially because I’m not usually one to think to take photos of myself. I often only take pictures of things and forget to get a photo of me with it.
My kids are teens. And they still have their Mickey ears displayed in their room form their first trip when then were 4 and 6. I love it
I always get pins! They are just so cool!
I agree with Pete. Some of the best keepsakes are free. I like to collect park maps and also the little Epcot festival books. Really anything I can get my hands on that is unique to the time of year. The gift cards the guys use in the Flower and Garden video are also great free keepsakes.
14:42 yes! As a mom I am always missing from the photos and to me memory Maker is worth it so we are all in the picture and I don't have to pack my own camera.
Both of my kids had their first hair cuts there and we were able to walk in with little to no wait both times. It took about 15-20min? You get the cut, a clipping of hair wrapped up, certificate and the classic mickey hat that says "1st hair cut" on the back. My daughter was dressed as Elena with a crown and the lady styled her hair in a fluffy side ponytail with her crown and lots of pixi dust. It was great!
We took our twin 6 year old boys to Disney in 2013 and ended up doing our “extra” day at Animal Kingdom to finish Wilderness Explorers, they loved it and we still look back at the books! It has been our best keepsake!
My favorite keepsakes are my Christmas ornaments. Every vacation I purchase a Christmas ornament. I’m very picky about my ornament. I try to pick one that symbolizes something special about the trip and get the year put on it. Every holiday season my family and I get to talk about the memories of each vacation as we decorate the tree. It’s really wonderful.
I get memory maker when I go that way I get all the photo pass pictures already in my package. I remember in the was early 2000s like 2001 maybe 2000 my mom paid for the Disney photo pass photographers to take my photos in every park. And that was expensive. But when I took my daughter for the first time I wanted the pictures and so I paid for memory makee and it was great. I have the most wonderful picture of her first reaction to meeting minnie and Mickey. And I have a great one of her showing her dress to tinkerbell. She was 2 at the time so those pictures are s treasure
I'm with Pete on the little things. I do buy items before, but with the travel I've done in college, that gets expensive so instead I have the rook keys, the banquet programs, printed napkins, a game ticket, some confetti from a big game. It's the things that you can't order online and really connect me to the place, the items that really show I was there.
I love buying scrapbooks! We go quite often, and I love looking through all the books from when I was a baby and now having them with my babies!
i love pete so freaking much, ive nver been to disney world but i watch these videos to go there vicariously through them hah
Wilderness explorers!!! We carved out an extra day for this and my 3 girls LOVED it....there’s a lot of spaces left in it so they talk all the time about completing it when we go back!!
We've been doing the pearl thing at the Japan pavilion for several years; we get about two per visit. We've already had a jeweler make earrings for me, and a necklace for my s/o's mother. We have about 10 or so pearls left, and we're saving them to make a pearl necklace made for his first grandchild for when she grows up. I think I read somewhere that there are other pearl experiences like the one in Epcot, but we'd never seen it before going to DW, so the pearls have been a keepsake reminder of our experiences there.
My favorite keepsakes anywhere are ornaments and T-shirts. Even if I outgrow the T-shirt, I can always keep it in storage for a souvenir. I also like putting ornaments on the tree showing places that I and my parents have been. Photos are great too, but I always love shirts and ornaments best.
I think memory maker is a BIG one! My grandmother has always taught me that pictures are priceless. ❤ I cant wait to go to the park and use memory maker. Its going to be waayy too much fun!
I can so relate to Pete's bins. I have done the same thing since I was a teenager. Periodically I'll take photos of the bulkier items and then throw them out, so I don't lose the memory entirely.
My wife and I were gifted Memory Maker for our honeymoon and it was a wonderful gift. We ended up taking advantage of many photo locations plus all of the ride photos. It definitely allowed us to capture much more of our trip than we would have taking our own photos.
I’ll add as well that the photo pass photographers do a great job of taking many different photos..different angles, they’ll have you stand in different poses. It may seem like overkill while you’re doing it but then you check the photos on the app a few minutes later and they are some great photos that I never would’ve taken on my own.
My wife and i collect refrigerator magnets of all the special the places we visit. We always pick out a design that we both like.
When we get home each magnet purchased from our trip gets added to the collection. Our fridge is a standing record of all the places we've visited over the years.
