'Be Our Guest Restaurant' testing new advance online ordering for lunch

Not everyone has a smartphone. I don't. As a stay at home homeschooling mother, I just don't see a need. I don't want to be forced to purchase one just for Disney. I am fine with an app being an option, but those of us who use computers instead shouldn't be left out in the cold.

The NextGen experience is heavily built around having a smartphone. Its part of why Disney is adding free Wi-Fi and the D-Zones.

yup. still don't need one. as long as everything is available both ways, I'm fine. If I caan use my rfid card or braceelet for fp, I am good.
I just don't need those bills all year just to use apps at Disney.

I see their plan but there is a point where you can only get so many people through the door. Nothing you can really do if people want to hang out and I know that from experience.

From what I've seen Disney is slow and they have seemed to have gear everything to be idiot proof as opposed to the quickest possible. There is a trade off there and I would think the employee turn over is so high (interns) that Disney really has to go the idiot proof way. I ran a restaurant with 126 seats plus a small bar and we could do 350 covers a night, night after night but we did that with people who were professionals and money motivated. I wasn't concerned about counting every last penny, in my opinion that's just penny wise pound foolish. So what a couple of sodas, coffees, teas whatever doesn't get charged for. If you can speed things up enough to get 8 more tables in before close the amount of money you make off the 8 tables is far greater than a few freebies. I use to also say if your table thinks good service is fast service then blow them right out of their seats don't fool around and course things out. Of course don't get that wrong or someone may get angry. The credit card machine annoyed me because it was actually slowing things down. Doesn't sound like much but if you have waiters standing there waiting for the CC machine then that's time lost, less people you can seat. Couple of minutes of delay here and there adds up to 20 minutes soon enough and 20 minutes lost a turn is huge, that equals one whole seating less a night. For lunch that can be an extra two seatings. I know to much about it and others problem have no idea what I'm talking about so I will leave it at that.

I do have an iPhone. However, I'm not 22. I don't have my nose stuck to my phone when I'm out and about.

I like using the phone when I decide to use it...when I feel it makes things easier for me.

I don't want to be forced to use it. Don't want to have to get my glasses out (which means bringing them along, too) and do something on the phone that would have been easier and more pleasant without the phone. And if I feel like leaving it in the room, I should be able to go about my day without it.

Giving people the ability to use smartphones if they want to do that is great. Demanding that they have one and use it is not.

I'm waiting for Disney to start charging us to talk to people, like the airlines do.

You hit the nail on the head! Guests are treating the restaurant as an ATTRACTION! Disney is just finally catching up on the themed dining experience that other restaurants such as Rainforest Cafe, T-REX and Planet Hollywood have already dove into. If a restaurant is popular and has little or no reservations, you are going to have to WAIT for a table, it's no different than anywhere else!

Yes, there are guests who slow the process down, because when it is their turn to order, they sit there and twiddle their thumbs like idiots. The menu is posted online, it is available at guest relations, it is posted outside the restaurant, it is on video screens while you wait in the Armory Queue inside the restaurant, and while you are in line for a kiosk, you can view the menu boards inside the ordering room. Another problem the restaurant has is people trying to alter the menu to their own preferences. This is quick service, not custom service.
People need to order what's on the menu or pick a different restaurant to eat at.

I also wanted to touch on guests viewing the restaurant, because this has been as issue ever since it opened. Once again, it is a RESTAURANT. Imagine you were inside, enjoying your meal with your kids and spouse and all of a sudden 300-400 people swarmed into the dining room to wander around and take pictures, flashes going off, people yelling and screaming, walkways crowding to the point where you can't even get your Coke. Oh, and the fact that your food is trying to get delivered to every table on a large wooden cart. There is something called building capacity as well as courtesy. Disney is being safe by not over-crowding the building and creating a fire/safety hazard and also being courteous in allowing the guests who are paying for a meal to have an enjoyable experience inside the restaurant. This is why people aren't allowed inside most nice restaurants to "look" around. Take any other high-end table service location on property as an example. I'm sure plenty of people want to "look" at Cinderella's Royal Table, but if you are not eating in the restaurant, there isn't a chance in hell you are getting in. It's common restaurant practice, plain and simple.

So do what DCL does.. have a 'tour' time window when guests can get into the space before normal operations. This way you appease those that just want to look around and do so in a way that isn't detrimental to those actually using the facility.

