Since I started my Instagram account @lucysroomtoys, I have been blessed to have met some amazing people with a shared love for all things Disney. Although chatting with each other online is great fun, I really wanted to try and arrange something where we could all meet in person and chat Disney and get to know each other. I had seen London meet ups being arranged before but with my illness, travelling that far can be tricky for me and I knew it could be for others too, so I put a feeler out on Instagram to see if anyone in the South West of England and Wales would be interested in meeting up at the Cardiff Disney Store instead. I honestly had no idea how many people would respond, if any at all, so I was blown away when I had over 30 people contacting to say they would love to come (and several who were willing to travel quite some distance to join us)!
Once we had settled on a date, I let Disney Store know what we were up to and they very kindly sent me some of the celebration badges they give out in certain stores on birthdays etc, with all our Instagram names written on, for us to wear at the meet up. When we all arrived at the store, we were even more overwhelmed and touched when the lovely store manager, Claire, came out to welcome us and to tell us that they had organised goodie bags for us all, as well as a 20% off voucher each to use in the store that day! We were not expecting it at all so we were just blown away by the surprise and their kindness. They also brought out some Little Mermaid themed photo props for us all to use and have fun with whilst we were waiting for more people to turn up. The cast members at the Cardiff Store honestly made it such a wonderful and magical experience for us all; we can’t thank them enough ?
As well as our 20% off vouchers, the goodie bags contained some fun things such as some paper/card Mickey ears, a paper/card Hercules medal, two colouring in cards featuring Darth Vader and Grumpy, some Mickey and Minnie stickers, some Star Wars stickers, a handwritten personalised card and lots of magical Mickey confetti!
Naturally, once we had all got to know each other a little bit, we all went shopping in the store! We all had a great time checking out all the wonderful products together and obviously all made some cheeky purchases! I think some members of the group managed to clear the entire stock of Sorcerer Mickey plushies from the shelves within about 30 seconds of entering ? I was thrilled to get some items that I had really been hoping to find which were the new wave of Animator Littles blind boxes, the Mickey and Pluto Toybox Figure Set, and the Neff Toy Story cap (which was in the sale). The adorable little Toy Story water-fill cup was an impulse buy but I just couldn’t resist it as the artwork on it is just so lovely! I also managed to mark off three more stamps on my Summer of Adventure passport which meant I had enough to get a £5 gift card and of course, I chose the Toy Story design! I will look forward to using that in the future ? Inside my Animator Little boxes, I got two Ellie’s and a Max but my lovely friend Lorna (@lornas.enchantedcastle) swapped an Ellie with me to give me the Up house instead so I was so thrilled by that. Now I just need to find Carl!
After we had all finished shopping, we gathered outside the front of the store for a group photo which another of the lovely cast members helped with which was just wonderful, and again, they really made the experience so fun and magical for us all.
Sadly some people had to leave after this due to other commitments (but it was wonderful to meet them and chat with them in store), but the rest of us then made our way to Bute Park for a group picnic together. I’ll be honest and say it was too far for me to walk so when we got there, I pretty much stayed sat down the whole time but I still managed to chat to lots of lovely friends and I honestly just had such a wonderful time watching everyone chatting and having fun and getting to know each other. It really warmed my heart to see everyone getting along so well and making new friends. It really felt like we were one big family and I know we are all going to be firm friends for life ?
After the picnic, we went to a few more shops such as Forbidden Planet, HMV, Primark and Build a Bear. In HMV I was really happy to get the Art of The Good Dinosaur book for only £4.99 (it’s £9.99 if you buy it on it’s own or £4.99 if you buy it with something else, so I bought a Paw Patrol book for my niece too for £1.99 so it worked out cheaper to do that than buy my book on it’s own). I had planned to get the Incredibear in Build a Bear as I had a voucher for money off but it turns out it wasn’t valid on that particular Bear as it was brand new in store and it’s so expensive so I decided against getting it in the end and just bought the Incredibles super suit for my Disney Duffy bear to wear instead. The amazing handmade Bau you can see in the photo was made by @nuggetstumpdisney’s (Zoe’s) amazing Mum and she kindly gifted it to me and I am absolutely thrilled with him! I am going to share him in his own post later this week so keep an eye out for that!
Primark was absolute chaos! I managed to find a few items that I had really been wanting though which were the Friends logo tee, the Friends pins, the new Toy Story cloud pyjamas (that match the nightie previously released) and the Minnie Mouse ear shoes. It was so manic in there and a lot of us got split up so it was there that many of us parted ways but we all had such an amazing time together and are already planning our next meet ups as well as some other potential exciting projects!
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone that came, and of course to the Disney Store web team and Disney Store Cardiff team for going above and beyond for us and making it such a truly magical day ?
Also, thank you to @cocoshomeofdismey, @laura_loves_disney, @glenconbeer, and @nuggetstumpdisney for letting me use some of your photos. If you want to see lots more photos from the day too, make sure you check out the hashtag #cardiffdoesdisney on Instagram!
Thank you so much for organising this Lucy. It was lovely to meet you and everyone else who travelled to Cardiff yesterday. I certainly wasn’t expecting so many people to turn up! I managed to refrain from buying a huge amount at the store (which I’m very proud of) and just got a mug to go with my collection. I love it (have shared it in my story on Instagram). Definitely think that another meet up would be amazing and I’d definitely be up for it! Thanks again to the Cardiff Disney Store cast members and the web team you mentioned in the blog post. They were just magical! Have a great day Lucy ♥️
Oh Lucy this is so perfect, I can’t wait to see you all again!!! Thank you for sorting us all out!!!! xxx
I’ve said it loads already but it was great to meet you Lucy & thank you for arranging it so I got to meet many more of my fav instagrammers.
It was an amazing day , can’t wait for the next one!
This was so fun to read, you seem to have had a pretty magical time and I’m so happy you got to gather with so many Disney friends !