Face it, a trip to Disney World can be expensive, but it’s worth it. And while it may be expensive, surprisingly, there are quite a few tangible freebies to be found while visiting the parks. Here is my list of the Top 5 Disney World Freebies.
Birthday & Anniversary Desserts – While I can’t guarantee that you’ll get a free dessert, if you inform your server that you’re celebrating a birthday or anniversary (or wear a button noting the occasion), then you could find a yummy Disney dessert sitting on your table after your meal. We were surprised with a dessert at 50’s Prime Time Café when we celebrated our anniversary several years ago. We never asked or mentioned our anniversary that we can remember, but our server was paying attention and noticed our buttons and brought us a dessert at the end of our meal. And boy was it yummy!
Character Drawings – Did you know that you can learn how to draw your favorite characters when you visit Hollywood Studios or DisneyQuest? This is one of our favorite activities in the parks and is a great way to just take a little break. It also usually ends in a competition to see who had the best drawing between my husband and I since he’s a pretty talented artist, but I’m not too shabby either. When you’re done, you get to take your drawing with you. A tip for those who want to take part in this experience: bring a paper towel tube or a shipping tube to store your drawings in after you finish. It’ll keep them from getting wrinkled in a bag and they’ll be ready to frame when you get home. The Animation Academy is located within “The Magic of Disney Animation” attraction at Hollywood Studios. They also have animation drawing classes at DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney, but this requires a separate admission.
Towel Animals – If you stay on resort, then you’ve hopefully found those very cute towel animals left by Mousekeeping during your trip. I’m surprised at how many people didn’t know that you can take the towels animal home with you. Maybe it’s because no one ever told us we couldn’t, but we’ve always taken them back with us and it seems to be the case with many resort guests. They seem to hold up pretty well, as we still have the first one we brought home with us back in 2010 and it’s even survived a move with the stickers still intact.
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom Cards – This has become quite the popular game and there are definitely some serious players that you’ll encounter in the parks with their binders of cards. We’re still pretty much clueless on how to play and find ourselves using random cards, but those little cards make great souvenirs and young and old alike seem to love the game! The cards are completely free and you can get your pack each day at the Firehouse on Main Street, U.S.A. or behind the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in Liberty Square. As Disney describes it, you can “become an apprentice sorcerer and help the wizard Merlin fight the forces of evil in this interactive role-playing game.” If you attend MVMCP or MNSSHP, you can pick up your exclusive playing card at City Hall the night of the party (like the one pictured above being given to those attending this year’s MVMCP). And if you forget, we’ve found that you can take your event ticket back to City Hall during your trip and pick up your card.
Cups of Water – We quickly discovered that Disney Parks will give you a free cup of ice water if you simply ask. This has saved us A LOT of money over the last few years since we have only been on the dining plan once and all our meal expenses are out-of-pocket. The best thing you can drink while in the parks, especially during the warmer months, is water. It’s so important to stay hydrated when you’re in the parks, so next time you’re thirsty, just head over to a quick service restaurant or stand and ask for a cup of water. Just a word of warning though – if you’ve ever visited Magic Kingdom and ordered a soft drink or water, then you know how bad the water tastes in the park (and in Kissimmee by the way), so be sure to bring a water mix-in for your cup of water when you’re visiting MK.
Honorable Mention: Ghirardelli Chocolate Square in Downtown Disney – This is always a stop of ours while at Downtown Disney. Just stop in the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop and you’ll find someone handing out free chocolate squares. They’re more often than not the Caramel squares, but during Christmas they hand out the yummy peppermint bark squares!
So there you have it – my Top 5 tangible items to get for free at Disney World. There are a lot of free activities as well at Disney World, so be sure to take advantage of all that you can do and get without breaking the bank! What are some other freebies that you have found?
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It appears you are wrong about the towel animals. After seeing your post, I called the Contemporary (where we last stayed) security office and asked about this. The person I talked to said it is the same as stealing. Then I contacted the person from the front desk that we dealt with during our trip. She said the same thing and also checked with housekeeping who said that the towels are for the guests’e enjoyment while there are should not be taken. I’m not sure the Disney Mom’s Panel is monitored by DIsney. It’s the same thing as stealing their towels — which in the long run runs the costs up for everyone.
