Mobile Order to launch next week at Pizzafari

ToTBellHopJun 02, 2017

I believe Flame Tree is next. It works best in large QSRs. Harbour House, Pecos Bill, Cosmic Ray's, Electric Umbrella, etc.

Tavernacle12Jun 01, 2017

I'm really interested in seeing what places get this and what don't, assuming it isn't planned to be everywhere. I'd assume Harbor House may be another good one to test it at, like the aforementioned PizzeRizzo, but I wonder if it'll wind up at Casey's too, or anywhere in World Showcase.

JeffBostockJun 01, 2017

Yea Yeah if you book fastpasses from your phone (who doesn't?) then you'll see the button that says "Order Food" on the app. People should be using this option regularly soon I would think. I used it Monday. Only took 1 minute for my food to be ready. I was floored. It was awesome. Much better experience than other quick service restaurants like BOG (which I could swear at one point I pre-ordered breakfast online for BOG a year or two ago). I ate at BOG on Saturday, and the whole ordering process there is awful.

Rob562Jun 01, 2017

So I just had a thought... In another thread, someone commented that an update to the MDE app on their phone asked them for permission/access to Bluetooth. Once they've got Mobile Ordering itself reliable enough for Disney's satisfaction, or once the self-pickup situation gets to a critical mass of being too congested, could they go the Be Our Guest route and deliver your order to your table? In this case, you find an open table, perhaps policed by CM's to make sure only walkup people with food and Guests with mobile orders get tables. Tap the "I'm here" button in the app, and just like BoG uses your MagicBand or "magic rose" to locate which table you're seated at, they use your phone's bluetooth to figure out which table you're seated at and deliver your food to you. -Rob

MrPromeyJun 01, 2017

I get what you're saying but the problem for the restaurants, is their marketing. Their strongest point of advertising this feature comes to you once you're already there when it's too late. People don't think "Oh, I should download that for next time" because most people don't spend that much time thinking about or preparing for fast food. But in the case of Disney, I think it has the potential to be different. It uses an app that many guests will already have and is intended to be used by people who are already conditioned to plan everything about their trip including the times and dates of individual sit-down restaurants and attractions months in advance. All Disney has to do is actually promote this service and they have a ton of avenues to do this if they really want to: On their website at the time of booking, on their website in the fastpass section, in the app, in the resorts, on the guide maps, at the front of the parks, in the busses, in the audio for the monorails, in lines for attractions that have longer waits on average. The real question is how far they really want to go with it. I would think that the fact they're trying it at all means they have higher expectations for it than Chick-Fil-a or Taco Bell only because they don't seem interested in even bothering with anything they would consider to be niche, anymore - at least not in Florida.

mj2vJun 01, 2017

We have used it a few times at the canteen. Love it.

DaveeeeedJun 01, 2017

I definitely agree with this. It will obviously be used more as other restaurants begin to use it, but it probably will remain a "perk" like as a free secondary option. Personally, I'm a fan.

Disney Dad 3000Jun 01, 2017

I think @wdwmagic nailed it. Obviously it could pick up volume, but I don't know that enough people will either know about it or think to use it. There are a number of restaurants outside of disney that have this capability and i dont think people by the masses use it. I work in a downtown area with a pretty sizeable work force and the chickfila in the overstreet mall is of course slammed at lunch. They have the same app and I walk past the 150 or so people in line to pick up my lunch with no wait. And of course there is a sign for their mobile app right in front of them

Clyde BirdbrainJun 01, 2017

This is great news. I love mobile ordering at Satu'li Canteen. We've eaten there 3 times now and it is my new favorite quick service restaurant (awesome food, real plates and utensils, great theming and background music). Last night I put in our order as we walked from our car to the entrance. When we approached the restaurant I clicked the "I'm here" button. We walked up to the pick-up area and our food came out a minute later. After we finished our food I put in another order for 2 desserts at the table and within 30 seconds got a notification that it was ready. As I picked up my two cheesecakes I saw that the line to order was huge and almost out the door. It was raining pretty hard outside and the restaurant was packed. I can't believe I was able to order, pay and get my desserts in under a minute when the line was so long. This is a brilliant system. As more and more people start using mobile ordering it may get problematic though, but I'm sure they have thought of that. They must be able to temporarily disable mobile ordering in the app for specific restaurants when they are too busy. Or maybe the app has a feature built in that will give you a time window to pick up your food when they have too many mobile customers. I'd love for them to add mobile ordering to more restaurants, but they do need a nice separate pick-up area that is large enough for people to stand around waiting. We eat at Columbia Harbour House a lot and it would be great if they would add it there, but the ordering area is so small, I don't know where they would fit a pick-up area. My wife and I were just talking about this last night and wondered what restaurants would be next. We figured Pizzafari and PizzeRizzo would have plenty of space.

