Disney World Gift Baskets: Build Your Own In-Room Surprise and Delight Your Family

When we were planning our trip to Walt Disney World, I poured through Travel Guides, websites, and discussion groups preparing for our trip, in the fear that I might miss out on some little known perk, some generous discount, or some surprise that would make all the difference on our big vacation. One of the services Disney offered was an in-room surprise.

The Disney florist offers several gift packages that they will deliver to your room as a "welcome to Disney" gift-or to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Everybody loves getting a surprise. Imagine being greeted by a huge plush Mickey waiting in your hotel room. Or a gift basket stuffed with goodies. Prior to our vacation, Disney World e-mailed me offering me the opportunity to surprise my wife and daughter with a welcome present.

The problem is that the Disney Florist is very expensive. There are other services in the Orlando area who will prepare beautiful gift baskets and deliver them. I decided to build my own gift basket for the family. After all, the Disney parks don't have a monopoly on licensed Disney merchandise. You can find Disney stuff at department stores, discount stores, and at dollar stores. Even the toys and gifts at the Disney Store in our local Mall were cheaper than anything comparable in Orlando. You can also buy discounted merchandise online at DisneyShopping.com.

Creating your own gift basket is not just about saving money. After all, you could save more money by not sending a gift basket. You can also personalize your basket outside the limits of what's available at Disney World.

I found a very nice basket at a thrift store. People get very nice gift baskets during the holidays. After the cheese or fruit is gone, they don't want to just throw away the basket. But they don't want to keep it either. So they give it away to the thrift stores. They have piles of nice baskets. I wiped it down really well to make sure it was clean. I filled it with gifts, wrapped it with shrink wrap, took a hair dryer to it to shrink the plastic, and put a bow on it. It looked great.

I packed my basket up and shipped it to my hotel before the trip. The hotel staff unpacked the basket and delivered it to our room. I attached a note from "Mickey" welcoming us to Disney World. Here's some of the things l included in our basket:

• A plush Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
• Autograph Book
• Two Disney coloring books and crayons.
• Huge lollipop.
• Princess purse and sunglasses.
• A princess doll.
• A water bottle
• A rain pancho
• We stayed in Animal Kingdom Lodge. I bought a cheap wooden African mask and put it on top of the basket to go with the theme of our hotel.

I also included gift wrapped boxes with personalized Disney robes for my wife and child.

Some more notes about my gift basket:

o The water bottle had Dora the Explorer on it. My four-year-old doesn't know that Dora's not officially licensed by Disney. She likes Dora as much as the rest of the characters. Buying gifts by myself gave me the freedom to add Dora in.

o My wife and daughter like to shop. I didn't want to buy everything for them, because they like to pick out things for themselves. I bought things that they would appreciate, but not necessarily buy for themselves (like the robes) and I bought things we might need on the trip, like the water bottle, the pancho, the coloring books and the sunglasses.

o The water bottle came in handy. We filled it up at night and stuck it in the freezer. When we got to the park, it kept my daughter cool.

o With the lollipop and the box of crayons, I bought both at a discount store. I printed some character clip art on some ink jet stickers and put a Disney character on the lollipop wrapper and crayon box. Voila! (Un)Official Disney Gifts!

There are many other things you could buy to fill up your basket:

• Surprise tickets to a show or tour in Disney World. (I would just print out dummy tickets and keep the real ones with you, in case your package gets lost in delivery).
• Favorite snacks and drinks. (Note, UPS doesn't usually allow you to ship alcohol. They have some pretty strict rules. When in doubt, ask them.)
• Glow sticks, spinners and light up toys they can bring to the parades at night.
• Disney themed throw blanket.
• Coffee mugs and gourmet coffee. The coffee available at Disney World isn't very tasty.
• Check the Disney Florist website to see if you get any ideas.

Packing your own gift basket is a fun little project that will get you excited about your Disney trip. It will save you money over other alternatives, and give you an opportunity to personalize your gifts. Have a great time when you go.