I was advised to break these tips up into sections as I was getting a little long winded with each one. Probably some decent advice considering I was close to writing an entire novel on the topic.
I already discussed resting while on vacation and its importance. Just to recap the days: travel, rest, 2 park days, rest, 2 park days, rest…repeat as needed and don’t forget to rest each and every day for at least two to three hours in the room.
Next up, #2: Mobile Order
Did you know that Walt Disney World has an app that you can download on your phone? It is full of information. It has a map of each area that you can track your location to the area you need to be at; has lightning lane info and ability to adapt…It also has the ability to mobile order.
Which is something I wish I had known more about BEFORE we went. I can tell you it would’ve saved me sweat, tears and a mental breakdown (which isn’t something you want to have happen on vacation). So, in our little corner of the world, my family doesn’t really have the opportunity to “mobile order”. Therefore, we aren’t that familiar with it. Or rather, we weren’t. That is, until we came back from Disney. Let me tell you this, had we known about it prior to our trip in an adequate way, I believe it would have made our stay WAY more enjoyable.
By the time we got used to the mobile order, our trip was almost over. By then I had already broken down into sheer tears and was beginning to hate the trip because I had been on the go too much, I couldn’t stop and just enjoy the decorations…half our group would have already put in an order while we were standing in line, or worse yet, trying to figure out how to order on the app. One day it was really bad and that’s when I about had my breakdown. Scratch that, I did have it, and I got sent back to lay down and rest afterwards. It had been a hectic day, and I was feeling the effects of being literally on the run and everyone was irritating me. I was simply too worn out and too stressed and it isn’t a good look or combo for me. We were going to have lunch at Pinocchio’s. By then I had somewhat experimented with the app.
Not enough. I didn’t realize there were time slots that if one wasn’t available, you had to choose the next best time. Well, a half an hour after my cousin had gotten their food, we were still waiting for ours. I was getting even more irritated than I already was, which caused the others stress. Come to find out, I had to back out of the app and refresh the page. THEN, I had to order because I had failed to see we needed to click the time. I think my saving grace was some unknown man came up and asked if he could hug me because he felt I needed it. Then he started telling me how much God loved me and to always remember that. I call him an angel because I think he seriously was. I was so tired, so frustrated with everything, and everyone, in our group by then-that I had been close to tears and the issues with the app about pushed me over the edge.
It was all problems that could have been avoided had I known about them prior to the trip. So #1: check into mobile ordering. When in the parks, look at what places offer mobile ordering and where they are located. #2: Decide what time you think everyone might be hungry and start planning around that time frame. by the time we got our food at Pinocchio’s, my cousin’s family had already finished, mine was starving and I was too mentally and physically tired to even eat, let alone finish or enjoy my food. I was pretty much ordered to go back to the room and rest until supper that afternoon. And I was willing. In fact, I probably would’ve been willing to take the first flight home after that if given the opportunity.
THANKFULLY, things got better. I don’t know if it was the next day, or a few days later, but the next experience with the mobile order was far better than the one at Magic Kingdom. By then, I had gotten the rest I needed, and I now knew how to work the app better. I also decided to not keep up with the rest of the group. Which was probably a good thing, or I would have been stressed (again). This particular day we were at Hollywood Studios and we were making our way to a lighting lane to meet up with our other half of the group. My son spotted his childhood hero, Woody and shoved me into the meet and greet line. This made my oldest daughter mad and she stormed off to find my cousin and make the coveted lightning lane. I stressed for all of two minutes till I looked at the time slot and said “the heck with it, we have an hour”. We were there to have fun. Racing to a lighting lane was not fun, it just added stress. By then we all needed to de-escalate. We let her go and the four of us took our sweet time. My son and I still made our lighting lane on time.
Fast forward to the lunch time. We still had not met up with the rest of the group but had made a few of our lighting lanes. Seeing that it was close to the lunch hour, I got on the app and started looking at places that mobile ordered. Ah- thank goodness for the app. I was able to take a quick look on the map to see the best spot for lunch. We headed over to the spot we decided on, which was in Toy Story Land next to Star Wars. I had gotten a phone call from my cousin and she had said where they were going, but I told her our plans because our goal was to stay close to where the next lightning lane was. I was able to put our order in. We sat down and relaxed and watched the toy soldiers do their formation and then we got our food.
