First time using mobile ordering - not at all impressed

LOL. I meant Space Mountain. Funny that you're the only one who caught that.


Ah, that makes more sense! :thumbsup2 I used mobile ordering at Electric Umbrella in September. There was no one at the pick up area & not that many people in the regular line. Seemed like they got their food before I did. My DS & DDIL loved it so I’ll give it another try in February.
 
We have used mobile ordering at Casey’s, Pecos Bill’s, Cosmic Ray’s, and Flame Tree BBQ. Some of these places we have used mobile ordering multiple times.

My husband and dad picked up the order at Cosmic Ray’s but didn’t mention anything about the order pickup process there.

Our orders have always been correct and they’ve been prepared very quickly. We are big fans of mobile ordering! Give it one more shot :)
 
We used it a few times but it was awful at Columbia Harbor House. They prepared our food when we ordered it and hadn’t tapped that we were there. They just made it immediately. So my daughter went to get it and waited and waited and waited. They ignored her (14 yr old). I was at a table with my walker. She came to me and asked what to do and I told her to ask someone. The manager finally acknowledged her and told her he threw our food away quite some time ago and was really angry with her. She was in tears when she came to our table with it. They did the same thing to other people’s food and my daughter said they were apologetic to them. We used to love that place - not any longer. We did had no problems at the other places we ordered.
Wow I would have spoken to guest services, that's totally uncalled for
 


We used it a few times but it was awful at Columbia Harbor House. They prepared our food when we ordered it and hadn’t tapped that we were there. They just made it immediately. So my daughter went to get it and waited and waited and waited. They ignored her (14 yr old). I was at a table with my walker. She came to me and asked what to do and I told her to ask someone. The manager finally acknowledged her and told her he threw our food away quite some time ago and was really angry with her. She was in tears when she came to our table with it. They did the same thing to other people’s food and my daughter said they were apologetic to them. We used to love that place - not any longer. We did had no problems at the other places we ordered.

Wow! That is way beyond bad service. I would have asked to talk to the manager and if that didn't work, talked to guest services. That needs to be fixed.
We have used online ordering at Columbia several times and never had that happen. Wonder if there was a different manager on at the time, more new staff? Either way, should not have happened.
 
Wow! That is way beyond bad service. I would have asked to talk to the manager and if that didn't work, talked to guest services. That needs to be fixed.
We have used online ordering at Columbia several times and never had that happen. Wonder if there was a different manager on at the time, more new staff? Either way, should not have happened.

I really wanted to go up and talk to the manager or go to guest services but my daughter begged me not to. I think she just wanted to block out the whole situation. It was late June or early July this year. The restaurant was completely chaotic (more than usual) from what I could see from my table that was in the hallway right near the ordering area and from what happened to my daughter. I think some kind of glitch caused the prep of a lot of meals when ordered but before people arrived. I think the manager was not good at dealing with the situation and third, I think that my daughter being a young teen was basically ignored like often happens to young people.
 
Wow I would have spoken to guest services, that's totally uncalled for

I regret not having done so. I didn’t want anything it wanted them to know how that manager was behaving. But my teen begged me not to - I think she just wanted to put it behind her. I was really really angry. Having the walker made things more difficult and we just moved on although we didn’t return here to eat and may not next trip either.
 


So we've now used mobile ordering 4 times. The results have been mixed. It seems that the system works best at off-peak times when the restaurant isn't crowded. At peak times, it is complete and utter chaos.

We used it again at Cosmic Ray's for an early lunch, around 11:15am, and it was excellent. There was a clear pick up spot at Bay 1 and there was no crowd waiting for orders. On the other hand, we used it at Pecos Bill's just for dessert around 1:00pm and it was insane. There was a mob of about 25-30 guests 4 or 5 deep and 5 or 6 across at the pick up counter. The CMs were calling out names and could barely be heard over the noise in there. Once your order was ready, you had to make your way through that crowd to the counter and then back out again.

They really need a video screen listing the orders that are ready rather than calling out names. They also need some way to discourage everyone from crowding the counter rather than just waiting until it's their turn to come pick up their food.

As for accuracy of orders, the first time 2 of 3 meals were wrong. The second time, same thing - 2 of 3 meals were wrong. However, 2 of 3 meals were wrong another time when we ordered at the register, so I really can't blame that issue on mobile ordering. That's clearly a lack of attention from those filling the orders regardless of how they were placed.
 
This past week we used mobile ordering at Aloha Isle, Casey’s Corner, and Electric Umbrella. All great experiences. Barely anyone in mobile pick up areas and skipped very long lines.
 
We had great success using the App. That said we didn't eat at Cosmic Ray's which in my opinion has always been a bit of an ordering nightmare.
 
Sorry to hear that.

I’ve used it many, many times at Aloha Isle and it’s so smooth and quick.

I used it once at pizzafari and it was good.

Casey’s took forever and my order came out wrong. But that’s Casey’s for you. I love those corn dog nuggets, though!
 
I’ve only used it at DLR so I can’t speak about any experiences in WDW, however I don’t understand why people are waiting inside the restaurants for their food. Isn’t the point of mobile ordering to order your food, find a place to sit, wait till the app notifies you that your food is ready and then go an pick it up? I noticed earlier today (again, at DLR) when we used it that there were a ton of people standing around, blocking entrances and exits, for their mobile orders to be ready. And the cast members were calling out names that you could barely hear over the din of the crowd. It sounds like there needs to be some sort of queue other than inside an already crowded restaurant for people to line up while they’re waiting for food.
 