MrPromeyJun 01, 2017

I think a lot has to do with the level of emphasis they choose to put on it. Fastpass existed for years without many people in the parks understanding how it worked which at least partially contributed to lighter usage which resulted in the "standby" lines still being long for many attractions but a lot more dynamic since the majority of people in most cases weren't just waiting for other people to pass them by. After Fastpass plus and an understandably strong desire for it to be marketed to the point that I believe most resort guests are now using it, we now see longer lines of people moving very slowly for attractions that previously didn't have lines most of the time and what seems like more general congestion in the parks. Part of the above is obviously also related to greater attendance - I don't want to pretend like that's not a factor but if Disney chooses to make this a bigger deal (I'd have to think including the dining plan in it would be a major step) I think a lot of people would get on board with it. My question is, if that happens, how will Disney handle it? I don't think it would have a huge impact outside of the restaurants, themselves but it will be interesting to see how they manage things inside. It seems that there would be a shift from people waiting in lines to order to waiting in groupings for their number or name or whatever to be called or their app to alert them about pickup which could be better or worse than today. Will it create a more intense battle for seating since a family will go into the restaurant not needing to all look at the menu? Will it create less congestion in the food area since only one or two family members will need to hang out there to get the food? (you know people will hang out, even if they don't need to) Will it create an issue where they sell too much and don't have seating to accommodate since the people ordering won't know how busy the place is until they get there, after they've paid? Will Disney create arrive time windows like they do with Fastpass so they can control this volume? Will they eventually limit the window of time between when you order and when you can get it? On the one hand, deciding and ordering lunch while in a 60 minute line Peter Pan's flight is an efficient way to cut wait times and reduce crowding in the actual restaurant while giving guests something to occupy their time in that line without it feeling like they're being distracted to hide the wait. It would be a win-win all the way around. On the other hand, in practical use, would it work that way or would people start ordering fast service 90 days out and then others, stand in the restaurant in front of the counters and order from their phones and getting mad that people who haven't arrived yet have already taken that "window" of time for food delivery and seating and that they can't eat there, even though the restaurant doesn't appear to be busy at the counter? I think this would be an awesome approach property-wide if implemented well to handle volume. I just hope that if they do eventually go that direction, the process is thought through well enough that it actually feels like making things simpler and easier rather than more complicated and pre-planned on the guests' part. There's definately a lot to think about with an approach like this. The good news is if they ever decide to go all-in, some of that square footage used to hold guests waiting to order during rush times might be able to be repurposed for additional seating and with the potential cost savings of reduction of multiple cash register and counter cast members, they could afford to have a few additional people on hand to help deal with the other possible guest issues and still make things better while saving some money. Regardless, the potential to reduce the mass of humanity standing in almost indistinguishable lines in front of the registers making it sometimes hard to get your trays through without losing $15 worth of sodas to the floor in the process would make the fast service places feel more like actual restaurants than like cattle shoots, which would be nice.

ToTBellHopJun 01, 2017

It's a nice perk for those of us who are tech-savvy. Hopefully because it doesn't require much square-footage (unlike those electronic ordering kiosks they tried a few years back), this format of ordering will remain.

wdwmagicJun 01, 2017

In Pandora, the vast majority of people are doing regular ordering and not using Mobile Order. I think it is likely to stay this way.

drwadadliJun 01, 2017

I am curious how many restaurants adopt this way of ordering and what the wait line will be to get your food if majority of the guests order this way and then show up all at one time to get their orders. I think it is a great idea to help decrease the wait lines during "normal" feeding hours but I see problems down the line that can occur with this style of ordering especially has Disney encourages everyone to use their app.