Disney's Over-Reliance on Smartphones

[DavidDL]

Like others have said, cell phones aren't necessarily the enemy, but the implementation can be. I can live with buying tickets, saving ride photos and can even recognize some of the arguments in favor of virtual queues for new attractions.

For me, the biggest issue is Disney's joke of a mobile order system. They've been pushing it so hard that it creates scenarios where Guest demand (of which there is no shortage) reaches a point that you'll need to "book" certain meals and snacks in advance in the morning. If you don't, you run the risk of running into either a) not having an option you wanted available to you, b) having to pick something else that hasn't run out or isn't as mobile order dependent, or c) dealing with longer than ever queues for option b because Disney has cut registers and dedicated what little staff they have left to fulfilling the orders of everyone who ordered at 8am.

I understand booking reservations in advance for dining experiences like Blue Bayou, Napa Rose, etc. and those types of things being a bit of a fight to acquire. That's the way any popular sit-down restaurant is (both in and out of the park). But for a plate of spaghetti and meatballs? Or a burrito/taco? I just think that the means of acquiring simpler items like these have been botched by the system Disney is pushing through the app. Even pre-pandemic, when demand was still high, lines for quick service options were manageable throughout the day and I never felt like I had options closed off to me or felt forced to pick what I wanted for lunch or dinner way in advance. Now, it's like I need to know right at 8am that I'm going to be in the mood for a Cocina Cucamonga street taco and right at, oh, let's say.. 2pm? -and sure, the option to walk up organically is still technically available to me.. if I'm willing to have my park time drained in an abnormally long queue.

From a Micechat article regarding the situation:

"We’ve been growing increasingly uncomfortable with the difficulty getting food quickly in the parks on busy days. At first, we chalked this up to staffing and reopening issues, but Disney has moved to near normal operation on almost everything else… but one thing they continue to frustrate guests with INTENTIONALLY is how difficult they’ve made it to order food!

Most restaurants at the Disneyland Resort have removed all but one or two of the registers to intentionally increase lines so guests will be enticed to mobile order. However, many guests don’t seem to like Mobile Order. They want to do what they’ve always done in the past, just show up when they are hungry and order something. As early as 4:30pm on Saturday, Cucina Cucamonga already had a massive and very slow-moving stand-by line to order from the single open register. This was a situation repeated at many quick service establishments across the resort. Hungry guests don’t make happy guests.

It’s all so counterintuitive, if a guest wants to buy something… TAKE THEIR MONEY and make them happy! Don’t force them to jump through hoops to buy a bottle of water or get something to eat. This is customer abuse for no good reason. Every other theme park in the world will let you walk up to a window and order food. And, because food service is so dysfunctional, many more guests are overtaxing the limited outdoor vending carts. It is now common to see insane lines for popcorn, beverages, and just about everything else. This is one area where Disneyland is really seriously failing their guests and it simply must be fixed. When the parks aren’t busy, there’s no reason to force a guest to mobile order, but when the parks are busy, Mobile order is often overwhelmed and doesn’t work right. So, in neither case does Mobile Order make your day better, it’s just an unnecessary complication for guests, for frustrated food service workers, and a terrible waste of company resources. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying PUT THE REGISTERS BACK AND STOP MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO BUY FOOD!!!"

Part of me wants to believe that Disney could have it both ways if they hired more staff to deal with registers and mobile order. Their hiring page shows them still looking for Food and Beverage CMs. But if this is what potential hires think they may have to deal with on a daily basis, maybe they're hesitant to join at all.

I understand wanting to explore and expand Disney's mobile order system during a pandemic to reduce contact between Guests and CMs but having dealt with it myself, it feels like a mess right now, at best. With vaccines readily available and COVID cases on the decline (for now), it's probably time to open more registers. Or do whatever it takes to get more people hired in. Because without a smartphone and enough clairvoyance to know exactly when Guests will be hungry or know what everyone in the party will want to eat, this is the mess that awaits your typical day Guest or tourist who may not be as "in the know" as locals.

 

[John park hopper]

OMG mobil ordering so they can reduce the number of staff on registers thus costing Disney less$$$$$$, is there no end to Disney's squeezing the last buck out of guests.

 

[mickEblu]

Speaking of mobile ordering that reminds me a Disney CM flat out lied to me on my last trip. I was at DCA and ordered some Birria tacos from Cocina Cucamonga. The order was taking too long so I spoke to a CM who advised just deferring the order (“Guest didn’t show up”) and then just to to back later to pick it up since I didn’t want to miss out on Monsters After Dark since it was about 5pm and I didn’t want to miss out riding since the park closed at 6pm for Oogie Boogie. The ride was down all day and then suddenly it opened around 3:30.