We sometimes stand in line to get the Visa pic, but it can be an hour+ wait sometimes even if you get there early. But again, it’s limited to Disney Visa cardholders and not for everyone, whereas all of the above are ones that everyone can enjoy if they’re in the parks 🙂
And that’s neat about the pins, but I’ve only seen that once before and it was 4 years ago during our first family trip – it has since grown into a pin collection worth more than our cars lol. We like to give kids pins if we see that they don’t have any since we carry extras with us.
It took us 2 years to figure that one out…we saw someone roll theirs up and put in a tube after they finished one day and we’ve taken a sturdy tube with us every trip since then.
We started pin collecting/trading on our last venture to WDW. Right after Wishes, we stopped in the circle in front of Cinderella’s castle to take some PhotoPass photos and prep for the parade. Some “higher level” WDW staff were standing nearby and saw all of use in our ears and smiles. We started chatting and they both gave our kids some special pins for free (one was a Minnie pin, and I think the other was Captain Hook’s hook). Our kids were ecstatic. The next day, we ate breakfast at the Poly, and another staff gave our kids one more pin to add to their starter collection. Talk about awesome!
Speaking of photos, some restaurants will give a free photo with their dining character (Akershus offers a photo with Belle, and I think it’s included with your meal and not a PhotoPass purchase; someone correct me if I am wrong). I think others do this as well. It’s a great souvenir for the price of simply dining at the right place, right time.
Thanks – there were a couple of new things I learned that we will take advantage of. Love the idea of how to protect our artwork – we definitely want to do that!
Yes, you can absolutely take them home, just don’t take the regular towels home, as that is stealing. They make the towel animals for guest and they’re intended to be kept, but as I noted, most people really don’t know this. I first saw it listed in the Disney Mom’s Panel (in 2009), which of course is run by Disney itself, so their word is trusted. I’ve seen other trusted sources post it as well over the years and we’ve done it every stay for 4 years now.
When we ate at Boma last week, we noticed the AKL resort activity board under the staircase. There were several activities that were called “bead activities” where you could earn a special bead for participating. There was a bongo bead for the drumming activity as well as several animal beads (giraffe, lion, etc) & even one shaped like the African continent. We weren’t able to participate this trip, but it sounds like a great way to spend some non-park time!
We ate dinner at The Wave wearing our anniversary pins. My husband and I were each given a complimentary glass of champagne.
You can take the towel animals home??? Wouldn’t that be like taking a regular towel and get you charged? If you can, then that is awesome. This month will be my first stay on Disney property (Kidani Villas) but we had the animals on our Disney cruise this summer (and on reg. cruises) and it never occurred to me to keep them. My daughter was in love with the sea turtle they made. We always just moved it to the shelf and they reused the towels to make something new the next night. I think I’ll ask about this when I go–of course, it might be better to ask forgiveness than permission! 😉
Great info. — Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Transportation cards
On our last visit our daughter was wearing her Birthday pin and got a big charm for free with her hair wrap (the station near Pirates of the Caribbean). She was in seventh heaven.
We always get the buttons, and of course the anniversary button helped us get that dessert mentioned above. They still have the streamers at Playhouse Disney, well more like gold ‘coins.’ My husband made me sit through it back in April and he actually grabbed a bunch of them because he was so excited 🙂 Thanks for the tip about the balloon and passing it on.
No problem. I started to write the article to include the non-tangible items, but I couldn’t pick just 10 lol, so I went with the tangible ones since those are few and far between. Glad to know that we’re helping you plan your trip 🙂 And yes, the towel animal one always seems to throw everyone for a loop, but it’s true 🙂
Don’t forget your first visit, birthday, anniversary, or I’m celebrating pins. At Disney Jr we used to take the paper leaves & streamers that fell (we haven’t done it in a few years though, don’t know if they still do it). When we’ve bought balloons since we can’t take them home, we “pay it forward” & someone else gets a freebie balloon.
tangible… right you said that above. We’re working on planning our next trip and I’m so exited and jumped the gun. sorry. I learn so much for yours and others posts. I appreciate you sharing all your tips. I had no idea about the towels 🙂
Thanks Tabitha. I was aiming for tangible freebies for this article, but I definitely have a lot of activities that we like to enjoy as well that are free. The campfire is always on our list but we always seem to lose interest in going once we actually make it to Disney World…
We always go to the campfire, Chip & Dale meet and greet, sing-a-long & movie at Fort Wilderness campground. They sell S’more kits if you’re interested but everything else is free. You can watch the fireworks with the music and water parade right from the beach there too.