Be Our Guest! (Former BOG cast member perspective)

[TerminationStation]

Hi everyone!!!

I have previously worked at Be our Guest during my college program experience and yes it was one of the best locations I could have ever hoped to get.

I just wanted to give you all some tips from a former Cast Member perspective since I have seen a lot of people posting about getting in for dinner.

I know how hard it is to get into BOG for dinner, trust me I've seen the desperation from people hoping for someone to cancel first hand. It is hard, and you really have to plan in advance (as you do for most Disney reservations). However the nice thing about BOG is it offers a quick service for lunch, which gives you an opportunity to see the castle and get the experience without the frustration of trying to book a reservation for dinner.

Although the dinner is nice, with more upscale food, a quieter and more formal atmosphere, and cute napkins folded in roses at your table; the lunch option is just as cool (in my opinion).

The lunch food is pretty good as far as quick service in Disney goes, and offers a bit more French inspired options which makes it different from the usual chicken fingers and fries quick service usually offered. Also the castle is amazing and definitely worth it just to go in and look. The nice thing about lunch is that there is no reservation needed, you just have to get in line. Now although the line is usually long, I will tell you if the line is over the bridge you will be in the restaurant in about 30 minutes which will go fast.

Also if you are looking for a less hectic place to eat at for lunch the Rose Gallery is never full. I loved working in that section because it was usually very quiet. The ballroom and the West Wing, fill up fast and are always loud but the Rose Gallery is always decently quiet. You also still have to option to walk around and explore the castle so you can see the other rooms.

Another plus to lunch is you get to really experience the magic of the castle. Your food will magically find you and arrive at your table (in a timely manner I must add). This is cool to both kids and adults alike and you won't get this experience during dinner.

I just wanted to post this because I want everyone to get to enjoy the magic of BOG and I know how hard it is to get into dinner.

So if you got a dinner reservation, ENJOY! It is beautiful and i'm sure you will enjoy your experience there I am sure. But if you don't, do not panic!! Go for lunch, see the castle, eat some non traditional quick service food and take a break from your day. This restaurant is definitely one you don't want to miss (although I might be a little biased).

If you have any questions about the restaurant I would love to help you out! Don't be afraid to ask!!

 

[richmo]

Thanks for the perspective. Glad you enjoyed working there. And I totally agree with you on the line. If it's no further than the bridge, you're likely under 30 minutes.

A couple questions:
- I've heard that the babies faces you see on the ceiling in the main ballroom are those of the Imagineers that designed BOG. Is that correct?

- This one is the mystery to me. I get how you find a table that has a magic rose. But what I don't get is now that we have MagicBands we don't get a rose, but you still find us. When we go to an attraction, we have to hit that band in just the right spot for it to work, yet in BOG you can find it from a much longer distance. How does that work?

 

[Bob P]

Thanks for your insight! It's a terrific place and I'm glad you had fun working there. Thanks for making the experience a great one for guests like us!

 

[WEDWDW]

Thanks for the Post!

Congratulations on being a DCPer also-I don't think WDW could run without you guys!

DCPers are always great CMs and bring so much "energy" to the Resort!

I eat Lunch at BOG every trip and have yet to eat Dinner,so nice to know I am not missing out on much.

Have you heard anything about when MyMagic+ is fully implemented that the Suits of Armor will call Guests by name when they are in line-that would be cool!

I hope Penn State has a good season this year-Penn State has awesome fans.

 

[RejoyceoverDisney]

Hi everyone!!!

I have previously worked at Be our Guest during my college program experience and yes it was one of the best locations I could have ever hoped to get.

I just wanted to give you all some tips from a former Cast Member perspective since I have seen a lot of people posting about getting in for dinner.

I know how hard it is to get into BOG for dinner, trust me I've seen the desperation from people hoping for someone to cancel first hand. It is hard, and you really have to plan in advance (as you do for most Disney reservations). However the nice thing about BOG is it offers a quick service for lunch, which gives you an opportunity to see the castle and get the experience without the frustration of trying to book a reservation for dinner.

Although the dinner is nice, with more upscale food, a quieter and more formal atmosphere, and cute napkins folded in roses at your table; the lunch option is just as cool (in my opinion).

The lunch food is pretty good as far as quick service in Disney goes, and offers a bit more French inspired options which makes it different from the usual chicken fingers and fries quick service usually offered. Also the castle is amazing and definitely worth it just to go in and look. The nice thing about lunch is that there is no reservation needed, you just have to get in line. Now although the line is usually long, I will tell you if the line is over the bridge you will be in the restaurant in about 30 minutes which will go fast.

Also if you are looking for a less hectic place to eat at for lunch the Rose Gallery is never full. I loved working in that section because it was usually very quiet. The ballroom and the West Wing, fill up fast and are always loud but the Rose Gallery is always decently quiet. You also still have to option to walk around and explore the castle so you can see the other rooms.

