We were there in mid June for my daughter's 5th birthday. The first morning on the bus to EPCOT she asked the bus driver if he had some. He proceeded to take a huge stack of cards from pocket and loaded her up!. From then on it was a game to see how different ones she could get. Not all of them did, but most had them. Monorails, boats and more buses, she ended up with about 50 cards a couple Disney Transportation wooden nickels.
The best experience though was while we were waiting on a bus to depart from Animal Kingdom. My daughter asked the bus driver if he had any cards. Every card he pulled out got the same reply: "No thank you, I already have that one, you can give that to another kid who doesn't have one." He said "you are very polite young lady, let me see if I can find something special for you", and he pulled out a small wooden treasure box that was full of jewel rings! He let her pick one out and she was totally surprised! She wore it the rest of the trip making sure to point it out to other cast members. Kudos to the bus driver for making such a wonderful memory for her!
Yes they are a point of interest especially to fans like yourself ( and me) but as you said they can be difficult to get a completed set. There has been a few series as well. The latest is 27 cards. Unfortunately some people try to hoard them and then sell the sets on Craig's list and eBay etc. Most CM's are aware of this and can usually tell if they are dealing with that kind of situation. I do hand them out to kids unsolicited but I am surprised at the responses I get, some surprised others confused , so that's really why I started this thread to get an idea of how people feel about them. thank you for your reply!I have a complete set but it took me a long time to get them all, several years in fact. Not many guests know about them to ask for them annd Ive very rarely see drivers/pilots handing them out to kids. I like the way they are designed with the interesting facts on the back. Being a collector of Disney things, they get a lot of interest when people visit me and I bring them out to show them around.
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