Character Warehouse Outlet Photo Report: Honoring the Locals
We’re back with another installment of the Walt Disney World Outlet Photo Report, following last month’s “Disney’s Longest Line in Florida is at Character Warehouse!” That one took a look at a popularity proliferation and a slew of resulting policy changes, and offered some speculation about it all.
This month, we return to the Disney Character Warehouse Outlet to share new photos that offer a look at the current inventory and policies. Note that this should be viewed as a “just for fun” post rather than an actual shopping guide for Orlando’s outlets. Some items sell out in hours (or less!), while others languish on shelves at Character Warehouse for months.
There are two Disney Character Warehouse Outlet stores in the Orlando area. One is on Vineland, somewhat near Disney Springs. The other is on I-Drive, closer to Universal. We always do the Vineland location because it’s more convenient and parking is less of a hassle. As always, we recommend reading our How to Shop the Outlet Stores for Discount Walt Disney World Merchandise guide for more background info on these stores…
In response to our last outlet report, there was a lot of speculation from readers about the cause of the long lines, and who, specifically, “ruined” Disney Character Warehouse for everyone else. Many of you pointed fingers at YouTubers, social media, and blogs such as this one.
Amusingly (at least to me), reader’s of Derek Burgan’s outlet report blamed this sudden popularity explosion on someone interesting: him.
Facebook not happy with the Disney Outlet Report. https://t.co/8jHTGVlda2 pic.twitter.com/VQgbEVDsdq
– Derek Burgan (@derekburgan) October 2, 2019
Like those readers, I tend to attribute much of what’s wrong with the world to Derek Burgan. Sadly, in this case, I don’t think that’s entirely fair. He’s been writing about Character Warehouse for 6 years, and these stores have been discussed on Disney forums and social media for as long as I can remember.
I do find it endlessly amusing that people think the Orlando Premium Outlets, of all things, were ever a “well kept secret,” “local resident secret” or “tourist free things for locals.” This is–no joke–the equivalent of complaining that Sharknado ruined the Hollywood Sign or The Office ruined Niagara Falls for locals. These outlets have always been overrun with tourists. When it comes to touristy spots, the outlets are literally worse than any of Walt Disney World’s theme parks.
Nevertheless, I’ll play along and honor the locals by reiterating just what a bad idea it is to go to the Orlando Premium Outlets. The parking situation is a nightmare, stores are crowded, too many people are pushing around full-sized luggage, the place is huge, and often chaotic.
If you go during the day, you’ll often encounter a line to enter Disney Character Warehouse. If you go in the evening (which is when we go), you’ll almost certainly find shelves that are picked over, with the best deals already being sold out. If I had limited vacation time and visited Walt Disney World once per year (or less), there’s no way on earth I’d allocate any of that time at the outlets. I barely want to go even when we’re literally driving right past them on the way to get groceries.
Anyway, let’s take a look at some great finds at the Disney Character Warehouse Outlet for October 2019:
A bunch of these buttons made it to the outlets.
I’m sort of surprised, as I like these. Not the Purple Wall one, but the idea in general. Had been paired by interests, I wonder if they would’ve sold better in the parks.
Here’s a look at one shelf of shirts, some of which are the same as what we saw last month.
Lots of good options here, with something for everyone.
This sweatshirt is far and away my favorite, and I was thisclose to buying it.
However, Sarah reminded me that I already have a large collection of sweatshirts, flannel shirts, and coats…despite living in a place where it drops below 80 degrees for approximately 3 weeks per year. (In my defense, it can get really cold those three weeks, which is why I’ve been stocking up!)
Another Junk Food shirt pictured on the far left here. (Several of the awesome Junk Food kids shirts we showcased last month are also still available.)
We raved about this line when it was released–I think this features some of the best Disney Parks merchandise designs in years. These particular items aren’t the best exemplars, but it’s nonetheless disheartening to see so much of this line end up at the outlet.
Then there’s this. In case you can’t tell, this shirt says “Bone Daddy.”
Maybe our minds are in the gutter (both of us, not just me), but Jack Skellington is not what we think of when we hear that term.
This entire wall is pretty bad.
I guess on the plus side, if you’re going to buy a hideous or weird shirt, you might as well get one that says “Bone Daddy.” At least that’ll elicit a (very juvenile) laugh out of people like us.
Despite it being an hour before closing, there were lots of good purses out on the shelves and behind the counter.
Granted, I know zilch about purses, but I was under the impression these are one of the ‘hot things’ currently selling out quickly at the outlets. (The other hot things are the ear headbands, which typically cost $.99 to $4.99. We didn’t see a single pair of those this visit. The shelves where they would’ve been were entirely bare.)