WOW!! It went 10x better than our last experience with the mobile order. I was relaxed, things went smoothly, we didn’t rush and we got our food at a decent time frame and my mom and son still made their Star Wars ride lightning lane time frame. It helped that we know knew what to do. I also was smart enough to see where we were on the map and find the mobile order locations to see what peaked our interests. With ranging ages, we all have different tastes. The food was delicious, nobody was stressed or rushed…It was probably the best time we had that day.
Mobile order came in handy too, on separate occasions. Both on our rest day, and later on our check-out day. We strolled over to our food court at our resort, found a spot to sit and opened up the app to see what everyone wanted. No waiting in lines, no strolling through the crowded area to see what there was. We simply just took our time and had a pleasant conversation with one another while we waited for the food to cook. All we had to do was pick it up when it was done.
I love trips that are peaceful and relaxing. While Disney can be anything but at times, it doesn’t always need to be rushed and stressful. So get to know the mobile ordering on the app. Look at the locations, get to know what foods there are at each spot prior. (Trust me, there’s a few in Star Wars that sound and look kind of iffy). Overall, I highly recommend the mobile order. So make sure you have enough money on your credit or debit card so you can utilize it as much as possible!
I found your tips on planning a Disney trip quite insightful, especially the emphasis on rest. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and forget to take breaks. The app sounds like a game-changer, but I’m curious—why didn’t you research it more before the trip? It seems like such a crucial tool. I can imagine how frustrating it must have been to figure it out on the go. Do you think Disney could do a better job of promoting these features to first-time visitors? Also, how do you balance the need to rest with the desire to make the most of every moment? I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to avoid that “on the run” feeling while still enjoying the magic.
Hello Atlantic,
Thank you for your comment! You ask two excellent questions. In truth, I didn’t research the mobile ordering aspect prior to the trip. I wasn’t familiar with the mobile ordering as it wasn’t something that we have in my area. Or rather it wasn’t something we had prior to our trip in my area. So I didn’t know much about it, and I was kind of researching other things about Disney rather than the mobile ordering and how it worked officially. My cousin had said things here and there in regard to the mobile ordering but I basically didn’t understand how it worked because of the fact that in my town, mobile ordering was not available. So it was a matter of simply ignoring the details. I do think that Disney could do a better job of promoting it, and perhaps demonstrating a bit on how it works. Now that I know more about it, I know for certainty that I will be using it in the future providing we ever decide to go back to Walt Disney World.
As for the second question, my recommendation for staying in the moment without being on the run is just that. Stay in the moment. I get where the lighting lanes are beneficial and I do encourage the use of them at WDW. However, I would say that make sure you have time to just stroll… if you can get those lightning lanes in close proximity to one another, thats the best. I realize that it isn’t possible in all situations but if you can, do so. I was more stressed when we had to rush from one side of the park to the other. However, when we took our time that was when we had the most fun. One day we just took our time getting ready even though the lighting lane was early in the morning. Everyone was kind of irritated when my son and I took a detour to meet his favorite character. But here’s the thing. You have an hour to get locked into the lighting lane. So while everyone else rushed from the first LL to the next, we stayed in line to meet his “hero” and we still managed to get to the first LL ride. Then we just took our time to get to the next one. That day was the most relaxed and it was so much fun that it stands out far beyond what the other days were like. If you don’t make a lighting lane, its okay. Just breath and relax. Your there to have fun, and being rushed is not my idea of fun.
Hope this helps!
Emily
I found your tips on vacation planning quite insightful, especially the emphasis on rest—it’s something many overlook. The Disney World app sounds like a game-changer, but I’m curious, why didn’t you research it more before your trip? Mobile ordering seems like such a time-saver, and I can’t imagine standing in lines while others are already eating. Your breakdown moment really resonated with me—it’s so easy to get caught up in the chaos and forget to enjoy the little things. Do you think your experience would’ve been different if you’d known about the app earlier? Also, would you recommend mobile ordering to first-time visitors, or is it better to stick to traditional methods? I’d love to hear more about how you’d plan differently next time!
Hello Business,
Thank you for your comment! In answer to your question, I do feel that my experience would have been better had I known more about the mobile ordering part of the app. I didn’t understand what it really meant or detailed so I think that was a big part in why I didn’t research it further. It sort of slipped my mind in all my other research. I should have asked more questions, but I felt kind of stupid and it seemed like everyone felt like I was just supposed to know. It’s like when you’re in high school and you don’t want to feel like the stupid kid in class with the dumb questions. So I didn’t bother to ask any further questions and I didn’t do more research. Mobile ordering wasn’t available in my town so we just had no experience with it.
