Disney World News: Mobile Checkout, Parks Full, Mickey Replacing Creepy Clown?!
We’re back for another Walt Disney World news & rumor round-up! This one begins with the new Merchandise Mobile Checkout, park hours for February 2021, an official statement from Disney on the the new (Mickey Mouse?!) look for BoardWalk Inn’s creepy clown pool, and more!
Let’s start with some good news. Walt Disney World is testing out a new ‘Shop in Store’ feature, which allows guests to make purchases on their smartphone via the My Disney Experience app. Also known as ‘Merchandise Mobile Checkout,’ this allows you to purchase items in-store without waiting in line at select retail locations around Walt Disney World.
Merchandise Mobile Checkout just began rolling out around Walt Disney World, and right now it’s only available at a couple of locations: MouseGear in EPCOT and Everything Pop Shopping & Dining at Disney’s Pop Century Resort. Here’s a look at how the Shop in Store feature works in My Disney Experience…
Basically, the process is just like self-checkout at the grocery store or other retailers, except there’s no physical kiosk in the store–it’s all via your phone and My Disney Experience. Here are the steps:
- Grab a designated mobile checkout shopping bag in the store
- Scan the items in My Disney Experience that you want to buy, then add them to your bag
- Tap “check out” when finished shopping and ready to pay for the items on your phone
- Show your QR code to a Cast Member upon exiting the store and you’re all set!
For Annual Passholders, that discount is automatically applied during checkout.
We’ve yet to visit EPCOT or Pop Century since the new Merchandise Mobile Checkout system rolled out, but it sounds pretty simple to us, and similar to other self-checkouts in countless retailers. The primary difference is that it’s via your phone, which is definitely a technological leap forward.
Given that we are quick to criticize Disney IT, we want to pause here briefly to applaud them for the myriad enhancements made during the phased reopening of Walt Disney World. Merchandise Mobile Checkout, Table Service To-Go, and Walk-up Waitlist are all solid improvements to the guest experience and at least two of those work really well. (We assume Merchandise Mobile Checkout also works well, we just have yet to use it.)
While we have concerns about the societal ills of over-automation and how it’ll lead to more impersonal and isolating experiences, those are more generalized. Of all places, Walt Disney World is the least concerning on that front since you have so many interactions with Cast Members throughout the day. Even with another half-dozen features like this added to My Disney Experience, that won’t change.
Rather, we view these app additions as unequivocal enhancements to the guest experience. Since waiting in line is such a significant component of visiting Walt Disney World (and will be regardless), the parks & resorts disproportionately benefit from automation like this that eliminates some lines and friction points.
We’d imagine that these features were coming at some point, and have simply had their timeline accelerated due to the reopening. Either way, since we do a lot of complaining about Disney IT’s many shortcomings, we have to give kudos here on this trio of resounding successes.
Once the initial test & adjust proves successful at MouseGear and Everything Pop, we’d anticipate Merchandise Mobile Checkout to be expanded to countless other locations at Walt Disney World. Hopefully, that’ll happen during the holiday shopping season.
Sticking with buying stuff at EPCOT, Annual Passholders can enjoy 10% off food and non-alcoholic beverages when using cashless payment at select Taste of EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays Holiday Kitchens, 7 pm to park closing now through December 31, 2020.
Here are the participating Holiday Kitchens and food kiosks:
- Refreshment Port
- Citrus Blossom
- Mele Kalikimaka Holiday Kitchen
- Holiday Sweets & Treats
- Las Posadas Holiday Kitchen
- Shanghai Holiday Kitchen
- Refreshment Outpost
- Bavaria Holiday Kitchen
- American Holiday Table
- Sapphire Holiday Kitchen
- L’Chaim! Holiday Kitchen
- Festival Favorites
- Prost!
- Holiday Hearth
- Yukon Holiday Kitchen
Continuing on the snack front, here’s a quick tidbit that’ll likely matter to very few of you: Epic Eats has reopened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This is the funnel cake kiosk across from Dinosaur Gertie and nearby the entrance to Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.