On the purse shelves, there are several options. Namely, the ‘it’s a small world’ purse above and this Figment one (both of which felt cheaply-made to me, but what do I know). There were also Loungefly backpacks and a few different varieties of Dooney & Bourke bags behind the counter.
My mom ended up being an it’s a small world Dooney & Bourke bag. It seemed nice. Probably not $198 nice, but the outlet price seemed more in line with reality.
I certainly don’t think socks are worth $16.99 just because they in cupcake packaging, and I wouldn’t pay $3.99 for them, either.
I did just get some nice woven socks from UNIQLO for $1.90, however. (Because I know you were all on pins and needles about my sock situation.)
I don’t know what this is.
(That line could be used to describe a good 80% of the Avatar stuff that ends up at the outlets.)
I actually do know what ACE is, but probably only because I’m a geek who is aware of Pandora’s layered backstory.
I wonder how many casual guests know what this is? Seems sort of odd to make a magnet with just ACE on it, totally divorced of context from the land itself. Oh well, that’s Avatar merchandise in a nutshell!
Above on the right we have the monster cat from Captain Marvel. On the left is…once again…I don’t know. I hope it’s a new cat from Frozen 2. It has that Frozen look to it.
On a related note, I saw a bunch of character merchandise from Frozen 2 the other day, and there’s also a new blue lizard and some sorta glowing ice unicorn or something. Both characters look promising–I’m actually really excited for Frozen 2. (With that said, it probably doesn’t make sense for stuff from a movie that isn’t even out yet to already be at the outlet. Anyone care to explain this cat?)
That wraps up this month’s Disney Character Warehouse Outlet Photo Report. Once again, in the spirit of honoring the locals, we’d encourage you to not visit the Orlando Premium Outlets. That’s only half in jest. If you’re tight on vacation time or would have to visit during the daytime hours, definitely skip it.
However, if you’re doing Disney Springs one night, could head to the outlet after 8 pm, and don’t mind picked over shelves, it’s worth checking out. Just temper your expectations. Don’t bank on finding any of the stuff you see pictured here or on social media. Character Warehouse is definitely a ‘feast or famine’ type of deal–the majority of the time we go, we don’t buy a single thing.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you gone to the Disney Character Warehouse Outlets since the flurry of rule changes and line outside the store? Do you blame Derek Burgan for the latest woes? If you’re a tourist, do you plan on honoring the locals by staying away? Find anything good, or did you think it was a frustrating waste of time? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
The cat is from the frozen shorts they made and released
The Bone Daddy shirt was weird and hilarious.
I can’t stop laughing at that Avatar plush. All I see is Borat in his bathing suit.
When Olaf is ‘researching’ Christmas traditions, these kittens are the ones the grandmother type knits sweaters for.
I come to Orlando pretty often just by myself, I have never been to the outlets. I am thinking next alone trip I will try. I really don’t get too much at the parks other than limited release stuff. I would NEVER take a family or children on that journey, hell… I don’t even want to take them to Target.
Yep I agree it is not worth going any more. We went on October 6, 2019 one at opening and one in afternoon. Both stores were wiped out with many empty shelves. It was always a great stop to find things but with eBay, personal shoppers it is not worth it anymore. What they need to do is limit 1 item per person for all their merchandise. I agree a guy does not need 30 hats.
We try to go to the outlets on our way into town each trip (learned the hard way after paying full price in park and we found it for 90% off in the outlets on our way out of town), but I do agree that it is getting crazier and crazier! Our last trip was Labor Day this year and we waited 45 minutes to enter, and luckily we did find some things to purchase so it wasn’t a total waste. But that is not always the case. But what really gets me are the re-sellers! In May I bought a couple of minnie mouse youth ball caps at the outlet for about $7 each for my neices, and when we went to check out there was a sleezy looking man who was buying about 30 of these hats. I’m sure he did not have 30 people to gift these too…and these were/are still being sold in the parks so you know he was re-selling them.
I think the cat on the left in the picture is in fact from the Frozen franchise but to be more exact I think it is from Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. Considering the one woman was “knitting mittens for her kittens”
Bingo. We own that stuffy, named it Kattunge, the Norwegian word for kitten.
