I love theme parks because they are places designed to simply have fun. You can lose yourself in fictional worlds and let the real world disappear, if only for a while. Unfortunately, that only works if the real world will keep its distance, and this morning at Disneyland that wasn't the case as payment processing systems were down across the resort meaning that if you wanted to do anything that involved spending money you had to pay cash.
If you opened up the Disneyland app earlier today to grab a Lightning Lane for one of the best rides at Disneyland, you found a message apologizing for the fact that only cash could be accepted. This meant, among other things, that the entire mobile order system for food was closed. People had to get in line to buy what they wanted, assuming they had cash.
The problem is that by this point Disneyland, and basically every other theme park of any decent size have done a good job training all of us to leave the cash at home. Systems are designed to use apps with our credit cards already stored, so if I found myself at Disneyland this morning I would have been completely lost. Who carries cash anymore?
Disneyland has brought at least some of this on itself, it has to be said. Disneyland doesn’t want you to get in line to buy food from quick service locations. It wants you to mobile order from your phone. And I have absolutely embraced the convenience of doing so. Even though sometimes mobile ordering isn’t faster than getting in line, it’s just so much easier.
Disneyland has also started to offer mobile purchasing of merchandise. Where you can items and pay for them on your app and then simply show a Cast Member a QR code on your way out the door. I’ve done this a couple of times already and while it’s not necessarily easier than just walking up to a register if there’s no line, it’s much better than having to stand in a line just to buy something.
I’m probably not alone today in being somebody who rarely carries cash anymore. Between credit cards, mobile payments, and in-app purchases, there’s simply no need to deal with physical currency most of the time. Even the smallest vendor can take credit cards now. Cash only is a thing of the past. Unless you open an app and see this.
I can’t even imagine being inside Disneyland and not being able to purchase my breakfast chimichanga or any of my other favorite foods at Disneyland. If I was already in the park and discovered I needed cash I wouldn’t even know what to do.
Of course, this was bad news for Disneyland too. Because the park relies so heavily on processing systems, Disneyland was losing money every second people couldn't charge things. People who wanted to buy Lightning Lane Multi-Pass in the park couldn't do so. To my knowledge, there isn't a way to pay cash for that if you want to.
While this was probably an issue with the payment system used by Disneyland and not a Disneyland technical problem, it’s far from the first time we’ve seen Disneyland and technology have conflicts. People trying to sign up for marathons at Disney Parks or buy tickets to popular After Hours events in the parks routinely have issues as virtual queue systems crash. Hopefully, whatever the problem was can be remedied so it won't happen again, ever.
