MarbleBob
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2003
We had a few pre-trip Disney Magical moments today!!!
So, the new St. Louis Disney Outlet store held it's grad opening ceremony this morning. They were giving out "free gifts" to the first 500 people. DW thought it would be fun to get up early with Ninja Potato and check it out. (The new outlet mall is only 15 minutes from our house.) First it was just going to be the two of them, but Pickle insisted that she wanted to go too. And then Buddy wanted to go along as well. At that point, we decided to make it a family event and we'd all go (injured foot and all.) Also, we knew that my mom would be interested in joining us (she probably would have went on her own anyway) so we planned to meet her there.
The new outlet mall actually opened on Thursday and the news reports were that it's been a mad house with traffic backed up on the highway. The store opens at 9am, so we decided to get there early. I think we arrived sometime between 7 and 7:30am. To my surprise, the parking lot was nearly empty. We parked the car and they wheeled me up to the store, and guess what? There was nobody there. We were first in line!
DW stepped back to get a photo of us in front of the store (photo above).
I called my mom to let her know that there wasnt going to be a reason to rush over, but she was already on her way and met us about 15 minutes later. (Notice the lawn chair, she's a seasoned veteran at waiting in line for special events. )
So, we had about 1.5 hrs total to hang out.
It was fun mingling with the other people in line. Trading stories/tips about Disney vacations and whatnot.
The store employees came out around 8:15 or so to interact with everyone. They marched out of the store in a line singing "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go"!!!
They circled back around to the store entrance and started handing out Micke Mouse Ears hats to everyone. (That was the advertised free gift.) Then they started getting the crowd excited with singing, trivia, and general questions. They had microphones and a loudspeaker so it was easy for everyone to hear the questions/responses. Trivia was related to movies and theme parks. They handed out buttons, magnets, and stickers to people who participated. There were a lot of these items so pretty much anyone who tried to participate received a couple. They also went around asking people what their favorite characters/rides/resorts/foods/etc were. They were awesome and a couple of the cast members really shined. There was a guy named Danny stationed in front of us and he was a lot of fun and great with the kids.
When we first arrived, they were still setting up the outside area and asked Pickle and Buddy if theyd be willing to help later. We didnt know what they meant, but the kids were eager to help. So, a little while before they came out for the festivities, they took the two kids inside the store. I wasnt sure what they were doing, but both kids came out with new Mickey/Minnie shirts. How cool is that!!! When it was time to officially open the store, they introduced Pickle and Buddy to everyone and then they got to help cut the ribbon and be the first ones to enter the store. Awesome!!!
Then they let everyone inside to shop. There were more people in line than could fit in inside so, they let new people in as other people left the store. Anyway, the store itself was nice and spacious. Not unexpected, but they didnt really have any special decorations in the store and the inventory/pricing was more like a traditional Disney store. (In contrast to the Disney Store in the St. Louis Galleria, which has an awesome princess castle with interactive magic mirror, an area to watch videos and color on activity sheets, and a fun tunnel to crawl through underneath the giant plush doll/character display.) They did have a clearance section in the back corner with quite a few good deals. (And the clearance items were an additional 25% off the lowest price.) Needless to say, between my mom and us, we didnt come home empty handed. (pics further below.)
Once we were satisfied with our shopping experience, we headed out to check out some of the other stores and to get a snack. We didnt spend too much time browsing around but we did spend significant time (and money ) at the Vera Bradley, Hot Topic, and Toys R Us outlet stores.
We got home a little while ago and decided to look at all the stuff. DisneMimi (my mom) got Pickle a new Snow White dress for Disneyland/Halloween. So cool! (Ninja had one when she was about 3 or 4 and it was always my favorite princess dress.) Pickle got a couple night gowns too
Below are a few of the other items that we came home with
\
Free Disney Store hats and magnets. Ninja liked the Meredith doll. Pickle got a Tinker Bell Halloween treat bag and a few other goodies. Its cut off in the photo, but Buddys free Mickey shirt is awesome.
And then Pickle is still wearing her free shirt and buttons
As we were leaving the mall, we saw another one of the ads for the Disney store grand opening, so we had to get a family photo shot (thanks mom for taking the photo and getting the wheel chair out of the way)
Such magical way to spend the morning!!! And spending the morning with DisneMimi made even that much more fun!!
