Credit: DisneyDisney has been blasted recently over the cost of a vacation. With ticket prices being raised ever higher, even in the wake of CEO Bob Iger‘s promise to lower them, and the cost of merchandise and souvenirs increasing, it is really difficult for the average person or family to take a full-on Disney vacation.
While, there are many tips and tricks to help lower costs, including staying off-property, bringing your own food, snacks, and drinks, and variable pricing. Throughout the year, it doesn’t really do much to help Guests wanting to bring home souvenirs for themselves or their family. Unless you have an Annual Pass that offers a discount on merchandise, or you go off-property to the Disney character warehouse, it can be hard to find Disney-certified merchandise for cheap. However, Walt Disney World is supposedly implementing a new policy that not only helps the planet, but also offers Guests a cheap souvenir idea.
The plastic shopping bags that Guests get when purchasing merchandise from any Walt Disney World merchandise location is being phased out. As big chain retail stores like Target, Walmart, and other places make the switch from offering plastic bags for free to encouraging shoppers to bring reusable bags by charging them per bag, it seems as though Disney is following suit. The recognizable blue plastic bags with the castle will no longer be offered to Disney World shoppers over the next few months. Instead, Guests can purchase a reusable shopping bag that comes in three sizes: small, medium, and large.
The cost of these bags range from $1.00 to $3.00 and are printed with different designs. These bags are also great because they can be used once you arrive back home as a reusable shopping bag or tote bag. Due to the price, this makes these bags the cheapest souvenir at Disney World. It’s great to see Disney making steps to help environmental causes, and with the amount of plastic bags they probably went through on a daily basis, it’s an environmentally conscious move by the Parks.
Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Universal Orlando Resort, and Universal Studios Hollywood, have all offered these reusable bags for the past several years as an alternative to their typical plastic bag. It will be interesting to see if Universal follows suit by phasing out and eventually no longer offering their plastic shopping bags.