Mobile ordering at Walt Disney World Resort is one of our favorite time-saving “hacks” at the parks. In brief, mobile order lets you pre-order your meal at many quick service restaurants and then have it prepared for you when you arrive, skipping the wait at the register. In this post, we’ll introduce you to mobile order and its benefits, before giving you a step-by-step guide to mobile ordering at Disney World.
Introduction to Mobile Order at Disney World
We’ll start with the basics of mobile order before giving you the step-by-step instructions.
What is mobile order at Disney World?
Mobile order is a service within the My Disney Experience app that allows you to place a meal order from select restaurants in the app and pick it up from a dedicated counter when you get to the restaurant. This theoretically saves you the time of waiting in line to order at the restaurant.
What do I need In Order to mobile order at Disney World?
You need a smartphone with the My Disney Experience app (aka the Disney World app). You also need a My Disney Experience account, and a credit or debit card linked to that account (you can add this when you order, too). If you’re using a Disney Dining Plan, you won’t need the credit card.
Why should I mobile order?
There are several reasons to mobile order at Disney World. For starters, you should have less time waiting in line. You’ll pre-order your meal, tell the restaurant when you arrive, and it will be prepared then. This saves you having to wait in line at the register.
Second, you can spend more time looking at the menu items and customizations. You can do this in line at a restaurant, but it’s a lot easier to take a minute to see what’s available on mobile order. Most of the modifications that can be done at restaurants can be done on mobile order.
Third, it’s much easier to place complex orders. Related to the above point, instead of having every family member asking questions and giving confusing orders to the Cast Member at the restaurant, you can just take a minute to build your order on the app.
Can I mobile order using a Disney dining plan?
Yes, you can mobile order using the Disney dining plan. Most items will either be a snack credit or a quick service credit.
What restaurants are on Disney World mobile order?
Almost all the quick service restaurants at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom are on mobile order. At Epcot, only Regal Eagle Smokehouse is on mobile order. You can read about the quick service restaurants at the theme parks here:
At Disney Springs, D-Luxe burger is on mobile order. Mobile order is slowly rolling out to the quick service restaurants and cafeterias at the Disney hotels.
The list of restaurants on mobile order is always changing, and the best way to see the available options is just to hop into the app and check. You might also come upon the mobile order icon in the park map, on the app, or at the restaurant:
Is Starbucks on mobile order?
While each of the Disney parks has a Starbucks, these are not on mobile order for either the My Disney Experience app or the Starbucks app.
Is Mobile Order Always Faster?
“Always” is a high bar, but mobile order is pretty much always faster when it’s active. If there is too much demand at a restaurant, mobile order will be temporarily disabled.
What if mobile order glitches?
I’ve had a few glitches involving mobile order, none of which were fatal. I once had a order proceed as if I arrived at the restaurant even though I never said I had arrived. Had I not been on my way, I imagine I could have just spoken to someone at the restaurant about this later.
If your app crashes and you worry you “lost” your mobile order after you placed it, you can actually just access the Main Menu (triple bar on bottom right) and there is a button for “Mobile Food Orders” that lists your active orders. If you don’t see anything in that list, you’re either not logged in or you never placed the order.
Disney World Mobile Order Step by Step
We’ll give a quick version (just the steps and a few notes) before launching into a more detailed look at the process.
Disney World Mobile Order — The Quick Version
Before we get to the detailed step by step, I wanted to outline the entire process. Here’s the quick version:
Select restaurant and items in My Disney Experience app
Pay for order (via the app)
Go to restaurant
Tell restaurant that you have arrived (via the app)
Receive pickup notification
Retrieve food from mobile order counter
The most notable thing is the gap at steps 2 through 5. You do not need to wait until you are at the restaurant to mobile order. You can mobile order at any time during the day and then just tell the restaurant (via the app) when you arrive at the restaurant.
Disney World Mobile Order — The Detailed Version
Throughout this section I’m going to use galleries to include more pictures without forcing you to scroll down past each one. Use the arrows on either side of an image to scroll through the gallery. The text above each gallery should explain what you’re looking at.
To start your mobile order, open the My Disney Experience app and tap the (+) icon at the bottom. Then tap “Order Food.” This will bring you to the restaurant selection screen.
The restaurant selection screen shows all the restaurants on mobile order, starting with Magic Kingdom. You may have to scroll to find the restaurant you’re looking for. When you click into a restaurant, you’ll be taken to the information page about that restaurant. Tap “Order Food.”
The “Build Your Order” screen starts with the restaurant name and location and then your arrival window. The arrival window is often the closing time of the restaurant, but if the restaurant has different meals then it’ll be whenever the current meal time ends. You can only order whatever the current meal is. For example, the All-Star resorts serve breakfast until 11AM, so you can’t mobile order lunch until 11AM.
You can either scroll through the entire menu or use the category icons to jump to a specific group. Notable categories include Limited Time Offerings, Plant-Based, Kid's’ Disney Check Meals, and Allergy Friendly. The Allergy Friendly section has sub-menus you can tap to for each of the allergy options.
Once you click through to the Item Detail screen, you’ll see a price, description, and options for that item. You won’t be able to “+Add” the item to your order until you’ve made the necessary selections. Once you add the item, you’ll be back at the “Build Your Order” screen.
For the above example, I showed a relatively simple item—the kids pasta at Docking Bay 7. Some items are more complex, though. For a Satu’li bowl at Satu’li Canteen (Animal Kingdom), you’d need to pick a Base and a Sauce.
At the bottom of the Item Detail screen for complex items is the “Customize Your Selection” section. If you tap to open this section, you’ll see other customizations. For the Satu’li Bowl we can decline Boba Balls or Slaw, or we can get our sauce on the side.
Anyways, returning to our original example fo the kids pasta, once you’ve added all your items to your order, you can tap “View My Order” at the bottom of the screen.
On the My Order screen, you’ll see your order, plus maybe a prompt to add an item like dessert. You can either “Modify Order” (which takes you back one step) or proceed to “Review Order Summary.”
Order Summary reminds you of the restaurant, your order window, and your order. You also have to select a payment method at this stage. There’s an option for Promo Codes and Discounts. Most Disney World quick service restaurants don’t have discounts for Disney World annual passes, and discounts aren’t available via mobile order yet anyways. Scroll to the bottom and hit “Purchase”.
You’ve now placed a mobile order. You do not have to go pick it up immediately. The restaurant will not prepare it until you tell them “I’m Here, Prepare My Order.”
If you don’t immediately tap “I’m Here, Prepare My Order” the order should remain accessible in the app via the home screen, and also via the Main Menu (bottom right corner of the app), “Mobile Food Orders” section.
Once you tell the restaurant you’re here, they’ll begin preparing your order. You wait until the app updates to tell you the order is ready for pickup.
Follow the signs for mobile order pickup (or ask a Cast Member). You can usually find some signage directing you to the mobile order pickup, but at quick service restaurants it tends to be one end of the counter or the other.
The Cast Member at the pickup spot will either need your name or order number.
Grab your tray, and enjoy your meal!
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