Feeling rushed at TS meals

[LilGMom]

Something I noticed on our last trip (earlier this month) is that the superb service at the WDW restaurants that we have always experienced was lacking at more than half of our meals. We also felt like we were being rushed through some of the meals and there were sloppy mistakes being made.

Our first meal was at WCC for breakfast on the day we arrived at WDW. My DH got the skillet and his biscuit was MIA. Our server seemed like she would rather have been having a root canal than working. My Dh ordered the skillet and had to hunt our server down when he wanted seconds.

At 50's PTC we asked about getting some rolls with our dinner (we are bread people) and the server told us that they could get us some from the neighboring restaurant (that they share a kitchen with) since they don't stock rolls. She made a huge production about how difficult it would be to get us rolls and completely discouraged us from getting them. Then as soon as most of our food was gone off of our plates she was bringing out the desserts which should have gone to a different table. We did order desserts but not the ones that were brought out. We had made a comment when we ordered about how one of our favorite servers at WCC had been a server at 50s PTC and when we described him she asked another server about it and then said "Oh, I remember him. He was one of the annoying ones.".

At WCC, for dinner one night, our food arrived within five minutes of our order being taken. This would have been great except it was someone else's food and half of our table, including five kids ages 3-8, had the wrong food. A few more minutes go by and our server zips by. We grabbed her to inform her that we didn't have the correct food and 10-15 mintues later more food comes out. This time 5 out of 7 meals are correct and the half of the table that got the skillet was trying to get seconds on their food. Eventually everyone had the correct food but what should have been a 1-1.5 hr. meal was almost a 2.5 hr. meal.

Of the TS meals that we ate (we had eight TS meals) the only two that stand out for really good service would be the Kona Cafe for dinner, Mama Melrose for lunch and Sci-Fi for lunch. So at 38% of our meals we felt like they were rushing to bring out food to our table and due to that making mistakes, or we were ignored or we felt like the CMs were just downright grumpy and let it show. I understand that people have off days and most of the CMs that we encounter are wonderful but most of the servers we encountered were just going through the motions. I didn't feel this way about the restaurant CMs during our May '08 trip or previous trips at all.

 

[shortchange1026]

We had the sort of the same experience during our trip the end of October. We had great service and food in all the table restaurants we ate in 3 years ago. It was hard getting in to places because the dining plan had just started, we didn't know you had to make reservations months in advance so the day we went to the concierge in the POFQ to make that night's dinner reservation, we found out. We ended up making all our reservations for the week right then and there, the CM was great and spent a long time with us getting us what we wanted with a few compromises. We don't plan months in advance but it wasn't bad working around our ADR's. The food and service were fabulous every where we ate. Biergarten, Le Cellier and 'Ohanas. This trip not so much. We weren't on the DDP and paid oop for everything, like I said, I can't plan a weeks worth of meals 6 months in advance. I made 3 ADR's, Cape May buffet for breakfast and Rose and Crown and Le Cellier for dinner. Cape May was fabulous, great food, great service. Same for Rose and Crown. We couldn't get in last time, it was fully booked so I made an ADR 6 months in advance because DH wanted to eat there this trip and I am so glad we weren't disappointed. Food was better than expected and our waitress, Allison was a trip! We had fun with her. Dinner was spaced out nicely and we didn't feel rushed. LeCellier, different story. After calling at the 180+10 mark, all I could get was dinner @4pm on Halloween. No big deal, we figured by the time we got drinks, gave our order, appetizer, etc it would probably be almost 5pm. WRONG! We were so rushed. Hated our waiter, we felt talked down to. Drinks came out in 5 seconds, appetizer came out 5 minutes later, seconds after finishing our soup, entree came out. My prime rib was raw. Had a hard time with the waiter taking it back. Finally got my dinner back and we were done in about 45 minutes. We paid over $100 oop for this meal and we felt so rushed. Food was good but the service left a lot to be desired. I don't know if it had to do with the fact that we were the first dinner service or if it's the DDP and they are trying to rush you in and out to get as many people in because they are losing money with the DDP.

In my opinion, I don't like the DDP, it wouldn't work for us, just too much food and we hate to plan every detail of our trip, we'd rather wing it, so I can't make ADR's 6 months in advance. I live for the days when you could make a reservation where you wanted to eat that day. I think it may also depend on the popularity of the restaurant and how busy it is. We had no problem with Cape May buffet or R&C but LeCellier gets a lot of traffic on this board and it's built up so much, people are scrambling to get ADR's so it makes it very popular and busy.

That was our experience, someone else might have a fabulous trip with no service or food problems..

 

[Uncleromulus]

Sorry about the actual bad service.
To avoid any sort of rush at ANY restaurant, we now always order drinks first, linger over those a bit, then order our appetizer. When that is finished, only then do we place the entree order. Lots of times we find the servers grateful that they DON'T have to rush with us. It's amazing how many folks want to get in--eat--and get out as fast as possible.

