Disney's Over-Reliance on Smartphones

[Roy G. Dis]

Doing nothing is a huge assumption on your part. It definitely looks like they are doing something in the picture posted above. Maybe they are cleaning the location to adhere to COVID protocols? Maybe they are restocking the location? Doing nothing would mean that they were standing face to face and chatting with each other. They are not.

Regardless of what the cast were doing at the moment, they can't arbitrarily decide to violate the policy that has been in place for two years, to only serve guests via mobile order at the Tiki Juice Bar. I sincerely hope you can appreciate that. I think the decision to do that was a good one, as it keeps the entrance to the tiki room, and the path into Adventureland, free from the never ending queues that used to develop there. The queues where people would sometimes wait over an hour just to get a dole whip.

And why are all of these problems with Mobile Order now focused exclusively on the Tiki Juice Bar? Shouldn't there be issues with mobile order everywhere? Are you really going to try to claim you know, for a certainty, that there aren't just supply issues with the Dole Whip product itself that has limited the amount they can serve per day?

All it takes is a little critical thinking.

Thank you. I also dug up that picture and it looks to me like they are doing something. Sensationalism much?

 

[DrAlice]

Doing nothing is a huge assumption on your part. It definitely looks like they are doing something in the picture posted above. Maybe they are cleaning the location to adhere to COVID protocols? Maybe they are restocking the location? Doing nothing would mean that they were standing face to face and chatting with each other. They are not.

Regardless of what the cast were doing at the moment, they can't arbitrarily decide to violate the policy that has been in place for two years, to only serve guests via mobile order at the Tiki Juice Bar. I sincerely hope you can appreciate that. I think the decision to do that was a good one, as it keeps the entrance to the tiki room, and the path into Adventureland, free from the never ending queues that used to develop there. The queues where people would sometimes wait over an hour just to get a dole whip.

And why are all of these problems with Mobile Order now focused exclusively on the Tiki Juice Bar? Shouldn't there be issues with mobile order everywhere? Are you really going to try to claim you know, for a certainty, that there aren't just supply issues with the Dole Whip product itself that has limited the amount they can serve per day?

All it takes is a little critical thinking.

Wow. You had to end your post with an insult to my intelligence? Really?

I know you can read besides looking at pretty pictures. The last 12 pages (including the text that went with the image in question) gave you plenty of evidence for what I asserted. But, clearly this isn't an actual discussion. This is you gaslighting the thread. And, with that, I'm out.

 

[el_super]

Wow. You had to end your post with an insult to my intelligence? Really?

Not at all. I'm not assuming here that you aren't capable of understanding what is going on. What I am assuming here is that you want to believe what you originally stated so deeply, that you are maintaining an untenable position. That's just the nature of the internet I guess.

My whole reason for posting in this thread was to essentially debunk this idea that the mobile order system was the cause of the disappointing guest service being experienced. Not to excuse the disappointing service. But like I said before, if you want to keep maintaining that the mobile order is the problem, you will eventually just be disappointed when it never goes away.

 

[Communicora]

But like I said before, if you want to keep maintaining that the mobile order is the problem, you will eventually just be disappointed when it never goes away.

There is no need to be patronizing to everyone on this thread. Disney's implementation of mobile ordering is clearly causing some guest service issues.

Maybe the people in charge of this can get some ideas next time they pay a visit to Starbucks. They seem to have it figured out.

 

[Axoman]

I was at the park Saturday. I like to have a dole whip while waiting for the Tiki room. Here is my experience as a customer. I walk over from the Tiki room side and a woman with an ipad asks if I mobile ordered. I say no and she says it's mobile order only. I pull up the app and see that the serving window is 2 hours out and tell her so. She says all the available slots are taken and I point out that the 3 people behind the counter are just standing there doing nothing but she obviously can't do anything about it and says I need to go around the corner so no dole whip for me this time.

So I snapped a picture a couple minutes later and one of the guys came out from behind the counter to ward off others wanting dole whips but not having a magical window. When I left the Tiki room and walked by again, they had 2 CM's plus the 3 behind the counter and the ipad girl working this building but only handing out one or two dole whips every minute. These people were just standing around most of the time. I don't get it.

You had the exact same experience I did on my last day of my trip last month. I went to try to get one as there was no line and I didn't know they were only mobile order, my mistake. So I pull up the app and same thing, at least a 2hour wait for the next pickup window, yet 3 people working the booth just standing there. I pondered what to do for a few minutes and in that time, maybe 1 or 2 Dole whips were made. I don't get it.

I thought about going to Tropical Hideaway, but I had passed there on the way to the Juice bar and the line was very long, almost to Jungle Cruise entrance, so I gave up on trying to get a Dole Whip.