Just have it open with the park and close it half an hour before they will start to serve food (so, for example 9am-11am) to clear everyone out

which is in effect.. the same thing DCL does. But DCL does it at the start of a cruise. at wdw you would do it daily or on a set schedule. it does impact the ops of the facility for setup.. but is an area Disney could absorb for customer experience/sat.

Do it several times a week for the first year or so until demand drops off. Heck, write it off as marketing expenses as those who tour will want to eat there.

Or if the line is that long at opening, maybe just start serving lunch at 9:00am. I'm sure there are enough guests that want to see the restaurant that would be willing to eat that early.

There is going to be at check-in for your resort? That's ridiculous.

The way this is a beneficial technology is if you can place a food order from your phone and pick it up at the restaurant 15-30 minutes later. You pay on your phone and then you just go and pick up your food when it's ready. Otherwise you've turned this into a Table Service Restaurant for lunch.

Yes. Disney should also sell portable "nourishment cans" that attach to iPhones so that guests can tap their favorite snack on the screen and be sprayed in the face with various particles that sorta taste like food! Also, they should just get rid of the rides and provide enormous themed seats so that guests can play Temple Run in a temperature controlled environment. All guests need are opportunities to tap, swish and flick and they'll be happy as a clam!!! IT'S THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE!! All Disney needs is another billion dollars to sink into research and development. Normally they would just use money earmarked for rides but since Disney doesn't build those anymore, I'm not sure where the money will come from.

Ordering food in advance... Because I really am totally sure that I'll want chicken on Tuesday at 3:15 pm. Or even an hour from now.

Seems to me that all the 'saved time' will be lost when people change their mind on food they pre-ordered a week ago. Then they'll just have to reorder anyway.

You mean you've never looked at the menus in the resturants before you've gone and picked the resturants?

I mean with the limited menus DDP has driven every location to.. it's not like your attitude is likely to swing too much between today and next monday.

You also assume that since they have your order - they will pre-make it. That's a large assumption. The likely scenario is the waiter will come out and say 'ok, this is what you've all prepared... is there any questions or any changes you all would like to make tonight?' and if no, they enter the order.

Believe me, when I ate at BoG at night a few weeks ago, I had trouble ordering even right then, after having seen the menu for weeks before that. Generally most people looking ahead would see multiple things they liked on the menu, not just one thing that they must have and absolutely will not change their mind on ever. And I wasn't talking about any time saved in preparation, but about the time saved by skipping the ordering process. If they decide they want completely different things when they get there, then no time is saved, because they ended up ordering at the restaurant anyway.

For quick service, I don't believe there are true waiters. You order, you pay, then you take your rose locator device to the table of your choosing, where a CM brings you your food when it's ready. And I'm pretty sure it's also self-serve drinks. So if the point of this is to skip the ordering process, then if you end up wanting to order something different, then you haven't really skipped it at all.

Ok, sure, many people would end up ordering at the resturant anyways.. but would everyone? Or could you save that 5-8 minutes.. 30% of the time? 60% of the time? That adds up. Something doesn't have to work for 100% of cases to be a benefit.

But again.. if 75% of the people can get through without that second guessing.. then your throughput on those ordering terminals will be significantly higher.

I have said that most people are overreacting on this kind of thing, but if you have to order when you check-in, that is way over the top. I was thinking up to an hour before you eat would be ok, but any more than that really stretches things.

This was our experience as well, back on November 19th (this was the first official "soft-opening" day). We happened to be in the area at about 10:45, saw a small queue forming and the CMs informed us that the place had already opened up at 10:30am. Hopped in line for a 10 minute wait, and the CM at the front directed us to a person at a kiosk who took our order. I agree, it seemed we placed our order much faster than the crowds of families huddled around the touch screens.

I think the demand for the place is warranted -- it is decent theme park quick service and WAY better in terms of service, theming and food options than any other place in the MK. And THAT is the problem. As my wife said about BoG, and the new FL area in general, "this makes the rest of the MK look like crap." She's right.

Glad we were able to get in to see the place when we did, because if the lines continue as they are, and I have to order my fast food even before I set foot in the park, I won't be back for the forseeable future.

One has to think that the situation at BoG for lunch will get better as the newness wears off. BoG is great, but it is not worth waiting an hour or two for.

Well said Master Yoda.
After people realize this, having tried it once after waiting said hour, they will likely not push themselves to line up again.
It is a new place...everyone wants to try it out to be *first* in their little circle of friends and have *bragging rights*. Once that luster wears off it will be like any other location and wait times will be reasonable.