Howdy out there in MiceChat land. Hope you all had a good holiday weekend. Today we have a quick update from the Disneyland Resort. It’s Star Wars related of course, but there’s also Dole Whip-ish churros, Tropical Hideaway progress, an unnecessary and perhaps ill-advised new FastPass option, and lots of little items from around the resort.

Honoring Those Who Fought For Our Country

As I was gathering items for you yesterday, a skywriter was just finishing up this message . . .

Monorail Alien

The Monorails have all been wrapped for Pixar Fest. We’d already seen Monorails Blue and Orange, now Monorail Red is on the beam with new Green Aliens in the windows.

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Monorail Orange is the Incredibles
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Monorail Blue is Nemo themed.

Whip it Good

The Churro cart in front of the castle has replaced rose gold with pineapple. The reviews are mixed.  Our own Brian Pinsky enjoyed the new confection which comes with an up-charge marshmallow dipping sauce.  But Disney Debbie hated the new churro and thought it had a terrible aftertaste.  What did you think?



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Mobile Order Your Food

Passholders and cast members can now mobile order their food at many quick service restaurant locations throughout the parks. Flo’s also has a new menu. So we decided to check it out during our MiceChat Sunday Meetup. The system isn’t open to all guests just yet. And perhaps that is for good reason. We had mixed results.  All of us placed our orders on the App prior to arrival at Flo’s. When you arrive at your location, you let the app know. It then sends a ticket to the kitchen and the app will notify you when your meal is ready.

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Lines for many of the Mobile-Order enabled restaurants seem longer. Is this because some restaurant resources have been shifted to Mobile Order? It’s not unlike what happens at FastPass location with the standby line.

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When your order is ready, you simply pick it up at the Mobile Order window. Sounds easy.

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Half of our group had no problem at all. They skipped the long standby line and walked right up for their food. But several of us had issues of one kind or another.

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Disney Debbie’s app refused to cooperate. Even cast members had trouble getting her order to process.

My issue was extremely frustrating. I can’t eat dairy of any kind, so I was thrilled to see that the app offers a detailed list of dairy free options. I placed my order and pressed “I’m Here” when we all arrived at Flo’s.  Everyone got their food and started eating. I was still standing by the window waiting. And waiting. And waiting.  Finally, after I asked for a status, my order arrived. But it was incorrect. Instead of a dairy free hamburger, I got a kids meal with cheese burger. When I said that I didn’t think it was correct they told me “That’s what you ordered”.  I assured them that I did NOT order a kids meal and that I couldn’t eat it anyway. They continued to argue with me rather than try to make things right. I finally asked for a manager and showed them my app. They could see that I ordered an adult sized dairy free hamburger and went back to the kitchen to get it. Unfortunately, they returned with a regular cheeseburger and fries (I had asked for fruit instead of fries).  So back they went a 3rd time. This time around they brought me the plain hamburger on an allergy-safe bun (which are horrible) but they still had fries on the plate instead of fruit. By this point I had been waiting for my food for almost half an hour.  I wasn’t happy about it . . . I was hangry.  So I took the burger and fries and went to join the rest of the MiceChatters.

To be fair, I’m not sure how many of these problems were due to the mobile order system and how many are simply cast members not paying attention. Turns out that the mobile order system did, in fact, send the wrong ticket info to the kitchen for my order. But the continuing drama was entirely cast member error (putting wrong toppings and sides on the order and not paying attention to the fact that their guest has a noted allergy).

In the end, a manager did stop by the table to apologize.  But for an $11.50 burger, I expect a higher level of service than the average McDonalds.  If Disney is going to charge more, then they should deliver more as well. You raise the bar and so do I.  I’ll wait a week or two and try the system again. But Mobile Order itself wasn’t the only problem.

Have you checked out Mobile Order yet?  It’s pretty easy.  Select your items and press “Add”

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You’ll be able to change quantity, add or remove toppings and sides, and get a order summary before sending the final order to the restaurant.

, Disneyland Update: Solo, YOLO, Let’s GoCountdown to Bottleneck – Pirates Gets FastPass

This next item baffles me. We already know that Pirates will return next month with a revised auction scene. But that’s not the only controversial change. FastPass is now being set up for the attraction as well. This is a real shame. The walkways of New Orleans Square are frequently brought to a standstill because of the Pirates queue as it is. FastPass makes the standby queues longer and slower . . . why on earth would they do this? Is there no one left in park operations who remember the disaster that Pirates FastPass was when they tried it in the early days of the system? This is irresponsible on Disney’s part. They’ll be making New Orleans Square a madhouse just in time for Star Wars Land to open.

My suggestion would be to remove FastPass from both Pirates AND Haunted Mansion to free up the walkways. Both attractions are high capacity and do NOT need FastPass. Please Disney, restore sanity to this situation – use FastPass only where it’s needed and where you have room for the extended queue.

