Resort Mobile Ordering in the Social Distancing World

Today, we got to test out the new procedures for mobile ordering at resorts. Specifically, we ordered food at Contempo Cafe at Disney’s Contemporary Resort for lunch to see how the new procedures would work. The answer is surprisingly well for light crowds, however we do have some concerns about how well this will scale for larger crowds.

If you’ve used mobile ordering in the My Disney Experience app, the process will be familiar with minor modifications. For mobile ordering through the app at the resort, you select a time you want to pick up your food.

Then select your items, customize as needed, and pay for the food in the app.

Arrive at your selected time and wait for the app to notify you that your order is ready. At that point, proceed to the entrance point. There will be a marker on the ground to indicate where you should start lining up until there’s room to proceed to pick up your food.

You will be directed to proceed to one of two stations where you will pick up your food. When we were there, crowds were so light that this doesn’t cause any problems, however it may become a bottleneck if those are the only two stations when crowds are heavy.

You receive your order in a bag, packaged to go, with everything inside sealed.

Follow the arrows to the one and only exit.

You can take your order back to your hotel room, or find a table nearby. For social distancing purposes, some tables have signs requesting you not to sit at those locations.

One item that we noted is that plastic lids were back on some drinks, but straws are still the paper variety. Otherwise, it is exactly what you’d expect from a to-go order from Contempo Cafe. For drink refills, a cast member will take your old cup and give you a refill with a new cup–cups are not reused, and drinks are not self-service.

Overall, the process is quick and easy, but it remains to be seen how well this will scale up for larger crowds.