Pin Trading at Stateroom door?

[Minnie222]

Updated: please see post 36
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We are booking our very first Disney cruise.
It will be 4-night on Dream. Stateroom at mid-ship.

We love Pin Trading, and are thinking to put out pins outside the stateroom door for pin trading.

1. Is it still proper to do it? Would people really pin trade there, or would I just loose all my pins?
(I don't mind losing a few, but if nothing comes back, the kids would be really upset)

2. If I put out some magnets for trading at door, would there be people coming to trade it?

 

[Geomom]

I don't think anyone would trade stuff at your door, you would likely lose some pins and magnets vs. having any traded.

For pin trading: I just looked at a personal navigator for the Dream 4 nt cruise and on day 4 there is pin trading by Preludes from 7:15-7:30PM. I haven't been on the Dream yet, but on the Magic/Wonder they also have a 'pin trading book' in one of the shops--so that is something to consider.

For us on the Magic/Wonder, we have decorated our door with magnets and they all stayed on our door. Some people have said magnets will 'walk away'--some kids (or even adults) will take them or put them on other people's doors--so don't put anything out that you don't mind losing, just in case.

As far as trading magnets--maybe you could make a magnet exchange with passengers on your cruise. These boards have 'meet' threads for the various cruises--if there isn't one started for your cruise yet, you can start one. Unfortunately, the meet threads on these boards seem to be less populated these days, most of it has moved to a 'more popular' forum--I stay here on these boards vs. venturing off, but most of the exchanges have moved to the other forum.

 

[dcassetta]

We are booking our very first Disney cruise.
It will be 4-night on Dream. Stateroom at mid-ship.

We love Pin Trading, and are thinking to put out pins outside the stateroom door for pin trading.

1. Is it still proper to do it? Would people really pin trade there, or would I just loose all my pins?
(I don't mind loosing a few, but if nothing comes back, the kids would be really upset)

2. If I put out some magnets for trading at door, would there be people coming to trade it?

Sadly, I think the pins and magnets would walk away.

Sometimes, cruise groups organize magnet exchanges, so you might consider setting one up for your cruise.

For pin trading, you can trade with CMs on the ship. The Cabanas greeters and people who work in the merchandise areas often wear lanyards, and the shops have pin books. One evening during your cruise there will be an officer pin trading event. Many officers gather in the Preludes area with lanyards and you can trade with all of them. Sometimes if people on the cruise have come from Europe, Japan or China you can get some cool pins from the various Disneyland Parks.

 

[Deb T.]

Completely agree with the above posters... your pins would "walk away" and it would be best to trade on Officer Trading Night as well as with cast members at Guest Services and in the shops. On the majority of our cruises, our door magnets have stayed put. However, on several cruises some of our magnets have been taken, usually on the last night.

Have a great cruise!!

 

[pixiedustedme]

We've sailed 5 cruises and have never had any magnets disappear. People tend to respect others' doors, only getting close to drop off fish extender gifts. And there are frequently stateroom hosts in the passageway, and they do keep their eyes open when they're out there (we've noticed this when delivering fish extender gifts). Theft is always possible, but it's not typical.

The best way to trade pins is via the Officers' Pin Trading, during which the officers will trade any of their pins for any of yours. They often have great pins, and since they're not picky, it's a great way to trade up.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

We had some folks doing pin trading on their stateroom door/decorations on our last cruise. Every room doing it had some pins on them anytime we passed by. I even traded for a pin. Your mileage will of course vary. I wouldn't put out any pins you wouldn't be okay with just straight up losing.

 

[Rob1872]

I think you will find many people who interpret it as "help yourself". Stick to face-to-face pin trading. Feel free to give it a try, but don't be surprised if you lose the lot.

 

[aggiedog]

If you really want to try the door pin trading, consider getting some bulk pins from Ebay. I did that for a group trip to WDW several years ago, and spent a crazy low amount for 100 pins. Most I could have cared less if I never saw again, but were perfect "currency" for trading. We had a large group of kids we were distributing pins to. You could obviously get much less and still have plenty to trade/lose.

 

[Quellman]

If you have a sign stating that the pins are for trading then you'll be much less likely to see scores of them wander away. Don't expect that you'll have a pile of new pins to look over everytime you come back to your room, unless your doorway opens to the elevator areas. You can trade pins in the gifts shops as well, as they usually have pin books there.

Don't do what @aggiedog recommends. More often than not, those bulk pins you pick up are for 100 for $10 are all fake pins. Their quality is suspect and no ones likes getting a knock off pin. When you go to the gift shop, you can see how many fake ones there are as you'll see several of the exact same style, but the colors are all different, the enamel feels cheap or is cracked, and they are usually weighted differently.