We’re actually pretty big fans of Epic Eats, and it has been mentioned on a few ‘best of’ lists for its Funnel Cake with Strawberry Topping and Soft-serve Vanilla Ice Cream. However, that’s because that $8+ item is an exceptional use of a Disney Dining Plan snack credit…which obviously is totally irrelevant right now. Still, something to remember for the future. On their own merit, we cannot recommend paying $8+ out of pocket for the ice cream topped funnel cakes.
In an interesting under-the-radar update, Walt Disney World has quietly confirmed that the beloved or infamous (depending upon your perspective) creepy clown pool water slide at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn will have a new look when it reopens (file photo above–it has been removed and is now behind sky blue walls). Per a statement to theme parks writer Brooke Geiger McDonald, Disney revealed:
“We look forward to Mickey and his pals clowning around at Luna Park Pool. Guests will enjoy the same great ride down Keister Coaster slide with a brand-new look.”
Now, obviously this is not concept art or an express statement of what’s coming, but Disney is always deliberate with its verbiage–it’s no coincidence that Mickey Mouse is mentioned. The inference we draw from Disney’s brief statement is that the Keister Coaster slide will be re-themed to Mickey & Friends.
While it’s “hip” to knock the proliferation of IP integration around Walt Disney World, this one would make complete sense to us. Replacing the creepy clown with a pie-eyed Mickey Mouse and using era-appropriate character models would be nice enhancement that also maintains thematic integrity at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn.
It doesn’t even require a vivid imagination to envision this being successfully and tastefully accomplished. Imagineering did a great job with something similar during the first overhaul of Paradise Pier at DCA, before undoing that success via Pixar Pier.
As for when work will be complete, there’s no update from Walt Disney World on that. The project has been underway since October, and was originally slated to be finished this month.
A banner on DisneyWorld.com’s BoardWalk Inn page reads: “Luna Park Pool at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort may look a little funny as work takes place on the Keister Coaster waterslide. We expect the waterslide to be available again before the end of 2020–though dates are subject to change. Work in the pool area will continue through the end of this year. Luna Park Pool, as well as 2 leisure pools at this Resort hotel, will remain open during this refurbishment.”
Another week, another park hours update. More hours were recently posted to the calendar on DisneyWorld.com for February 14-20, 2021. Added hours are the same for all dates that week through February 20, 2021:
- Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 6 pm
- EPCOT: 11 am to 7 pm
- Hollywood Studios: 10 am to 7 pm
- Animal Kingdom: 9 am to 5 pm
When it comes to these hours, note that Walt Disney World has returned to its normal, pre-closure practice of releasing boilerplate hours “far” in advance. Those hours are then later extended based on attendance and hotel occupancy projections closer to the dates.
In short, these initial “lorem ipsum” Walt Disney World park hours are a placeholder, and serve as a minimum baseline for what the ultimate hours will end up being, with hours only extended and not reduced. These will almost certainly end up being longer, but probably not as long as during the holiday season. Unfortunately, nothing has been extended (like what happened last week), so a relatively uneventful park hours update.
Despite no changes this week, more park hours extensions might be on the horizon, as we’re noticing decreased availability on the Disney Park Pass calendar for the remainder of the month. This is true not just for Annual Passholders or at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, either.
In fact, all four parks are fully booked today (December 5, 2020) across all three buckets of reservations. Capacity closures also happened following Thanksgiving, but we had anticipated a bit of a post-holiday slowdown. Judging by the Disney Park Pass reservations, that will not be the case–at least not on weekends. In this week’s Magic Kingdom Crowd Report, we also observed higher than expected weekday wait times.
Finally, the Walt Disney Company has announced that it will webcast its Investor Day 2020 on December 10, 2020. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 4:30 p.m. Eastern and is expected to last approximately four hours.
During its most recent quarterly earnings call, Disney indicated that the Investor Day will focus on the company’s direct-to-consumer streaming services. Since then, there was a leaked trailer for “Disney 18+” for adults-only content (that name is so bad we assume it’s fake) and rumors that the company will consolidate Disney+ and Hulu. Obviously, theme parks are our focus here and not streaming, but we’ll be watching closely to see what, if anything, is announced for Walt Disney World (and beyond) or for mention of the implications on theme parks as a result of DIsney’s increased focus on streaming services. So stay tuned for that!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on any of this Walt Disney World news? Will you use Merchandise Mobile Checkout, or stick with the registers? What do you think of Luna Park Pool getting a new look? Will you be sad to see the creepy clown go? Think pie-eyed Mickey Mouse is a potentially good replacement, or would you prefer no IP? Looking forward to Disney’s Investor Day? Do you agree or disagree with our advice and commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We spent yesterday (12/6) at Magic Kingdom. It was VERY crowded. LONG lines and difficulties getting through a lot of choke points (e.g., Peter Pan / Small World) without close contact with others. People were trying hard, but with so many, it was impossible to keep distanced. Going to try again today to see if Monday makes a difference. All cast members have been amazingly helpful and friendly, but that’s not unusual. All in all, just another day in paradise.
