DiningResortsTransportationWalt Disney World (FL)

If You Have a Mobile Order at a Resort Restaurant, Can You Park There to Pick It Up?

Dani ,  , 
Share This!

Ever since Disney rolled out the mobile ordering for quick service and select table service restaurants at resort hotels, people have wondered what that means for parking at the hotels. Can you park at a Disney hotel when you’ve placed a mobile order from one of the resort dining locations? The answer is, it depends.

Seared Gnocci and Chocolate Flight To Go at The Wave
Pappardelle Pasta with Shrimp – Ale and Compass Takeout

Officially Disney’s policy is that to park at any resort you must be a guest staying at the hotel or have a confirmed dining reservation. However, with the rollout of mobile ordering at select table service restaurants, our team has experienced that if you can show your confirmed, and paid for order, on your MyDisneyExperience app you can park at the resort. Photo identification is required and you’ll need to pull the order up on your phone for the Security Cast Member to view.

Generally speaking the monorail resorts have the most discretion from the Security Cast Members. Disney’s Contemporary Resort in particular is very stringent, as you can imagine. Who wouldn’t want to park and walk right over to Magic Kingdom? Members of our team have placed takeout orders from The Wave and shown the order, along with photo ID, at Security and have been able to park. On the other hand, readers have reported not being able to park at the resort with a confirmed order at Contempo Café. Perhaps this is due to revenue at a quick service location versus a table service location?

You would think Disney would welcome guests utilizing the mobile order functions and bringing more revenue into any of the dining locations, considering the reduced capacity everywhere. But I can also see Disney sticking to their official policies. Our general advice is to make sure you have the order ready to show on your phone, along with your photo ID. And if the Security Cast Member does not allow you to park at the resort, be prepared to make other plans, and ask what they suggest for you to do. They may be able to offer an alternate parking location.

Contemporary Cinderella Pumpkin Cupcake – Contempo Café
Steamed Bao Bun at The Wave – To Go Takeout – ordered on February 23, 2021

The mobile ordering at resorts is one of our team’s favorite new-ish features in MyDisneyExperience. We usually have no issues when ordering from the Table Service locations, again as long as we can show that the order is confirmed and paid for. Quick service locations can be tricky based on reports we’ve received from readers. We’ll continue to test this out and report back.

Have you utilized Disney’s mobile ordering at one of the resorts? How was your experience? 

You May Also Like...

Dani

Born and raised in the land of sunshine and dreams come true, Dani is a proud Orlando Native who loves sharing her hometown with others. She's worked in nearly all of Orlando's theme parks, on board Disney Cruise Line, and in hotel management. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @thisfloridalife

One thought on “If You Have a Mobile Order at a Resort Restaurant, Can You Park There to Pick It Up?”

  • I can confirm based on first-hand experience that placing a mobile order at the “monorail resorts” will NOT allow you to park there. You will need to park at TTC and take the monorail to the resort to pick-up your order. I tried this once at Captain Cooks (Poly) and once at Contempo Cafe and neither time was allowed to park at the resort. I was legit trying to eat at those QSR restaurants too, I showed the guard my confirmed reservation for Hollywood Studios (so they knew I wasn’t going to MK), showed the mobile order confirmation and even my Annual Pass so they knew I wasn’t trying to skirt around the parking fee. No luck. They were very nice about it and at the Contemporary even called Contempo Cafe for me and to let them know the situation and to ensure they would remake my order once I finally arrived. I live locally and used to enjoy popping into one of the resort QSRs once in a while for a meal, but not sure I will want to try this again. Perhaps it would be different at AK lodge or Coronado Springs, but I’m not going to try it again at a monorail, Skyliner, or any resort with an easy walk to a park (e.g. Boardwalk to EPCOT), just not worth it. FWIW, I also had trouble getting to Caribbean Beach since the Skyliner opened, I used to be able to go there to get a meal or visit the gift shop, but this is no longer the case, at least since the Skyliner has opened. I get it though, they need ensure there is enough parking for the resort guests without having to worry about locals or off property guests taking up resort parking just to visit a park w/o paying for parking.

Comments are closed.