I finally made the trip to the outlet. Looking at your pictures, we went close to the same night. We had time available because we were just hanging out in Orlando for a couple days before our cruise. I definitely wouldn’t give up park touring time to go there, but I’m glad I got to see it. And my sister bought that sweatshirt you liked …
The Orlando location isn’t the only Character Warehouse. It’s still a locals thing if you are willing to drive to the other locations. I got an Orange Bird dress I never would have paid retail for that way. If you have a cast member friend you can also go to the cast member only store on property. That’s how I got my banshee and avoided the mob scene at the outlet.
Who are these outraged locals that don’t know all this?
Additionally, the sales on Shop Disney aren’t that abysmal and some of them let you stack codes (Free shipping, Disney Visa, and I think I used 25% off last time, came to an aditional 35% off sale merchandise with free shipping on Halloween items that will still be here before Halloween).
I need a cast member hook up December 9-17!!! PLEASE!
on the wall of ugly shirts, if someone wanted an easy jack skellington or haunted mansion costume, there are a couple good starters there.
So the people who profit off of reselling the store’s merchandise are the ones blaming those who profit from publicizing the store itself?
I was there in August at store open. Both doors has lines and they hadn’t switches to an entrance/exit yet. Within 20 minutes the store was dangerously crowded. The line wound around the store and back into itself so many times that I heard cast members puzzling about what to do “the only place left it to send the line out the door and we can’t do that!”. Then they closed the door and limited the people. It was impossible to move around the store. It was definitely a hazard. I didn’t call the fire marshall, but I did abandon my goodies and leave.
I hate those who buy to resell. I went last summer and it was very picked over around noon. But saw people with wheeled cats with tons of the same merchandise. The resellers can drop a few thousand knowing they’ll make it back, meaning those of us who just want a few things from our trip have nothing left. I am for any and all limits.
totally agree
Unfortunately that is true of anywhere you shop… garage sales, ebay etc… I agree with you!
I don’t know who the cat is, either, but it was at Hollywood Studios in December 2017. Why would I remember this oddly specific fact? Because my then-5-year-old daughter had to have it. I tried to convince her she needed a porg. Clearly I was right and we now own that dumb cat.
I love the Frontierland sweatshirt
We stopped at this sad, dingy, outlet mall on our way out of town because my wife wanted to check it out. Sure enough, the Disney Store line was out the door. No thanks. We hightailed it out pretty quickly. Going from Disney Magic to Retail Purgatory is not the best topper for the trip.
There are kittens in Olaf’s Frozen Adventure short. They really milked the kittens for their 30-second screen time.
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the creepy saxophone-like player from Nightmare Before Christmas says, “Nice work, Bone Daddy” to Jack right after the opening “This is Halloween” scene. That said, I doubt 99% of other humans would remember this strange one-liner from the film in relation to this shirt.
You’re right! I remember that line too.d
I was going to post the same thing – we love Nightmare Before Christmas!
We loved the experience of queueinv at both Orlando outlets!We had watched vlogs before we arrived from UK.I wanted the Mickey Mouse clocks and the Christmas mugs and some Ears…Got everything Yeah.Got to bith an hr before openibg,spone to some lovely people and so loved it
Post would have been better with the “locals only” lead in from the OG Point Break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMukX7yVSTM&t=12s.
Just saying.
Yes, it would have. Well played!
That would be a waste of time!
I bought the frontierland sweatshirt last month. I’m actually wearing it right now. It’s so comfortable! My husband said, “hey, can we buy this for you?” Uh, yes.
#whatisthis … very funny I haven’t been to the outlets before as somehow each trip, as you mentioned, seems to be tight on time, and you don’t know what the merchandise situation is looking like on any given day. It is a place I’m meaning to experience though.
Somebody needs to buy that Bone Daddy shirt and see if they make you turn it inside out or remove it next time you go to the MK. My gutter mind was thinking just like yours.
Last time I went to the Character Outlets someone in line told me that the reason for the obnoxious outside line situation was because a disgruntled shopper called the Fire Marshal. So now the store only lets a certain amount in. It isn’t that the store is any more, or less, crowded than it was before, but now the store is being held to a certain limit of people. Hence the line outside in the sun. Not sure if this is true, but it kind of made sense to me?
That at least seems plausible.
My guess is that it’s a confluence of factors including hot items, more eBayers, more awareness, policy changes slowing purchases, stricter capacity enforcement, etc.
I was down mid September. The manager came out to the line AND dispersed the crowd – stating it was as a result of “the fire Marshall”. Not only were they limiting the number of people in the store, but once the line reached a certain point they cut off the line! The manager to told everyone beyond where he arbitrarily cut off the line to disperse, that we could not wait and would have to come back and “maybe” he would allow another line to form. This was around 11 AM!