Disneyland is hands down my favorite place in the world to take my kids. There is nothing as magical as watching your child experience Disney for the first or 20th time. While I think Disney is worth every penny, it can get pricey fast. Especially if your kids want to bring home a lot of souvenirs.
But souvenirs in the park don’t have to be expensive. In fact, you can get some AMAZING ones for little or nothing at all. Here are some of my favorite cheap but amazing souvenirs:
- Animators Academy — This was probably one of my favorite things from the whole trip. Located in California Adventures, you go into a large auditorium and an animator will teach you how to draw a Disney character. The pieces of paper you are drawing on say Disney’s California Adventure on them and you get to take your drawing home at the end. I love how all of ours turned out and I think I want to hang them all together. There is a schedule of the different characters they will be drawing that day so make sure you check in to see when they are drawing a character you want to try your hand at. The animator is very good at teaching you how to make your character.
- Buttons — Whether it is your first visit, your birthday or your honeymoon, Disneyland has a special button for it. You can ask for these pins on main street and they are free. My husband and I got them while we were there on our honeymoon and it was so much fun to wear them because everywhere we went people told us congratulations. For this trip we asked for the 1st Visit buttons for our girls. They also have some more generic ones that say “I’m Celebrating” and such.
- Smashed Pennies — There are smashed penny machines all over Disneyland and California Adventures. Bring a roll of quarters and a roll of pennies and let your kids smash them to their hearts’ content. It takes two quarters and a penny to get a smashed penny. In a few places they smash dimes instead of pennies. Those take three quarters and a dime, but most of the machines are for penny smashing.
- Silhouette — There is a fantastic silhouette studio on main street, where an artist will cut out your profile using super tiny scissors. It is so much fun to watch these creations come to life and most of the artists can add people or animals into your portrait as long as you have a profile picture of them. You can also choose to add your favorite Disney character into your silhouette. It costs around $10 to have it done, and you get two copies. You can choose to purchase a frame, but since the silhouettes are done on a 5×7 piece of paper, I find it just as easy to frame it when I get home.
- Jungle Cruise Map — When you go on the Jungle Cruise, ask an attendant for a map!
- Buzz Lightyear Ride Pictures — On a lot of the rides you ride at Disneyland, you get the opportunity to purchase a photo that was taken of you during the ride. On the Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland, it lets you email the picture to yourself for free!
- Autographs and Pictures — In most of the character meet and greets there is a photographer taking pictures that you will have the opportunity to buy, but you are absolutely allowed to take photos with your own camera. Some of my favorite pictures from our trip aren’t the posed pictures of my girls with the characters but the pictures of them chatting with the characters or dancing that I took while we were there. You can also ask each character for their autograph. Autograph books are a little pricey in the park so I brought some Frozen notebooks with us. I bought these ones here and they were great! I would recommend making sure the books you bring are spiral bound or bound well to keep the pages in. Make sure you also carry a pen with you.
- Confetti — In the Disney Jr. Live on Stage show, gold doubloons drop from the ceiling in the form of shiny gold paper. If you have a Jake and the Neverland Pirates fan like I do, they will love running all over after the show collecting them.
- Stickers — My kids were offered Mickey Mouse stickers all over the park by different employees. If you ask, I am sure they will scrounge one up for you.
- Restaurant Fun — This isn’t exactly free, because you have to pay for the meal, but if you dine in one of the character restaurants they will give your kids crowns, stickers and crayons to help keep them occupied.
- Keychains — these cute little keychains were in most of the shops and cost $6 for 3 of them. They would make perfect little gifts to bring home to friends.
- Charms — These cute little charms run about $5 a piece. We let our daughter pick one on every trip. It is a small, fun way to remember each vacation.
- Maps and Tickets– I always make a vacation box for each of our vacations and we save park maps and our tickets to put inside.
- Badges — Your kids can earn badges at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail in California adventure. Make sure you have your kids try the Smoke Jumpers while they are there, My girls LOVED it! I wish adults could go on them!
If you are thinking of planning a trip to Disneyland check out Get Away Today’s California Vacation deals. Use the code Housewife15 to get $10 off your trip!
What do you get to remember your trips to Disney?
Don't forget Kidcot at Epcot. They make a cook mask and it's completely free.
My kids are obsessed with getting maps on the places we go! And I already have a button/pin collection started for when we get to take a trip so the kids can trade.
Where did that pressed coin organizer come from? My kids would love that.