 

[Lmichele]

I'm sorry to hear your dinning experience wasn't up to par. It really is just luck of draw (IMO). DH and I were in WDW last week and we ate at Jiko, San Angel, House of Blues, Mama Melrose, Boma and ESPN Club. All of which had great service, no problems with our orders and we never felt rushed. Actually our waiter at MM wanted us to stay longer.....he kept talking with us, brought us free soup then a free dessert to share - he was really a nice guy and deserved the tip we gave him. The only thing I can complain about is the waiter at HOB charged my KTTW card twice for his tip...but I got that fixed when we checked out.

 

[HGD24]

I felt the same way during our last visit to 50's PTC. Our server was nice and slightly funny, but I felt like he was rushing our table. He talked very fast, delivered food very fast and as for dessert, I was soooo not ready for dessert, but he stopped at the table 3 times within 5-10 mins to ask if we were ready to order so we finally ordered one dessert to share amongst 6 of us. We were still so full from our meal that we didn't want to order our own desserts...too bad for him and restaurant because they lost out on the money and tips from the 5 desserts we weren't hungry enough to order at that time.

 

[ScottJoseph]

Uncleromulus gives good advice. Ultimately, you are in charge of the meal; you set the pace. And if you feel you're getting the bum's rush, tell the server you want to slow it down a bit. Best way is to do whqat uncle does: order drinks, then apps, then, when ready, the entree. And if you still feel like you're being rushed, do what I do: order coffee at the end of the meal (whether you really want a cup or not) and camp out.

Scott
www.scottjosephorlando.com

 

[LilGMom]

Uncleromulus gives good advice. Ultimately, you are in charge of the meal; you set the pace. And if you feel you're getting the bum's rush, tell the server you want to slow it down a bit. Best way is to do whqat uncle does: order drinks, then apps, then, when ready, the entree. And if you still feel like you're being rushed, do what I do: order coffee at the end of the meal (whether you really want a cup or not) and camp out.
Scott
www.scottjosephorlando.com

I will definately follow the advice from you and Uncleromulus as far as setting our pace with the meal. At WCC though we didn't order everything at once and still felt like they were rushing us so I guess I just need to let the servers know that we want to take things slower from the get-go.

 

[Darkside]

I can never remember a dining experience at Disney that was ever "Bad". Although, I don't wait tables any more, I did spend over 10 years waiting tables while I built my business and finished college. Trust me on this , if your server was trying to rush you it was not because they were trying to turn more tables to get more money, if anything, they were trying to serve you better. Until you have had the wonderful experience of waiting on 4 or 5 tables at a time you would understand this. I cannot tell you how many times I waited on a table and every time I go to the table they need something like a creamer, a Coke refill, a napkin, etc. It ends up being a horse race. Those of you that think it is so easy should give it a try? Like any good employees I have found that there are good and bad and unfortunately not everyone has the tolerance to put up with the general public. Maybe I am not overlly critical of the servers I have had because of my experience, but I can say this for sure, waiting on tables at WDW is a lot harder than standing at a ticket booth or handing out information, or running a ride or sitting behind a service desk and you rarely here anyone complain about those employees?

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

We never felt rushed at any of our meals at WDW. Sorry that you had bad service. If that happened to us, I think I would say something. Especially at WCC with the dinner fiasco. That's really the only way anyone can make it right.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We have never felt rushed at a TS meal. I will say that at Tutto the course do come out very quickly but we were not rushed by the server at all....we made sure to relax and enjoy our meal and take our time

 

[dburg30]

I'm sure it comes from both sides. People at WDW are paying lots of money for the time there, and they dont want to 'waste' it while eating. So I would bet that a large number of people are the 'hurry up' mentality when it comes to eating. I'm sure there is some pressure from the managment also to turn tables as quick as possible. Now, I'm sure they have ways to hurry you up that you dont notice, but I would also bet that if you slow them down, they will allow you as much time as you'd like. You may even want to just be upfront with your server and tell them you arent wanting to be rushed and maybe that would help them serve you better at least an idea.

 

[fla4fun]

You know, I can remember when the servers would interact a little, and ask a question or two that would help them determine how you might like the meal paced. They might ask about your plans for the afternoon or evening, something like that. Also, you can sometimes tell if the guest is in a hurry because they will offer to order the appetizer or meal with their drink order.

The meal that I have felt the most rushed for was breakfast. I guess they think everyone wants to gobble and go, but if I've made the reservation for 10 or 10:30, I'm really not aiming for rope drop, so let me enjoy the food instead of swallowing whole, OK?

 

[Claire L]

I must say no matter where we go UK, Europe, USA or WDW we always order the appetizer and then the entree a bit later so that we are not rushed or so that everything does not come out at once!

Claire