We also were in the MK on Monday and thought it was busier than when we were there in mid-October.
I love mobile order for food, but I don’t think that mobile merchandise check-out will affect my trip too much. 1) I don’t buy a ton of merch. 2) When I do, I don’t spend more than a couple of minutes in line.
Really Tom, I read your blog extensively and noticed the praise and love both of you heap on cast members. What happens to these lovely people when they are replaced by QR codes? Oh yeah…massive lay offs. You seem eager for this in your blog about tech and merchandise. Just think of the cast members working in the many, many merchandise locations. Sad. After dedicated service to Disney, practicing and using the brand to create the magic guests are willing to pay big bucks for. Now, laid off forever. Disney needs to practice what they preach, even for their own cast members.
Automation is an inevitability. There’s little sense trying to fight it–that just postpones what will ultimately happen sooner or later. However, that’s a whole can of worms that goes well beyond Disney.
I think the case can be made that now is the best time to automate and make changes–both for the immediate benefits in the current climate, and so Disney consolidates these positions before the College Program returns. (So that can then be down-sized and the long-term loses can be cuts from that.)
Not sure if I should report this to you here or not. About 2 hours ago I went to the mall on Vineland to see about getting into the Disney Character Warehouse. While looking for a parking spot I saw 2 men running away from the mall with a small package. My first thought was these guys had stolen something from a store and were running to their car. Then a saw a man running who was carrying his son under his arm like a football. Then I noticed and heard a number of folks running out of the mall. I drove up next to the man with his son and asked what’s going on? My first thought was a bomb scare. He replied that he didn’t know, just that everybody had started running. I said, shooter? He said I don’t know. I turned my car around to drive away and I heard three loud gunshots. I knew he was close. Even though I was in my car I felt very unsafe and could not get out of the parking lot quick enough. As I left there were tons of people pouring out like they were in a marathon. I am not exaggerating when I say I saw more cop cars than I thought Orlaqndo had. Must have been 4 dozen they were coming from everywhere. I didn’t realize I was shaken till just now. I’ve been in a sort of daze.
Since this is a random topic post :-), any word on what happened with Spice Road Table at Epcot? Are they still going to be open but without reservations?
It seems like it’ll be closing…at least temporarily.
Liked the Boardwalk theme but thought it was ruined when they took away the elephants, so I don’t care what happens to the clown.
Cast members told me the fake elephants were removed because elephants had been mistreated in the circus.
I asked how the fake elephants had been mistreated.
Because that explanation is so dumb, especially for a company that later on produced a live-action Dumbo.
agreed
Replacing that creepy clown was a must and speaking of elephants … I always thought that using Dumbo’s face would make the perfect replacement. . His big ears would replace the clown’s crazy hair coming out to the sides and you would still slide out of Dumbo’s smiling mouth with his trunk projecting out above the slide at the end . How about that thought ? Fits much better into the Boardwalk theme than Mickey for this use ! How about that idea Disney? .
I see that most people seem to like the idea of shopping with the mobile app. But when we shop like this, we are putting more people out of work. Even McDonalds has the self order. It just eliminates more workers. Our local Walmart always has a list of people in police report, taking merchandise without scanning. Thanks for the update.
Not sure why you would say that. When people mention about self-service scanning and the like, they say the same thing. They refer to minimum wage people working the cashier stations when pressed. The places I’ve seen with these, like Home Depot for instance, still have people at those self-service scanners helping buyers if needed and no fewer people at the regular cashier aisles. I tell them that the jobs are now with higher paying positions and isn’t that better? People need to program those machines, put them together, maintain them, ship them and set them up at the stores. Where is this loss of jobs? I’m thinking it keeps more people working or adding them.
