Are you a guest or a customer?

[Mouse Fanatic]

I was in the other side of this policy when I took my niece a few years ago. I didn't want to leave her alone to find a table while I got the food. So we both went up to order. Then we had to walk round and round to find a table. Meanwhile many of the tables had people sitting with no food. It was June and crowded. Some looked like they were waiting for food to come while others looked like they were just resting. Meanwhile our food got cold.

I have also had this problem a couple of times. I travel with my nephew (6) and don't want to leave him at a table at a busy place so I take him to order the food with me. It is hard to try to navigate him and try to find a seat and carry the tray of food by myself.

Once we had to stand and eat while a few tables around us did not have food nor got food the whole time we stood and ate through most of our meal until a kind person offered the extra chair at their table and invited us to sit with them. I have made a real effort to try not to eat lunch between 12 and 2 or your normal lunch hours so that won't ever happen to me again.

 

[summerrluvv]

We were there last September and that was not the policy while we dined there.

This has been the policy every time we eat there.

 

[jhaig]

And besides, the song "Be Our Customer" doesn't have the same ring to it

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) I simply do not understand why people must take an empty table.
2) Folks need to get their food FIRST, THEN get a table.
3) It has been proven several times *
. . . this is more efficient than looking for an empty table and grabbing it
. . . more people get served per hour
. . . seating is easier

* Disney has done their own studies. Plus, from a strict Industrial Engineering
timestudy standpoint, it is better for the guest/customer. (I am a graduate
Industrial Engineer.)


NOTE: As to the OP's post, I regard myself as a CUSTOMER. A customer can
and should demand the best service and product at a reasonable/fair price. A
GUEST usually takes what the host gives them without complaint. I would rather
complain and get better service than accept substandard service/goods.

 

[teetee830]

I have made a real effort to try not to eat lunch between 12 and 2 or your normal lunch hours so that won't ever happen to me again.

This! We normally eat between 11:00 - 12:00 and have never had that big of a problem getting a table. I do see both sides if the issue though.

I always try to be a good guest.

 

[surferdave]

Disney calls us guests. I had a CM friend tell me about their "secret code" for rude guests: "customer." If you hear a CM tell a supervisor "this customer wants....." You know they have a problem child.

We always try to be good guests. I have noticed:

Customers at Disney World:
Throw trash anywhere.
Blame the CM if the ride is down or their FP disappears.
Have one person sit and hold a table while the rest get in line for food.
Have one person get in line and others come later to join them.
Make multiple ADRs for the same time and pick the one they want when the meal comes (the cc guarantee responded to those people).
Lie to the gate guards at resorts hoping to park there and spend the day in a park.
Rent wheelchairs when they don't need them hoping for an advantage.


Guests at Disney World:
Follow the Golden Rule.

So: are you a guest?

This looks like you gave us your CM friend's secret code, and then told us how you would use it. Did your friend give any examples of the sort of behavior that actually does prompt them to use it? I'll bet they've never once applied it to people holding tables unless that somehow causes them headaches on the job.

 

[1girln3boys]

1) I simply do not understand why people must take an empty table. 2) Folks need to get their food FIRST, THEN get a table. 3) It has been proven several times * . . . this is more efficient than looking for an empty table and grabbing it . . . more people get served per hour . . . seating is easier * Disney has done their own studies. Plus, from a strict Industrial Engineering timestudy standpoint, it is better for the guest/customer. (I am a graduate Industrial Engineer.) NOTE: As to the OP's post, I regard myself as a CUSTOMER. A customer can and should demand the best service and product at a reasonable/fair price. A GUEST usually takes what the host gives them without complaint. I would rather complain and get better service than accept substandard service/goods.

If this is the case then they should stop serving guests food till a table becomes available. Just like a TS. If there are no tables then you don't get served. It should be expected to have guests standing around while their good gets cold. It's also not fun to stand around while food gets cold with children.

 

[JimmyV]

Moving away from the table saving debate.....

The entire idea that Disney calls "good" people Guests and "bad" people Customers is as absurd as it is insulting. If you are a guest in my home and I serve you dinner, you get what I cook, the way I prepare it and you accept it graciously. If my playscape is broken and your kids can't swing on the swings, you don't complain. If you are a paying customer, you have a right to expect, and up to a point, demand that you are getting full value for what you are buying. If you order your steak medium rare, you can insist on that in a way that you never could if you were an invited guest. If you are paying for rides an entertainment, you have a right to insist that the same be made available to you. If you are a guest in my home, you cannot demand control of the cable box.

