💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2023 › 202311 › 20231124-subpar-souvenirs.gmi captured on 2023-12-28 at 15:31:06. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
---
Last week my wife and I visited Walt Disney World in the US state of Florida. We spent three days exploring three of the four parks on the property: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios. The friends we traveled with were primarily interested in the rides and attractions, but my family also took some time to browse souvenir shops.
While we were in the area, we also visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando. Disney World certainly has more to do than Wizarding World, but I couldn't help noticing how much more enticing the souvenirs were at Wizarding world than at Disney World.
"Harry Potter" as a fictional universe is packed with interesting magical objects and miscellany. From wands to time turners to horcruxes to the Sword of Gryffindor, many items pass into and out of the hands of the story's characters, and several of them are crucial to the plot in one way or another. In the shops at Wizarding World, visitors can buy replicas of these objects and pretend to be wizards and witches themselves. We've bought everything from chocolate frogs to Hogwarts Express tickets to gold-galleon coins and more.
In contrast, most of the souvenirs we see at Disney World are not nearly as immersive. The stores are packed with shirts and sweaters, mugs, notebooks, caps, and toys that cartoonify the characters they are meant to resemble. Aside from the fact that they're branded with logos from the parks, there's little to differentiate these products from those available on Amazon, Target or any other store that sells Disney merchandise. Even in the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction at Hollywood Studios, I found almost no blasters, lightsabers, droids or other products that accurately resembled items in the Star Wars universe.
I understand that Disney's target demographic has been children, including even babies and toddlers, while Wizarding World targets adults and children alike. But when I watch "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and I see Atlanteans with a glowing crystal on a necklace, I imagine having a crystal necklace of my own. I'd love to have a bottle of Yzma's poisons from "The Emperor's New Groove", Han Solo's blaster from "Star Wars", some of Hiro Hamada's nanobots from "Big Hero 6", a movie-accurate Sheriff Woody or Buss Lightyear doll from "Toy Story", or the Heart of Te Fiti from "Moana". Those types of souvenirs, however, are nowhere to be seen. Children would love them as well; I and everyone I knew growing up played pretend with toy replicas of props from movies and TV shows, and we adored the things we bought. But a few exceptions aside like a stack of Marvel currency "credits", I saw nothing at Disney World that I couldn't find at Walmart or TeeSpring.
Ultimately I purchased very few souvenirs on this trip. Of my favorite two, one wasn't even directly bought: I managed to slip off my wristband from Mickey and Minnie's Very Merry Christmas Party without tearing it. That alone was harder to attain than almost everything else I got.
---
[Last updated: 2023-11-24]