Disney’s Walk Around the World bricks to be destroyed, take-home brick alternative available
As enhancements are made to the entrances and walkways at Walt Disney World, the resort has announced that the personalized Walk Around the World bricks near Magic Kingdom park and the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) will soon be destroyed to make way for the future.
The bricks were originally committed to be on display until 2011. Since the bricks were not designed to be removed one-by-one, guests who purchased them will not be able to take their original brick home.
The bricks are set to be removed as the resort adds new walkways, additional metal detectors and bag screening stations, and re-works tram loading and unloading areas. All of the personalized bricks will be removed in phases, starting with those in front of Magic Kingdom park and at the TTC. There are no plans to remove Disneyland’s versions of these bricks at this time.
As an alternative, guests who sponsored a Walk Around the World brick can purchase a commemorative version now through Aug. 31. Those who sponsored a brick and are interested in getting a souvenir version should follow these steps:
If getting your brick in person:
- Stop by City Hall at Magic Kingdom or Guest Relations at Disney Springs to verify your previous brick by sharing the name and hometown of the guest who sponsored it
- After the brick is verified, you’ll be given a one-time use voucher that can be presented by or before Aug. 31, 2019, at either Tomorrowland Light & Power Co. in Magic Kingdom or the Marketplace Co-Op at Disney Springs
- This voucher will enable you to purchase one commemorative 6-inch brick for $10 plus tax
If getting your brick online
- Email [email protected] or call (407) 828-2791 with the name and hometown of the guest who sponsored the original brick
- After the brick is verified, you’ll be given a one-time use code to use by Aug. 31 on shopDisney to purchase the 6-inch commemorative brick for $10
- This code cannot be redeemed in person or at any physical Disney Store location
The new bricks will offer customization of 2-3 lines of text, up to 16 characters per line. This can include names, hometowns, or other messages.
For all guests, not just those who sponsored an original Walk Around the World brick, a 6-inch brick is available for $29.99, as well as an 8-inch brick for $49.99 – all with customization included. These bricks can be found at Tomorrowland Light & Power Co. in Magic Kingdom, at the Marketplace Co-Op in Disney Springs, and online at shopDisney starting this spring.
UPDATE (3/28/19): One of our staff received a brick they ordered today. It was ordered on March 21 at the Tomorrowland Light & Power Co. location with a quoted arrival time of 3-5 business days. Here’s a look at the front and back with the Annual Passholder option.
My parents bought me a brick when I was a baby – 25 years ago now. We used it as a sort of measuring tape of my growth – taking pictures of me beside it as I grew from a baby to a toddler to a teen, on birthdays, graduations, and most recently on the day my now fiance proposed in the Magic Kingdom. It brought me so much peace and joy knowing that in a sense there was always a little piece of me there at my favorite place in the world. I am tremendously disappointed by this decision, as it is another example of Disney steamrolling (this time, very literally) over guests’ memories and emotional attachments to those special little details that used to make Disney “Disney.” To add insult to injury, we don’t even get to keep our original brick. Why do I need to pay for a souvenir brick that I have no attachment to, and also looks nothing like my original brick?? Yet another example of Disney focusing on the $$$ and in the process forsaking guests’ memories and those sentimental details that kept so many of us returning.
This is soooo disappointing. DIsney is NOT home anymore. I try to get there every other year and every year they take away things that I have LOVED. I also purchased a pix of my daughters, years ago, at the leave a legacy at Epcot.
I felt honored to have my family enshrined at Disney on 3 bricks and the wall.
I wish there was a section that Disney would build to preserve these precious memories.
My ALL time favorite is the light parade at night. I cried everytime I saw it.
I understand why changes are needed, but things like Osbourne lights, the great movie ride and the parade are truly what I looked forward to.
Times they are a changing—-
Years ago I purchased a brick for my nephew. He’s the light of my life and animation is his thing just like mine. It was a great way of connecting us at Disney world. Contrary to others here I know when I bought it there was a possibility it would not be there ‘forever’.
It was actually in the purchase agreement. It’s been 20 plus yrs. since then and I don’t regret my purchase.
If they are selling them again, I will buy another in a heartbeat for all three of my nieces and nephew. The brick may go away but every memory is forever.
