New Disney Character Warehouse Opening in Tampa, Florida

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Tampa is getting one. A new Disney Character Warehouse is coming to Tampa Premium Outlets in Tampa, Florida — the third location, joining the two existing Orlando stores.

Disney has not announced an opening date yet, or an exact location within the outlet mall.

Here’s what the Disney Character Warehouse Tampa opening means, what these stores actually sell, and how to shop one properly.

Quick Summary

• A new Disney Character Warehouse is coming to Tampa Premium Outlets
• This will be the third location; the other two operate in Orlando
• No opening date has been announced
• No exact location within the outlet mall has been confirmed
• The stores sell discounted overstock and retired Walt Disney World merchandise
• Stock includes apparel, toys, home goods, collectibles, and seasonal items

What Disney Character Warehouse Actually Is

Disney Character Warehouse stores sell discounted overstock and retired merchandise from Walt Disney World Resort.

You can find items that once sold at full price in the parks, now heavily marked down. Available items include:

• Apparel
• Toys
• Home goods
• Collectibles
• Seasonal holiday items

That’s the official description. Here’s what it means in practice.

How the Stock Actually Works

This is the part that determines whether a trip is worth your time.

Character Warehouse inventory is unpredictable by design. These stores receive whatever the parks and resorts couldn’t sell — last season’s Halloween merchandise in February, a colorway that didn’t move, park-exclusive items from a promotion that ended, Spirit Jerseys in sizes nobody bought.

There is no catalog and no way to check stock remotely. You go, you look, you find something or you don’t.

Discounts are genuinely substantial. Items routinely land at 50-70% below original park pricing, and clearance racks go deeper. A Spirit Jersey that was $75 in the Emporium might be $25 here.

The best finds are seasonal leftovers and discontinued lines. Halloween merchandise appears in winter. Christmas items show up in spring. Anything tied to an anniversary or a closed attraction eventually lands here.

What You Will Not Find

Set expectations honestly:

• No current-season park exclusives. If it’s selling well in the parks right now, it isn’t here.
• No Loungefly or high-demand collectibles, usually. Those sell through at full price.
• No consistent sizing. Apparel is whatever didn’t sell, which skews toward extreme sizes.
• No guarantee of anything specific. Going in looking for one particular item is a recipe for disappointment.

Why Tampa Makes Sense

The two existing locations are both in Orlando — at Orlando International Premium Outlets on International Drive and Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets near Disney Springs.

Both serve the same market: tourists already in Orlando, plus Central Florida locals.

Tampa opens a genuinely different catchment. It’s roughly 85 miles from Walt Disney World, serving the Tampa Bay metro area of roughly three million people — a population that includes a large number of Annual Passholders and frequent Disney visitors who make day trips rather than staying on property.

Those are exactly the customers who buy discounted Disney merchandise: engaged enough to want it, local enough to visit repeatedly, and not on a vacation budget that makes full park pricing feel acceptable.

It also spreads inventory. Two Orlando stores competing for the same overstock means both get picked over by the same shoppers. A third location in a separate market gives merchandise a fresh audience.

How to Shop One Properly

If you’ve never been, a few things that materially improve your odds:

• Go early in the day and early in the week. Restocking typically happens overnight, and weekend crowds pick shelves clean.
• Go often if you’re local. Inventory turns constantly. One visit tells you nothing about what’s there next month.
• Check the clearance sections first. Additional markdowns beyond the standard outlet discount live there.
• Look at sizes above and below yours. Disney apparel sizing varies enormously between lines.
• Bring a list of what you’d want, not what you need. Flexible shopping works here; targeted shopping doesn’t.
• Check the back walls. Home goods and collectibles are usually furthest from the entrance and least picked over.
• Annual Passholder discounts generally do not apply. These are outlet prices already.

The Resale Reality

Worth acknowledging: Character Warehouse stores attract resellers, and it affects what you’ll find.

People buy discounted merchandise here to sell on secondary markets at a markup. That’s why desirable items disappear fast, often within hours of hitting the floor.

Going early is not just about selection — it’s about beating people doing this professionally.

What We Don’t Know

Disney has not announced an opening date or an exact location within Tampa Premium Outlets.

Outstanding questions:

• When it opens
• Where in the mall it sits
• Whether it’ll match the Orlando stores in size
• Whether inventory will differ from the Orlando locations

Tampa Premium Outlets is located in Lutz, north of Tampa off I-75.

The Bottom Line

The Disney Character Warehouse Tampa location is coming to Tampa Premium Outlets as the chain’s third store, joining two existing Orlando locations, with no opening date or specific mall location announced.

These stores sell discounted overstock and retired Walt Disney World merchandise — apparel, toys, home goods, collectibles, and seasonal items — at substantial markdowns from park pricing.

Go early, go often, stay flexible on what you’re looking for, and treat every visit as independent of the last. The stock changes constantly and nothing is guaranteed.

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