We are headed to Disney on Tuesday, and I have a few remaining questions. I don’t want to bother everyone by making a separate thread for each one, so here they all are together. Hopefully someone can help!
I ordered Memory Maker for the first time. Is there a specific page we need to have open in the MDE app to scan it for rides? When and where do we scan it? Also, if we (4 adults) go on a ride together, should each person scan their app?
Can I get away with not preordering food? I know they don’t speak to actual crowds and only lines, but nevertheless our “crowds” are predicted to be less than 5 every day. I just hate the idea of having to have every moment scheduled, and having to live on my phone the whole trip. OTOH, I don’t want to be standing on line for 30 minutes for food.
When is the best time to situate ourselves near the main entrance for Harmonious? I’m short and want to be able to see. The app suggests 15 minutes before it starts, but will that do it?
DFB Guide suggests using Google maps to navigate the park, rather than the MDE app. Has anyone has success with this?
Thanks for any and all help! Hopefully this is the last of my questions.
If you are all linked to the same MDE account (sharing with one another), then only one of you needs to “scan in”. The photos should show up for everyone sharing the same account. You can use your MagicBand. Many rides automatically detect your MagicBand, but you can also use your phone if you set it up. (I’ve not tried this, personally, but you use Disney MagicMobile in the MDE app.)
Depends on the venue. I think is always wise to Mobile order when you can…but some of the food stands it isn’t necessary. Mobile ordering likely gives you an advantage…but you still will likely want to plan to eat as much as you can during the off times to avoid longer waits, whether you mobile order or not!
I’ve not heard this, but it should work. I’ve played with it in the parks. But mostly I’ve heard DFBGuide talk about using Google maps to navigate TO the parks, not IN the parks! (Assuming you’re driving.)
We were there a few weeks ago. If you want a good view right at the front, people started grabbing their spots around 8PM or even before. They would just sit on the ground where the old FP viewing area was until the show started. Then everyone stands up for the show. You can find a spot later, but if you want the best view right up front, I suggest 8:00.
We were there in April and for whatever reason every quick service we went to had one cashier for walk in…lines were out the door! But several lanes were marked for mobile order.
@jab300 bleh. I guess I need to suck it up and do it. Thanks for the heads up. I guess they are really trying to push this whole live on your phone thing.
Regarding Mobile Order - unless it’s crazy busy or the place you’re really wanting is somehow completely filled (honestly I’ve only experienced the difficulty in getting a close time at DL at Pym’s Test Kitchen), I’ve pretty much almost always been able to get a return time within half an hour of placing the order. Which, as @jab300 said, would likely be less time than the “order in person” line would take you.
In regards to #1, just be aware that for some of the rides, you do need to find your specific photo and then scan your magicband to it… Test Track was one of our first rides of our trip, and we didn’t realize that was what we needed to do to link our picture to our account, so we missed out on that one.
Memory Maker - we’ve only used this a couple of times, most recently Dec 2020. Only one of our group ever scanned. We did have some photos missing. My takeaway is that the photos we get are icing.
Can I get away with not preordering food?
We did mobile order mostly except for one evening in the Land Pavilion at Sunshine Seasons - which is a family fav. We were right there so decided to in-person order. A rookie seeming CM refused us entrance even, saying mobile was the only way to order. Phones were saying no signal so we went outside for mobile ordering. I recalled Coral Reef had been showing walk up times all afternoon as we went down the ramp looking for phone service. We walked up and scored one of the most enjoyable Coral Reef meals I’ve had in a long time. We had even quit trying to eat at Coral Reef for noise, lack of room. Takeaway - if it’s proving to be a lot of trouble there’s probably a better idea.
When is the best time to situate ourselves near the main entrance for Harmonious? Good question - no evening shows in 2020. I have seen folks saying be sure to see the tacos full on.
DFB Guide suggests using Google maps to navigate the park, rather than the MDE app. Has anyone has success with this?
This is interesting. I’d have never thought of using either Google or MDE. We’re more the kind of people who say “gee, didn’t there used to be a bathroom around here somewhere?” before asking someone. (Turns out, they are just around the corner )
I suppose we’re always going to be adventurers (bumbling along on our way to a surprisingly good time. )
@janamelia that’s weird about Sunshine Season, because as of now it’s not showing up on Disney’s website for a place to do mobile ordering at all. And that’s definitely someplace we want to eat.
We have always used the hard copy maps in the past, but since DFB mentioned Google maps, I was wondering if anyone had tried it. My kids are old enough to not mind being tied to their phones all day, so I may put one of them in charge of getting us to where we have to go.
We were taken aback about being denied Sunshine Seasons. I absolutely felt it was a lack of communication to the CM. We had encountered here and there obviously newbie CMs. We’d never been completely denied access while we got up to speed on mobile ordering.
I don’t think we’ve ever visited WDW without encountering some oddity. Kinda keeps the trips separate.
Definitely mobile order. I always just did it standing in another line then just walked right past everyone when I got there. Love being able to see all the customization options too.
It’s only on some of the rides- SDMT, SDD, Frozen and TOT are ones that we didn’t have to do anything, and the pictures showed up. TT, POC, and Space Mountain and Splash Mountain were ones that you had to find your pic afterwards and then tap your band to it.
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