Has anyone ever had a really RUDE server?

[BEASLYBOO]

IMO, to judge Disney restaurant service/servers on the same par as other restaurants is a near impossibility. The shear volume of people that come through on a day to day basis would and could make the most cheerful and pleasant of servers not a happy camper. I know that this is the type of work they've chosen but some people can be just plain difficult to deal with, of course that gives no one the right to be rude or cruel. What I've encountered mostly is the "Uninspired Server" who just wants to get throught the day and the ones that forget to bring you something until your meal is over.

 

[teddygurlkeekee]

We had an interesting experience at Le Cellier, but the only rude service we have had was at Beaches & Cream. The server (Joan) threw the straws on our table like she aspired to work at Whispering Canyon Cafe and pretty much ignored us after that. Funny how B&C keeps getting mentioned.

Wasn't Joan also mentioned before??

 

[kidanigirl]

I have eaten many meals on WDW property and only ONE bad server stands out to me. During the last weekend in January, a friend and I had afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian. We managed to get the split personality server who showed her snooty side to my friend and I. She literally treated us like second class citizens. It was so bad that when I got home, I sent an email to WDW Guest Services. Last week, they called me at home to assure me that my letter had been passed on to GF management and as "a good will gesture" they wanted to refund my money. I told them the refund was not necessary because that was not the intent of the letter that I sent. I sent the letter with the sole purpose of making Kimberly's manager aware of how she was treating guests and to hopefully prevent future guests from being treated the same way. To explain how bad the service was, it will be easier for me just to cut and paste my letter that I actually sent to Guest Services:

"I am writing in regards to a visit I made to Disney World the weekend of January 30, 2009. To give you a brief description of myself I am an annual passholder and a DVC member who has been to WDW more times than I can count. All that to say, I know my Disney and the excellent customer service that it normally has to offer. In fact, I have often taken the time to stop on the way out of parks at guest relations, to write good words about particular cast members who made our day in the park extra magical. I am an easy going, pleasant person and genuinely hate to complain about anything. However, I think somebody in management should be aware of an experience that I had on my most recent trip to the World.

On Sunday, February 1, 2009, my friend and I had 3:20pm reservations for 2 at the Grand Floridian Garden View Lounge Tea. My friend and I were very much looking forward to this as it was a first for both of us to take the time do an afternoon tea at Disney World. My friend and I arrived early for our reservation. The ambiance was beautiful. We sat in the lobby of the Grand Floridian and listened to the pianist play gorgeous music until we were called to our table. We were called to our table in a timely fashion and seated in a very picturesque setting by large windows overlooking the Grand Floridian courtyard and the lagoon. It was absolutely perfect until we met our server Kimberly. Kimberly came to our table and picked up the slip of paper that had Port Orleans Riverside (our resort where we were staying) written on it. She barely said much to us, but told us to look at the menu and that she would be back. She explained nothing about how it worked as far as one teapot being big enough for two people. My friend and I thought that we were each getting one cup of tea, not an entire teapot. When we ordered what we thought was two separate cups, she looked at us strange but said nothing to the fact that one teapot would probably be about 6-8 servings! Because of that, we ended up unecessarily ordering two entire pots of tea. In order to avoid confusion later at the end of the meal, my friend mentioned to Kimberly that we wanted our bills on two separate checks. Kimberly got a snide look on her face and acted as though she had never heard of such a thing. It was all in the tone of her voice which I cannot descibe in the email. She repeated back to us, "You want two separate checks?" We said "yes." She then made it sound as though we should not being doing that, but that she was doing us a favor to do it that way. Surely we are not the first people to ever ask for two separate checks at one table! She walked away, and I rolled my eyes and just sort of "wrote it off" to the fact that everybody has a bad day. However, what really angered me was when she began serving two other tables with guests that were seated near us. We heard her go through the entire introduction, which we did not receive. She was very pleasant and smiling when she was at the other tables. We never saw that side of Kimberly the few times she was at our table. She came to the other tables and offered lemon and milk. They told her they did want lemon and milk, and she brought them the extras that they had asked for. She never once even offered us the extras. My friend actually wanted lemon and milk, but we could not even get Kimberly's attention to ask for it. We were never able to get lemon and milk during the entire hour we were there. In fact, Kimberly only came to our table once toward the end of the tea, and that was only because I caught her eye as she was walking away from one of her other tables. At the end of the tea, in the "I-can't-believe-you-really-want-to do-this" tone, she asked again, "Are you still splitting the check?" When we answered yes, her exact words to us were, "well, if that's the biggest complication in my life then I'm a lucky woman." That phrase said to us that we just made her do something troublesome and we were clearly bothering her. I am so sorry that Kimberly tainted our experience. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why she was so snooty and put off a condescending attitude only toward us and not her other tables. My friend and I tried not to let it ruin our experience, but as you can see, that is the main thing that we both remember about it. That's unfortunate. I would really like to try the afternoon tea again with a different server, but I may not have another opportunity to do it again, so my memories of Kimberly are what I take with me from the experience. Please pass this on to Kimberly's manager."

