After a months closure, Disney World is starting to reopen.

While we’ve been giving you a full tour of the newly reopened resorts since they reopened on June 22nd, now the parks have also started to welcome guests back! This week we’ve been visiting Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom for previews (with the official grand re-openings happening this weekend on July 11th).

Although we’ve been able to go back on our favorite attractions, grab some of those wonderful Disney chicken nuggets, and wave to our best pals during Character Cavalcades, merchandise shopping looks a bit different in the parks right now.

While there have been distancing markers, designated entrances and exits, plexiglass partitions, and more, Virtual Queues have also been put in place at retail locations (especially when Cast Members need to accommodate 4-hour wait times for gift shops!).

However, one of the best parts of shopping in Disney World is picking up a bunch of new pins to trade with around the parks. Although Pin Trading as we normally know it has been suspended, we’re happy to announce that it’s back… with some modifications, of course!

Instead of Cast Members wearing pin lanyards or guests picking their own pins off a board, the experience has been updated to reflect new health and safety measures. Previously, guests have been able to choose pins in close-contact from lanyards, boards, books, and pouches, where they would trade one of their own pins.

However, with the need for social distancing, we expected that Pin Trading could be put on hiatus to keep everyone safe. But, when Pin Traders opened back up again in Disney Springs a few weeks ago, Cast Members informed us that Pin Trading would return at some point later down the line.

Since we’ve returned to the Disney Resorts, we’ve seen Pin Trading in an alternate form, where guests can look at a pin board to choose any two they’d like to trade for without touching. A Cast Member will then grab the pins that guests request so there is less contact.

The parks have also been hosting pin trading events with a station set up near Primeval Whirl in Disney’s Animal Kingdom…

…and a small board at Fantasy Faire.

So far, these have been the only locations in the parks we’ve spotted doing this new process, but we will be sure to keep you updated with any additional ones we find!

You can Pin Trade online?! Find out all the details here!

Have you done some Pin Trading in a re-opened Disney World yet? Let us know in the comments below!

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