If you can dream it, you can do it (but that doesn’t mean I have to try it): Mobile Check-in

If you’re anything like me you have an intense distrust for anyone or anything you haven’t known for at least a decade. New things are scary and often disappointing. Scarily disappointing. Disappointingly scary. That being said you can imagine there are more than a few things I have yet to try. In this series, I’m going to try new things that aren’t really new at all and in reality have probably been around for years.

My family LEFT ME (for like a week) so I decided to do some tent camping over at Fort Wilderness in Walt Disney World over the weekend. This gave me another new thing to try that isn’t really new at all and has been around for quite some time now: Mobile Check-in. Mobile Check-in scared me for all the same reasons Mobile Ordering did: my order would be wrong, things would be missing, my phone would burst into flames, the sky would fall, etc.. What scared me the most about Mobile Check-in though was the thought of losing that potential free hour or two (or three or four) that you can sometimes get when showing up to your reservation early. While not always the case, it sometimes works out that your room is ready upon early arrival allowing you to start your vacation (i.e. take a nap) that much earlier. I’ve been lucky enough that this tends to happen more often than not, prompting me to get my family out of bed earlier and earlier to see just how far ahead of normal check-in (3 PM typically) we can get (I think my record is about 10 AM).

Before we get to whether or not the sky fell, let’s take a look at how we actually check in mobil-y, mobilized, in a mobile position…..

…..on your phone.

Let’s start with the view you’re presented with when you launch the My Disney Experience app. If you have an upcoming reservation, you’ll be presented with a prompt to start the mobile check in process as you can see below.

When you tap “Start Check-In” you’ll be presented with the details associated with your upcoming stay and the button to start your mobile check-in.

What follows next is a screen that gives you the option to select your communication preferences for your stay and, much to my surprise, a selection box giving you the ability to indicate when you will be arriving. You’ll then be presented with a screen confirming your details and an agreement to the privacy policy.

Then a few screens to confirm a few more details (like payment information, your billing address, etc.)

We did it and nothing (as of this moment) is on fire (yet).

I initiated my mobile check-in the morning before my arrival. If memory serves, I was actually able to initiate my mobile check-in what seemed like immediately after booking my reservation. I didn’t do this because A) what if they LOSE MY RESERVATION IF I CHECK IN TOO EARLY and B) I only came up with this article idea the day before my check-in.

So how did it go? Well, if you remember (or scroll up) I indicated that I’d be arriving at approximately 2 PM (1 hour earlier than stated check-in time). I received the notification that my room (campsite) was available at…..

Just before 2 PM!!!!!

I gotta say, this had me like whoa. I figured mobile check-in was going to be a way to reduce lines at the front desk while giving you a post 3 PM check-in time in as non-confrontational a way as possible. EVERYONE wants to get in their room early and I just assumed that taking the mobile route was a guarantee of going to the back of that check-in line. It’s worth noting too that even though this was the campgrounds (in August) it was Friday afternoon (you’d figure a prime check-in time) and the reservation itself wasn’t easy to get.

BUT HOW DO I GET MY MAGIC BAND????

Truth be told the jury is still out on this one. FULL DISCLOSURE my wife actually did a mobile check-in in the past and we didn’t pick up her magic band. It was a BB8 magic band and she was excited to get it but the check-in line had to of been at least an hour so we bagged it. I didn’t get a chance to head to the front desk early AM the day after check-in as we had things to do. I planned on hitting the front desk in the evening figuring they hold onto them (the magic bands) until they got picked up. We arrived back in our room, and before I could spin on my heel to go get her band there it was on the bed. I figured this or something similar would occur with the band I didn’t pick up when checking into Fort Wilderness. This time I did get to the front desk relatively early (say 10 AM-ish) only to be told that, because I didn’t pick up the band the day of check-in, that night it was sent BACK TO THE FACTORY. Not the mail room, not some central storage facility, THE FACTORY (which I can only assume means China). That’s a whole lot of shipping for one magic band. When I asked about this (and pointed out the situation with my wife’s band) I was told that with the camp sites there isn’t a way to do this (the dropping off of the band in your room) which makes sense. Fortunately I was able to get the color I ordered (this was important as I’m working on something awesome) but it begs to ask the question; what happens with those premium bands you can add to your reservation now?