Anyway I get off MAD at like 6 sharp and WOW- you do not want to be walking the opposite direction of the entrance at that time on an Oogie Boogie day. I had to get through like 7 Bracelet Nazi check points to get back to Cocina Cucamonga. The third of which had me me show her proof on my phone of the mobile order after repeatedly telling me the restaurant was closed. I would have cancelled the order on the app if I could but that wasn’t an option as the CM had entered that I didn’t show up. I also wasn’t in the mood to donate money to Disney. Anyway I got there, got my food, ate it with all the first class citizens and came to find out the restaurant didn’t close until 8pm. She knew she got caught in the lie too as she starting stuttering after I showed her my mobile order.

 

[truecoat]

I went to the home opener of the local NBA team. Most of the concessions are mobile order and a complete show. They had the option to notify you when your order was ready but if you waited, you would have never got your food. I headed to one of the food stands where everything was mobile. You had to get in line and show them what you ordered before they filled the order.

The system was designed to be convenient but these stands can't handle volume that way due to the quantity or orders and limited staff on hand.

 

[el_super]

Anyway I got there, got my food, ate it with all the first class citizens and came to find out the restaurant didn’t close until 8pm. She knew she got caught in the lie too as she starting stuttering after I showed her my mobile order.

Was it really a lie? I thought CMs were trained to stick to the published park closing times on mix-in nights. If the park closing was at 6PM due to the party, then they were correct in saying the restaurant closed at 6, even if it was opened extended hours for event guests only.

It's easier to say it closes at 6, rather than try to explain under which circumstances the restaurant would stay open.

 

[mickEblu]

Was it really a lie? I thought CMs were trained to stick to the published park closing times on mix-in nights. If the park closing was at 6PM due to the party, then they were correct in saying the restaurant closed at 6, even if it was opened extended hours for event guests only.

It's easier to say it closes at 6, rather than try to explain under which circumstances the restaurant would stay open.

It’s a lie in the context of the conversation we had.

 

[el_super]

It’s a lie in the context of the conversation we had.

Doesn't sound like it. Sounds like the restaurant closed with the park at 6.

 

[mickEblu]

Doesn't sound like it. Sounds like the restaurant closed with the park at 6.

Oh ok I didn’t realize you were there. I guess you re right. Lol

The restaurant closed at 8pm. Meaning, technically I had until 8pm to resolve the issue.

 

[mickEblu]

Anyway if this makes me a Passhole I’ll gladly wear the title. Don’t get me started on the hassle they gave us at Emporium for wanting to a return my wife’s brand new sweater (tags still on) without a receipt.

 

[DavidDL]

The system was designed to be convenient but these stands can't handle volume that way due to the quantity or orders and limited staff on hand.

This bit reminds me of what I experienced at Chipotle on Halloween this year. Every year they give a small discount on entrée' items if you wore a costume into the restaurant. Wife and I had swung by to pick up a "Boo-rito" every year before handing out candy to trick or treaters and never had a problem. This year though, they decided to do it through mobile order.

We decided to play along and despite placing the order in advance for a 5:40 pick-up, I didn't leave with our food until about 6:30 (at which time they were still trying to make 5:45 orders). Team Members were trying to tell everyone that they were getting slammed with more orders than they could possibly accommodate (something along the lines of 35 online orders every 5 to 10 minutes). Folks having to wait too long either just left or started demanding refunds. Like your experience with the NBA food stand, the system wasn't optimized to handle the demand. This is where I'd bring up staffing issues as well normally but I saw more Team Members than I'd ever seen before, many of them working frantically back of house in the Catering second to try and meet the app's demands.

At a point, the convenience of ordering like this takes a toll on both employees and Guests alike. Whether its your local Chipotle or a Disney quick service restaurant. There definitely needs to be a better balance between what is allowed to be ordered in a given time frame vs. staff working. However, companies like Disney or Chipotle will likely just see all the orders and money coming in and view the entire operation as a rousing success despite what it puts people through. Taking all the money up front at 8am (from some Guests who may not have been there to begin with but will order now because they're worried about an accessible meal later in the day) and operating with a skeleton crew might technically be good for profits, but a good Guest/CM experience in-park? It is not.

