Pin Trading Report @ DisneyLand Paris Friday 17th to Sunday 20th December
- Messages
- 3,808
- Location
- East Sussex, UK
In preparation for the trip I sorted through all my current trade pins & selected just short of 100 to take & potentially trade out. It’s always a good idea to take a mixture of pins, in this instance I took a few hidden Mickey pins, a few limited edition pins (you’ll know why later!) & a whole host of open/rack pins, no pins were on cards & they were sorted out into groups beforehand.
On arrival at our hotel (Cheyenne) some 20 minutes late there were no lanyards on display on any CM’s at reception, after dumping off the luggage in our room a quick walk through the hotel store reaped a better reward, a couple of trades were made, not for anything significant but it got me in the trading mood!!!
· TIP No 1 – Always check the hotel store, seem to be more lanyards here than in main reception
You have to take a courtesy bus from your Disney hotel to the Bus station & then make the short walk to the entrance (through security check) & then decide on left for the Studios or right for the Disney Park.
Now please bear in mind that this whole weekend was VERY cold, loads of snow, ice & sludge & you’ll get an idea of some of the problems!! Main Street USA in a lot shorter than WDW & although there is an Emporium you can walk through end-to-end in a few minutes. There are quite a few staff serving etc BUT due to the cold weather most were wearing heavy over-coats which hide the lanyards. A few more trades were made here & 1 great trade which got me a Stitch Experiments pin from a lanyard!!
· TIP No 2 – Always ask if the CM is wearing a lanyard as the large over-coats hide them
Now, it is worth mentioning that some CM’s will try to chose the pin that they wish to trade for, as this is not the norm in WDW or DLR then it can be a little surprising PLUS some CM’s will also check the back of your pin before they make the trade. It gave me the impression that some CM’s treat the pins as their own & they are not too happy if you pull a trade pin out of your pocket or trade bag.
· TIP No 3 – Have your trade pins on display – suggest the ones that you want to trade out next & do not have any LE pins out – they will go first guaranteed!!
· TIP No 4 – NO pins marked EURODisney, Propin or Sedesma can be traded & ensure that every pin you have has the Disney copyright on the reverse, all pins I’ve seen have this but I did notice some pins a while back which did not!!
There are a few stores either side of Main Street USA which can bring a few rewards, so check them out!
Walking further around the Disney Park we noticed that there were very few outside carts etc & the main places for trading were in the stores scattered around the Castle, or at the attraction exits – where you can pick up your ride photo. A few lanyards here & there but again hidden under coats!
So the board itself (the first of two as it turns out!) was broken down & sectioned into:
The rest of the sections above run with the same rules pin for pin but they MUST be similar i.e. PTN for PTN, Event for Event etc.
There was also an opportunity to trade for a pin pack (i.e. 4 pins) but you would also have to give over an unopened pack of pins – I wasn’t quite sure with this as value wise it didn’t work out. DLP packs are 18E for 4 pins, I know that WDW 7 pin packs are approx $30, just my opinion that you trade away 7 pins & get 4 back!
On the Saturday we visited the Studios in the afternoon, the opportunities to pin here are mainly in the stores prior to actually entering the main park area. CM’s again wearing heavy coats, so really the same advice applies. Check the attraction stores. In my opinion the trading in the Studios was very poor, limited opportunities, the park is small compared to Hollywood Studios & I walked around it in less than an hour making only a couple of trades for open pins!
In summary, I think that the whole weekend was spoiled somewhat by the amount of bad weather, the snow was excessive to say the least & actually made the ground underfoot dangerous as the walkways were not cleared until late in the day ready for the next down-pour!!
CM’s did seem keen to trade & the cold weather did mean that a few rides were closed & you find yourself leaving the park early to go & warm up back in your room or in the hotel!
The pins on lanyards actually reminded me a little of WDW – mainly booster or starter pack pins with the odd nice rack or open pin thrown in somewhere. I did not trade all my 100 pins, in fact I only traded out two-thirds of them for what I think is just a refresh of part of my traders.
I could count the amount of guests seen with trading lanyards on one hand, which meant that the turn-over rate of the pins on CM’s lanyards was slow – this was evident when I saw the same CM three days in a row with the same pins on!! I did not see any French traders at all with their books on display over the weekend.
