So much has been written about the history of Mouse Gear I don’t think I could do one justice. For this sake of this post, a very brief and high level summary would be that Mouse Gear opened in September 1999 in what was once Communicore East [1]. Twenty two years later, in September of 2021, the Creations Shop at Epcot would take Mouse Gear’s place. Along with the Creations Shop, the former Communicore East building also houses the redesigned Club Cool (which we wrote about in a previous post: A Spin Through Club Cool)
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| From a 2021 Map, where Creations Shop is located |
Since 2014, each time we visited Epcot we had to make a stop at Mouse Gear in the former Communicore East building. Valves on the pipes to nowhere gave me something to tinker with while my wife was looking for a new set of ears. The walls above the merchandise were also decorated with a number of things that could capture my attention: such as shadows of Huey, Dewy, and Louie fighting with (who I’m assuming) is Donald in an office environment. To my discredit, I didn’t take many photos of these things. But Yesterland has bunch of great Mouse Gear photos. On January 4, 2020, Mouse Gear would relocate to a temporary location[1] and it just wasn’t the Mouse Gear I grew to like since our first (re)visit in 2014.
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| Partial view photo of the Mouse Gear sign I took on 2019 Visit |
On an October 2021 visit, we got a chance to visit the new Creations Shop. It’s a great store. It was well lit, vibrant, nicely spaced out, organized, and styled in the artistry that a Disney fan would love. However, that cartoonish playfulness of the old Mouse Gear is now gone. It’s a great store. But to me it seemed to have the experiential feel of a Nordstrom Rack or T.J. Maxx but for Disney merchandise. We took a video of our stroll through the store in October (notice the Halloween merch).
I like the store, I just miss the playfulness. It may be that the redesigned Epcot will be more a bit more mature and serious; or it might be that guests are skewing older and want a shopping experience that is more adult. Whatever the reason, there are 300 acres of Epcot to play around in.
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| Me, tinkering around at Mouse Gear in 2015 |
References:
[1] Mouse Gear Gifts with Real Character, Yesterland.com. Accessed Dec 6, 2021
