A couple of weeks ago we went on vacation to California. We spent almost an entire week in Disneyland and California Adventure. We had so much fun! I’ve talked about our many visits to Disneyland before and you probably already know I consider myself a pro at visiting with infants and toddlers. As my daughter is growing we are getting to experience new things at the park each visit. This trip she discovered pin trading.
According to a little online research, pin trading was introduced to Walt Disney World in 1999 as part of the Millennium Celebration. Since then pin trading has spread to most Disney parks worldwide.
In most resorts a large selection of pins are available for purchase. Most cast members wear lanyards covered in pins available to trade with guests. To trade, simply approach a cast member and offer to trade one of your pins for one of theirs. Cast members happily give what you are asking for in exchange for one of your pins. Pin trading has became quite a popular hobby and Disney has many different pin trading events in their parks each year.
My daughter is only three years old and was never aware of pin trading. On our last day full vacation day we were riding the monorail and my daughter was chatting with a little girl sitting next to her. The other girl was a little older and was wearing a bright pink lanyard covered in Disney pins. My daughter was very curious and the other girl was happy to explain why my daughter needed to immediately purchase a lanyard and pins the second we got off the monorail.
My daughter picked a pink lanyard to match her new friend. We let her pick out four princess pins to get started. We noticed a few starter kit options that were priced well. This would be a great option to getting started in the park or purchasing a gift.
She wanted to trade with the first cast member she saw wearing pins. She happily gave up her new Cinderella pin to get Goofy in exchange.
Next she traded with a cast member in front of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
This went on for most of the day. She was also approaching other guests asking to trade. Luckily everyone she talked to was willing to trade. She was having so much fun! Then she remembered she had traded the Cinderella pin (her first trade) and wanted it back. We thought she had a clear understanding of the trading process but she was very upset with the loss of Cinderella. To avoid tears in Disneyland on our last day of vacation my husband took her into a pin store and purchased the identical Cinderella pin.
She was just as excited to trade following that experience but every proposal started with, “I’ll trade you anything except Cinderella.”
We love Disney and are so excited about the new fun hobby my daughter just picked up!
my kids also loved pin trading on our last trip! they each chose a keeper pin that they didn’t trade, and we put locking backs on those – we lost some pins before that! we recently bought a handful of pins for a dollar or so each at the disney outlet for our next trip!