I’ve only used it at DLR so I can’t speak about any experiences in WDW, however I don’t understand why people are waiting inside the restaurants for their food. Isn’t the point of mobile ordering to order your food, find a place to sit, wait till the app notifies you that your food is ready and then go an pick it up? I noticed earlier today (again, at DLR) when we used it that there were a ton of people standing around, blocking entrances and exits, for their mobile orders to be ready. And the cast members were calling out names that you could barely hear over the din of the crowd. It sounds like there needs to be some sort of queue other than inside an already crowded restaurant for people to line up while they’re waiting for food.
Exactly what we've encountered at WDW. People press "Make my order Now" and immediately go up to the counter to wait for their order. That just creates a big jam up of people all doing the same thing. If you sit patiently outside the restaurant until the app indicates that your order is ready, you then need to make your way through that crowd to get your food.
 
At Flame Tree Barbecue, I was with a group during the usual lunchtime crowds, so while the rest of my party waited in the normal line, I used the mobile order function as an experiment. Didn't work out too well for me either, as all of my group that stood in the regular line were sitting and eating by the time I showed up with my food order. We also experienced the crush of mobile ordering folks who crowded around the pickup window while waiting to be called, making it difficult to even get to the window after being notified that the food was ready. I suspect mobile ordering worked much better before everyone became aware of it.
 
I've had varying levels of success with mobile ordering. As more and more people use the feature it becomes less helpful. Over the past two months I have had several experiences where there were more people waiting for their mobile order than were in the regular line. In fact, several times now I have conducted my own experiment. I find someone who gets in line at the same time I tell the system I have arrived. There have been at least 7 or 8 times, even when there has been a substantial regular line, when the person I picked who arrived at the same time I did has gotten their food LONG before me.

I've seen an increasing trend of people telling the system they have arrived when they are no where near the restaurant. So the servers end up having MULTIPLE trays of food sitting on the counter getting cold - to the point where there is no room for the food for the people who are actually THERE. I've seen multiple occasions where sitting orders were removed from the counter because no one shows up only to have the people FINALLY show up ten minutes later and complain because they received a message that there order was ready but it is now gone.

Another issue that is getting worse is people find a table in the restaurant and then tell the system they have arrived. They then wait at a table until they get the message that their food is ready. Meanwhile there are dozens of groups wandering around with their food searching frantically for a place to sit. In posting previously about my experienced I have had SEVERAL people tell me "I'm doing it wrong" and that you are SUPPOSED to sit at a table and wait for the message as opposed to waiting at the counter area for your food. I am quite certain Disney's plan was not for people to take up open tables as a waiting area while those who already have food have no where to sit. I do think it helps if, as PPs have said, you wait outside the restaurant until you get the message that your food is ready. At places like Casey's Corner the restaurant becomes complete chaos with so many people waiting inside.
 
At Flame Tree Barbecue, I was with a group during the usual lunchtime crowds, so while the rest of my party waited in the normal line, I used the mobile order function as an experiment. Didn't work out too well for me either, as all of my group that stood in the regular line were sitting and eating by the time I showed up with my food order. We also experienced the crush of mobile ordering folks who crowded around the pickup window while waiting to be called, making it difficult to even get to the window after being notified that the food was ready. I suspect mobile ordering worked much better before everyone became aware of it.

Yep. Flame Tree and Casey's Corner are two of the absolute worst places for mobile ordering (I also do the same experiment you do).
 
We used Mobile Ordering when it was newish last November - before DDP credits could be used.

It was amazing. It seemed like we were the only party using it.

But the whole time I was wondering “what happens when this catches on”? I figured the convenience of Mobile Odering would go right out the window.

They really do need a video display indicating soon to be and complete orders based on chaos reports in this thread. Even the small pizza joint around the corner from my house has a screen. I walk in, find my name on the list and stand aside until it reads Complete beside my name. Seems to be such a simple solution......
 
I've had varying levels of success with mobile ordering. As more and more people use the feature it becomes less helpful.

I've seen an increasing trend of people telling the system they have arrived when they are no where near the restaurant. So the servers end up having MULTIPLE trays of food sitting on the counter getting cold - to the point where there is no room for the food for the people who are actually THERE. I've seen multiple occasions where sitting orders were removed from the counter because no one shows up only to have the people FINALLY show up ten minutes later and complain because they received a message that there order was ready but it is now gone.

This might also be people experiencing the same glitch we had. We ordered at Columbia Harbor House and when we got there told the system we arrived but they fixed our food when we ordered and then threw it away. This happened to a lot of people then too. The manager yelled at my daughter (after ignoring her for awhile when she was trying to get our food). We didn’t do it wrong the system was messed up somehow.
 
This might also be people experiencing the same glitch we had. We ordered at Columbia Harbor House and when we got there told the system we arrived but they fixed our food when we ordered and then threw it away.
I was waiting for my order at Satuli's just this Sunday and a party of 3 came to pick up their order, it was nowhere to be found. It had been filled and when they failed to show up, apparently some 25 minutes late, the server said their order had been thrown out (Disney has a rule, time limit food can stay out) so they would have to remake it. But, the truth is, as I waited for mine.... the CM's didn't throw it out, they offered it free of charge to people picking up their orders, rather than just chucking it. At Cosmic Rays in October, same thing happened to me, they offered me 2 free chicken nuggets kids meal and loaded fries that no one came to get. Better than ending up in the trash.
 

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