I was in Disneyland reliving some childhood memories last week. There on a friday, pretty nice weather (especially compared to the endless rain here in SF) and the crowd wasn’t too bad. 

The memory that will stick with me the best on this trip though is the hour or so Britt and I spent trying to track down a decent sweatshirt. I always assumed that Disneyland was designed for you to spend a whole lot of money once you got into the park. They have this nifty Fastpass system where you can get a pass to come back to a ride, so instead of waiting in line you can go shop.

HOWEVER, it was really difficult to spend money here. Nothing was quite right. Honestly, with so many shops open, all over the park, outside every ride, there was a real shortage of choice. Even though all the shops have a sort of theme, usually related to where in the park they are, 80% of the merchandise was the same in every one of them. 

I found two kinda cool unique t-shirts:

I really dig these retro graphics. However, I’m not going to wear them on a t-shirt. I want a print or poster with these images. But of course, even looking through the Disney Art Galleries, they don’t have these ones available.

Disney has a ridiculous amount of IP to draw upon to create merchandise. The rides and unique parts of the parks alone should provide for no shortage of cool ideas for unique gifts you could get only at Disneyland. Somebody is REALLY dropping the ball here. 

I do have to applaud Disney for there forward thinking embracing of online retailing. They have licensed lots of their Disney characters and images to Zazzle so you can create your own custom merchandise. But seriously, it should be EASY to spend A LOT of money at Disneyland. But it isn’t.