I would definitely recommend mobile ordering for first time visitors!! It saves standing in line waiting for food and the nice part is that you can be in line for a ride and decide what you want to eat (here I would recommend finding your location on the app and then picking a mobile order spot to order from that is close by) and pick a time. So for instance, you can decide what you want and a time frame to have it ordered. Say your in line at 11:30 and you want to eat by 12:30 or 1pm, you can select a time frame in which you want. By then you should be off the ride and over to the location. Once there (or even on your way there providing it is only a few minutes) you can select, “I’m here, complete my order” or whatever it says and it’ll cook while you are selecting a seat. It saves more standing in line and from what I witnessed, there were HUGE lines for the stand by lines. So I would HIGHLY recommend using the mobile order. There were a few times we selected seats and then just took our time ordering so we could rest. We had a much nicer time each time we did that because there was no stress, no waiting in line, and it seemed that the food cooked fast. I hope this answers your question!
Emily
Comment: I found your tips on resting and using the Disney app really insightful, especially the part about mobile ordering. It’s fascinating how something so simple could make such a huge difference in a vacation experience. I totally get how overwhelming it can be when you’re constantly on the go and trying to figure things out last minute. Do you think mobile ordering should be more widely promoted or explained to first-time visitors? Also, how did your family manage to recover from the trip after such a hectic day? I’m curious if there was anything specific that helped you guys bounce back. Overall, I think your advice is spot-on, and it’s a great reminder to plan ahead and pace ourselves. Do you have any other tips for first-timers to make their Disney trip more enjoyable? I’d love to hear more!
Hello
Thank you for your comment! I do think that the mobile ordering should be more promoted and most definitely explained better for first time visitors. I wish it had been explained more in depth when I had been planning my trip, but I think the family I was traveling with just assumed we knew what Mobile Ordering was, however, that was not the case. Now that we know, should we ever go back, it is definitely something we will utilize more! As for the question on recovering after a hectic day… well, it was obvious I needed to rest more than I was. We decided to take our time and if we missed some lightening lanes, we missed them. We resigned to the fact that we were there to have fun and rushing from spot to spot was not having fun. We took our time getting to the parks and we just took our time to get from place to place. I do admit, some of us were more antsy to get going then others. And that can be rough as well. However, that’s where the mobile ordering comes in handy as well. you can sit and relax and enjoy the surroundings while waiting for your food…One thing I did do before the trip and I don’t remember specific details, but I knew we had a two hour time difference to adjust to. So what I did about a month or better prior to the trip was to start getting up 15 minutes earlier about every other day. So then I was getting slowly adjusted to the time difference by the time we arrived. I know that helped because my cousin had told us, she goes from sunup to sun-down making the most of their trip. I already knew I couldn’t keep up with that, so I just figured when I was more awake was during the morning. Then by the time the afternoon hit, I’d be ready for a rest. I’d also heard from multiple sources that the afternoon gets to be the busiest, so I figured that was the best time to go rest. And we also hit some shows to relax a little. Well, I should say my family hit some shows to get out of the heat and rest some. They enjoyed the shows. I didn’t see many because that was when I was taking my afternoon nap.
I hope this answers some of the questions a little more and I will definitely add to the Disney tips! Please let me know what you think!
Emily
I found your tips on vacation planning quite insightful, especially the emphasis on rest—it’s something many of us overlook. The Disney app sounds like a game-changer, but it’s frustrating that you only discovered its full potential towards the end of your trip. I can imagine how overwhelming it must have been to juggle everything without prior knowledge of mobile ordering. Do you think Disney could do a better job of highlighting these features to first-time visitors? Also, how did your family manage to adapt to the app so quickly after the initial struggle? It’s interesting how technology can both simplify and complicate our experiences. Would you recommend the app to others, or do you think it’s more of a hassle than a help?
By the way, we’ve integrated libersave into our regional voucher system. It’s amazing how easily it brings together various providers on one platform.
How has the introduction of mobile ordering impacted travel experiences, particularly in theme parks like Walt Disney World, and what could be done to improve its promotion and user understanding? Considering the challenges faced by those unfamiliar with this technology, how can Disney World enhance their mobile ordering system to ensure all guests can fully benefit from this feature during their visit?