The Right Souvenir? It’s a Puzzle!
What’s the perfect souvenir to bring home from your Disney vacation? It’s a puzzle!
I mean that literally – an actual puzzle is a terrific souvenir.
Jigsaw puzzles are sold in all the major Walt Disney World gift shops such as the Emporium in the Magic Kingdom, MouseGear at Epcot, and World of Disney at Disney Springs, as well as at many smaller locations on property. Here’s some reasons why puzzles make a great souvenir.
- Puzzles are lightweight. While they will add some volume to your luggage, they likely won’t weight it down enough for you to incur baggage fees.
- Puzzles are relatively inexpensive. Most of the 1000-piece puzzles sold on property are priced at about $22.00. Packs of three or four 500-piece puzzles (boxed together) are priced at about $30.00. That’s a bargain compared to many other Disney souvenirs.
- Puzzles promote family bonding time. Leave a puzzle out on the coffee table and family will likely gather around to chat about their Disney vacation, as well as other news about their day.
- Puzzles are good for your brain!
- Puzzles can do double duty as artwork. After you’re done with assembly, you can frame the puzzle and hang in on the wall as an additional reminder of your trip.
Here are some of the options we found sold at Walt Disney World this month.
Do you have a favorite Disney puzzle? Would you choose one of these?
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Thanks for the article. I just found it!
My question is why doesn’t Disney sell jigsaw puzzles of actual photos of the parks? Everything seems to be animated pictures. I gave up trying to find a beautiful photo of the castle and took my own and turned it into a 1000 piece jigsaw. It is absolutely beautiful. Disney are missing out only selling animation jigsaws. Do you know why they limit their output in this way? Is it a legal thing?
We don’t work for Disney so this is purely speculation, but when in about why Disney does something, the answer is usually “money.” My guess is that non-photographic images on puzzles make more financial sense for them because they have a longer shelf life. For example, the look of the Cinderella Castle actually changes with some frequency: they put up and take down seasonal lights, there was a paint color change and a logo added for the 50th anniversary of WDW, then that was taken down less than two years later. The same principle applies to other areas of the parks. They’ve likely done research that guests want to have photographic keepsakes of the park they actually saw. Assuming this is true, a printed puzzle would only be “good” for about a year, whereas a puzzle with an animated image might last a decade.
Thanks Erin. That makes sense.
The one I had made of the castle with a reflection in the moat water worked really well. Very happy to keep doing these!
Are these puzzles new in the plastic bag and box or have they been opened?
Great idea! I’ve looked at them often. Just wish they offered some with 300 or 500 pieces. 1000 is a lot if a family with children want to work on it together.
Some of the puzzles shown above do have 500 pieces. There are several 500 piece puzzles in the one box.
Do the parks sell any puzzles for younger kids? My daughter loves puzzles so I’ve been thinking of them for a souvenir, but she’s 3 and a 36-48 piece puzzle would be more her speed.
Sorry for the delayed response. We sent our in-parks reporter, Christina Harrison, out to check for little puzzles sold in the parks and she came up empty. I just took a peek on Amazon and on Target.com and there are plenty of options there for Disney puzzles of fewer than 100 pieces.
Thank you so much for looking into this! I really appreciate it!
I love the Thomas Kinkade Disney puzzles, although I haven’t done any of the 1000 piece ones (only 500 or 750 pieces). Some of the scenes are more challenging than others, due to the artistic style of the picture. All of his Disney puzzles have amazing details and a couple even had “Easter eggs” of other Disney characters in them. (I’m not sure if the ones Disney sells have any hidden surprises, though, as I haven’t purchased any there.) I’ll be checking these out on my next trip!
We bought the puzzle in the 2nd to the last picture (white background with all 4 kingdoms) last time we were there. We love puzzles, but this particular puzzle was fairly poor quality. The pieces were thin, not the typical heavyweight material you’d expect and the pieces were not cut very definitively, so we never were sure if they fit together or not. We loved the picture but were disappointed with this particular puzzle. : (
Timely article! I like to do jigsaw puzzles, and a couple days ago I just did “Discover the Magic” (second photo from the bottom). I got it at the MK Emporium this summer. I really appreciate the distinctive coloring of it, rather than gradual shaded colors. This article gives me ideas of ones to get on my next trip!