Another plus to lunch is you get to really experience the magic of the castle. Your food will magically find you and arrive at your table (in a timely manner I must add). This is cool to both kids and adults alike and you won't get this experience during dinner.

I just wanted to post this because I want everyone to get to enjoy the magic of BOG and I know how hard it is to get into dinner.

So if you got a dinner reservation, ENJOY! It is beautiful and i'm sure you will enjoy your experience there I am sure. But if you don't, do not panic!! Go for lunch, see the castle, eat some non traditional quick service food and take a break from your day. This restaurant is definitely one you don't want to miss (although I might be a little biased).

If you have any questions about the restaurant I would love to help you out! Don't be afraid to ask!!

I wanted to post that I agree with you. I had the luck of getting a dinner ADR last November and then got the email for FP+ the morning I arrived to go to BOG for lunch and skip the line. That was cool.

The Rose room was quiet, but I will say that is probably because I saw a lot of kids come walking into the room and then shake their heads and the parents walk out. I heard one little girl say it was scarey cause it was dark in there.

I'm hoping to return to WDW this Fall and I have not even tried to get an ADR for dinner. I will get there early to wait in line for lunch if we decide to do BOG for lunch.

The Castle is beautiful. And the food was very good, both times, but I did like my ham and cheese sandwich at lunch.
And it is pretty cool how fast the food comes out and right to your table.

 

[TerminationStation]

Thanks for the perspective. Glad you enjoyed working there. And I totally agree with you on the line. If it's no further than the bridge, you're likely under 30 minutes.

A couple questions:
- I've heard that the babies faces you see on the ceiling in the main ballroom are those of the Imagineers that designed BOG. Is that correct?

- This one is the mystery to me. I get how you find a table that has a magic rose. But what I don't get is now that we have MagicBands we don't get a rose, but you still find us. When we go to an attraction, we have to hit that band in just the right spot for it to work, yet in BOG you can find it from a much longer distance. How does that work?

As far as the babies faces go, that was never mentioned during my orientation at the castle. So i'm not sure if that is actually true or not because they did go into a lot of detail about the secrets of the restaurant during those few days (still could be true but though of course I certainly don't know everything). However, there is a hidden Mickey in the clouds on the ceiling of the ballroom if you haven't seen it yet.

As far as how the food finds you now that there is no Rose, I have a pretty good idea. All the tables are equipped with computer equipment in them so they probably are somehow connected with the MagicBands. BOG is one of the most high tech restaurants in the US (it was going up for an award for it when I worked there) so there is a lot going on beneath the tables that you don't see. Pretty cool stuff! Sorry I can't really answer your question!

 

[TerminationStation]

Thanks for your insight! It's a terrific place and I'm glad you had fun working there. Thanks for making the experience a great one for guests like us!

I love talking about my experience so thank you for reading!! And thank you so much for your kind words. The number one reason why I did the program was to get to brighten people's Disney experiences and make it so great that they can't wait to come back. It was great working for a company who truly makes customer service their number one priority.

 

[TerminationStation]

Thanks for the Post!

Congratulations on being a DCPer also-I don't think WDW could run without you guys!

DCPers are always great CMs and bring so much "energy" to the Resort!

I eat Lunch at BOG every trip and have yet to eat Dinner,so nice to know I am not missing out on much.

Have you heard anything about when MyMagic+ is fully implemented that the Suits of Armor will call Guests by name when they are in line-that would be cool!

I hope Penn State has a good season this year-Penn State has awesome fans.

Thanks so much! It was an amazing experience.

I have not heard anything about the suits of armor and the MyMagic+ but anything is possible and they are constantly innovating the restaurant so you never know!

I hope Penn State has a good season too! I always buy the season tickets (as i am still a student there) and being in the student section for those games is so cool!!

 

[TerminationStation]

I wanted to post that I agree with you. I had the luck of getting a dinner ADR last November and then got the email for FP+ the morning I arrived to go to BOG for lunch and skip the line. That was cool.

The Rose room was quiet, but I will say that is probably because I saw a lot of kids come walking into the room and then shake their heads and the parents walk out. I heard one little girl say it was scarey cause it was dark in there.

I'm hoping to return to WDW this Fall and I have not even tried to get an ADR for dinner. I will get there early to wait in line for lunch if we decide to do BOG for lunch.

The Castle is beautiful. And the food was very good, both times, but I did like my ham and cheese sandwich at lunch.
And it is pretty cool how fast the food comes out and right to your table.

Glad you agree!

And yes the Rose room is quiet, mostly because it is the least interesting part of the castle. It's not as cool as the West Wing or Ballroom. However, still nice if you just want a quiet place to sit.