Okay, this was a normal weekend & no doubt things may change when there is a trading night on etc, the weather was a major factor, the pinning opportunities limited, the pin selection poor
On arrival at our hotel (Cheyenne) some 20 minutes late there were no lanyards on display on any CM’s at reception, after dumping off the luggage in our room a quick walk through the hotel store reaped a better reward, a couple of trades were made, not for anything significant but it got me in the trading mood!!!
· TIP No 1 – Always check the hotel store, seem to be more lanyards here than in main reception
You have to take a courtesy bus from your Disney hotel to the Bus station & then make the short walk to the entrance (through security check) & then decide on left for the Studios or right for the Disney Park.
Now please bear in mind that this whole weekend was VERY cold, loads of snow, ice & sludge & you’ll get an idea of some of the problems!! Main Street USA in a lot shorter than WDW & although there is an Emporium you can walk through end-to-end in a few minutes. There are quite a few staff serving etc BUT due to the cold weather most were wearing heavy over-coats which hide the lanyards. A few more trades were made here & 1 great trade which got me a Stitch Experiments pin from a lanyard!!
· TIP No 2 – Always ask if the CM is wearing a lanyard as the large over-coats hide them
Now, it is worth mentioning that some CM’s will try to chose the pin that they wish to trade for, as this is not the norm in WDW or DLR then it can be a little surprising PLUS some CM’s will also check the back of your pin before they make the trade. It gave me the impression that some CM’s treat the pins as their own & they are not too happy if you pull a trade pin out of your pocket or trade bag.
· TIP No 3 – Have your trade pins on display – suggest the ones that you want to trade out next & do not have any LE pins out – they will go first guaranteed!!
· TIP No 4 – NO pins marked EURODisney, Propin or Sedesma can be traded & ensure that every pin you have has the Disney copyright on the reverse, all pins I’ve seen have this but I did notice some pins a while back which did not!!
There are a few stores either side of Main Street USA which can bring a few rewards, so check them out!
Walking further around the Disney Park we noticed that there were very few outside carts etc & the main places for trading were in the stores scattered around the Castle, or at the attraction exits – where you can pick up your ride photo. A few lanyards here & there but again hidden under coats!
- TIP No 5 – If you do not ride the attraction check out the store by entering through the back entrance – i.e. Big Thunder, Space Mountain, ToT, RnRC etc
So the board itself (the first of two as it turns out!) was broken down & sectioned into:
- Pin Trading night pins
- Event pins
- Cast Lanyard (Refresh) pins
- Limited Edition pins
- Open/rack pins
The rest of the sections above run with the same rules pin for pin but they MUST be similar i.e. PTN for PTN, Event for Event etc.
There was also an opportunity to trade for a pin pack (i.e. 4 pins) but you would also have to give over an unopened pack of pins – I wasn’t quite sure with this as value wise it didn’t work out. DLP packs are 18E for 4 pins, I know that WDW 7 pin packs are approx $30, just my opinion that you trade away 7 pins & get 4 back!
- TIP No 6 – As I mentioned before take a nice mixture of pins if you think there maybe something from the board(s) – try to find out the time & place as this seems to be hit or miss
On the Saturday we visited the Studios in the afternoon, the opportunities to pin here are mainly in the stores prior to actually entering the main park area. CM’s again wearing heavy coats, so really the same advice applies. Check the attraction stores. In my opinion the trading in the Studios was very poor, limited opportunities, the park is small compared to Hollywood Studios & I walked around it in less than an hour making only a couple of trades for open pins!
In summary, I think that the whole weekend was spoiled somewhat by the amount of bad weather, the snow was excessive to say the least & actually made the ground underfoot dangerous as the walkways were not cleared until late in the day ready for the next down-pour!!
CM’s did seem keen to trade & the cold weather did mean that a few rides were closed & you find yourself leaving the park early to go & warm up back in your room or in the hotel!
The pins on lanyards actually reminded me a little of WDW – mainly booster or starter pack pins with the odd nice rack or open pin thrown in somewhere. I did not trade all my 100 pins, in fact I only traded out two-thirds of them for what I think is just a refresh of part of my traders.
I could count the amount of guests seen with trading lanyards on one hand, which meant that the turn-over rate of the pins on CM’s lanyards was slow – this was evident when I saw the same CM three days in a row with the same pins on!! I did not see any French traders at all with their books on display over the weekend.
Okay, this was a normal weekend & no doubt things may change when there is a trading night on etc, the weather was a major factor, the pinning opportunities limited, the pin selection poor
Last edited:
