Another day, another Disney Adventure.  As we prepared to open my new store in Disney Springs this past week (More to come on the Grand Opening next week), I began to take an interest in Pin Trading at the Disney Parks.  Partially because I liked the idea of having my staff participate in the hobby, but also in part because I enjoy both the nature of collecting things as well as finding new ways to interact with Disney World.  In a moment of perfect timing, our friend Scott, an avid pin collector, stopped by for a day of Disney fun.  As we entered a pin trading post in Frontier Land, we happened upon the Pin Quest lanyard, which set us off on a string of questions to a cast member.  Before we knew it, we were off on a new adventure, scavenging the park for my first set of pins.  Read on for more on Pin Quest and our journey to pin greatness!

First of all, we need to understand how Pin Quest works.  The first step is to purchase your Pin Quest Lanyard.  This comes with two very important pieces to this puzzle.  The first is the hunk of metal you see photographed above.  Sure, this is the centerpiece of the lanyard, but it also serves as a decoder.  Each new pin you get must be placed under the decoder, with the arrows aligned, in order to tell you the next stop on your trek.  This brings me to our next important piece, the map, which Carl was kind enough to display for us.

Great work Carl!  The map is where you’ll line up coordinates in order to see where your going for the next clue.

Once you have your Pin Quest lanyard and map, a total of $14.99, you’ll need to grab your first clue from whichever trading post you are currently at.  We started in Frontier Land at the Pin Trader so we grabbed Clue No. 5.  Each clue is $9.99 and once completed can be redeemed for the pin in that location.  We’ll cover the total cost near the end, but know that this is not like Sorcerer’s of the Magic Kingdom.  You should be prepared to dish out some money as you make your way around the park.

Each clue gives you a hint and three possible answers.  Don’t worry, there are no penalties for wrong answers, but we participated and tried very hard to get the right answers, failing only once.  I’ll be talking about the clues but not giving any answers in this post as I like to think you can figure them out and that’s half the fun here.

Our first clue asked us about a trail boss whose name now watched over the Frontier Trading Post.  We headed out to find the answer.  Luckily, none of these will have you traveling too far or scratching your head for too long, which is great as it keeps things moving along at a good pace.

CLUE NO. 5

Once each clue is answered, you must head back to where you received it, give the right answer and complete one more task to redeem your pin.  Here, we were told we had to tell the NavigatEAR (Sales Cast Member) “Howdy Partner, did you know the Trail Boss is (Correct Name.)”  We did so in our best cowpoke voice and received our very first pin!

You’ll notice the letters and numbers around the edge.  These are used when you align the arrows with you decoder to located the next destination.  I was very pleased to have a country bear to pin to my lanyard as I love me some country bears.  Those of you who follow me on Instagram might know this as I love posting photos of them rocking in the streets.

CLUE NO. 6

Our next stop was Tomorrowland where we would get to know the Tomorrowland Light and Power Company.  Here we were asked to discover how many power tubes were powering the building.  This one caused us some trouble as we tried to make it more difficult than it needed to be.  Either way, we had to give our best robot dance moves in order to claim our prize.  But acting the fool in a crowded place was WELL worth it as we received our second pin, and one with a favorite character of mine.

And being that we were in the land of tomorrow, we decided to swing by the Carousel of Progress, an oldie but goodie.  It seemed Pa was having some trouble holding onto his pipe though.  Careful buddy or you’ll burn the whole house down!

CLUE NO. 1

Next up, we headed ALL the way to Town Square at the front of the park to enter into a small shop near where one can meet Mickey, in order to get a chance at our third pin.  We were asked to investigate the area to find out when the last performance of “Dance of the Hours” would be performed.  Once done, we had to show off EVEN more dance moves, which we forced Carl to do.  Pin number 3 was in the bag!

CLUE NO. 2

Something I really loved about this quest was how it managed to take us to parts of the park we’d never visited.  For example, in all these visits, we’d never visited the shop inside the circus tent near the back of the park.  Good thing for us, because this was our next stop.  What a treat!  Filled with goodies and all sorts of yummy snacks, we were asked to search out animals within the tent and determine which ones were missing. While children munched on popcorn, we ran around, wildly calling out animals and animal names as we saw them.  Before long, we passed the halfway mark and claimed our fourth pin, but not before making our favorite animal noise.  My favorite animal is a penguin so I made the sound of freezing while looking pompous in a tux.

CLUE NO. 3

It turned out that would not be the only first we’d accomplish for the day.  In all these visits, Carl and I have NEVER ridden Splash Mountain.  It’s sort of a perfect storm of avoidance for us.  Carl is afraid of big drops and I’m afraid of water.  But our friend Scott was determined to get us on it.  Begrudgingly, we boarded our log ride.

But I actually loved the ride!  The animatronics were super fun and the whole thing was super cute.  Sure, the drop was not my FAVORITE thing ever, as can be seen from my face during the experience.

But I am happy to say that we survived!

And with our new found appreciation of life, we headed to the Briar Patch to search out spices and obtain a commemorative pin, which doubled as a reminder of our first trip down the mountain.  We also had to let the sales cast member know where we called home sweet home.

CLUE NO. 4

With one last pin to collect, we headed to the Fantasy Fair, where we were asked to count the number of instruments surrounding Donald up above our heads.  This helped us to learn that we are not so great at counting and looking up at the same time.  But after a couple failed attempts, we finally got the answer.  In order to obtain the pin, we had to sing a tune from our favorite Disney film.  This lead our group to sing the worst rendition of Feed the Birds that I have EVER heard.  Nevertheless, we were awarded pin 6.

Good thing too, because I think I found something that belongs to this girl that needs returning.

THE FINAL PIN

With our six pins, we had one final puzzle to solve.  Taking the letter on the back of each pin and unscrambling them, we were sent back to Town Square to give the answer.  Mission accomplished, we achieved our completion pin!

THE PRICE TAG

So when all was said and done, we spent:

Pin Lanyard : $14.99

6 Clues (and Pins upon Turn In) : $9.99 Each.  $60.00 Total.

Completion Pin : $4.99

Total : $80.00   Total After PassHolder Discount : $64.00

If you’re an avid pin collector or looking for a fun souvenir with lots of great memories, I STRONGLY recommend taking on the Pin Quest.  Sure, it’s a bit pricey, but we had an AMAZING time doing this and got to chat with so many cast members.  It also forced us into new areas of the park, as well as got us to really take in the details of the shops around us.  And at the end of the day, we got to come home with a lanyard full of shiny pins to remember the day.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We had an excellent time completing the Pin Quest and a great day at the park all together.  Special thanks to NYC friend Scott for joining the adventure as he made the day of learning about pins even more special.  He also didn’t judge us when we bought a giant Mickey plush.  BUT JUST THINK OF THE PHOTOS WE CAN TAKE WITH IT!??  Have you done the Pin Quest, or do you just love Pin Collecting and want to share how you got started?  Let me know in the comments below!

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