Disney Pins are #1 in my opinion - they are beautiful and super fun to collect and add too year after year and watch your collection grow. As far as the money you spend - almost always appreciate in value
I hate having tons of crap to deal with, so my favorite is a charm bracelet. I guess you could go pandora if you want to splurge, but they also have little charm stations in most gift cards with $10 bracelets and $5 charms. Ive had mine for 10 years and i buy a few charms on every trip! Its a really different accessory to wear and is a small keepsake that i can actually use
Gift shops** not cards
I totally agree with the photopass stuff. I have the cutest picture of Chewy and I hugging it out. I even bought a frame for it. But the best, dare I say, iconic photopass picture I own is the one of my dad and myself on our first ever ride on Splash mountain. I look back to this day and laugh at the sheer horror on my face when we got to the drop. I remember how excited I was for the drop on the ride until we got into the logs and I saw there were no seat belts or lap bars. I made my dad wrap his arms around me because I thought I would fly out and die. I'm so glad my parents bought the picture because now I have that memory to look back and laugh on. Plus the bonus is that the picture even has a time stamp on the white part of the photo paper that didn't get cut off. It has the date and even the time at which the picture was printed out.
Another good Keepsake for kids is the Passport at Epcot. It gets a child into the fun of learning about all the countries represented in World Showcase. It is $12 or so at the Disney Traders Store in the front of World Showcase (and I think at most stores throughout the showcase). The passport comes with a pin to wear and stickers for each page with that country's landmarks. Kids can take it around to the Kidcot stop at each country. Someone from that country will stamp and write in their passport. They write the child's name or a message in their language. My son thought is was great to see his name in Chinese and "Happy Birthday" in foreign languages. He was so excited that he wouldn't let us skip a country and made sure that we got to them all! When we got home he brought it to school for show and tell and periodically pulls it out to look at. An educational and really fun keepsake for him!
I have memories collected like Pete, but they’re not organized by year. Hotel keys, trinkets, etc. In boxes & bins in my closet. I might have to purge or get new bins.
A lot of my Photopass photos lately have been shaky - my icon, or with Belle... But at Disneyland I got LOTS of good pictures with Nick & Judy!
Pete-Please be nice to Mr. Steve Porter. Love you guys though.
One of the best keepsakes I ever got from Disney Wolrd was a "Monorail Pilot" Card from when I got to ride in the cockpit of the monorail. I've kept it in my wallet since I got it. My friends and I would have been some of the last guests who got to ride in the cockpit as the accident that changed the rules on that happened about a month or two after that visit.
It's still a memory I cherish as it was amazing to see the rail and the landscape from that spot.
Pins
A lot of people buy the ones that represent the hotels they've stayed in and rides they've been on.
Not Disney related but I've bought pins representing Welsh rugby union matches I've been to.
I get the World Showcase passport every year for the stamp and personal message from each country's cast member. I love flipping through those all the time.
Sweeney Todd reference - 10 points!
My favorite keepsake combines two that you guys mentioned. I do the autographs on a photo mat and then use one of our photo pass photos for the frame. We've done two so far, one year with our Castle photo, and the next time with the Tree of Life. It takes a little commitment to keep the photo mat in good condition, but its well worth it in the end. I keep the mat in a plastic drawstring bag with a case of colorful fine point sharpies, and since I have small kids, I'm able to hang the bag on my stroller. The autographs are so unique that we love displaying them in the frame with our family photo rather than having them in an autograph book on a shelf somewhere. I wish I could post a photo of the two that we've done so you could see them. They turn out great, though!
Memory Maker is awesome. Always ask the photopass photographer if they do magic shots. I learned quickly though to ask them to not take so many close ups because some of them take these super closeups of you and it legit makes you look like an actual baked potatoe. Other than that, I loved it. My favorite pics were meeting Goofy. So many cute candids of him spinning me around and dancing. Not to mention the ride videos. The Tower Of Terror video is the best one. Worth the money.
Best souvenir was a photopass photo from our first trip...back in the day when there were photopass photographers everywhere so there was no wait. It was the family raft ride at Typhoon Lagoon. There is no way you could ever get a picture like that somewhere else.
The runner ups would be the Mickey hoodie I got at Trends...when there was more variety...and the backpack or messenger bag I got at Animal Kingdom. They had a cheaper version a couple of years later but they had less pockets and they didn't hold up. I only bought one because the zipper in mine broke. I've since fixed the zipper and I still love it.
Our family all agree. There isn't much worth buying anymore. My husband hasn't bought anything since the villain store closed.
I have bins too! Mine are boxes and I call them my memory boxes. It's fun to go through the boxes every now and then. They make me smile!