It actually came from Disneyland. They are on top of a lot of the machines. It was $8.95.
We've done the smashed pennies for a number of years. I'm also interested in the organizer.
What wonderful ideas! We always do the smashed pennies and the autographs.
The smashed pennies are always one of my favorite souveniers wherever we go.
That's great that there are so many free and cheap souvenir options. That way the kids can feel like they have a memento to keep without spending lots of money.
We get smashed pennies everywhere we travel. I like the pockets for the pennies to display them!
Many of these are the same for WDW too. Pressed pennies are our favorite!
Great tips
Good to know you can get stickers there – our little girl is a sticker lover!
These are great tips that would help us get free or nearly free souvenirs from our upcoming trip. Thank you!!!
We always get the buttons and pennies!!
Our family loves to draw and going to Animator's Academy was a highlight during our January 2015 Disneyland vacation!
Our family loves to draw and going to Animator's Academy was a highlight during our January 2015 Disneyland vacation!
Great budget ideas!
Great Budget ideas!
Great budgeting ideas!
Excellent list! My kids' favorite freebies are the maps and signatures! I have adorable pictures of them looking at a map together in their stroller and planning their day!
Great to know how to save a little money at Disney!
What clever tips! I logging these in my iPhone for when we visit next. Really FUN ideas that don't break the bank 🙂
xoxo
Heather Sebastian
These are great!
These are great!
I love free things!
Pin trading is a good activity too. You can get some cheaper ones online and trade with them. Just make sure they are official Diney pins when you go to buy them.
Thanks for the ideas on how to keep souvenir costs down!
Great tips for saving money!
Great tips!
We LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the Animation Academy. Not only is it an awesome souvenir to take home and display at in your house but its so much fun to try and learn to draw these characters. Plus its great to see the kids concentrate so hard!
We do pins and mugs. As I type this I'm drinking coffee from my Pirate Princess mug and looking at a corkboard full of our pins. I love being able to remember our vacation while doing everyday activities at home.
Ah, pressed pennies. I wish I had saved mine from when I was a kid. I saw the best pinterest tutorial on turning them into a charm bracelet
love this
Didn't even know cheap or free was an option at Disney! Thanks!
Lots of great money saving tips 😀
These are such great ideas! Thanks!
Love that the buzz light year ride emails you a picture!
My daughter loves smashed pennies, and I never realized we could get them all over Disneyland. Definitely doing that the next time we go!
Some of the best things at Disney are free.
Fun ideas. thanks!
We like to buy Christmas ornaments on all our vacations, and there are some great ones at Disney
We had silhouettes done of the kids last year and love them! We had a second set done for the grandmas.
Love all the budget ideas! Great article!
Thanks for all the great ideas!
we've done all but the silouettes! I didn't know that one, darn we'll have to do that one next time- thank you!
thanks for the great tips
If it's free, it's for me!
cool tips – thx
Pins Pins Pins- how fun to stop strangers to trade with & meet great people!
I love cheap and free!! Thanks!
great tips
I'm all about saving money and when you're at Disney, any tip that helps you do that is appreciated! Thanks very much for sharing!
Great info!
We went to Disneyland a few weeks ago and went to the Animators Academy, it was so much fun and great souvenirs!
Gotta love something cheap or free, especially at WDW!
These are some great ideas! I didn't know there were so many activities for kids that would let them have souvenirs.
We have never been to Disneyland…yet! I love the smashed pennies! We love cheap ideas for souvenirs. You will remember them just as much as spending a bunch of money on something they will outgrow or get lost in a toy chest with all the other toys. Those pennies you could display for everyone to remember for years!
I love these tips, they are great!
Love the smashed pennies and have never been to the Animation Academy. We will check that out the next time we are there. Thanks!
Great info. Good to know
Thanks for the ideas
Your blog is so fun to read !!
I love souvenirs!
Such great ideas!!
Going in April so we will use this advice!
I love the idea of bringing your own autograph book! That is so much better than spending the money at the park, where it will cost significantly more. We will definitely be doing this!
Great ideas! I also like to do the smashed penny machines.
I knew some of these, but I learned something new. Thanks!!
Love reading all tips
I love collecting pins.
Great advice. Thank you.
Great tips!
Love to get free stuff!
We get something for the home, like a soap dispenser or hand towel, so we see it and are reminded of the trip each day.
