Although I have been to Disney 25 times in my life, I learned a few Disney Secrets I did not know about.

Hands down, the most FUN out of all the secrets was the Pin Trading.  I noticed people with Lanyards around their necks and Disney pins everywhere, but I (wrongly) assumed that they were just souvenirs. Disney Pin Trading is a HUGE game that goes on between guests and cast members alike. What you do, is purchase a lanyard and some pins to start out. Disney has start sets that you can buy that include a lanyard and 4 pins or deluxe sets that include a lanyard and 8 pins. Or you can buy everything separate. My hint would be to buy the deluxe set right off the bat because its very addictive.

Cast members throughout the park wear either a blue or green lanyard. Blue means they trade with anyone, green means they trade with only 12 and under. After you have your pins, you can approach any cast member in the park and ask to see thier pins. You trade one of yours for one of theirs. There are sets that you can try to collect, pins with secret mickeys, completer pins….you get the point. You can decide to go after all princesses, or characters from certain movies, or maybe a pin from each park. The fun is in finding a pin and trading it up! We traded at least 30 times on our last day. I started out with all Mickey Mouses from my starter set and ended up working on getting cats…I collected four cats, one from Lady and the Tramp, one from Aristocats, and two I don’t recognize. I also went after some Muppet’s and have a Kermie, an Animal, and a Kermie and Miss Piggie.

There are pins that have “hidden” mickeys on them that are very popular. This was one of my trades. I also managed to score a pin that has only 1600 in circulation and is a limited edition.

Charlotte also got into the action with her own trading and really enjoyed picking out someone elses pins and giving up one of hers. She started out with all Finding Nemo and we don’t even have any of those left. I really wish I had known about all of this on my first day of the trip.

There are 20K pins retired and 30K in circulation. You can also trade with people in the park and its a great way to open a conversation with someone. I traded with about 10 kids…haha. We had a BLAST.

Another thing I learned was that you can be a co-pilot on the monorail system. All you have to do is ask! When you go check into the monorail, ask the cast member before you get on, if you can be a co-pilot and they take you to a new line and you can sit with the pilot in the front of the monorail. Its a really great (and free) experience and its just you and the pilot. You can see right over the railings on the monorail and its SCARY. They give you co-pilot licenses when you leave~

Additionally, you can be a guest conductor on the trains in the park. They put you in the back and you can say ALL ABOARD at the train (or your kids can). You ride in the caboose! You also get a guest conductor badge.

One very fun secret we learned at Disney are Transportation cards. There are 12 monorail cards, 3 ferry cards, and 3 bus cards. You can approach cast members in the transportation areas and ask if they have cards. There are 18 in all and if you get them all, they go for about $75 on eBay. We ended up with 4 of them.

Last, but not least, there are Disney Safety Cards. There are 12 in all and cast member greeters generally have them. You can ask for safety cards and we ended up with 3 of them. They go quick and are hard to find.

There you go~! Fun games to play while you are walking around the park.

Trisha