Downside I can see at least in the current version is that it doesn’t look like you can have your purchases sent to your room (if staying on property) or at least to the front gate. I like not having to lug stuff around all day.
Went to Magic Kingdom yesterday. Got in line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at 8:55 and official opening was at 9:00. Wait was already 75 minutes. Nearly everything had long waits most of the day.
Sitting here waiting for our check at Kona Cafe and about to head over to the Grand Floridian and then to magic kingdom. A bit apprehensive about it because the park is booked to full capacity, but thankfully we already enjoyed a day with lighter crowds earlier this week…. because an hour wait for small world isn’t going to be happening!
Awwww thank goodness about that clown!! We love Boardwalk but that pool is one of our least favorites because of it!
Thanks for the great update, as always!!
I found it charmingly ironic that the statement concerning the removal of a clown was made by someone with the last name “McDonald”.
Sam’s clubs having been using the same smartphone checkout process for years now. Go around the store. Scan your items on you phone then pay via your phone. Show the clerk on the way out Sam’s your ereceipt and you then leave the store, never going to a cashier to check you out.
This technology has been around for more than 15 years but there are privacy and other issues. The New Jersey Stop and Shop used this for groceries. You simply grabbed a barcode gun, scanned your items out them in the bag. At checkout you put the gun in its holster it would read items and charge you. It was used quite extensively in affluent areas. What I noticed is that certain Latinos or African American customers went through verification checks more often than others. Hence how you have to level the playing field and make sure obviously profiling measures are not built into the system and audited by third parties.
they have scan and go at sam’s they give me a receipt when I walk out. scan a qr code on my phone and then scan a random item in my cart. I honestly love it. walk in, scan as I shop and then leave. no lines, no kids screaming waiting in line or having to move my kids from one cart to the next etc. I wish more stores had it like target and costco
let’s just hope the mickey and friends will be classic 1930s era mickey to go with the resort theme and not the current ren and stimpy cousins. because in that case i’d rather just have the creepy clown.
Agreed 100%. I like the Mickey Mouse cartoon opening card from 1930s (logo on the DCA’s Mickey’s Fun Wheel).
Agree 100%.
I might be in the minority here, but as an original Boardwalk DVC member, who bought before they opened, I will miss the clown at Luna pool. Sad to see it go as I always felt it added to the circus on the Boardwalk theme.
How Mickey(who I love) fits in with elephants and circus tent concession stand is hard to envision….or are they getting rid of all that too?
To me, it’s just more theming taken away from the resorts. The Boardwalk and Luna Park is supposed to be patterned after Coney Island. I don’t recall Mickey Mouse at Coney Island. It should be carnival or circus related.
And I agree with Laura about not using the new Mickey Mouse. That’s horrid.
I also agree that the clown at luna pool is a better fit for the Boardwalk theme then Mickey. I think all they had to do was get rid of the star eyes and put in pupiles to humanize the zombie clown
Good bye, Clown Pool! Now, just get rid of the creepy Nanny Chairs in the lobby!
Haha, I just Googled this.
Some designer was super committed to the theme, as creepy things like this were so common in the Victorian era!
Jade Campbell—-so true.
I wonder if cast members checking QR codes will also require you to show the annual pass and matching ID. It’s not hard to log into somebody else’s account on your app.
I love the idea of mobile check out, but what prevents somebody from putting an item or two in the bag without scanning/paying for them?
I’m thinking this idea will die after about about a month when they do inventory and notice too much shrinkage. Even if they spot check won’t they spot check an expensive item? What about a bunch of pins put inside another item? I have so many questions.
Can we just have mobile check out forever?
That is how Amazon wanted Whole Foods to be but never actually got it off the ground (you were just supposed to take food and it charged you somehow?)
I saw this set up at a kiosk in a large office building in NYC, people just walked it, took food off the shelves, and walked out through a type of turnstile. I had never seen that before, and actually asked a woman about it, but she was not interested in talking to me. I guess every item is coded, and the turnstile can read it as quickly as you walk through, but that seems so complicated.
It used RFID and the logistics of putting RFID tags on every item in the store proved to be too much. Ideally, they’d be added at manufacture, but they weren’t ready to support that.