Disney Guests Behaving Badly!

Koz

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 11, 2011
Messages
867
For the most part, everyone behaves themselves at Disney. The parks set the tone and guests tend to go along with it. Even with the madness that is food and wine, outside of a few stammering drunks, things tend to run smoothly.

This past Saturday night at Beaches and Cream, our last night on property, took the cake (of the ice-cream variety).

We had an ADR for 9PM, fully intending to have our family of 5 indulge in the kitchen sink. We arrived early, having eaten at the small quick serve cafe at the Beach Club prior to arriving at B&C.

Staff were extremely pleasant, and informed me that due to our party's size, we could only be seated in one of the 3 booths, but that they expected them to open up by around our original ADR time. They were right, as I saw a group rise at around 9:05PM, and make their way to the doors. At the same time, another hostess was seating a party of 5 plus a baby at the side by side, high-top chairs at the counter, which is normally where they put walk in guests.

Then it happened. A middle-aged woman who pretended to not speak any English, literally ran across the dining room, dropped a shoulder and landed in one side of the dirty booth, and then physically held on to the table top with a grip harder than Rose in Titanic. I could see the staff trying to reason with her, first the busboy, then the waiter, then the hostess- nothing was working. Interestingly enough, the rest of the party didn't join her, opting instead to sit on some chairs just inside the entrance- perhaps she's prone to acting like a complete moron from time to time.

I saw what was going on, and knowing that this was going to be our booth, walked over as well and said in no uncertain terms, that we had a reservation, I had 3 kids who were about ready to pass out 6 park days in a row and @ AK from 7:15 that morning until close, and that we were to be seated there.

The manager then came over and reiterated that the dirty table would not be cleaned, they would not be served, and that security would forcibly remove her from the table if she did not agree to get up. She didn't budge. Poker face, eyes straight ahead and not a peep from her. The manager, Mickey, did a great job trying to handle the situation and convinced the rest of the family to leave the restaurant and discuss the circumstances with him outside- they agreed, while Rose continued to hold the line. At this point it was becoming comical as we were about 20 minutes in.

Finally, one of the middle aged males agreed to go back inside and speak with her, and somehow, Rose was persuaded to relinquish her grip and rise from the table. The two sneers I received from both of them were beyond priceless as they exited the restaurant.

It was the ultimate walk of shame and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Staff was entirely apologetic and I reaffirmed that we didn't hold them responsible in any way. Sometimes, you just can't fix stupid.

For any of you who have not visited this fine restaurant, I would recommend that you do so, but an ADR is a must. It's a great way to close out what was a fantastic vacation.
 
who, surreal. that is not just "behaving badly" that is downright nuts! I'm glad it didn't ruin your experience there and you got your table.
 
I can't believe the family let Rose (great analogy by the way..ha!!) sit there that long but it seems like they were counting on the restaurant to let her have the table. Who would really want to forcibly remove an older woman with a death grip for a table? I bet this tactic works more often than not. I'm glad it ultimately worked out but gees...people are nuts. I hope you all enjoyed the kitchen sink.
 

We had a similar incident taking photos on the Star Wars speed racers. When it was our turn & my kids were 3 feet from the racers, a lady passerby squeezed between, called her kids over & proclaimed to the Photopass that they were next. Fortunately the photographer (& entire line) knew she was lying, told her so, & there was a small stand off until she left.
 
I've never experienced it at Disney but did experience it for the first time at Eately a few weeks ago. There was like a 30 minute wait for their Italian restaurant and you gave them your phone number then could browse the store while you waited. We got our text went in and got seated. We had just passed a couple at the hostess stand who did not understand what they needed to do and didn't have a phone number that could received texts. So this couple walks away but then we see then come back and sit at an empty table and just sit there while the staff was confused what to do. They only were running the restaurant at lunch capacity not dinner so yes there were open tables but not enough waiters to serve all of them so the staff just went ahead and added them to another waitresses section. I had never experienced someone just seating themselves when there was a clear hostess stand and after they had been told it would be roughly a 30 minutes wait.
 
Glad the staff sorted this out for you! Lol re Rose. I am thinking this might have been the same lady that nearly launched me 3 feet across the HM store in MK trying to grab a Dooney HM bag off me in my wheelchair. I had to point out to her there were more on the shelf..it was not worth making a disabled lady even more disabled over..

We love Beaches and Cream as well!

So did you finish the Kitchen sink?
 
I had kind of a similar experience happen at Raglan Road a couple of years ago. Me and my friend had reservations, checked in and waited about 15 minutes. When the host was bringing us to our table he was telling us that we had one of his favorite tables. It was in a quieter area of the restaurant, very cozy. But when we got to the area there were two women already sitting there and the waiter was having an obviously frustrating conversation with them. The waiter came over to us and the host a moment later and said that the women had been seated at another table but decided they wanted this other one instead, and got up and moved and refused to budge. I think it would have escalated further if we had made an issue of it, but it was a busy night there and we felt bad for the waiter. Plus, the recently vacated table was free and it really made no difference to us where we sat. I've always wondered just how cozy of a table we almost had... perhaps one day I'll find out.

Anyway, some people are frustratingly self-entitled. I'm glad you stuck to your guns.
 
Glad the staff sorted this out for you! Lol re Rose. I am thinking this might have been the same lady that nearly launched me 3 feet across the HM store in MK trying to grab a Dooney HM bag off me in my wheelchair. I had to point out to her there were more on the shelf..it was not worth making a disabled lady even more disabled over..

We love Beaches and Cream as well!

So did you finish the Kitchen sink?

No, we didn't finish it. 2 adults, 3 kids and from what I can gather we were at least an inch from the bottom. Very good regardless.
 
I forget what show we went to but a family stopped in the middle of the row rather than continuing to the end. Before we can grab a seat, the seats behind us filled up. We were left standing. The CM reprimanded us at first, before we called out the 5-10 seats left open and explained that the family refused to keep moving. Again, stone faced, they just faced forward, not acknowledging us. Of course my mom was embarrassed and it kind of ruined the show for us.
 
It's unfortunate, but sometimes adults act worse than kids that have meltdowns. I guess that is the magic of Disney.
 
When DHS was still "Disney-MGM Studios" there was a cool attraction where you could observe animators at work in a sort of "behind the scenes" experience. Because these artists were working on actual copyrighted material, photography was prohibited. During one of the walk-through sections a guest began recording video of the whole area. A CM advised the guest that there was no photography permitted, the guest completely ignored the poor CM, acting as if he didn't understand English. The CM tried repeating herself in Spanish, still no cooperation. It was pretty clear to me (and everyone else in the room) that the guy understood completely what was going on, but if he acted like he didn't comprehend, he would get away with it. I lost track of the guy as the tour progressed, but I've always wondered if he suffered any consequences as a result of his action.

I think it's entirely appropriate for the CMs to take action in these instances. Not only due to the specific issue at hand, but to illustrate to other guests that there are consequences for breaking the rules.
 


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