"That's why you wear a hat!". I Lol'ed! Poor Steve. ;)
My family has used my moms autograph book that she got in the 70's for every one of our trips. My mom then puts the date and what park the signature came from. it is relay cool to see how the fab 5 signature have changed over the years and it makes my mom relay happy every time we get someone new.
I do the same with bins Pete! I totally agree! Those little things can be so special!
IMO, the best keepsakes are the ones you don't pay for. Like the notes Disney cleaners leave for example.
My dad would always let his hair grow out before a trip to Disney World just so he could get it cut at the Main Street barber shop. People always knew we were headed down because his hair would become more and more unkempt, haha. He loved it. My husband said he wants to do the same, if they can do a beard trim, too. :)
We purchased Memory Maker for our trip because we want to get all the photos, ride photos, etc. without spending so much time attached to our camera. We'll still take silly pictures in lines or of shows or whatnot, but we really want to be able to just be in the moment, and come away with a ton of pictures of the two of us.
I don't know if they still do it, but one of the last times we went as a family, my sister & I got passports at EPCOT that you could have stamped at each country in the World Showcase. It was a lot of fun to run around and find the stamp spots. :)
Unsure if this has already been done, but I think a good Best & Worst countdown could be Best & Worse Queues! Around the parks, which rides have lines that are the best themed or most entertaining to stand in.
My dearest memories are from PhotoPass, my pictures with the dearest person in the world that I met at the DIS 20th Anniversary party are so dear to me. I have to look at them everyday, right next to my DIS 20th Anniversary pass. Drinking from my DIS Clean Canteen or my DIS coffee cup, and that came with a cute little spoon.
Khymm Weissbrodt I have my lanyard hanging where I can see it in my bedroom. Such an awesome night!
Love memory maker! I love getting all the photos and having those memories which I can share almost right away. Especially the ones that have magic aspects to them.
I got a pick-a-pearl at Japan and put it in a cage necklace. I love it and wear it all the time. It's wonderful cause it's not obnoxiously Disney and there's wonderful memories attached to it and I like telling people about the trip if they ask about my necklace.
I really think that the best and worst is my favorite segment you guys do!
My favorite keepsake from Walt Disney world that I have is a pair of glow up drum sticks I got my senior year of High School during a band trip. My second favorite is actually a figurine of Minnie my brother got me when he went to Disney World his senior year. Those are my favorite keepsakes.
On the subject a silhouettes you can also get them done at Disney Springs and bring in either your pet or a picture of your pets profile (they also have ready made cats and dogs) and they can do those as well at Arribas Brothers
"that's why you always wear a hat." damnn save that heat pete
Oh my Gosh yes lmao
Pete shady I love it 😂😻
hahahaahaha
I'm glad I'm not alone with what I keep from vacations! I do the same thing Pete!!! And I always buy a bumper sticker and a post card to go with the ticket stubs and things I keep!!
Pete, I keep all those little things that are free mementos from vacations and I incorporate them with my pictures into scrapbooks. My family and I love looking through them and revisiting our vacations.
I have a Monorail Copilot License I got from riding in the front several years ago when you could. I keep it with all my random ID cards and safety cards for work. Love that thing.
One of the best things we purchased when we went to WDW was Memory Maker. The price is up there, but we were in the parks for 6 days, so the cost spread over that many days was managable. We got ride photos, ride videos, magic shots, character experience photos and more. It was mentioned that it was a great way to make sure everyone was in the photo, and that was a selling point too. There were times my husband and oldest were going on a ride while my youngest and I were doing a character experience, I had the good camera, he didn't but photo pass allowed us to still capture the moments.
My family finds photos a better souviner than stuff. You should see the amazing photo scrapbook I created when we got home!
For some like me who lives in the UK and gets to go Orlando every 3-5 years, one of the best keepsakes for us are the park maps.
The are free, look wonderful and keeping them in the photo album allows us to look back at the photos and if we wonder where that photo was taken, we’ve got the maps to refer back to. That then sparks the ‘remember that place’ and we can then look for photos related to that.
It’s also great to have the old maps because the parks are changing so much. So we are planning to go back to Orlando in 2020, but comparing a map from 2020 to a map which we saved from our first trip in 2003 would bring back so many memories of rides and attractions that are no longer there, but also be interesting how the parks have evolved over that time.
Something small, but free and nice to keep.
Memory Maker def worth it. We end up with tons of great photos.