It’s the circle of life.
Go to Disney leave your mark repeat whenever possible.
Please get over it…
I can’t agree with you more Sara. I was a DVC owner and visited disney 2-3 times a year. leave a legacy, bricks, you name it… Disney was a silent family member that we allowed into our home. The changes are upsetting and many of the upcoming changes are as well. i know i personal am taking my money elsewhere. i Don’t feel our trips have been magical anymore. The “be our guest” let us amaze you service is a thing of the past. the food is less then average at 5 star prices. the lines are long, the cast members are average at best. when fan groups know more than your employees you have a problem.
You couldn’t have said it more perfectly! I purchased a brick when my daughter was born (1995) and we visited every year on her birthday. It quickly became a tradition to take a photo of her sitting next to her personalized brick.
I think it’s incredibly selfish for WDW to charge those who purchased an original brick to pay again for a smaller, commemorative brick.
I feel the same way. If Walt was alive, I bet he would never let this happen. Everything is about business. I have 3 bricks and I don’t ever remember hearing that they would only be there till 2011.
Sara you hit the nail on the head. I am also extremely disappointed in Disney doing this. Very sad it was something we looked for each time we went there. I agree with you. $$$ is Disney’s theme. Where is Micheal Eisner He had the Disney spirit. Walt Disney must be turning in his grave. Very very sad!!!!!!!
Sara you are so correct we have a brick there as well and It fun knowing we were part of Disney. Walt Disney built this for families to enjoy and this made a family part of the experience. Getting rid of the bricks is just bulldozing through all the family memories. Shame on Disney. Then to offer a replica of the brick and have to pay for it on top of that! Not happy at all!!! We also did the etched pictures in Epcot I wonder when that will be bulldozed 😕. Very sad
The Monoliths, in front of EPCOT are suppose to be re-located off to the East side, of the Main Entrance Plaza. The Monoliths and the etched photos are currently being moved, right now, while the Main Entrance Plaza is being renovated. The Fountain is finally going to be re-built, maybe like it was in 1982, with some updated features.
This is so sad! As a child I use to admire these bricks much like the Stars on Hollywood and think it was so neat to see who walked here before me. Couldn’t wait to put our family’s brick down. Now you want me to pay again for a cheaper version…. Wow. How money hungry can Disney get.
There are so many things going on at Disney that are surely not part of what Disney was meant to be or stood for.
As many people have said here and on other forums, Disney is just for making money, They always have been but it used to be done sublety so that you didn’t feel like you were being ripped off, this is most definately not the case now.
We were looking so forward to bringing grandchildren with us in a few years time but don’t think we will bother now, WDW is not the ‘magical’ place that it used to be, so sad 🙁
Our contract stated 10 years, it was bound to happen.
Snapped pics of our brick many times, made magnets out of it along with a mousepad.
When your parents bought that brick, they did so with a commitment from Disney that it would be there until 2011; It’s 8 years beyond that. Disney has completely fulfilled what they promised your parents (and everyone else who purchased a brick) and then some. No one is forcing anyone to buy a souvenir brick, but the option is there should you want a very inexpensive memento. I don’t see how Disney has done anything wrong here at all and I don’t understand all the negativity towards this except for people’s sense of entitlement. (how dare Disney keep my brick in place for only 8 years past what they promised?!) Did people really think that their brick was going to be there forever? …even when Disney categorically stated the opposite in the T&C of purchase?
I knew my bricks wouldn’t be there forever…Disney provided purchasers with clearly written legal terms stating that, so I’m not mad at them. They fulfilled their obligation. They cannot make the necessary improvements without destroying the bricks in the process. I purchased a brick for my grandparents many years ago, before they passed away. My grandmother LOVED Disney World and it has always brought me comfort knowing her name was engraved on a brick on the pathway near the Polynesian (her favorite hotel!). I’m glad Disney is offering duplicate bricks for purchase.