 

[mickEblu]

This bit reminds me of what I experienced at Chipotle on Halloween this year. Every year they give a small discount on entrée' items if you wore a costume into the restaurant. Wife and I had swung by to pick up a "Boo-rito" every year before handing out candy to trick or treaters and never had a problem. This year though, they decided to do it through mobile order.

View attachment 597665View attachment 597666

We decided to play along and despite placing the order in advance for a 5:40 pick-up, I didn't leave with our food until about 6:30 (at which time they were still trying to make 5:45 orders). Team Members were trying to tell everyone that they were getting slammed with more orders than they could possibly accommodate (something along the lines of 35 online orders every 5 to 10 minutes). Folks having to wait too long either just left or started demanding refunds. Like your experience with the NBA food stand, the system wasn't optimized to handle the demand. This is where I'd bring up staffing issues as well normally but I saw more Team Members than I'd ever seen before, many of them working frantically back of house in the Catering second to try and meet the app's demands.

At a point, the convenience of ordering like this takes a toll on both employees and Guests alike. Whether its your local Chipotle or a Disney quick service restaurant. There definitely needs to be a better balance between what is allowed to be ordered in a given time frame vs. staff working. However, companies like Disney or Chipotle will likely just see all the orders and money coming in and view the entire operation as a rousing success despite what it puts people through. Taking all the money up front at 8am (from some Guests who may not have been there to begin with but will order now because they're worried about an accessible meal later in the day) and operating with a skeleton crew might technically be good for profits, but a good Guest/CM experience in-park? It is not.

Yup here’s my issue with my experience at the park…

1. If you are going to take most of the registers away then you better make sure mobile ordering is an efficient system

2. The CM at Cocina Cucamonga shouldn’t have offered that as a solution that late in the day knowing that cancelling wouldn’t be an option from my app. I had no idea.

3. It was 6pm sharp. Any other non Oogie Boogie day and I have another hour in the parks after closing. If they don’t want to deal with issues like these then don’t have a Halloween party overlap at with regular park hours and then expect guests to vanish at 6pm sharp. Also, Bad customer service. Why did I have to over explain the situation to get a refund (or my food) because of their inefficiency and bad decision by the CM? It’s not like it was 7pm.

 

[el_super]

At a point, the convenience of ordering like this takes a toll on both employees and Guests alike. Whether its your local Chipotle or a Disney quick service restaurant. There definitely needs to be a better balance between what is allowed to be ordered in a given time frame vs. staff working.

Yeah but here's the catch: If Disney were to actually go back and reduce the capacity of the park to be more in line with the capacity they have at QSRs, they would be chastised for restricting access, as they have been over the last few months.

You can't have it both ways: easy and cheap access to the park comes with long lines. You want to get rid of the long lines, you have to go to the park less.

 

[DavidDL]

Yeah but here's the catch: If Disney were to actually go back and reduce the capacity of the park to be more in line with the capacity they have at QSRs, they would be chastised for restricting access, as they have been over the last few months.

You can't have it both ways: easy and cheap access to the park comes with long lines. You want to get rid of the long lines, you have to go to the park less.

My statement you quoted had nothing to do with capacity of the parks. It was about reducing the amount of mobile orders that could be placed within any given pick-up window time. Right now, Disney's reduction of physical registers in an attempt to push the mobile order option is hurting both Guests who just want to get something they feel in the mood for once they're hungry by placing them in artificially extended queues and Cast Members, who are now overworked and forced to bear the brunt of those Guests.

I'm not advocating for either side of "should more or less people be let in and how easy should it be for them to do that" here. I've already said that going online or using your phone to buy tickets is something I get. Right now, my sole issue with using a smartphone in the park is how it Disney has been implementing them in regards to food.

Right now, even with controlled capacity, lines for food are worse than they've ever been because of Disney's insistence on making folks use the app to order everything in advance, or face those lines themselves. Mobile Order is basically just Fastpass for your daily meals and there's no denying that Fastpass made standby lines worse. But attractions and food are different things entirely because Guests are far more likely to know what rides they're excited for, and deciding on a meal and time for said meal that isn't a sit-down experience has always been more of an "organic" thing. You or your party gets hungry, you decide what sounds good and you just go and get it with a reasonable wait.

Place yourself into the shoes of a parent with children. Imagine it's close to dinner time and your kids are cranky and hungry. They want some pasta from Pym's Test Kitchen. You see the line created by mobile orders (over an hour long with one register) and say to yourself, oh heck no. So you decide to check out the app. What do you know? Since you didn't know what you or your kids would want when you entered the park, the only available pick-up times for Pym's Test Kitchen are now either hours away or gone entirely. The extended queue it is for you and your cranky, hungry kids! I'm sure that'll be fun and I'm sure they will understand.