Some of my fave keepsakes are the little bits you can pick up, confetti from parades, stickers, napkins, drink stirrers.
Best DIS video I have seen to date. I am going to research the photo pass for our Thanksgiving family reunion trip. Also great story from Pete, I have one large tub and am not nearly as organized as he is.
This is easily my favorite video you’ve done. Those last few minutes had me misty, it really did.
I will say that for me, my favorite souvenirs have been the pennies! It also doesn’t cost much, and can feel like a scavenger hunt. They change them up pretty frequently, so it’s not hard to find a new one on subsequent trips. The little books to put them in are also inexpensive. We tend to get the ones with the year on the cover, so we know which trip we found them on. I’ve known people to turn them into necklaces and charm bracelets, or frame them. I saw one online that was the silhouettes with the pennies imbedded in the frame (a homemade job, as they don’t sell those at the parks as far as I know).
There are other photo souvenirs that are low-cost but high in sentimental value. One that is especially important to me is the Now & Then photos. One example: I have a photo of myself and my sister posing with my dad and Mickey Mouse. Years later, I got the same photo with my daughters and their dad. These photos look so nice when framed, and I always get so many compliments on them. These are especially poignant since my dad passed away in 2010. I have a friend who gets the same photo of her kids (and now grandkids) in front of the castle: same pose, same angle, same time of day, year after year. It started with a photo her parents took of her and her siblings back in 1969, and it started a tradition. A few years ago, she made a photo collage of them and it’s now mural-size on her den wall...and she’s still adding to it! For that one, it’s important to choose an area that isn’t likely to change fundamentally over time. When it does change (like in holiday or anniversary layovers), it makes those photos really stand out! Just watching the photos improve as the technology improves over time is just amazing. And with photo apps, you can even add names and years to the photos! Some apps have great features to make Now & Then photos, too: one of my favorites is via Photo Lab: it looks like the photographer is holding up an older photo to compare to the new one.
Another thing my family likes to do: photo contests. It started with Hidden Mickeys: the night before our last day, we went through all the photos of Hidden Mickeys we took, and the person with the most unique photos won a gift of their choice (my middle child one, with seven Mickeys no one else found). Then we did characters, and next time, it will be more of a scavenger hunt: I have compiled a checklist of all of those hidden gems throughout the park, and the person who gets the most photos will win. This is a fun little game that is inexpensive, but also provides lots of cool photos. I especially like that it makes you pay a little more attention to your surroundings and appreciate all those little details Disney parks do so well. Plus, it’s a bonding experience with my husband, who is an avid amateur photographer and really loves sharing his hobby with the kids.
Finally, one of the best DIY souvenirs is similar to those bins you discussed: scrapbooks. You can do them with a traditional paper scrapbook, or a digital one. This allows you to use some of those photos that you might otherwise delete or toss into a box somewhere. For example: a character breakfast page with the menu, photos of the food and characters, plus something like a napkin or drink coaster. Or you can have a Haunted Mansion death certificate printed out (doombuggies.net has them), and add photos of the Mansion, the cemeteries, etc. Stickers, badges, receipts, room key cards, fast passes, fortune teller strips...almost anything can be made into a great scrapbook page. I highly recommend using the maps, as they change as the parks change, making them a neat, free addition to any scrapbook (and one people often overlook). This is another place where the pressed pennies and autographs can be used in a different, fun way as well. The only limit is your creativity!
I think photos make the best souvenirs because they are so personal. Anyone can download a photo of a Disney attraction, but having photos of your loved ones actually at those attractions are far more precious. And the ways you can use those photos are numerous, with plenty of affordable options to have them made into coffee mugs, puzzles, t-shirts, blankets, lockets, keychains, mouse pads for the Mouse...the list goes on and on. You can use them for screensavers and wallpaper (mine currently is a photo my husband took of the Sword in the Stone at night in Disneyland), fill photo albums and frame them for your walls, and share them with loved ones and the Internet at large. As anyone who has lost a loved one knows all too well: photos are priceless.
Again, I thank you for this video. Everyone should watch it before making the trip!
*Edited to apologize for the length of this comment, which is practically a novel...
Pete, you sre such a sweetie! When I went in Aug, I bought a soft T shirt at kohls before we left for the trip. Then i brought it and a sharpie into the parks, and had characters sign it! I am super happy with how it turned out so far, and plan on adding to it during future trips! Pretty cheap, and very unique. Plus it's a shirt I like and fits me well (I cant do crew necks cause they feel like they are strangling me). Please note they are NOT allowed to sign something you are wearing, so bring in the shirt separately.