All in, mobile check-in is great and I recommend you give it a shot. Magic Band concerns aside, skipping the what-feels-like-forever check-in line is worth the finger it takes to press the buttons to skip the line AND WE STILL GOT IN EARLY!

Now to go start an unreasonably large fire to roast hot dogs. For one…..

If you can dream it, you can do it (but that doesn’t mean I have to try it): Mobile Ordering

If you’re anything like me you have an intense distrust for anyone or anything you haven’t known for at least a decade. New things are scary and often disappointing. Scarily disappointing. Disappointingly scary. That being said you can imagine there are more than a few things I have yet to try. In this series, I’m going to try new things that aren’t really new at all and in reality have probably been around for years.


Few places offer disappointment more consistently in my travels than fast food restaurants. How difficult is it to put a ketchup packet in a Happy Meal? Very. It’s very.

Combine fast food and technology and I’m out pretty much immediately. I can’t get the request for ketchup through a microphone to a guy 30 feet away without it getting screwed up so the thought of using an app to order is no bueno. Sure I can use a touch screen in like a Wawa or whatever (it is 2019) but I can see that dude/dudette putting that quesadilla together. I can stop the construction if I see chicken making its way toward that CHEESE quesadilla (if I’m paying attention, sorry Jul).

It’s for these reasons and a few others I’ve never taken advantage of mobile ordering in a Disney park. I don’t like risking the mobile order on a 4 dollar Happy Meal so using it on a 15 dollar chicken sandwich wasn’t going to happen.

I did try it though, for the BLOG (albeit on a 5 dollar Dole whip but it still counts).

So how’d it go? Let’s take a look…

Ease of ordering

Mobile ordering is done through the My Disney Experience app. I have a few pictures that pretty much lay out exactly how it works. It was super easy (at least with Dole Whips).

After ordering you’re presented with a confirmation and a button that basically says “Hey I’m here make my food”. Once I clicked the button (I clicked it before taking the screen shot. I’m a simple man and when i see buttons I click them) I started the timer and got in the Mobile Order pickup line.

This was a line separate and off to the side of the normal line, clearly marked and much shorter.

Need for speed

The time from button click to Dole Whip:

Not too bad!


In the interests of JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY, I immediately got in the standby line and started the timer.

While I was waiting, I noticed that the sign at the stand didn’t present me with all of the same options as the app. Most notably missing was the least expensive plain Dole Whip in a cup. I mean you could still get it it seemed, you just had to ask.

Notice the missing “drop the cookie to save a buck”

Standby time :


Not CRAZY longer but longer AND I had to stay in line the whole time and with a toddler in tow I’m looking to save line time wherever I can.

Mobile Ordering, to me, was the clear winner here. The whole process was noticeably quicker and the fact that I was presented with more options without having to awkwardly quiz a cast member on if there are less expensive options than what I’m seeing on the sign was a huge bonus.

I know its ice cream and how hard can it be to deliver a quality ice cream experience (I’M LOOKING AT YOU DAIRY QUEEN). That being said, I’ll definitely be trying mobile ordering again.

Maybe I’ll even order soemthing with more than 1 component.

Maybe.


Thanks for stopping by

I’ve been wanting to do a blog for awhile now so here goes. As the description suggests, I intend for this to be a travel kind of blog with a focus on things to do in and around Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. That’s not to say that this blog is just going to be about travel and Disney (its definitely not) but those things are going to be recurring topics here.

“Hey Tim there are probably a million blogs about this kind of stuff that take the same approach that you’re going to take.”

Yeah I get that. I don’t really know what I’m going to do different to try and differentiate myself from other blogs or that I’m really going to even try. I just feel like I have things to say and view points to offer that people may find funny or interesting. I have things I want to do and ideas that I think are neat so lets just see what happens.