You can get pins from the blind bag boxes at the disney stores around the parks and the springs (or the airport), or my favorite, the character warehouse stores at Disney. You could also look at visiting some local thrift stores as well.

 

[shoes99]

We just sailed the 14 night EBPC cruise on the Wonder. There was organized door pin trading for about 15 cabins and I didn't see anyone complain
that pins were stolen. It was the honor system and I hope most folks honored that. I traded with about 6 cabins and it was fun.

 

[dcassetta]

We just sailed the 14 night EBPC cruise on the Wonder. There was organized door pin trading for about 15 cabins and I didn't see anyone complain
that pins were stolen. It was the honor system and I hope most folks honored that. I traded with about 6 cabins and it was fun.

I think an organized pin trade could work well. But, I would be hesitant to just put pins out hoping people would trade.

 

[Minnie222]

We just sailed the 14 night EBPC cruise on the Wonder. There was organized door pin trading for about 15 cabins and I didn't see anyone complain
that pins were stolen. It was the honor system and I hope most folks honored that. I traded with about 6 cabins and it was fun.

Is the group pre-organized? On Fb or Dis?
From the replies, it seems like it would only work if it is pre arranged.

A tad sad, but still looking forward to trade with crew and at shop.

 

[shoes99]

Is the group pre-organized? On Fb or Dis?
From the replies, it seems like it would only work if it is pre arranged.

A tad sad, but still looking forward to trade with crew and at shop.

Pre-arranged with our Facebook group. And since it was a 14 night cruise we had pintrading with the crew and pin trading with the officers. It was fun.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We had some folks doing pin trading on their stateroom door/decorations on our last cruise. Every room doing it had some pins on them anytime we passed by. I even traded for a pin. Your mileage will of course vary. I wouldn't put out any pins you wouldn't be okay with just straight up losing.

This has been our experience and I did a trade myself.

 

[hcox31]

We had a pin trading list on our last cruise organized through our FB group. A list of cabins that would have pins out to trade. It worked wonderfully.

We put out between 6-8 pins on our door and didn't lose any. We also didn't put out anything we would be sad at losing. The stores on board, guest services and some cast members wear lanyards for trading as well as the officer night. We had a few kids stop my son as well to trade face to face just walking around the ship too.

 

[SDJEL]

There were a few families doing this on our most recent cruise. My kids walked all the decks looking for the pin trading on doors. They enjoyed the hunt. I’m going to do this on our next cruise. It had never occurred to me before. I think it is a great activity for a sea day.

 

[aggiedog]

Don't do what @aggiedog recommends. More often than not, those bulk pins you pick up are for 100 for $10 are all fake pins. Their quality is suspect and no ones likes getting a knock off pin. When you go to the gift shop, you can see how many fake ones there are as you'll see several of the exact same style, but the colors are all different, the enamel feels cheap or is cracked, and they are usually weighted differently.

That wasn't my experience but I agree that in a bag of 100 pins some are probably suspect. For me, it's not about the complete authenticity, since I don't collect numbered sets, limited editions, etc. I like certain characters. I figure if someone wants to trade with me, they can inspect the pin and decide if they want it. They are welcome to say no. We did have several in the bag that seemed to match ones we already had, but hey, I'm no pin expert.

 

[NOLA_Tink]

I plan on doing a pin trading style-extender on our next cruise with a "Leave a pin & take a pin" sign. We're doing a Merrytime cruise, so I'm collecting lots of Christmas pics and boat-themed pins that I think others will enjoy getting. For me, it's more about sharing with others & having them get excited about seeing fun pins.

 

[lspst8]

On our 2017 Fantasy Cruise, a stateroom that we passed everyday had pins for trading on their door, and my kids loved it. We stopped by to check the pins daily and they made several swaps. As far as I can tell, very few pins went missing, and there were always lots to trade displayed. I tend to think that The Dis overestimates the amount of theft that occurs from FEs and door decorations.

 

[mousefan73]

Maybe I am the idiot that is too honest but I actually traded pins that were on a pin trade board. Only bad thing for me was that I did not realize people did this. So I spent a lot of money buying pins at the gift shop in order to trade. Maybe I am just that honest. What I did was I bought the cheaper pins that they sold if you spent so much money they were like only five dollars each. You know those mystery pins in the sack. I have some pins that have no sentimental value to me So on our next cruise I will bring those to trade if I find any doors that have a Pin trade board.