Even though I'm against the idea of line skips (ride or food) if Disney would at least reduce the amount of folks who could mobile order for any given pick-up window time then that could probably help create a more bearable balance. Because less mobile orders taking priority over walk up Guests means CMs can serve those Guests more efficiently. -and since the majority of humans tend to only eat when hungry instead of trying to book their quick service breakfast, lunch and dinner all in the morning, those few Guests who do want to purchase/plan their meals in advance, are still free to do so. The folks who like to plan their daily meals at 8am are the most likely to snag those spots, anyways. That's fine, they can have those limited time slots because most Guests don't plan food the same way they do attractions. -and I'm sure you'll point to the lack of available time slots and say, "no, see, they do!" but the only reason they're filling up the way they are right now is because the only other choice Disney is giving them is an hour long wait for spaghetti. Understandable for an attraction like Space Mountain. Not so much when you or your party are hangry for something to eat after managing a crowded park all day.

The expanded use of the smartphone app to Lightning Lane and mobile order also speaks to the separate, wider issue of Disney diminishing the Guest and CM experience in to make their bottom line look better. CMs are overworked at attractions/food locations? Guests aren't happy with the wait times? They could get them the help they need or make the needed adjustments but why would they? CMs cost money and reduce wait times. If the wait times for food and attractions aren't long, why would people need to use Lightning Lane or mobile order? Nah, better keep those lines long so Disney's bottom line looks better at the expense of the park going experience. Whether you're using a smartphone or not, your time in park will be affected by them. How much you care, is up to you and will vary by Guest and what they've come to experience.

I do agree with one thing you've said here though; in order to see any real change, folks have to start going less. Until they do, even if folks complain, Disney has no incentive to make a change. Like a drug dealer who got someone hooked on something, lowered the quality and started charging more. Lots of Guests these days simply can't live without their fix.

 

[DavidDL]

Here's a disclaimer that I should probably be adding to my posts; in an effort to reduce my spendings on the park and its offerings, I really only visit once or twice a year nowadays. My last trip was back in July. Which means my frustrations, though legitimate from my personal experiences, may or may not accurately reflect whatever the current state of the park is. Disney could have totally fixed their mobile order system or hired more CMs to deal with the issues a few weeks ago and despite following several Disneyland sites, there's a chance I'd still be none the wiser.

That's about as fair as I can possibly be. If someone whose gone recently can confirm that these are non-issues nowadays, then know that I'm happy to recognize that.

 

[TP2000]

So I'm out running errands today and I got 'em all done and decided to reward myself with a Coke. The line for In-N-Out is dozens of cars long and backs out onto the street (as usual), but McDonald's two blocks away was wide open with only 3 cars in line.

I pull up to the speaker and get this single word broadcast to me... "Wihoozemacdonahlap"
I stare at the speaker and say "I beg your pardon?"
In response I get "Wihoozemacdonahlap".
The last syllable in that run-on word was "ap", and I deduce he's asking me something about an App, but I don't have an App for McDonald's and don't want an App for McDonald's, I just want a Coke.
So I say "I don't have an App for this, but may I just have a medium Coca-Cola, please?"
Silence...
"Oneohsevenpuhlup"

Disneyland is treading thisclose to becoming a customer experience like that. It's very scary.

 

[truecoat]

So I'm out running errands today and I got 'em all done and decided to reward myself with a Coke. The line for In-N-Out is dozens of cars long and backs out onto the street (as usual), but McDonald's two blocks away was wide open with only 3 cars in line.

I pull up to the speaker and get this single word broadcast to me... "Wihoozemacdonahlap"
I stare at the speaker and say "I beg your pardon?"
In response I get "Wihoozemacdonahlap".
The last syllable in that run-on word was "ap", and I deduce he's asking me something about an App, but I don't have an App for McDonald's and don't want an App for McDonald's, I just want a Coke.
So I say "I don't have an App for this, but may I just have a medium Coca-Cola, please?"
Silence...
"Oneohsevenpuhlup"

Disneyland is treading thisclose to becoming a customer experience like that. It's very scary.

I do use the McDonalds app quite a bit. Order my wife an iced coffee and sit in the parking lot until they bring it to me. The lines in the drive thru have been crazy lately.

