Is Mobile Ordering still being pushed and Large Party advice

[defrogger]

Hello, we just went to Disney in February and are going back in July with family, party of 8. When we went in Feb, Mobile ordering was being pushed to a point where some quick services such as Satuli Canteen was only letting you do Mobile Order.

Has anyone went recently and is Mobile Ordering still being pushed?
Why I ask, i dont want to do mobile ordering for 8 I kept messing up our mobile orders in Feb for 3 people, kept forgetting drinks for some reason, so cant imagine doing orders for 8 people and getting things right. Plus worrying about getting paid back.

So i was talking over with the group, and i suggested a couple people get the My Disney Experience app and get an account and put in a credit card to do mobile ordering. I think that would work our best.

Well my sister in law doesnt have a credit card, she only has a debit card and prefers to use cash. So now i have to find out if Debit card is an option for Mobile ordering, but i get the feeling she doesnt want to use that and prefers cash.
But Cash only works if Disney has lightened up on Mobile ordering and lets people in the old way at registers.

Now when we were there in Feb i did notice there was usually atleast one register, I guess its just a question of convincing the cast member you want to use cash to let you in. But they were really pushing people to use mobile in Feb.

I guess hard ones like Satuli and Woodys Lunch Box i can always put my sister in law on mine and hopefully the rest she can use cash.

 

[DVCjj]

Just got back. Did all Mobile ordering and didn't see a single person using cash even though there were no signs. To pay for anything anywhere.
The one place that didn't do mobile ordering yet was the new Connections Cafe in Epcot. There were numerous lines to order and because it took quite a while, I was looking around and I saw no one using cash.

SO many establishments where I live will not take cash. (big city suburb)

 

[Smugpugmug]

I was there last week. Satu'li Canteen and ABC Commissary were 100% mobile order only. They refused to let us into the restaurant unless our order was ready. They wouldn't even let us in when our order was still being prepared. Peco Bill's also had people standing at the front entrance only letting people in that had a mobile order but if you enter from the exit there is no one checking (unsure if you can order from inside though as I did do mobile order). Connections Cafe did allow people to order inside but the line was ridiculously long so I did mobile order and got my food very quickly.

 

[CarolynFH]

Well my sister in law doesnt have a credit card, she only has a debit card and prefers to use cash. So now i have to find out if Debit card is an option for Mobile ordering, but i get the feeling she doesnt want to use that and prefers cash.

Would she consider buying Disney gift cards for the amount she wants to spend on food? I don't know whether a debit card number can be entered when paying for a mobile order, but a GC number can (save the number as a note on the phone then copy and paste it into the relevant spot). That might work for a debit card too, I'm just not certain.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I was there last week. Satu'li Canteen and ABC Commissary were 100% mobile order only. They refused to let us into the restaurant unless our order was ready. They wouldn't even let us in when our order was still being prepared. Peco Bill's also had people standing at the front entrance only letting people in that had a mobile order but if you enter from the exit there is no one checking (unsure if you can order from inside though as I did do mobile order). Connections Cafe did allow people to order inside but the line was ridiculously long so I did mobile order and got my food very quickly.

Nothing is 100% mobile order only. They're lying to you. If you tell them you don't have a phone, they'll let you order in person anywhere.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Nothing is 100% mobile order only. They're lying to you. If you tell them you don't have a phone, they'll let you order in person anywhere.

Good to know. At Satu'li in particular I saw people being turned away for not having a mobile order and wouldn't let people order inside. No idea why they wouldn't even let my group inside despite having a mobile order. They forced us to wait outside until it was ready.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

My visa debit is what I use for mobile ordering.

I do see people being let in to order. Just a matter of pleading your case.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Good to know. At Satu'li in particular I saw people being turned away for not having a mobile order and wouldn't let people order inside. No idea why they wouldn't even let my group inside despite having a mobile order. They forced us to wait outside until it was ready.

They force you to wait until your order is ready to keep tables free for people that are actively eating. It’s crowd management.

 

[Stargazer65]

My teen kids had no ability to mobile order, and no plastic. They got around the theme parks by themselves ordering in person and paying cash we gave them. So it's certainly doable, if less convenient.
(I told them if they had trouble, they could go to guest services and cry that they were hungry, and no one would let them buy food. But it never came to that. )

 

[Narcoossee11]

It is not being pushed.... it is how it will work for now on.
Better crowd control and meeting staffing needs.

 

[Micca]

I do see people being let in to order. Just a matter of pleading your case.

"I can't mobile order, I've been on my phone all damn day trying to get Lightning Lane and dinner reservations, my battery is dead."