Had similar experiences at other food locations during the trip. It's easy to say the food availability was the worst experience by far.

Something is wrong when I could leave the park, cross the street to one of the neighboring restaurants and get a meal and eat it and go back to the park before the first available pick up time.

I'm trying to give Disney more money and have my snacks/meals in the park, but it feels like they are actively trying to prevent me from doing that.

 

[TP2000]

Something is wrong when I could leave the park, cross the street to one of the neighboring restaurants and get a meal and eat it and go back to the park before the first available pick up time.

Brilliant point.

The smart investment opportunity would be to purchase the old Captain Kidd's location on Harbor and turn it into a place selling nothing but Dole Whips, Churros, and bacon-wrapped asparagus skewers. With a giant sign on the roof that says "Remember Us When They Tell You They Only Serve Mobile Orders!"

 

[truecoat]

Doing nothing is a huge assumption on your part. It definitely looks like they are doing something in the picture posted above. Maybe they are cleaning the location to adhere to COVID protocols? Maybe they are restocking the location? Doing nothing would mean that they were standing face to face and chatting with each other. They are not.

Regardless of what the cast were doing at the moment, they can't arbitrarily decide to violate the policy that has been in place for two years, to only serve guests via mobile order at the Tiki Juice Bar. I sincerely hope you can appreciate that. I think the decision to do that was a good one, as it keeps the entrance to the tiki room, and the path into Adventureland, free from the never ending queues that used to develop there. The queues where people would sometimes wait over an hour just to get a dole whip.

And why are all of these problems with Mobile Order now focused exclusively on the Tiki Juice Bar? Shouldn't there be issues with mobile order everywhere? Are you really going to try to claim you know, for a certainty, that there aren't just supply issues with the Dole Whip product itself that has limited the amount they can serve per day?

All it takes is a little critical thinking.

I took the picture as an afterthought several minutes after I tried to order. They might have been making a dole whip at the time, I do not know. What I do know is that in the 5-6 minutes waiting for the Tiki room to open, they handed out 3 dole whips and stood around the rest of the time. When I exited the Tiki Room, they had a total of 6 people at this location now. 2 cms telling people to go somewhere else, 1 with an iPad to greet people who made mobile orders 2+ hours ago and 3 behind the counter not making dole whips.

One more thing, if this was a location selling something besides a snack, I’d have been ok with being turned away.

 

[chadwpalm]

I knew what I would want for lunch and made my mobile order for hungry bear at my hotel this morning. Currently the standby line is all the way back to beyond the bottom of the stairs, so they are doing standby, but you gotta wait a while as only a couple windows are open for it.

 

[mickEblu]

They re really forcing people to use Mobile Order. My experience was actually pretty good this past Saturday. Got an instant return time at Smoke Jumpers around 2pm and our holiday potato latkes and my sons chicken tenders were ready immediately. With that said, the latkes sucked. Also used it for an instant return time for a fountain drink at Alien Planet. Both places had quite a few people lined up waiting to pay at the register.

In general, the phone made my life easier on this last trip. I made a conscious decision not to use it too much for stuff like wait times and planning out my day and it made a noticeable difference. Also scored a walk up list spot for Cafe Orleans on my phone from outside of Splash Mountain for a 7:30pm dinner.

 

[truecoat]

They re really forcing people to use Mobile Order. My experience was actually pretty good this past Saturday. Got an instant return time at Smoke Jumpers around 2pm and our holiday potato latkes and my sons chicken tenders were ready immediately. With that said, the latkes sucked. Also used it for an instant return time for a fountain drink at Alien Planet. Both places had quite a few people lined up waiting to pay at the register.

In general, the phone made my life easier on this last trip. I made a conscious decision not to use it too much for stuff like wait times and planning out my day and it made a noticeable difference. Also scored a walk up list spot for Cafe Orleans on my phone from outside of Splash Mountain for a 7:30pm dinner.

I ate at Rancho del Zocalo and the Plaza Inn a week ago at Saturday. Didn't have to plan my meals hours in advance at all.

 

[Parteecia]

I was checking out the holiday food on the Disney blog and read "Café Orleans (mobile dine walk-up and mobile check-in available)." I can't figure out what "mobile dine walk-up" means. Do they offer to-go?

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

I was checking out the holiday food on the Disney blog and read "Café Orleans (mobile dine walk-up and mobile check-in available)." I can't figure out what "mobile dine walk-up" means. Do they offer to-go?

Think that's referring to scanning the QR code on the sign outside to join the walk-up line if there's availability?

They don't offer to-go.

 

[waltography]

Think that's referring to scanning the QR code on the sign outside to join the walk-up line if there's availability?

They don't offer to-go.

You don't even need to scan the QR code in most of these places anymore; so long as you're near the area, you can join the walk-up list from the app.