 

[el_super]

My statement you quoted had nothing to do with capacity of the parks. It was about reducing the amount of mobile orders that could be placed within any given pick-up window time. Right now, Disney's reduction of physical registers in an attempt to push the mobile order option is hurting both Guests who just want to get something they feel in the mood for once they're hungry by placing them in artificially extended queues and Cast Members, who are now overworked and forced to bear the brunt of those Guests.

The capacity of the park overall, has an impact on the demand of the restaurant facilities. More people in the park = more people wanting lunch at the same time.

Adding registers does nothing to change the demand for food at lunch time in a busy theme park. It just moves people from one method of payment to another. If the bottleneck is in the kitchen, the number of orders taken can still exceed the overall restaurant capacity and create long lines. In fact, prior to the pandemic, it wasn't at all unusual to wait 20-30 minutes to get food and pay at Rancho or Pizza Port. And that was with restaurants that were basically running at full capacity.

Right now, even with controlled capacity, lines for food are worse than they've ever been because of Disney's insistence on making folks use the app to order everything in advance, or face those lines themselves. Mobile Order is basically just Fastpass for your daily meals and there's no denying that Fastpass made standby lines worse.

You're conflating two very different things here.

Mobile order software worked pretty well pre-pandemic, so there's nothing "wrong" with the system. If lines are long, it's a capacity issue, not a software problem. The lines would be just as long if they brought back the registers.

Fastpass made standby lines worse, because it increased the demand for attractions above that which a normal standby line would have. The capacity of the attractions didn't change though, and the same number of people per hour was always going thru. The only way that scenario would really apply to dining, is if you're trying to suggest that people are so happy to use the mobile order solution, they are ordering extra meals for themselves? That's probably not the case.

The extended queue it is for you and your cranky, hungry kids! I'm sure that'll be fun and I'm sure they will understand.

So wait, you're saying in this scenario the extended queue is less time than the mobile order return?

Even though I'm against the idea of line skips (ride or food) if Disney would at least reduce the amount of folks who could mobile order for any given pick-up window time then that could probably help create a more bearable balance.

And now you're saying that too many people WANT to use mobile order? How is the solution here to force people who want to mobile order, to then get in line for a cash register? You're just moving the line from one part of the restaurant to the other. The bottleneck isn't at ordering.

It seems like you're conflating the mobile order with a digital dining Fastpass and thinking that those people with mobile orders are somehow stealing capacity or getting a front of the line skip. That isn't the case at all. The restaurant has a fixed capacity to produce a number of meals per hour, and whether you assign a mix of 60% mobile order, to 40% cash, or any other ratio, it doesn't change the actual number of people going thru the restaurant per hour. Adding more registers may eliminate a line at the door, but just create a line of people waiting for food further down.

Reducing the number of people working mobile orders, if that is the most popular solution, wouldn't be very guest friendly would it?

 

[TP2000]

I do use the McDonalds app quite a bit. Order my wife an iced coffee and sit in the parking lot until they bring it to me. The lines in the drive thru have been crazy lately.

Thank you for that. I was actually confused why McDonald's would even need an App, but that scenario makes some sense.

The McDonald's down the hill from me is, unfortunately for them, only a block from the local In-N-Out.

The In-N-Out is constantly mobbed as per usual for that chain, with double lanes of cars that stretch out onto the street and perky In-N-Out kids running around the parking lot taking orders and wrangling traffic.

Then you drive a block down the street and there's the McDonald's... sitting there quietly with a couple of cars at most in the drive-thru.

For the record, In-N-Out has no App. Instead of an App, at each location they just hire an army of clean-cut kids to smile at the customers, flip burgers, and kick butt. It's been wildly successful for them.

 

[Figments Friend]

In-N-Out for the win....!



-

 

[TP2000]

In-N-Out for the win....!



-

And they can even emote and clearly speak into the drive-thru speaker!

What's sad about that is after I got through the bizarre "Wihoozemacdonahlap" greeting and invitation to place an order at McDonald's and I finally did "Oneohsevenpuhlup" to the payment window, the kid with the headset who had spoken that nonsense turned out to be a very nice young man. As I rummaged for seven cents, we got to chatting about the change shortage and he made a joke and we laughed and I thanked him, and he thanked me back with a big, genuine smile.

This was not a situation where this young teenage worker was incapable of profesionalism and courteous communication. This was a situation where his McDonald's training process and on-site management was so poor and so sloppy that he had no idea he was coming across as "Wihoozemacdonahlap." With better training and better direct management, like you'd find up the block at In-N-Out, he'd likely shine.

There is a direct correlation there between the average sub-par McDonald's experience and the growing trend of CM's to perform at the same lowered standard. It's not good for Disneyland.