EPCOT 30th Anniversary - What's your pin story?

So we got to EPCOT around noon on 10/1/12 not knowing what to expect. Picked un the special anniversary park guide and our buttons stating "I was there" for the 30th anniversary and headed to the Pin Station. As a side light, we were there the day before for the D23 EPCOT presentation - just excellent!!

Got to the Pin Station and the line was about 50 yards long - for those who know the location this is "out in the sun" on a very hot and humid FL day. People blindly getting line assuming the pins were at this location. Based on experience I walked to the front of the line to ask a CM if the pins were in fact at this location. Nope, there was a small sign saying all of the EPCOT 30th anniversary stuff was at MouseGears, a store right across from Pin Station.

The line at Mousegears went out to the cranberry bog (put in for the Food & Wine festival, about 100 yards away)!! We were told that at the Park opening the line went back to Mexico located in the World Showcase!!! We did NOT wait in line, went to F&W for lunch instead. Came back about 5 hours later and counted at least 500 people STILL in line. Left the Park and decised to try again at night.

Came back around 600 PM, went to F&W for dinner and got in a line around 830 PM that was about 50 people at this time. CM's said that the only pin sold out was the $125 Jumbo - they were very helpful and accurate. Met some great people in line, gave my 30th anniversary button to a lady who did not have one, but she was there for the official opening in EPCOT in 1982, and helped people out with pics of the pins I had from PinPics.

Bottom line - I got everything I wanted and some good Traders. P.S. the firework "cap" that they did at the end of Iluminatiions to celebrate the anniversary was Fantastic!! It shook your body from all of the explosions.

Overall, a vey good, long, hot day but as usual well worth it!!

Mike S.

The line for Mouse Gear was very long and slow, but they had plenty of everything except the Jumbo and Vinylmations to go around. Most probably were able to get most of what they wanted, but the line was very tedious.

I posted in the meet thread, that I don't think happened because people were stuck in the line, lol. My Dad and I got to the turnstyles about 8:20. Proceeded quickly to Mousegear and got in line below the wine bottle at the corner entrance. Two hours later we got our pins. Only the LE stuff because we bought the open edition stuff the night before. While in line I did find a manager with a lanyard full of APs. So I got 2 and my Dad one. I also managed to trade for the CM lanyard only pin, but my Dad didn't find one. I also need the Living Seas pin from the mystery set to have a complete set. We were able to attend all 3 event presentations and it wasn't too bad of a day. But I didn't expect it too be so hot everyday of my trip. Now I'm just about to board my plane back home.

I'll have to echo most of what was said here. I ended up having to try to trade for the Cast Member pin pretty much all day. It wasn't until right before Illuminations that night did I finally get it. But I did get in line around 8am for the turnstiles and ended up getting in line close to Mouse Gears entrance once the turnstiles opened. Even being that close, it still took me about 2 hours to get to the registers. People behind me were talking about how the line originally snaked back down to the Main Entrance and clogged up that area so they ended up moving it back towards World Showcase. Unfortunately, I didn't have my pins to trade at that particular point as there were several people, including Julie Young, out trading pins. The people behind me ended up trading for one DLR Space Mountain POH AP pin and another AP pin as well.

redstorm63 said:

The people behind me ended up trading for one DLR Space Mountain POH AP pin and another AP pin as well.

Click to expand...

I wonder if there were multiple of the Space Mountain POH AP's, because that's one of the pins we traded for! The other one we got at that time was The Land Epcot 30th mystery pin. Do you remember what the people looked like? My Dad has a long, grey ponytail and was wearing a Dreamfinder T-shirt, he did the trading because I had already traded with that cast member. The person behind us traded for the Mickey chaser from the Florida Project mystery set, if you might have seen that trade as well.

What a crazy, awesome day! I got to the gates at 8 and was 3rd in line at a side gate. Got through and rushed to Mouse Gear, but was still about 70+ ppl back. Vinyls were sold out in first 5ish mins and I got through line by 9:20. Ran into Lucan444 and saw that he was trading with some managers loaded with APs and found out about the special CM pin. Then I walked around looking for more managers and found some more great scores! I ended up with 6 APs and 1 of the CM pins. I got all of the pins I wanted plus the awesome "toothpick holders", lanyard, shirt, and an EPCOT 30 light up glass at F&W (I could only find 1 booth with it).
Pin wise, I still need the Land/Kitchen Kabaret pin from the mystery set. (I have World of Motion, Living Seas, and Horizons to trade).

I got the 2 pins I needed but like the 40th I don't believe the LE size was anywhere near accurate as I can't see how 2,500/3,000 pins lasted 12+ hours (and may still be there) The math doesn't add up for me..


-em

hopemax said:

I wonder if there were multiple of the Space Mountain POH AP's, because that's one of the pins we traded for! The other one we got at that time was The Land Epcot 30th mystery pin. Do you remember what the people looked like? My Dad has a long, grey ponytail and was wearing a Dreamfinder T-shirt, he did the trading because I had already traded with that cast member. The person behind us traded for the Mickey chaser from the Florida Project mystery set, if you might have seen that trade as well.

Click to expand...

Someone posted, I think it was DLRPinTrader92, that there are typically 8-12 AP pins of each pin. I think I remember reading it in his guide of AP/PP pins.