Thanks for your feedback! I'm glad you enjoy the restaurant. All the cast members that work there really love it, so we hope that makes the experience better!

 

[alex9179]

We had a FP for lunch in January and ate in the Rose room, because it seemed so calm compared to the Ballroom and I knew my little guy wouldn't go for the West Wing! I agree with you about everything and we really enjoyed our lunch.

You remind me a bit of a very nice cast member we chatted with while there. I had ordered the cupcakes to share, and the packaging is NOT conducive for that so we had a laugh with her about our cluelessness getting into that cupcake wrapper I'm glad you had a good time. Everyone working in the Beast's Castle was so nice to us.

 

[ShannonMB]

What an awesome experience that must have been for you! Thanks for your post! I didn't realize they had done away with the roses - how interesting that they are finding guests via their magic bands now! Maybe someday we frequent fliers can just get a microchip implanted (JK!!!).

Anyway, we adore BOG for both lunch and dinner and will defintely be dining there one way or another in September!!

 

[Three cats]

Termination Station, is it frowned upon to request a certain room for dinner? I'd really like to request the West Wing if possible.

 

[Frozen2014]

Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts from your perspective. Although I wasn't surprised that I couldn't get an ADR for BOG, even at 6am, I was upset. I keep trying multiple times a x
day and no luck. So great to hear lunch is still great and good tip to know about the rose room.

Question...do you know if it's hard to get a Fast Pass?

 

[Time4disney]

I recently got an email from Disney inviting me to sign up for BOG fast pass. This will be my first time experiencing this restaurant and using the fastpass invitation. My question is will I be charged for my order if for some reason we don't make it there during our time slot?

 

[HopperFan]

This one is the mystery to me. I get how you find a table that has a magic rose. But what I don't get is now that we have MagicBands we don't get a rose, but you still find us. When we go to an attraction, we have to hit that band in just the right spot for it to work, yet in BOG you can find it from a much longer distance. How does that work?

MagicBands have active and passive capability (RFID cards only have passive) which is why there are batteries in them - for the active. The passive needs a touch point like FP+, room lock, resort gate, charges, DDP. The active can be picked up without touching and the system will determine how far you can be. It has been discussed that the MB active distance is approximately 30 feet away. That is the part that will catch ride photos, get your food to you at BOG, trigger any interactions that you might have with automated features or having CMs know your name. The possibilities for what that part can do are much bigger than what they are doing at the moment.

 

[TerminationStation]

We had a FP for lunch in January and ate in the Rose room, because it seemed so calm compared to the Ballroom and I knew my little guy wouldn't go for the West Wing! I agree with you about everything and we really enjoyed our lunch.

You remind me a bit of a very nice cast member we chatted with while there. I had ordered the cupcakes to share, and the packaging is NOT conducive for that so we had a laugh with her about our cluelessness getting into that cupcake wrapper I'm glad you had a good time. Everyone working in the Beast's Castle was so nice to us.

That's so fun! The cupcake packaging is definitely not made for sharing. Yeah the little kids are usually afraid of the West Wing. I could never eat in there either, it's too dark and I have this weird thing about having to see my food when i'm eating it.

I'm glad you enjoyed your experience. I can honestly say I didn't work with one person I didn't like. They were all amazing and so friendly.

Thank you for commenting!!

 

[TerminationStation]

What an awesome experience that must have been for you! Thanks for your post! I didn't realize they had done away with the roses - how interesting that they are finding guests via their magic bands now! Maybe someday we frequent fliers can just get a microchip implanted (JK!!!).

Anyway, we adore BOG for both lunch and dinner and will defintely be dining there one way or another in September!!

It really was an incredible experience!! Actually I didn't realize they had done away with the roses either, as I was long gone by then. I wouldn't put anything past Disney, microchips just might be in our future!! (JK)


I am glad you enjoyed both experiences. Say hi to the castle for me when you go back!!

 

[TerminationStation]

Termination Station, is it frowned upon to request a certain room for dinner? I'd really like to request the West Wing if possible.

Not at all! If you would like to sit in the West Wing please do request that, however it is a very high demand area so they may not be able to make it happen for you. Worth a shot though!

 

[TerminationStation]

Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts from your perspective. Although I wasn't surprised that I couldn't get an ADR for BOG, even at 6am, I was upset. I keep trying multiple times a x
day and no luck. So great to hear lunch is still great and good tip to know about the rose room.

Question...do you know if it's hard to get a Fast Pass?

Sorry you couldn't get in for dinner! But like I said lunch is still good!

I actually know next to nothing about the Fast Pass. The people in the front of the restaurant worked with those and I was in the back serving the food and everything so I can't help you there. Sorry!

 

[Rafikifan]

Thank you for posting. Does BOG serve a traditional Thanksgiving dinner?