 

[herrmannpt]

We leave in two weeks. My son has several food allergies and no way will I mobile order anything for him. I want to talk to a person to make sure things are safe for him.

 

[DisBuckMan]

They force you to wait until your order is ready to keep tables free for people that are actively eating. It’s crowd management.

Yep, and one of the best things they do nowadays.

Tired...hot...feet hurting...kids cranky? So are the people who are walking around with a tray of food that's getting cold while you're taking up a table without food for God knows how long.

 

[mistysue]

We leave in two weeks. My son has several food allergies and no way will I mobile order anything for him. I want to talk to a person to make sure things are safe for him.

This is our situation too- They wouldn't even let us mobile order if we tried, and you can't as the allergy menus don't mix together. That said, there were still locations that didn't want to let us in to order last year. This past week we did not run into any of those problems. We were allowed into places and didn't have to be as pushy about it as we did last year.

Last spring when I tried to tell one person that not only did we have allergies, but my phone died, I was told to go charge my phone. Last week they would simply move aside and let you in if you said you had allergies.

 

[Micca]

Last spring when I tried to tell one person that not only did we have allergies, but my phone died , I was told to go charge my phone.

That doesn't sound like an appropriate Disney response. I'd be very disappointed to hear that bit of advice.

 

[Smugpugmug]

They force you to wait until your order is ready to keep tables free for people that are actively eating. It’s crowd management.

I guess in my initial post I was confused as to why we couldn't go in despite our order still being prepared, but yeah I'm a big fan of their way of table management overall. I never had any issue finding a table in places that only let people in that had a mobile order. The scouting for a table while you had a tray full of food and seeing people snatch up tables that didn't have food was IMO very aggravating.

 

[Miffy]

One place for sure allows walk-ups: Woody's Lunch Box. I've eaten there twice this year and both times they let in people to order in person. (We mobile-ordered, btw.)

I'm hoping the new seating area for Woody's opens soon, because it's no fun trying to find seating there.

ETA: They don't let you in to Woody's unless you either have a ready-to-pick-up mobile order or are ordering in person. No one there is just sitting. Everyone has food.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We mostly ran into "need mobile order before entering" but FWIW we also ran into that in Universal as well.

The interesting side effect is for outdoor tables of places you sorta do end up sitting down before your order is ready. Which I know was controversial before. Satu'li Canteen which used to be a place where you didn't sit down until you got your food suddenly the two times we ate outside was basically you sat at a table either while you completed your order or while waiting for your order to be ready to pick up. That's pretty much what everyone was doing from what I saw and the policing was done at the door when in the past when it first opened I remember in 2017 they were policing the outdoor seating part as well. But we also didn't see people hovering about looking for tables like I think it used to be, they were busy but it seemed less like people were having as much issues as in the past. I don't know what the indoor seating was like as I didn't go in this time around, my husband did to pick up the food but I doubt he thought to observe that.

But then over at Docking Bay 7 they weren't letting you really enter unless your order was ready and then from what I saw people were being shown how to do mobile ordering if they were inside.

I know at Universal one of the places we ate at the QR code for the menu was stickered onto to the table itself outdoors (and to my knowledge you couldn't eat inside because they brought the food out to you) so you had no choice but to sit down and order because the tables were numbered and you input your table number.

We mobile ordered for Lunching Pad and there were tables available but in the sun so we sat on a ledge in the shade and we ordered that while on the ferry to MK so I don't know if they would have required that or not there. We didn't mobile order from a cart near Frontier Land (can't remember the name) but it was also right near closing time for them late at night (not for the park just for them).

 

[mistysue]

That doesn't sound like an appropriate Disney response. I'd be very disappointed to hear that bit of advice.

It was very awkward. That was on the same trip when we found out that at Captain Cooks at the Polynesian, they weren't even keeping someone on staff to run the register at all. They expected 100% mobile order and if you had an allergy you had to wait until somebody wasn't busy doing one of the other roles. It took us 45 minutes to start ordering breakfast one morning. Yes, I wrote a letter to the hotel explaining how crazy it was, and they had exactly one cashier this year, Even during the super busy meal times when they used to have two or three.

 

[Imkarlawithak2005]

Satuli canteen told us we had to mobile order. We refused and they finally said they had one register open but it would be faster if we mobile ordered. We told them we didn’t care and they finally let two people in to order. This was back in December. They also said my disabled dad (wheelchair, oxygen) couldn’t sit at a table till the food was there but a gentleman around the back side offered to let him in. It depends on the person there.