Pete you nailed it, our first set of magic bands, luggage tag. cruise itinerary. stuff like that are my favorite
Hi Pete, I had took a picture of one of my old photo album pages where I have old Epcot Tickets from the 80's to show you that I too keep some of these things, along with some old style room card keys from the 80's also. But I had no email address to send them to. Actually, these make FANTASTIC souvenir's. But until you mentioned your boxes of the like, I was too embarrassed to say anything!
We used Potopass the last time we went, and I have to say, I loved it! It was high, but I really think it was worth it. We were a group of 5 and we split up and were able to get pictures of both groups. Pete, I like your idea of the boxes. I used to collect napkins from different places, but I never did anything with them.
I have memory boxes for every Disney holiday. It has some really random stuff like drinks napkin and receipts etc. I brought some craft boxes and decorated them with Disney things.
The Ghost Portrait from Memento Mori is a must for any Haunted Mansion fan!
Jeffrey Meade I so regret not doing this as we had planned on our trip. Gonna have to go back!
I'd like to put the price of the Memory Maker into perspective. Photography itself is expensive. If you hire a professional photographer for a photo shoot you'll pay anywhere from $100-$200 just for one hour of their time, and then you'll pay more for each individual picture. Even when the school photographer takes pictures of your kids they'll charge $20-$50 for digital copies of just the one or two pictures they took. So for Disney to charge $169 and to then allow full access to every single digital photo (and some of the rides provide videos too) is an extremely good deal.
Not gonna lie, I still have Disney World Napkins from before they went green with the brown napkins. LOL. But if you have the money to spend, I recommend getting the glass 3d etchings of your kid's faces in a block of glass. It's really cool if you get one done one year and like ten years later get another with the same design and poses.
Pete, I have a memories box in my closet too. I love looking through it on occasion to reminisce
Photopass Memory Maker! Is so worth it especially if you are in a large group. We went one year and there was a total of 8 of us. Everyone got to be in the photo no one was left out and $149 for that many people with that many photos is just a no-brainer. Also we didn't have to worry about missing photos when we all separated to go on different rides or go to different events because we were all linked.
We do Christmas ornaments every visit . They evoke very fond memories !
Got my kids 1st cut at WDW. Got the $25 package. Still have the locks, certificate, and Mickey Ears. Definitely a good memory
We took a trip last June, celebrated a grad from high school and one from college. We had 2 families totaling 9 people, had photo pass and used the crap out of it and had EVERYBODY in the shot. Pay for it prior to arrival and it's cheaper. Well worth it!
The thing about best keepsakes though, is they are so personal. What one may call junk, another may call a treasure. My mom has several thick blankets from Mexico. My dad has a sword from the U.K. I have a bottle of tequila from the market from Mexico that I bought from my most recent trip which is guarded by my 2 ft Figment I got from the original Journey Into Imagination in the '80s. You can't limit a "Best Keepsake" to any number, it's like trying to say what are the "Best 5 Memories".
pinseeker0879 True but I think pins and key rings/ key chains are a better souvenir than a hair cut and I'd have them at number 2 on the list.
Pete, I don't have bins, but I have a drawer and some shoe boxes, where I keep things like that. Sometimes its movie tickets for a great movie I saw, or a play, or its tickets from theme parks. Anything that brings back memories.
❤️ The Magic Bands ❤️
Speaking of fun little scavenger hunt things one of my favorite souvenirs as a kid were the messages I got from the Epcot Kid Spots around the World Showcase it was so fun for me to meet someone from each country and read what they wrote me I'd recommend it!
The photos from Memento Mori are supercool! I have kept the photo of my son on the wall since we got it and it FREAKS people out.
My first haircut was on Main Street in Magic Kingdom, and yes, my mom also has a Ziploc bag with a lock of the hair in it.
Steve, the photopass photographers have a set strategy for getting certain different shots when you interact with characters-and candids is one of them. They use an acronymn that escapes me at the moment. You can learn tons about photopass on Sur Williow's channel-he used to be one and worked all over the parks. Its all very coll info! Also-photopass photographers will take photos with your camera for you, free of charge, just fyi. Thats one way to get the whole family in. But as you say, the photos they take with their cameras are gonna be top notch! AND then you dont have to carry a camera around the park. Anything i can do to lessen the amount of stuff i have to carry is welcome!