PAL Mickey?

**RJPiner** · 01-31-2012, 06:49 PM

Has anyone taken a PAL Mickey to the Parks lately? Will it still work? If so, will it work in all the parks or just Magic Kingdom? Considering trying to find one on ebay for our MAY trip. Saw them on my trip in 2006 but did not get one because my CDPA (Chronic Disney Parks Addiction) had not fully take hold me yet. My Wife and I are both ER nurses and CDPA is what she has DX us with.

**HauntedGabe** · 02-01-2012, 01:04 AM

Before you spend good money on one I'd go to the source. Fire off an email to Disney's Guest Relations and ask if Pal is still operational.
Could be people are just looking to unload their obsolete Pals on Ebay.

**BamaJenn** · 02-01-2012, 06:42 AM

I'd love to know what you find out because we have a Pal Mickey and on the last 4 or 5 trips didn't bother taking him because we assumed he wouldn't work anymore. I seem to remember a thread here a year or so ago on this topic where they said the Verizon phone integration replaced the signals that fed to Pal but I can't find it anywhere. Still hunting.

**BamaJenn** · 02-01-2012, 06:43 AM

Found it: Pal Mickey?

Unfortunately it looks like indeed he no longer interacts. That said however, the reason we still have him (aside from the obvious fact that we never get rid of anything Disney in this house) is because even outside the parks he's fun. He interacts with games and jokes etc. and my son just loves him.

**RJPiner** · 02-01-2012, 09:37 AM

Hauntedgabe and BamaJen thank you so much for your help! That is too bad. The WDWradio family is great! This is only my second forum post and I have received great information already!

**doconeill** · 02-01-2012, 08:48 PM

Hmm...I read reports as of last September that Pal Mickey still interacted with the parks. It worked on a completely different system and had nothing to do with Verizon. Of course anything that he interacted with that has changed significantly wouldn't work, since he can't be updated. Haven't seen much discussion on it since though...

There isn't actually any "phone integration" in the parks with Verizon or any other company. The Mobile Magic app work over the standard Verizon data network. What Disney does have, and has had for many years, is a local repeater network for the cellular carriers so they don't need to have unsightly cell towers near the parks.

Edit: Forgot to mention - Pal Mickey used infrared sensors to pick up on a transmitter near the attraction to determine where it happened to be, and then recite whatever pre-recorded info it had for that location.

**BamaJenn** · 02-02-2012, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by doconeill

Edit: Forgot to mention - Pal Mickey used infrared sensors to pick up on a transmitter near the attraction to determine where it happened to be, and then recite whatever pre-recorded info it had for that location.

Yeah it's not that the phone interaction made it so Pal Mickey wouldn't work... as I understood it, it was simply that because they created the Verizon app, they no longer were doing the Pal Mickey thing.

I'd love it if the posts I've seen over the past couple years on the topic were wrong and it were indeed working... ours would be making a trip back to his home.

**mini-V** · 02-03-2012, 02:31 PM

I haven't bothered to carry him to a park of late. I guess I could do that soon and be able to update this thread. When one tries not to bring anything out of the ordinary with you to the parks, carrying Pal Mickey isn't that inviting - as cute as he is.

**HauntedGabe** · 02-03-2012, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by mini-V

I haven't bothered to carry him to a park of late. I guess I could do that soon and be able to update this thread. When one tries not to bring anything out of the ordinary with you to the parks, carrying Pal Mickey isn't that inviting - as cute as he is.

We could send you in with one of those baby slings.

Bet you would get some interesting looks and appear in some websight photos.