Disneyland’s viral secret menu item is inundating cast members

As soon as I ordered the viral Disneyland secret drink that has been blowing up #DisneyTok for the last month, I apologized to the bartender. 

“I heard about a secret menu cocktail,” I said to the cast member behind the bar at Lamplight Lounge. “Are you still doing that?”

His face gave it all away. “I’m sorry!” I said. “Do you mind making one?”

The problem isn’t that the Dole whip shot is hard to make. The problem is that everyone right now wants one. 

Think of it like a Dole whip, but made of mostly booze. The drink is coconut rum, vanilla vodka (though some bartenders use citrus vodka instead), pineapple juice and a shot of whipped cream right in the cocktail shaker. Shake to chill, strain into a rocks glass, garnish with a pineapple wedge, then hand to the customer who takes a video before they drink it down.

It’s only available at Lamplight Lounge in Disney California Adventure, and has been making the rounds for about a month. The bartender I spoke to was extremely nice and had no compunction whatsoever about supplying me with my boozy viral experiment. If he was a little bit ruffled, it’s only because it was, he estimated, the 1,000th Dole whip shot the restaurant had served that day. 

“It’s probably about 50% of customers who come in asking for one,” he told me. 

The shot, which is much bigger than a regular shot and drinks more like a sweet martini, is $20. His recommendation was to order it as a cocktail instead. It’s the same amount of alcohol and the same price, he said, only served over ice — so you sip it and savor it, rather than knocking it back. 

I took the bartender’s advice. I was not disappointed. 

The drink is pineapple-y and sweet, with a little bit of bite just like the original Dole Whip, and definitely does have a lot in common with what you can order at the Tiki Juice Bar in Adventureland.

My advice, if you’re going to get the drink for yourself: Order the cocktail rather than the shot, and tip your bartender especially well.