I was typing from my phone before so difficult to include much detail. Here's the whole story.
We had reservations for 1:10. After we had checked in and were waiting for our Ariel photos, we were told by a CM that they "were not allowed to bring out any food from the kitchen." They would not tell us why, nor would they give us an estimate as to when food service might resume.
They allowed everyone with a reservation to go ahead and take the photos with Ariel, then they seated us and had the princesses come around for pictures. They were able to serve soft drinks but when DH asked for a beer they said they couldn't bring him one. So DH decided to go up to the Cove for a beer. While he was on his way up, he saw several people with full ice buckets on their way down. Don't know what they were using if for, the refrigerators or for the ice for the soft drinks they were serving. Our table was right in front of the kitchen. They put a big sign on the kitchen door saying, "Do not enter," and all the wait staff were standing around outside.
We were told we could either rebook our reservations for another date or stay and wait but they couldn't guarantee if or when they could serve any food. When pressed, the only thing the CM would say was, "When this happens it normally takes quite a while." So evidently whatever it was, it wasn't the first time it happened.
Personally, I thought this was a really bad way to handle things. Why not just say, "the refrigerator went out," or whatever the problem was? I would have been much less upset with a little explanation. I mean, we made reservations a month in advance, I have a child who's looked forward to this for months sitting here with her hair done and a princess gown on and you can't even give me an explanation??
I'm sure the parents of the girls who had spent $$$ at Bibbidi Bobbidy were quite upset.
While we were sitting at Ariel's waiting for the princesses with no food, there was an earthquake. My husband said, "What's next, a swarm of locusts?"
After the princesses came around, we decided to grab a table at the Cove upstairs as there was still no update on when or if we would be able to eat and by that time is was getting close to 2pm. We were told they had a separate kitchen. After we ate, I checked back downstairs and there was still no food at Ariel's, but the hostess said they were seating for the next round of reservations and expected to have food but that it would be "delayed."
We never did eat at Ariel's but were able to get our Ariel photos later in the day. (We had the PhotoPass Plus and the staff still seemed a little confused on how to handle it. We had to go to the photo store to pick them up later on.)