So, the new St. Louis Disney Outlet store held it's grad opening ceremony this morning. They were giving out "free gifts" to the first 500 people. DW thought it would be fun to get up early with Ninja Potato and check it out. (The new outlet mall is only 15 minutes from our house.) First it was just going to be the two of them, but Pickle insisted that she wanted to go too. And then Buddy wanted to go along as well. At that point, we decided to make it a family event and we'd all go (injured foot and all.) Also, we knew that my mom would be interested in joining us (she probably would have went on her own anyway) so we planned to meet her there.
The new outlet mall actually opened on Thursday and the news reports were that it's been a mad house with traffic backed up on the highway. The store opens at 9am, so we decided to get there early. I think we arrived sometime between 7 and 7:30am. To my surprise, the parking lot was nearly empty. We parked the car and they wheeled me up to the store, and guess what? There was nobody there. We were first in line!
DW stepped back to get a photo of us in front of the store (photo above).
I called my mom to let her know that there wasnt going to be a reason to rush over, but she was already on her way and met us about 15 minutes later. (Notice the lawn chair, she's a seasoned veteran at waiting in line for special events. )
So, we had about 1.5 hrs total to hang out.
It was fun mingling with the other people in line. Trading stories/tips about Disney vacations and whatnot.
The store employees came out around 8:15 or so to interact with everyone. They marched out of the store in a line singing "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go"!!!
They circled back around to the store entrance and started handing out Micke Mouse Ears hats to everyone. (That was the advertised free gift.) Then they started getting the crowd excited with singing, trivia, and general questions. They had microphones and a loudspeaker so it was easy for everyone to hear the questions/responses. Trivia was related to movies and theme parks. They handed out buttons, magnets, and stickers to people who participated. There were a lot of these items so pretty much anyone who tried to participate received a couple. They also went around asking people what their favorite characters/rides/resorts/foods/etc were. They were awesome and a couple of the cast members really shined. There was a guy named Danny stationed in front of us and he was a lot of fun and great with the kids.
When we first arrived, they were still setting up the outside area and asked Pickle and Buddy if theyd be willing to help later. We didnt know what they meant, but the kids were eager to help. So, a little while before they came out for the festivities, they took the two kids inside the store. I wasnt sure what they were doing, but both kids came out with new Mickey/Minnie shirts. How cool is that!!! When it was time to officially open the store, they introduced Pickle and Buddy to everyone and then they got to help cut the ribbon and be the first ones to enter the store. Awesome!!!
Then they let everyone inside to shop. There were more people in line than could fit in inside so, they let new people in as other people left the store. Anyway, the store itself was nice and spacious. Not unexpected, but they didnt really have any special decorations in the store and the inventory/pricing was more like a traditional Disney store. (In contrast to the Disney Store in the St. Louis Galleria, which has an awesome princess castle with interactive magic mirror, an area to watch videos and color on activity sheets, and a fun tunnel to crawl through underneath the giant plush doll/character display.) They did have a clearance section in the back corner with quite a few good deals. (And the clearance items were an additional 25% off the lowest price.) Needless to say, between my mom and us, we didnt come home empty handed. (pics further below.)
Once we were satisfied with our shopping experience, we headed out to check out some of the other stores and to get a snack. We didnt spend too much time browsing around but we did spend significant time (and money ) at the Vera Bradley, Hot Topic, and Toys R Us outlet stores.
We got home a little while ago and decided to look at all the stuff. DisneMimi (my mom) got Pickle a new Snow White dress for Disneyland/Halloween. So cool! (Ninja had one when she was about 3 or 4 and it was always my favorite princess dress.) Pickle got a couple night gowns too
Below are a few of the other items that we came home with
\
Free Disney Store hats and magnets. Ninja liked the Meredith doll. Pickle got a Tinker Bell Halloween treat bag and a few other goodies. Its cut off in the photo, but Buddys free Mickey shirt is awesome.
And then Pickle is still wearing her free shirt and buttons
As we were leaving the mall, we saw another one of the ads for the Disney store grand opening, so we had to get a family photo shot (thanks mom for taking the photo and getting the wheel chair out of the way)
Such magical way to spend the morning!!! And spending the morning with DisneMimi made even that much more fun!!