Just as Wonderland is bustling with the Queen's croquet matches and battles with the Jabberwock, Walt Disney World is bustling with different activities also. Everyone knows about the amazing attractions such as Splash Mountain, and the live action stage shows such as Indiana Jones, but not as many people know about the SIDE attractions WDW has to offer. Walt Disney World does a great job making sure there is an activity for everyone to enjoy during their visit by catering to many kinds of personalities. Today I would like to share with you three activities that will take you out of the long lines of the rides to give you a chance to interact a little more with the Disney Parks and Cast Members themselves.
One of my most loved activities about going to Disney is an activity called Pin Trading. I've been Pin Trading for a long time, but this will be Prince Rich's first time with his own lanyard. Ever since I was a little kid, I have been fascinated with Disney Pin Trading. Disney pins come in all shapes, and have a variety of characters, attractions, and other fun styles on them. I remember going on a family trip and buying matching fisherman's hats in AK with my dad that had like 5 or 6 AK themed pins on it. Nothing made me happier than sharing this with my dad and brother. I also remember picking pins off Cast members lanyards in exchange for ones I had and surprising them with the names of little known characters (rocking-horse flies, bread-and-butterflies anyone?). I love pin trading because it's an easy activity that you can do ALL DAY AT ANY PARK while waiting in lines, having a snack, or just walking around. This is also an "all ages" activity meaning that young kids (I would say 5-6 year-olds are a good age to start their own lanyard) and adults alike can have fun while doing it. Pin Trading is also very user friendly. All you do is purchase Disney Pins while you are at the parks (although I prefer the massive savings of buying lots on eBay for far cheaper, just watch the details and make sure they are authentic) and a lanyard, or other pin holding device (book, fanny pack, etc, but a lanyard is better to let people see your pins). When trading pins, you can either trade with another park guest or with a Cast Member. Cast members typically wear either a black lanyard with pins on it for all ages and/or a green one that is just for kids. According to official pin trading rules, you are permitted to trade up to 2 pins per cast member per day which doesn't really limit you because almost EVERY cast member wears at least one lanyard. The great thing about trading with cast members is that as long as you offer them official Disney pins to trade for some of theirs, they CANNOT reject your trade! Cast members lanyards allow you to dump the pins you don't want to keep easily, and also are home to exclusive cast member issued pins (very nice pins to have). When trading with other park guests however, they have the right to REFUSE your trade. A warning about trading with other park guests is that some people are VERY SERIOUS about pin trading, and will want you to trade two or more of your pins (depending on what you have) for one of their more rare pins. I go by the motto a pin for a pin 99.9% of the time. I won't say 100% because I never found a pin I wanted to trade more than one of mine for. Here's some pictures of the huge haul I just bought for our trip. Even Lady Layla got in the Pin Trading mood!
We bought 75 pins and were allowed to pick 15 between the 2 of us to keep and not trade. Here are the pictures of the pins we kept. My selection has the gold castle from the Little Mermaid in it.
Although I have only participated in Pin Trading, Walt Disney World is always working on new ways to engage it's guests. The next two activities are ones that I have not tried personally, but have heard good things about them. I do plan on giving the first activity a shot because it looks pretty fun and I'm hoping to be able to do it with no problem in MK since we are going at a low crowd time. Keeping up with the "collectible" aspect of Disney Pins, Disney has recently created an interactive card game called The Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. The idea behind this game is that the MK has been overtaken by Disney Villains and Merlin needs your help gathering pieces of his magic Crystal to help banish them. When you arrive at MK, head on over to the fire station where you will see a "Sorcerers Wanted" sign. Here, you will be given a card with a key on it, and a pack of "spell cards" to help you on your journey. After you receive your first pack of cards, each day you go back to MK, head back over to the firehouse and a Cast Member will scan the key card they gave you and give you another pack of spell cards. You are only allowed one pack per day however. When you are given your cards, you will be given a special map of the MK where you can find "portals" for your journey to find the crystal. There are quests in different "lands" of the MK and each one is different, so there is always a lot to find. I've read mixed reviews about this activity, but it looks pretty fun to me. I'm planning on at least giving it a shot when we go down there. Here is a video of one player's "journey" against Maleficent!
For our final activity, Disney has created a way for young kids to gain interest in the World Showcase at Epcot. Epcot has a bad reputation for not being the most "kid friendly" park of the 4 theme parks which I think is kind of silly because Epcot was one of my favorites as a kid. In order to make this park more "kid-friendly", Disney Imagineers cashed in on the uber popularity of Phineas and Ferb and created Agent P's World Showcase Adventure. During this adventure your child becomes a sidekick to Agent P in his quest "Around the world" to put a stop to Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz's evil plan. Using their F.O.N.E's to get missions in each country, kid's get to explore the nooks and crannies each country has to offer. This is more of a "calm the kids down after being in lines all day" kind of activity. It looks fun, but we've no children yet so I don't think this will be on our agenda for this round. If you do have have children however, here is a video of one of the missions.
Wow what an adventure! With all of these fun activities you will be sure to find something to do to pass the time in between rides. After hearing about all these things to do, I'm quite sure you've worked up quite the appetite! Ladies and gentleman I would like to introduce you to a new portion of our parties! I've whipped up a batch of treats to satisfy your sweet teeth! May I present to you, Fluffernutter brownie cones!
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