Today I'm popping in with a magical merchandise post I wasn't planning on writing... but the other day, Eliot and I got to take part in a special merchandise release and I had to share the details about it! Starting last Friday, March 18th, Mickey's of Glendale was doing a special t-shirt release that was exclusive to D23 Gold Members.
I first heard about the shopping event a few days prior, in a completely random way. I was actually going onto the D23 website to order Eliot's and my free D23 gold member appreciation magnets. He had seen the information for the magnets posted online and asked me if I'd log into our accounts to order them. (Oswald for me and Stitch for him so we got both to put on our refrigerator!) When I was browsing around the D23 website afterwards, I happened to notice something that said Mickey's of Glendale.
Before I go any further, here's a quick backstory of what Mickey's of Glendale is. It's the Walt Disney Imagineering exclusive campus store, and only Disney Imagineers are able to shop there. Occasionally, they have special events where outsiders are allowed in to shop, but it's pretty exclusive. During D23 Expos, they usually have a Mickey's of Glendale pop up shop. When Eliot and I went to the 2017 D23 Expo, we got to go shopping there (that's another whole story itself) and we spent about $500... no exaggeration. They had Imagineering t-shirts, sweatshirts, polo shirts, pens, journals, water bottles, and more. And we bought a lot of it! As most of you probably already know, both Eliot and I wanted to be Imagineers so even shopping there and having my own polo shirt meant the world to me. Now getting back to present day...
Eliot and I just renewed our D23 Gold Memberships after taking a break. We were original charter members back when the club first launched in 2009. Between moving to Woburn, then to our rental house in Maine, and to our current house, we lost track of our membership and it expired somewhere along the way. However, before we signed up for the D23 Expo later this year, we decided to renew them!
You could say that I was a bit excited when I saw Mickey's of Glendale was doing an online sale exclusive to D23 Gold Members. I couldn't wait to tell Eliot all about it. The merchandise was being released online at noon on Friday, March 18th, except no one knew exactly what website it was going to be sold on.
What we did know were that there were two collections of shirts and they were both designed by the Walt Disney Imagineering team. The first collection was inspired by the WDI mascot, Sorcerer Mickey. The second collection was the Attraction Spiels Collection and it featured shirts designed with the spiels of different theme park attractions. (Who could forget the monorail spiel, "¡Por favor manténgase alejado de las puertas!”) According to the website, these items were originally available at the 2019 D23 Expo, but since we didn't go to that event, we missed them.
At noon on Friday, I was sitting on my laptop ready to go. I checked D23's website, Shop Disney, searched for Mickey's of Glendale... nothing. I searched on popular Disney news sites, and re-checked D23, Shop Disney... still nothing. I called Eliot and he couldn't find them either. At this point, it was about 10-15 minutes into the event, and I gave up assuming everything was sold out at that point.
About 10 minutes later, I got a call from Eliot and he told me the D23 website had been updated with a direct link to the sales site. We both got put into a waiting room, but it was only a few minutes since there weren't that many of us online. Once Eliot and I both got in, we discovered that it was a special site where you ordered all of the merchandise on one page. (We're assuming the shirts are made to order since the event is open for one week and nothing ships until April.) We both searched through the available options from the Attraction Spiels and Sorcerer Mickey collections.
We each decided to get two shirts... although we could have gotten more. I was ready to place the order, but it wouldn't go through. I finally called Eliot after about 5 failed attempts. He couldn't get it to work either, but once he added a Matterhorn shirt to the order, it went through. (That was the shirt at the top of the page and apparently there was a glitch that wouldn't allow the order to go through unless you had one in your cart.) Luckily, Eliot liked that shirt anyways, so he ended up with three and I got two.
Eliot also purchased the Monorail shirt - I knew he'd want that one- and the Neon Lights Sorcerer Mickey shirt. While I opted for the pink Sorcerer Mickey shirt as well as the geometric abstract Sorcerer Mickey shirt in a v-neck ladies style. There were a few others that I liked... but I haven't decided if I want any others or not.
Thankfully, I've got a few more days to think about it as the event is open until Friday, March 25th. So if you're a D23 Gold Member and you're interested in purchasing some exclusive Mickey's of Glendale merchandise, now's the time! You can find the link to purchase here and read more about this event on the D23 website here.
Happy Mickey's of Glendale shopping!!! °o°
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