Okay, I know, I know. It’s been a while. I had to take a brief hiatus. Apologies all around! Just needed time to soak in the awesome sauce of my recent Disney trip. Don’t feel jealous! I brought back souvenirs. No, not one of those giant multi-colored lollipop things.
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I got you something far more insubstantial and impermanent. Anecdotes! Stories from my travels. Thoughts, ponderings, reviews, all that self indulgent fluff that keeps you coming back to this site for more.
Seriously, please come back to this site for more.
While there are many epic tales to come, I want to start with a small tid bit. See, I have always held that it’s the small extra things that truly bring the magic to Disney. This is just one example: The Min Pin Stroller.
Photo by Leah Holstein’s iPhone
The Min Pin Stroller! What the #!@$% is that!? (Please imagine that being said by Donald Duck).
Well, dear reader, it is a stroller for Minnie Mouse that is covered in pins.
Now, if you are an addict/victim of the Disney Pin trading phenomenon, you will understand immediately. For those who have remained blissfully oblivious….
The Disney Company, in a brilliant scheme to make scads and scads of money, introduced “pin trading,” where they put your favorite Disney characters on a pin and sell them for about ten times their worth. Prices ranges from $6 to $30ish, depending on how elaborate the pin.
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But here’s where the genius part steps in: cast members positioned all throughout the parks wear lanyards of these little beauties. And, no matter where they are or what they are doing, if you walk up to them and ask to see their pins, they have to stop whatever they’re doing and let you peruse the odd polyster chain around their neck (I’ve seen some old perverts abuse this with the female cast members, but hey at least it gives Ariel a break). If you see a pin you like, you ask to trade for it. The cast member then has no choice but to hand over their super awesome pin for whatever lame starter kit pin you’re trading it for. By this logic, it is very possible to trade a $6 pin for a $30 pin (pretty sure I’ve done it on several occasions).
The possibility of trading for the exclusive “cast member” pins keeps suckers (such as myself) buying more and more pins each time they return to the park. Shamless ponzi scheme? Meh, borderline. But it’s fun, interactive and I love it.
My Ever-Expanding Pin Collection
Photo by Leah Holstein’s iPhone
But back to the Min Pin. So I was walking out of the Animal Kingdom Park as they were closing for the day, and asked one of the vendors near the exit if I could see her pins. She obliged, and in slightly broken English asked, “Have you seen the stroyer?”
“The who-da-what now?”
Like all audio-animatronic cast members, she responded patiently,”The stroll-er. The Pin Stroller. Ask at the Stroller Drop Off.”
Okay…intrigued, I dragged my party to a place I had not been since I could still fit comfortably in an airplane seat: the Stroller Drop Off. Tentatively, I asked the cast member, “Can I see the Pin Stroller?”
She smiled excitedly, “Sure!” and called for another cast member to bring out “The Stroller.” And that’s when she rolled out the Min Pin.
“This is Minnie’s personal collection of Trading Pins,” the Cast Member explained. “Would you like to trade with her?”
Well, how many chances do you get to trade pins with Mrs. Mouse herself? So I selected a very pretty Snow White pin and traded it for the scary disembodied Kermit baby head I bought off of eBay.
Photo taken by Leah Holstein’s iPhone
Sorry to stick you with that, Minnie, but you got plenty of others.
I said good-bye and thank you to the stuffed Minnie, as well as the cast members who had kindly wheeled her out just for me, and left with a big smile.
It’s always the little things.
So next time you’re leaving the Animal Kingdom, ask to trade pins with Minnie Mouse. Or just strike up a conversation with a random cast member, you never know what secrets they’ll share. Until then, I’ll keep sharing mine right here on themagicalworldof.com. Stay tuned 
Photo by Nancy Cohen’s iPhone
