Mobile Ordering Coming to BGW
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
This is actually fantastic. Now we just gotta get excited for the inevitable poorly executed integration between this and the dining plan.
From what I can gather from the SeaWorld version of the app, there is currently no integration with pass discounts or dining plans. It's especially ridiculous because the app tries to upsell you to all day dining... And then you can't use it with the app.
Anyway, yeah, no pass discounts? Not interested.
That's actually unnaceptable. It's SO easy to have someone log in, have their balances in a season/all day dining plan or a pass discount stored in their account, and apply those to orders. At the very LEAST you could scan your pass every time you check out on the app if they are too lazy to integrate this into the historically irrelevant BGW account system.
If SEAS spends more then $2.00 annually for whichever division or external company they pay to run their website infrastructure, they should get a refund. It's been too many years of these people seeming like they are just learning what the internet can do. Feel like you could build a better UI on Weebly for Christ's sake.
If SEAS spends more then $2.00 annually for whichever division or external company they pay to run their website infrastructure, they should get a refund. It's been too many years of these people seeming like they are just learning what the internet can do. Feel like you could build a better UI on Weebly for Christ's sake.
This is ludicrous. But somehow I am also not surprised in the least.
While your concerns are valid, coming from an organization going through an app redevelopment because of customer experience problems (totally different industry but some of the issues are account funds based) it's really complicated to actually seamlessly integrate with a 3rd party system and provide a good intuitive design for that integration. And because it's an app, that's a whole separate set of skills needed to develop/port over functionally specifically for Android or iOS vs a website.
So something that a team of competent developers/designers can get done in a month for a website may realistically take several for an app.
And that's if whatever 3rd party system has a method to allow access for whatever functionality is desired and has clear documentation available for those developers.
So something that a team of competent developers/designers can get done in a month for a website may realistically take several for an app.
And that's if whatever 3rd party system has a method to allow access for whatever functionality is desired and has clear documentation available for those developers.
Really no point spending any money or time on developing a new app if it doesn't work in the end.
KD doesn't seem to have a problem linking passes, pass discounts, dining plans and reservations together in their app.
KD doesn't seem to have a problem linking passes, pass discounts, dining plans and reservations together in their app.
Hence my point about 3rd party systems allowing access. Not being privy to their systems, it's hard to say what each park/chain is using but I doubt they're the same vendors.
For all we know, one is using proprietary in-house developed software and it's either being held together with duck tape and bubble gum with maybe one half-retired part time developer that actually knows how to adjust it and/or add things to it if possible vs. a team that's in the dark, or it's a rock solid system that a skilled team is able to easily manage and/or add/adjust things in it to make stuff available for an app. We just inherently don't know what the actual situation is.
My bet is that SEAS probably doesn't either.
The biggest issue I foresee with all of this though is it actually working in a non-confusing manner. A few things that are essential to this working will probably be not to par, namely (1) a clear and obvious area to go at the eateries to pick up mobile ordered food rather than wait in line, and perhaps a pickup queue (2) employees behind the counter appropriately balancing servicing those in line and the mobile orders (or perhaps having one person dedicated to the mobile orders) (3) differentiating between a mobile order and a standby order (getting in line for food) so when someone walks out of the food area past the registers they can distinguish if it was a paid-for mobile order or if someone is stealing munchies.
At least one of those will fall flat, let us see which it is.
