Save That Counter Service Trash!

One of the most unique and fun pieces of Walt Disney World ephemera I like to collect are items I get from the counter service restaurants. You can find most of these at any counter service restaurant at any of the four theme parks. But, the best place to get them is at the food court at the value resorts such as Pop Century or the All Stars. That way, when you are done, ya can just boogie over to your room, clean them up real quick, and set them out to dry while you head off to the parks.


These plates, cups, and napkins you can find at any of the counter service restaurants. I really like the colors and how the evoke the them of "What will you celebrate"? which has been the motto of the parks the past two years. Written on the cups are 'Celebrate Today', while the plates have 'Where Dreams Come True' scrolled across them.


At the food courts, the kids meals can come with apple sauce and a half pint carton of milk, both featuring Chef Mickey. He even has a personal message for kids on the milk:

Drinking at least three glasses of milk a day helps give you the vitamins and minerals your body needs to be active.

Chef Mickey

And, finally, if you buy a large 16" pizza, it will come in a cardboard box with the Fab Five. Now, this is kind of a large item, and if you choose not to keep the whole box, you can either cut off the top, and recycle the rest. And, if you still think it is too large, then you can always take a picture and recycle the entire box. Either way, it is a very unique piece of disneyphemera!


Some of the other items you can find at counter service restaurants include hamburger baskets, fry holders, fruit cups, and hot dog holders.

Now, what I really like about these items, besides them being free, is they change almost every year. You can look forward with each vacation on adding new items to your collection. And, they even change during different holiday seasons celebrated at WDW such as Halloween and Christmas. I'll show some from Halloween in a future post.

Just like any piece of disneyphemera, a great thing about these items is they make for very interesting pieces to put in your WDW vacation scrapbook. All you have to do is simply flatten them for a couple days under a stack of books and VOILA...you have a super cool item to display in your WDW scrapbook for everyone to enjoy. So, your next vacation to Walt Disney World, whether you are enjoying your Mickey waffle or just taking a break from the heat sucking down a soft drink, take a look around and see what new disneyphemera you can add to your disneyphemera collection, or better yet, to your magical memories.