When I visited Disney World back on October 1st, 2021 for the 50th anniversary, it was a very neat experience. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, but one of the things that people got most excited over was merchandise. As much as I love some good merch, I’m not the type to queue up for hours just for some tangible items. Luckily Disney had a number of different merch collections, and some were not as popular as others.
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One of the collections with a much shorter line was their “vintage” or retro collection. And to be honest, it’s one of my favorites! The vintage collection brings back some of the original logos and artwork from when the park first opened in 1971 and puts it onto new merchandise. Some of these designs are focus on the Walt Disney World “Preview Center,” which was actually a small location in Orlando that opened before the park in 1970 to give people an idea of what to expect when Disney World opened.
The Preview Center showed models and plans for what was to come, but it also sold snacks and merchandise and even had its own merchandise line. Now for the 50th anniversary Disney is again selling a few things with that Preview Center logo. As a sucker for history (and mugs), of course I decided to buy one!
The mug itself is nice and large (holds plenty of coffee!) and is a plain white with the design. At the top of the design is the original retro Walt Disney World logo, with the old font and the large D that contains an icon on the inside with a globe and of course Mickey Ears.
Then below that is the Preview Center logo, which contains the name, a silhouette of the castle, and then a bunch of the popular Disney characters at the time. These include Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, the White Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, King Louie, and Brer Bear. An interesting assortment indeed!
Another item that I purchased from this collection was a souvenir thimble and spoon set. As someone who grew up in the 1990s this was definitely still a trend – I remember traveling places with my family, stopping at rest stops or small gift shops, and wanting to get some sort of small item to remember the trip. Both thimbles and collectible spoons were very common back then, and I gravitated towards the cute little spoons (my mom collected thimbles). I had a pretty neat little collection when I was growing up! So seeing this at Disney World again brought back so many memories I knew this would be a special item to have.
What’s in my mug: I am finishing up the last of my 50th anniversary coffee from Joffrey’s (an appropriate blend to be drinking from this mug, I suppose!). I typically alternate between ordering from Joffrey’s and from Expedition Roasters, so it’s time to find some new fun flavors from Expedition Roasters! I just placed an order with them so hopefully that will be delivered soon. And I’m sure I’ll be sharing about it in next month’s mug of the month post.
What I’m currently reading: I’ve once again fallen into the trap of reading way too many things at once! I usually have both a physical book and an audiobook I’m listening to, because one of them will be for in the car and on the go and the other is for before I go to bed. However, I’m also turning to the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone lately because it’s a good “comfort read” for me, and I never read the illustrated edition and it’s so fun to see all of the pictures. So I’ve got that one going in addition to my regular “physical” book, which is Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. I’ve also listened to some great audiobooks this month, but a highlight for me as A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow. It’s a YA modern day Sleeping Beauty retelling. I thought the story was great and it’s quite short for a YA novel so it didn’t take long to get through.
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What mug are you using right now? And what are you currently reading?
“The Left Hand of Darkness” is one of my favorite books!