Is Pal Mickey worth getting?

[MickeyandTink]

DW :tink: and I :mickey: are taking DD :princess: (6) for our first family trip to WDW. It is right before her birthday and we thought about getting her a Pal Mickey for her present. However, before we do, I wanted to see what you all thought about it.

Our big concerns are how well it works in the park and how much of a pain is it to carry around all day. Also, is it worth the $65 or so it costs? Does it work in all four parks, or just the MK? How about in Disneyland? If we do decide to get it, should we wait until we get to the park, or should we get it early at a DisneyStore (if they even have it) or on e-bay?

I know it's a lot of questions, but the information I've found on here the last few weeks has been so incredible in helping us plan our trip I figured this is the best place to ask.

Thanks in advance.

[crazeedizneefinatic]

My Mom bought our son one it is really cute. I think you can even buy clothes for him now. My son carried it for 1 day and guess who carried it the rest of the time? He does have a clip on him but he kept falling off. He also came with a neck strap but it was reallly uncomfortable. You also have to keep him facing out so the sensors can activate. So if your daughter is holding him make sure he is sitting on her lap facing out. He really does work though. He shakes to alert you he has something to say. He has no volume control (at least what we could find) and sometimes it was hard to hear him. Especially if we were in a crowd. We were stopping and holding him up to our ear. He did inform of of parades and told us jokes and info but IMO he is not worth it. I believe he was $70. Half the time we ignored him. It's a novel idea but after a day or two it wears off. Maybe just a boy thing, maybe I was just tired of holding it. If your daughter is in love with dolls maybe her attention span would be a bit longer. As far as it working in Disneyland, I really do not know. He does work out of the parks and at home. But only tells jokes and plays a game and you have to squeeze him. If you do buy it, the lady at the resort gift shop told us to buy him there so that we could carry him through the turnstills at the park to activate the correct info for that particular park.

[CandleontheWater]

I LOVE my pal mickey. I never thought I would like one or want one until I went to WDW with a friend who had one. After playing with it for most of the weekend I decided to get one of my own.

I bought mine off e-bay, and I got him for much less than you would pay at the parks. I would suggest trying e-bay. One thing I would make sure is that you are getting the newest edition, the socerer mickey. The older ones have some outdated information, and they are not as loud as the most recent pal mickey, which is important in a crowded park.

Pal Mickey will work in all four parks, but as crazee said, he does need to face outward to get the information. He will not work in Disneyland or in any of the overseas disney parks.

As for carrying him around, I bought a small carribeaner (sp?), (one of those clips rock climbers use) and used that to clip him to my belt loops. I found it worked much better than the clip he came with, and he stayed secure for my whole vacation.

I found him to be very entertaining, I'm a frequent park guest, and he still was suprising me with facts and trivia I didn't know, and pointed out all sorts of interesting things around the parks. He plays games, which I found entertaining while waiting in long lines. He really has a lot of information programed in him, even when I walked through the same area of the parks multiple times, he would find different things to say. Touring with Pal mickey really gives you a different perspective and a neat park experience.

The only problems I ran into was one time I couldn't get him to stop playing a game even though I was getting on the Jungle Cruise, but I just turned him off and then on again and it was fine. He also some times said some funny things, like when the park had been closed for an hour but I was still lingering on Main Street and he told me the line was short for Buzz Lightyear, ummm...yeah mickey, its because the park is closed :D

I was really happy with my Pal Mickey experience, and I'm looking forward to touring with him again over Memorial day. If you have any other questions, you can PM me! :mickey:

[Mom2princesses]

I am so glad you asked this question I was thinking about this as well. Unfortunately I have two kids. There is no way I would buy two of them for 70 bucks each. OUCH!!! But maybe I will check them out on ebay what a great idea.