We also collected maps from each park,kept our collector cups but buttons are available at hotels inside park also,my grandson collected Disney world pins which can be swapped out at different locations!
I've always been a Christmas Ornament Collector when I go to Disney not neary as cheap as these great ideas though!
Love these! My daughter would love the charm bracelet!
Fun stuff!
I love all these great ideas. I have taken my daughter to Disneyland and the souveniers put a large dent in my wallet. Next time I will use some of these tips.
I love the idea of free (or nearly free) souvenirs. Honestly, they're often better than the pricey alternatives! Great post!!
I've never done Disneyland but my family absolutely loves Disney World, they really need to get the animation studio for Disney World, my daughter would be in heaven as her favorite thing to do is get on YouTube and copy people drawing various characters. We do collect the smashed pennies though! Those are all great ideas that will be saving for my next Disney adventure 🙂
My family have never been to Disneyland as it's further than Disney World coming from Michigan. I really wish they would put the animation studio at Disney World too, my daughter would be in heaven, she loves copying people drawing various characters off YouTube videos. Now the smashed penny we do, kids love it! Great ideas for our next Disney vacation, thanks!
Never knew about the jungle cruise maps! I'll be sure to ask next time!
We do the pennies! So much fun!
What great ideas! I love that you can email pictures from Buzz Lightyear ride. I never knew that!
I Love This,I Have Never Been To Disney. I Would Love To Take My Grand Kids.
I Love This. I Have Never Been To Disney. I Would Love To Take My Grand Kids.
there are cheap shirts, keychains, and stickers at every drugstore in central florida
I've never been to Disneyland but these are great suggestions! Thanks 🙂
Thank You for all the great ideas! I think it is so sad when they get all that money and can't give every child a free gift to keep all those memories in!
They need to give out free gifts to each child, always!
Great ideas you have. I love the penny organizer, we have lots of stamped pennies but I've never seen an organizer like that to put them in, very clever.
Those are some great ideas. We've done the autographs and smashed pennies but now we have more ideas.
Those are some great ideas. We've done the autographs and smashed pennies but now we have more ideas.
These are so great ideas!
Can't wait to go!
I love the idea of getting a Silhouette done on my family's next Disney vacation. Thank you so much for that wonderful idea! The cost sounds reasonable, too.
I love the idea of getting a Silhouette done on vacation. I think my family will do that on our next Disney vacation. Thank you for the idea!
I think collecting pins for souvenirs when traveling or visiting new places is a great and inexpensive idea!!
Collecting pins as souvenirs is a great idea!! Inexpensive way to save a keepsake of your travels!!
The Silhouette is our favorite souvenir to get for our son! It's cheap, and you can compare each visit! Kids grow so fast. 🙁
Great tips. Thank you!
My kids are most fond of the smashed pennies.
Loved all of the pics and especially loved the idea of the smashing pennies! Very cute! Thank you for sharing.
I love these ideas!
My kids pick out a trading pin each year we go. It is a small souvenir that can easily be collected without taking over my house!
I love the smashed pennies idea! Fun and frugal!
We did all the pennies!! But grad that book first as we didn't get one and they sold out
Wow, these are great ideas! I've wondered about the silhouette and never knew they were so inexpensive. Thank you!
Love it! Thanks!
My daughter and I love smashed pennies!
I have silhouettes of both my kids and I always have the artist sign their work!
Great ideas! Thank you so much!!!
Great ideas! I love the penny idea the best.
My boys love taking home maps, and the pennies. At least those do not take up a lot of room and are easy to pack.
Love these ideas! I will definitely keep these in mind
I love all the free idea. To me, the ones you work on yourself or pick yourself (like confetti) are the best and most memorable. Great Post!
I love getting maps of all the Disney areas
My kids have two books of smashed pennies from all of our travels! It is a great souvenir. Also, looking at the silhouettes – that brings back memories of Disneyland when I was a kid – My parents did that for me!
Thanks for sharing these. They will come in handy.
We bought Mickey & Minnie dolls for our kids that they can bring to WDW every visit. Great photos over the years and no new souvenirs needed!
I still have a Tinkerbell bracelet from when I was very young (like 25 years ago). And a Snow White figurine I picked up when I was in high school. Wish I still had my mouse ears!
Animation Academy is our favorite – hope there are new characters to draw the next time we go.
I love to collect extra Fastpasses and keep them for scrapbooking!
Great tips! I have not been yet so this helps me plan for some things for my kids.