We are not "invited guests" to WDW. We are paying customers. We do not have to graciously accept whatever our "host" sets before us. We do not have to shrug off the failure to deliver the entertainment that we are paying for. To apply a pejorative context to the term "customer" when that person is paying $600 per night for a room, $50 per person for average food and $60 per day for park admission is insane. Disney wants us to feel like invited guests who graciously accept whatever we are offered but we would all be fools to fall into that trap. Sorry. I am a "customer" (in my sense of the word, not theirs) and I make no apologies.

 

[CdnKayDee]

Well my family and me are guests at WDW. We like the no hold the table rule mainly because now you can see how many people are actually in line at the QS.
Also in response to being an actual guest or customer, since people going to WDW have already paid for most of the "cow", it is hard to call them a typical customer someone who a company is hoping they will by something.

 

[maxiesmom]

I was in the other side of this policy when I took my niece a few years ago. I didn't want to leave her alone to find a table while I got the food. So we both went up to order. Then we had to walk round and round to find a table. Meanwhile many of the tables had people sitting with no food. It was June and crowded. Some looked like they were waiting for food to come while others looked like they were just resting. Meanwhile our food got cold.

I've had that experience multiple times too. I love it when they enforce the no table until you have your food rule.

For those who don't understand it, the tables turn over faster when people are not camped out at them prior to having their food. Those who hold tables are causing a bottle-neck of people wandering around looking for tables, and then having to try and be the fastest one to spot a table when people leave. Not cool.

And yes I get that is a not so easy with kids. I've been to WDW with small children many times. But it is really not that big of a deal.

 

[Angel Ariel]

1) I simply do not understand why people must take an empty table.
2) Folks need to get their food FIRST, THEN get a table.
3) It has been proven several times *
. . . this is more efficient than looking for an empty table and grabbing it
. . . more people get served per hour
. . . seating is easier

* Disney has done their own studies. Plus, from a strict Industrial Engineering
timestudy standpoint, it is better for the guest/customer. (I am a graduate
Industrial Engineer.)

NOTE: As to the OP's post, I regard myself as a CUSTOMER. A customer can
and should demand the best service and product at a reasonable/fair price. A
GUEST usually takes what the host gives them without complaint. I would rather
complain and get better service than accept substandard service/goods.

We did get a table first on our last 2 trips. The first one was because I was pumping for my daughter, and needed to do that 7 or so times a day for 20 mins each. I found a table in the back corner of Pecos Bills, as private as I could get, used my nursing cover, and took care of it while my family got food so that I would be ready to go when everyone was done eating. Unlike nursing, it isn't really something you can do walking around very easily.

On the second trip, Dd was eating more solids, but pureed solids, so we had to bring her food with us as opposed to ordering it at restaurants. Me and her sitting first allowed me to feed her her baby food meal, so that again everyone - including baby - could be ready to go at the same time.

I may not have been the one eating, but there was a little person getting food in both instances. Obviously this did not happen when Pecos bills was crowded enough to have the food before seating policy in place, and I did not make any complaints in those situations. Just trying to show why sitting first *can* be helpful when it is allowed.

Eta: I should also point.out that it was not 15-20 mins between when I sat down and family joined me with the food. It was more like 5. And there was probably 5 mins or so tacked on to the end of the meal where family was waiting for me or baby to finish. We specifically were doing what we could to make the most efficient use of time possible and get out of there asap and back to rides.

 

[surferdave]

The entire idea that Disney calls "good" people Guests and "bad" people Customers is as absurd as it is insulting.

It does smack of something that would make everyone here furious if they heard it about the employees of any other company.

 

[Malibustyle23]

This has been the policy every time we eat there.

Perhaps because we go in generally slower times Sept/Oct that is why I have never seen this? Pecos Bills is my favorite CS in MK but I can't say that I wouldn't skip it if I encountered this rule. What if they run out of empty tables? Do they hold the line from ordering or just hold you standing with your food waiting while it is getting cold?