 

[toocherie]

We actually dealt with very rude servers AND a rude *manager* at Rose & Crown in 2006. We were sitting inside, in the room at the very back, near the door to the patio. That is a fairly small room and sound travels easily. There was a party of 5, 2 adults and 3 children under the age of 5 sitting at a table about 5 feet away from us. Now I understand that children get excited at Disney, I've been going since I was 2 (and I'm now 23), but these kids were unbelievable. They were screaming, yelling, running, smacking into people and the parents just sat there oblivious. We thought there might be a language barrier at first as the children were carrying on in spanish (I felt like I was caught in an episode of Dora the Explorer ) but we later heard the parents speak perfect english to their server.

We asked our server to ask if they could tone it down a bit and she said she could not. So we then asked for a manager to come over. The server said she could not request a manager. My DDad then stood up and wandered around until he found a manager because at this point it sounded like Gymboree in our room. Other tables were complaining too but all the servers were refusing to address the situation or alert management.

When my DDad finally tracked down a manager he looked about 25, so we are guessing he was actually a supervisor. He said in a very brisk and snippy tone

"Sir, Disney is a place for children, deal with it!"

Can you believe that? A room with a good 25 people in it is being inconvenienced by 3 little children and 2 oblivious parents and this manager has the gaul to remind us that Disney "is for kids"!

My DDad gestured to my best friend and I (we were about 20 at the time) and asked "What about my kids? They are being well behaved!" and the gentleman at the table next to us gestured to his son (about 14) and said "And my son?"

The manager looked like a deer caught in the headlights

But he never addressed the situation, and never said anything to the family disrupting an entire section of the restaurant. We were eventually given a table on the patio for illuminations and a free dessert but never an apology. While the manager did find a solution for US, the other 20 people in the room were left with the screaming children. And to me there was no excuse for his attitude or that of the wait staff. That was our last visit to the Rose & Crown.

Just curious--did the parents of the noisy kids ever catch on that people were complaining about them? If I were them, I would have been mortified. And I am enough of a big mouth that if the manager/server wouldn't say something, and I knew there were other people feeling the same way--I probably would have said something directly to the family--like "you know, there are lots of people in this room and this is a place to have a nice meal, not a playground." But then, I'm that way.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience there--my (so far) one meal there was actually a nice experience.

 

[disneybridetobe]

Just curious--did the parents of the noisy kids ever catch on that people were complaining about them? If I were them, I would have been mortified. And I am enough of a big mouth that if the manager/server wouldn't say something, and I knew there were other people feeling the same way--I probably would have said something directly to the family--like "you know, there are lots of people in this room and this is a place to have a nice meal, not a playground." But then, I'm that way.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience there--my (so far) one meal there was actually a nice experience.

If I overheard someone complaining to the management about my kid, I'd be so mortified that I'd ask for to-go containers and settle our bill right then and there, and promptly remove my family!!

 

[tndisneyfan]

We had a rude server a few years ago at Ohana for breakfast. We was just a smart aleck(sp?). DS was being a little cranky because we had waited so long and he was very hungry, so he didn't want to participate in any of the activities. The server sort of got snippy with him because he didn't want to participate. It really ticked me off. I wish in hindsight I would've asked to see the manager. Also he just seemed very annoyed about having to wait on us. The people around us were getting decent service and it seemed he wanted to ignore us.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

We had a terrible experience at Spoodles.

She wasn't rude because she wasn't there. After she took our drink and food order, at the same time, she was gone. We didn't see her until she gave us the receipt as she swiped our DDP card when we order. Someone else had to give our card back. We had to ask the server at another table for refills and for anything else we needed.

We asked to transfer the then 18% added gratuity (for the old DDP) over to the other server.

 

[cj9200]

The absolute worst was at Victoria and Albert’s. I would finish a roll and another would appear on my plate. What? You want me to get fat? The water glass was less than half empty and they refilled it. Yea, sure, you want me to leave the table because I have to go to the bathroom. Then when my daughter’s strap on her dress broke, Victoria had the audacity to ask if she could get a safety pin to refasten it.

OK, tongue is firmly planted in cheek. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying this thread. We have had bad service, Tony’s and T-day dinner at Yachtsman’s come to mind. Both times we were mostly ignored and don’t know if they were busy or just incompetent. For the most part, I judge a restaurant by the food not the server. I am more likely to go back to a place if the food was good even if the server was bad. Chances are I am not going to see that person anyway.

One of our better servers of late was Sir Dana at our last trip to CRT. DD was celebrating her 15th birthday. She is long past the autograph book phase so he brought her a B-day card and pen for the princesses to sign. Snow also saw that DD did not have her wand and wishing star and ran off to get her one.

 

[Tricia1972]

Tipping just seems to go hand in hand with rude service, and we're deleting almost as many posts regarding tips and gratuity as we are leaving here that discuss bad service.

Since we can't seem to get away from tips and gratuity this thread is closed.