I learned about stickers before our last trip and that was one of my favorite parts of our trip! I had my girls put them in their autograph books so it turned into more of a scrapbook.
I love all of these great tips for an inexpensive way to take something home from your visit!
We always take a map home of each park. There have been lots of changes since we first started going.
We did the smashed pennies and that's such a nice souvenir. I love the silhouette idea, so cute!
Those are good ideas for inexpensive souvenirs!
Great ideas!
I love the smashed pennies! I try to get one from every trip we go on so getting them from Disney would be a must for us! I also love that you can learn to draw your favorite Disney character. My oldest would never want to leave! These are all great things I will have to remember.
Great ideas!
Great, useful ideas!
These are great ideas!
We've been pressing pennies and getting silhouettes since I was a little girl. Love them so much!
awesome tips!! i printed this!
Buttons are great and free. Just ask at your Disney resort or customer service. You can get different ones like "Celebration" or "Happy Birthday".
So wishing I had done more pressed pennies now!
good read and helpful tips
Great tips – I've bookmarked this page!
These are great tips! I had no idea there were so many free/cheap things at Disneyland!
Thank you for the great article!
Great Tips!
I think the silhouettes are the absolutely best thing a family can bring back from their trip. I have a friend that has a wall of them and it is amazing to see each of the kids change over the years.
Can wait to go to Disneyland and do these tips
We always do photos and autographs but haven't really tried any of the others, we'll keep it in mind
Loving all the great Disney tips!
You can also get a first time visiting button
Love the suggestions & tips
It's no longer an option in Florida (except at Art of Animation) but the drawing classes at Disney California Adventure are the best souvenir we've ever gotten. Certainly, the only ones that hold value more than a week after the trip.
I love these! Especially the drawings with an animator.
I loved the ways that you shared that you saved money here! It is nice that you didn't break the bank with souvenirs!
Very helpful
Very helpful
Thanks for the tips… souvenirs can be expensive!!! and hard to resist when you pass the shops every day while your are at the parks!!!
We just went to DisneyLand and the autographs were a highlight for us.
Awesome tips! thanks so
I really enjoy your ideas, thank you for sharing them.
LOVE the Animation Academy! Our favorite! Thanks for these tips!
Look at all these fun things I didn't know! Thanks!
love the animator academy idea and the smashed pennies!
These are all great ideas! I love the smashed pennies. My boys love to collect them from all of our stops!
Great ideas – I did not realize how many different things you can get – such clever ideas and there are quite a few around. I have never been to Disneyland, but would love to go – we live much closer to Disney World. Thanks for these!
Great tips- thanks!
Awesome Tips!
Love Disney .cant wait To go back.
And the kids will enjoy those little less pricey things alot more .. with 4 kids were always on a budget. Nice to know there are things there for them.
I try and pick up cheaper things before we go, that way we would have more money for the parks.
Wow! I didn't know that Disney had stuff for free and great stuff to buy for cheap! So awesome!
I cant wait to go and take my daughter, I know we will make a way to afford it, it is going to happen soon, I can feel it!
Perfect ideas! I LOVE the silhouette!
Great article … I love Disney !!
awesome article thanks for sharing
We always see the silhouette in MK but we never stop. I wish I had known it was so inexpensive!
Wow thanks!
I love collecting buttons, maps, and the pennys!
Great ideas!
Awesome tips! Thanks so much!!
The silhouettes are my favorite!
Wow, great info to have. Can't wait to do the silouettes.
I love smashed pennies!
The charm bracelet is such a cute idea…and it can grow with her!
-rebecca
rthomasdtr@yahoo.com
I love this article! So many great inexpensive ideas, thank you!
Great way to save some money!
Love this post!! Love finding the free & cheap things to do at the Disney Parks!!
Thanks for some great info!
Thank you for the awesome tips!
This was a great page for tips on saving or free souviners. I love the free buttons on Main St. We can all get one for free. I also like the penny smasher. And the silhouette pictures. We will definitely get a few key chains as well. Omg i want to go now!
So many great ideas! Both of my kiddos love maps. I would definitely keep as many as possible, but I would never have thought of getting one from the jungle cruise. Love it!
Love the charm idea to help your child remember every trip!
I've always loved the Silhouette drawings, and will definitely put this on our list of things to do. Great keepsakes of our little ones!
Wow!! I had no idea they offered so many cheap/free memories!! How very cool!! Really great article…thanks so much!!
Great info!