Character meal, tipping and large group

[kimmie]

I have been busy making PS'S for our trip. 11 people in all.
Some have told me that because of the size of our party they cannot guarantee to be seated together. I am fine with that (ie. a table for 6 and a table for 5). They will try to seat us next to each other. I am fine with that too. But I have been told that since we are a large party, they would have to add tip up front. We always tip well, so this is not a biggie, but when the tables are not together, really two smaller groups, and this is a character buffet! I am having a slight problem with that! What do you think? Any one else have this situation come up?

 

[ducklite]

That's the policy at WDW and most other restaurants I"ve ever eaten at, If you don't like it, you can always choose to eat elsewhere. The other option would be to make two seperate reservations, but then you've got an even lower chance of being seated anywhere near each other.

Anne

 

[kimmie]

Thanks Anne - I understand that I can eat somewhere else. My point was that I don't care about the tip. What I do care about is the fact that he told me that we would not be seated together, and yet we are considered a large group. He kept mentioning that we would be charged this "tip" and yet he couldn't tell me if we would be seated near each other.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Did he give you or two PS #s?

If you only have one #, maybe they look at it as one group no matter how many tables you have.

 

[kimmie]

He gave me 1 ps. I maybe should have asked for two.

 

[Clover9990]

I am in the same exact situation, OP! There are 11 of us going to Chef Mickey's, but the guy who made our P.S. was very nice and didn't mention anything about a mandatory tip, etc. I explained to him that I'd prefer it if we could be considered 2 different reservations- 1 for a table of 6 and the other, a table for 5. I think that's the way he set it up because I was under the impression that for a large party, you had to put down a deposit or pay for your meals ahead of time, and we didn't have to do anything like that.

It would pose a HUGE problem for us if they added a tip in to the bill, unless they seperate the bills and then add the tip in to each seperate bill. We'll be paying with a credit card with only a certain balance on it, and I had already allocated certain CCs to certain meals, our hotel, etc. Who knows how the other 2 parties that will be with us want to pay. I can't see them giving anyone a hard time for splitting a bill, though- they must encounter large parties on a daily basis.

BTW, we only got one confirmation number, too.

 

[robinb]

Clover9990,

I'm sure you will have no problem splitting the bill onto 2 of more different CCs even if you are a large party with a gratuity already added. Just tell your server which people are on what bill and s/he will divvy it up for you in advance.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with adding a gratuity onto a large group. Many times a tip gets lost in the rounding when you have so many people tossing $$ into the kitty. If you want to tip more, just leave more. If you don't think the service was "up to snuff", then talk to a manager. FWIW, the last time I was at Chef Mickey's we had a really, really bad waitress. We were a mere table of 3 and she had 2 BIG groups one after another (with a bit of overlap even). We were completely forgotten in her effort to keep the bid tables happy.

 

[ducklite]

Sorry, the way I read it you were upset about the tip as well.

Get there half an hour early, and let them know you are willing to wait to be seated together. It also helps if you make your PS for when the restaurant first opens for dinner so you don't have to wait for parties at several tables to finish in order to be seated together. I've been able to get a party of 30 seated together at CM, but we had the very first PS for when they opened.

Anne

 

[Clover9990]

Thanks Robin! I don't mind if they add a tip in, providing they split the checks. I was a waitress myself for 3 years, and our restaurant also added a 15% tip in for parties of 8 or more. Chances are I will leave more, even if a 15% tip is added, because we almost always tip at least 20%.

 

[wdwnut]

hi: i had a group of 14 family members there in 2000. we didn't get seated at one table ever in any restaurant. at chef mickey's it was so busy, we actually split into 3 tables. we tipped over and above the imposed 15% most of the time. all the room charges were on my amex as well and everyone had charging privileges. no one abused this (ever-and we've been doing this for over 10 years); but my amex was smokin' on that trip!

 

[Jenn]

We have vistited WDW several times with a group of 12 and we frequently have to split up at restaurants. They always have been great about seating us at tables right next to each other. Most of the time, we have seperate servers and seperate checks, therefore, no tip was added in (each table would have 6 people). I wouldn't stress over this at all. You will probably have a similar situation to ours.