This past Thursday, June 30, Disney Parks introduced a new scavenger hunt to the Magic Kingdom theme park at The Walt Disney World Resort. You purchase your adventure kit ($14.99 plus tax) at either Curtain Call or the Frontierland Trading Post to begin the adventure. As part of the scavenger hunt you also purchase clues to solve as you explore the Magic Kingdom; the clues cost $9.99, plus tax, each and their are a total of six to complete the game.
Once you solve a clue you are given a pin (that is what the $9.99 is for) that you align within your decoder medal to learn where you must travel next in the park. You have to purchase a new clue at each destination and solve them all in order to get the final Pinquest bonus pin in the end.
We’re excited to introduce a pin trading-themed scavenger hunt this summer. For years, guests have told us how much they enjoyed pin pursuits once offered at Disney Parks. We applied their feedback and lessons we learned from other recent scavenger hunts to create this new activity. Ultimately, we wanted something that the whole family could enjoy during a summertime visit to Magic Kingdom Park.
Jeanne Lewis, merchandiser for Disney pins
In theory, this style of pay-scavenger hunt is the natural progression from the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game that was introduced into the parks in 2012. With that game you are given the cards to participate but with this scavenger hunt, Disney has figured out how to monetize a self-guided tour of the park.
I enjoyed playing with my girls but this is hardly an immersive adventure. It was merely following a path around the park in order to purchase more stuff. The clues are fun, but hardly complex and the cast members did their best but it being the first weekend roll-out, and a holiday weekend at that, they were not all that engaged during our hunt.
On top of the admission into the Magic Kingdom, the pay-per experiences within the parks continues to mount and put financial pressure on families just trying to enjoy some magical time together. We participated because we cover the park and want to share the news with our readers, but I am not entirely sold on this experience. If you enjoy pin trading, than this is a fun way to collect a complete set of pins, but it quickly becomes expensive if you want the home family to participate; it is about $80 per person to complete the scavenger hunt. However, if you are looking for a scavenger hunt style experience to enjoy the parks without spending more money, you can easily skip this merchandising experiment and play the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game.