Disneyland certainly is a different beast right now!

[Pluto468]

Sounds like a great day! I can't wait to see the band

 

[Living42Day]

The people/families "cutting in line" remind me of a couple years ago. We went with someone who has a legitimate use for the DAS and the CM told her to try something else before he would issue a pass. He suggested we wait until we are close to the front of the line and then call her to join us after she waited outside the queue. Well, that went as well as expected. People would say under their breath that it must be nice to cut in line, mutter "yeah right", and would physically block her (ie seeing her coming and stepping out in line with their back turned so she couldn't get through even with repeated "excuse me, sir"). I tried to make my way though the line with her for the other rides because I thought I could be more forceful with getting us through the line and had the same experience. Made for a pretty crappy time. Some may consider that cutting in line, but the CM at guest relations specifically told us to do this.

I get that 5-10+ people joining others in line is annoying, but people who are by themselves or in groups of 2 may have legitimate reasons for joining their party later.

 

[bsmcneil]

Oh, another miss I just remembered. I bought tix for the dessert party for the Bash & put I had an allergy. I’m vegetarian and know the rice crispy treat and gummy worms have gelatin in them. About 10 days ago a Disney dining cast member reached out via email to ask about it and back and forth with email he verified they did have gelatin and said not to worry, they could easily sub those out and I was set. (I had originally said I was fine with just two or something else.)

Well last night they give me the allergy wrist band, ask what it is, bring out a normal dessert plate. Server knew something looked funny but didn’t know what my allergy was. I quickly explained vegetarian, which two have gelatin, & that Disney dining had confirmed it days ago that I would be set. She politely went back to her lead and then came back with the fruit plate and dessert plate and offered them to me. This is awesome and way above what I expected, BUT, she followed it up with the comment “my lead said everything on the dessert plate is vegetarian, but I’ll leave both and you can decide which you want.”

By making that (incorrect) comment she changed stunning above and beyond recovery of service to making the guest feel guilty and that they’re wrong. She didn’t imply I could have both, or even parts of both, just she would let me decide. Obviously the moment both plates were set on the table and she walked away they became mine, she wasn’t going to take one to a different table once I made my mind up. So because of Disney dropping the ball, I enjoyed some fruit and the 4 out of 6 desserts I could eat. Honestly it should be default half fruit half treats, they balance that overload of sugar so much better!

I’m doing it all over again Tuesday night, we’ll see if they get my vegetarian request correct that time and if not how they recover.

It is frustrating to see an error like this in the first place though. Such effort to have a real human reach out to me to find out what the issue is, verify with his team what would cause me problems, reply back to me letting me know they addressed it, and then see zero result when I actually show up. I guess it would be easier if I had a major allergy that required the fruit plate, but how hard would it be to hold two items on one plate and toss a second cake pop on? Everything is pre arranged before hand, print out the adjustments, tape it to the lid, assign it to my table. Done.

So - from the CM point of view (perhaps) - I was vegetarian for 12 years and my house was for most of that time (including kids). We were not vegan. It's been my experience that the people who've named a concern about gelatin were vegan and not necessarily the fellow vegetarians. So - if that's your perspective, that might be a helpful thing to proactively name for people as they may not be familiar with that specific POV.

 

[Disco Lemonade]

I was really hoping that the reservation system would help with crowds. But it sounds like the parks are at full capacity, but with not enough CMs. Also sounds like it's still hard to get food and the standby lines are super long. I've been waiting for our early December trip for so long but I half wonder if we should put it off until May when things are running a bit more smoothly.

I think you will still have a good time. Unless meal reservations every day is a deal breaker. That part is hard but we didn’t have trouble getting food as long as we thought to order an hour or two in advance. Ended up trying some quick service options there that we had never done like Flo’s and Hungry Bear. As long as you order ahead at those places, it’s not bad. The lines of people trying to order outside the app looked horrible, so I wouldn’t do that. I think you just have to adjust for a little different experience. It’s hard to know exactly what your experience will be like since no one knows how well Genie is going to work.

 

[Pluto468]

I think you will still have a good time. Unless meal reservations every day is a deal breaker. That part is hard but we didn’t have trouble getting food as long as we thought to order an hour or two in advance. Ended up trying some quick service options there that we had never done like Flo’s and Hungry Bear. As long as you order ahead at those places, it’s not bad. The lines of people trying to order outside the app looked horrible, so I wouldn’t do that. I think you just have to adjust for a little different experience. It’s hard to know exactly what your experience will be like since no one knows how well Genie is going to work.

Thanks so much! Luckily I do have reservations for almost every meal. I really like Hungry Bear and have been wanting to try Flo's for ages. I'll remember to order a couple hours ahead. Hopefully Genie will be out by then, we are going the first week in December.

 

[AndrewC]

So - from the CM point of view (perhaps) - I was vegetarian for 12 years and my house was for most of that time (including kids). We were not vegan. It's been my experience that the people who've named a concern about gelatin were vegan and not necessarily the fellow vegetarians. So - if that's your perspective, that might be a helpful thing to proactively name for people as they may not be familiar with that specific POV.

I’m a little confused, do you mean I should clarify for others here the difference between vegetarian and vegan and what dessert are/aren’t? Or should I have clarified for the CM serving me?

I did politely explain to hear the two items (pointed on the menu card while I did) had gelatin in them and everything else would be fine. I don’t fully expect the front line CM to understand all the details of different diets, but I assume that’s why a Disney dining rep reaches out to me via email a couple weeks before my trip. They did correctly greet me with a special “allergy” wrist band and had a notification on my plate that it was a special allergy plate, just literally nothing on the plate was changed or removed. I explained to the rep that reached out via email very simply but detailed that gelatin was my concern and I figured those two items had it. They confirmed with their chef that they DID contain gelatin but it would be no problem for them to make a modification for me.

The breakdown is in they clearly must not state WHAT the modification needs to be, or they just state “vegetarian” and a kitchen staff person looks at the note, looks at the plate of treats and goes “I don’t see any meat on there” and ignores the allergy note.

What is frustrating is they go to such lengths to address it before the fact, a REAL HUMAN, contacts me… and then there is some disconnect that completely falls apart.

The way it was handled also was not “Disney.” If they had simply said “oh I’m so sorry” when I pointed out the rice crispy treat and gummy worms were on the plate and they aren’t vegetarian and then just brought the fruit plate and said “I apologize but hopefully this will supplement your dessert plate and the desserts you can’t eat” I would have been very happy. Annoyed the break down in communication, but very happy in the recovery from the CM. The fact they “corrected” me after I told them Disney dining confirmed they weren’t vegetarian and then presented it as a “this or not” when they set the other plate down makes the guest feel in the wrong and a hassle, or trying to get more than they paid for, etc.