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Ideally, the entire queue would fit inside the patio at all times. But that’s just not the case anymore. FastPass will make a bad situation worse.

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Something new popped up this week next to Pirates. 21 Royal (Walt’s private dining room) now has its own sign at the base of the stairs to the Dream Suite.

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Tropical Hideaway

Things are moving quickly at the former Aladdin’s Oasis. The tower near the stage has come down and demolition continues.  When complete, you’ll be able to find a table to relax and purchase food and beverages from the new tiki themed market. I’m looking forward to this and the park could use a little food court here. . . though I’d be as pleased as rum punch for them to change their mind and build us an honest to goodness Polynesian dinner show here instead.

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The tower behind the tall scrim has come down.
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The lamps on the exterior have been removed.

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World of Disney Too

World of Disney in Downtown Disney has opened a kiosk in the Esplanade while construction has half the main store closed for reconceptualization.

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Don’t get too excited. . . It’s mostly spirit jerseys and ear hats which you will find in nearly every store on the property.

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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Construction

Star Wars land is growing by the day. I went on a hunt for new locations to view the construction this week and came across one that required me to take a little hike.

If this view looks unique to you, it’s because it was taken from Harbor Blvd instead of from the Parking Structure as we usually shoot.

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Those are the ToonTown hills just beyond the Monorail roundhouse.
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From this elevation you can really see how many of the rocks are just suspended above massive supports.

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Then I headed over to Hungry Bear in Critter Country to see the construction from up close.

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Now let’s take another hike, this time to the top of Tarzan’s Treehouse . . .

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SOLO

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It pains me to write this. I’m a major Star Wars geek and REALLY wanted this stand-alone Han Solo pic to do well. Unfortunately, Solo made only $103 million domestically on a holiday weekend it should have crushed. By contrast, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, made $155 million domestically in its opening weekend (in 2016) and eventually broke one billion dollars worldwide. I have a bad feeling about this – it’s doubtful that Solo will achieve Rogue One levels of success. So, what’s to blame? The movie is actually a lot of fun. I suspect that Disney is churning out too many Star Wars films and too close to each other. This sure does look like audiences are starting to burn out, which Disney tends to do with popular franchises. Is Disney over-hyping and over-producing Star Wars content (movies, toys, TV series, merchandise, and theme park lands)? What do you chalk the failure up to?

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Opening day of the film Disneyland was giving away Solo buttons.

The Star Trader in Tomorrowland is filled with Solo items.

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I took a peek inside Lauch Bay and found very little mention of Solo. But Chewbacca has a meet and greet and he’s in the film. So I got in line to see him.

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Rey has the space next door over.

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Outside, Captain Phasma and the Stormtroopers are keeping the citizens of Tomorrowland in line.

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Ant Man Preview

An Ant Man and the Wasp preview will play from June 8 – July 15 in the Path of the Jedi Theater.

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This and That

Brian Pinsky sent me a photo of light testing in one of the Incredicoaster tunnels.  That baby Jack Jack seems to be developing all sorts of new powers.

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Dumbo as seen from Casey Jr. and Storybook Land isn’t so pretty. There was once a hedge here. They really need to plant a new one, or some vines to cover this ugly wall.

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We often advise people to arrive at park by opening to get the most out of their Disney day. I almost never achieve that goal. But I did this last week. It was glorious to peer into an empty Adventureland.

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But, by the time I left for the day (during the 2nd showing of the Pixar Play Parade), I had to exit through the overflow corridor on the West side of Main Street.

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That’s Walt’s Apartment

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Over at DCA, you can meet Dr. Strange.

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Dr. Strange at DCA – Photo: David Yeh

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Small World is STILL wrapping up that parade gate project.

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The ride was down briefly, so I was able to get a great view of the new queue.

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Those structures on the sides of the parade gate are starting to be filled in. They perfectly match the rest of the Small World facade.

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Meanwhile, in ToonTown, the painted hills just get worse by the day.

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That’s all we’ve got for today. But it’s a full week of coverage ahead, including some items from Walt Disney World.  Be sure to follow along on social so you don’t miss out on all the fun.



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My thanks to David Yeh for his help with today’s update.

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Dusty Sage
Dusty Sage
https://www.micechat.com
Dusty is the founder and CEO of MiceChat.com. When he's not visiting theme parks and writing, editing or speaking about Disney and theme parks worldwide, Dusty is involved in multiple Disney related projects and charities. He helped save and restore the charming Walt Disney Birthplace in Chicago, launched the Dick Van Dyke Foundation, and is the curator of Walt Disney's historic 1930's estate in Hollywood. If you've got news or photos to share with the MiceChat community, or would like to book Dusty for an upcoming event, please contact [email protected]
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