 

[kaytieeldr]

If this is the case then they should stop serving guests food till a table becomes available. Just like a TS. If there are no tables then you don't get served. It should be expected to have guests standing around while their good gets cold. It's also not fun to stand around while food gets cold with children.

The system works. One post in this thread is the only time I've ever heard of somebody having to wait when CMs are restricting access to the seating area to customers with purchased food ready to eat.

Just plain don't understand why a restaurant should stoo serving/selling food to pepole in line because others are holding tables while they won't even have for fifteen or more minutes makes ANY reasonable business or customer service sense.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Perhaps because we go in generally slower times Sept/Oct that is why I have never seen this? Pecos Bills is my favorite CS in MK but I can't say that I wouldn't skip it if I encountered this rule. What if they run out of empty tables? Do they hold the line from ordering or just hold you standing with your food waiting while it is getting cold?

They just hold you from sitting until a table opens up. In our experience, it did not take long for a table to open up when they used this process.

 

[Crl1817]

People holding a table is just like what happens with table service. CS some people sit while others order and bring food. TS everyone sits and waits for a waiter to come and take your order and bring your food. In either case, people are sitting and waiting at a table for someone to bring food.

If the restaurant wants to do crowd control and keep people from sitting until they have food, IMO, they should at a minimum guarantee a table when the food is ready. I understand disney policy is different at times from this ideal and I'm not saying I'm going to ignore a cast member or complain to one while I'm there, but I won't like it.

 

[Aurora0427]

1) I simply do not understand why people must take an empty table.
2) Folks need to get their food FIRST, THEN get a table.
3) It has been proven several times *
. . . this is more efficient than looking for an empty table and grabbing it
. . . more people get served per hour
. . . seating is easier

* Disney has done their own studies. Plus, from a strict Industrial Engineering
timestudy standpoint, it is better for the guest/customer. (I am a graduate
Industrial Engineer.)


NOTE: As to the OP's post, I regard myself as a CUSTOMER. A customer can
and should demand the best service and product at a reasonable/fair price. A
GUEST usually takes what the host gives them without complaint. I would rather
complain and get better service than accept substandard service/goods.

This. Exactly. We are guilty of saving seats, but we typically get in line and hope for the best. We also try to avoid eating lunch between 12-2.

 

[glassslippergirl]

This looks like you gave us your CM friend's secret code, and then told us how you would use it. Did your friend give any examples of the sort of behavior that actually does prompt them to use it? I'll bet they've never once applied it to people holding tables unless that somehow causes them headaches on the job.

I think that the OP's list is full of examples of how we guests make things more difficult for each other. For example, someone sitting at a table waiting for a party member to wait in line for half an hour for food, does take away a table for someone with food. A lot of guests could be more considerate of other guests.

I'm pretty sure that CM's use "customer" for other problems that affect them more directly like someone yelling at the front desk because of a problem with their room.

A little off topic, but I was at Target the other day. An employee was answering some questions for DH when the radio called for him. He said, "I'm with a guest." It's interesting how other businesses have adopted Disney's terminology.

 

[JimmyV]

Just plain don't understand why a restaurant should stoo serving/selling food to pepole in line because others are holding tables while they won't even have for fifteen or more minutes makes ANY reasonable business or customer service sense.

It's not difficult to understand. (And the premise assumes that people are not holding tables for 15 minutes...or at all.) It's simply a matter of where you want the backlog and what is best for the service of food. If the CM holds back a family, not letting them sit down, and along comes another family. And then another. And the CM says: "Hmmm. This is unusual. Tables typically open up faster than this." Which would be better, having people line up with food that is getting cold while they wait for tables, or putting a hold on additional orders until customers can be seated? There is going to be a backup and a wait either way. But one way gets people cold food and the other way gets them hot food.

 

[surferdave]

I think that the OP's list is full of examples of how we guests make things more difficult for each other. For example, someone sitting at a table waiting for a party member to wait in line for half an hour for food, does take away a table for someone with food. A lot of guests could be more considerate of other guests.

I'm pretty sure that CM's use "customer" for other problems that affect them more directly like someone yelling at the front desk because of a problem with their room.

Yes, that's what I'm getting at. I find the notion of employees having a code for labeling guests/customers/whatever more interesting than a list of what bothers us about other guests, we do that pretty frequently here.