I agree with Sara. Yes Disney fulfilled their contractual obligations but this is memories not “contracts” we are talking about. We, my best friends and I, bought the brick in 1994, the first week they went on sale, together as a testimony of our friendship. 25 years later we are still best friends and part of Disney history. They should at lest give us the option of keeping the original. I would be happy to pay for the extraction. But the replica is just a cheap way of banking on people’s hurt feelings and that’s not on. If only Walt was still here…
Fully agree that Disney did everything they promised pluss more – just *really* wish we could have the brick afterward. We are just now setting up pavers for our backyard patio and would *love* to have that prick as a feature inset in the patio – how cool would that be? I do see where it mentions “the bricks were not designed to be removed one-by-one”. I wonder if there’s an overlap underneath each brick? Still wishing for just a hint of a way to recover the brick… #maybesomehow
The bricks do come apart, tree roots pushed some up near our stone and they clearly separated. Really it’s probably down to logistics, timing and cost. Can you imagine how many were laid, each needing to be taken up, cleaned of mud/cement, correlated to guest names who actually wanted them back, (are still alive? )
Disney makeovers move quick, especially at MainGate! it’d be a mammoth timely undertaking, which would just hold up works. It’s upsetting, but we all have memories, and the souvenir is greatly discounted to only $10 for those whose who held one. This time we get to have and hold forever, at a bargain price.
My husband and I had gotten a block and forgot to send for the replica. Can we still get it? We have a friend who will be at Disney World next week and could pick it up.
This makes me so sad. Now that I have a family of my own, one of my dreams was to keep the tradition, and have one made for our family. I’ve been going to Disney World for 30 years, creating memories with my family. Disney has always been a way of life. With every President and CEO that takes over, the less and less they keep hold of that special “magic” Disney has, but more focus goes on the money and how they can make more and more of it. It makes me sick to my stomach and almost brings me to tears. Poor Walt’s dream is slowly becoming something it was never meant to be.
Thanks For NOTHING!! I bought a stone for my husband to commerate his 44th birthday as this was his favorite place to visit in the whole world. We purchased this as a memory to visit and take pics as he passed away after a 10 year battle with cancer and this was the last vacation we took as a family (we would go here and stay on the resort religiously). This is appalling to me… I wasn’t notified, I wasn’t even given a thought as to what the stone meant of me and my boys. This was a piece of my late husband that brought back many happy memories of when we went there for family vacation (I might add the only place we went for family vacation). and now it’s gone!!?????…. thanks a lot Disney… I just can’t fathom why you would do such a hurtful thing to not only my family but to the other families with similar stories. I am becoming a Disney Hater…
Disney no longer cares about the customer. The only concern they have is for the dollars in our pockets.
It is true in the paper work for the brick you will find that it clearly states there is no time limit on the life of the walkway and our bricks.
I purchased several bricks to go in the walkway. It is a shame that we were not given a chance to acquire our purchased bricks. As for removing the bricks, they were put down individually and would come up individually. No real effort needed to do so. Hold up a project, no it wouldn’t. All is needed is to plan for such an undertaking and do it in phases.
Really, people, if Walt Disney could move and transplant a 100 year old tree to the Magic KINGDOM, it would be a small task to dig up, store and ask the individual if they did or did not want the purchased brick. The information for the bricks were kept. You could go and ask for a specific brick location. Yes, it is a great shame that instead of caring about the customers that build their kingdom, being loyal reoccurring customers, they find just another way to milk another dollar out of a customer. Yes, Disney, we care enough, believe in you enough to want to be just a small piece of a great dream.
This is so sad, just Disney taking away what guests took honor and pride of adding to family traditions when visiting Disney.
Im sure that Walt must be completely sad that his dream has become all about Finances and not the loving family place he began to create. It’s sad that most movies send messages to children, instill depression, sadness and anxiety. They set up smells in the park to make you feel happy, encourage shopping/eating. Their employees are over worked under paid and treated unfairly.
Disney is just another corporation interested in the mighty dollar and not in humanity.
Very disappointed as well… I only found out a couple days ago July, 2022 when I went to look for it … I wish I had been notified??? Purchasing the brick was a commitment to Disney & fun event each time we visited & looked to see it! … I know the bricks could have been removed individually & offered to the owners … Even worse is charging for a souvenir size of it… They made their business decision…I’m also a shareholder & I’m not feeling the Disney happiness right now…
I also just found out about the brick. Is there any way I can still purchase this?