I became fed up and walked out of Ohana. Was I being unreasonable?

[lugnut33]

If you were there on free dining then you should expect service like that and not complain.

 

[smiths02]

If you were there on free dining then you should expect service like that and not complain.

Are you being sarcastic? Free dining is a discount. Does that mean when I stayed under a room discount that I should have expected no one to check me in, no housekeeping, etc.?

And servers work on tips mostly, so I would expect good service no matter who "paid" for the meal.

 

[maxiesmom]

What does "ADR" stand for? I remember when they had PS (Priority Seating) which meant you were first in line for the next available table. But now they call it ADR. Why?

When I go to the Disney site, they label the section "dining reservations." When I search for availability, the offerings state "reserve a table at <time>."

Why do you think ADR is not a reservation time?

Disney will tell you an ADR does not guaranee a specific time but the next table available after that for your party size.

 

[over50visits]

Disney will tell you an ADR does not guaranee a specific time but the next table available after that for your party size.

Where do they tell me that? Sometime after "reserve a table at <specific time>" ??? Do they tell you somewhere later on the website, gotcha, we didn't really mean reserve a time for your table, we secretly meant reserve a time to show up and wait for a table??

 

[troll buster]

If you were there on free dining then you should expect service like that and not complain.

Nothing is free!! If you get a room discount should you expect half of your room cleaned? 40% off your roll of toilet paper? Short sheeted?

 

[nkereina]

What does "ADR" stand for? I remember when they had PS (Priority Seating) which meant you were first in line for the next available table. But now they call it ADR. Why?

When I go to the Disney site, they label the section "dining reservations." When I search for availability, the offerings state "reserve a table at <time>."

Why do you think ADR is not a reservation time?

Disney will tell you an ADR does not guaranee a specific time but the next table available after that for your party size.

Agreeing with maxiesmom - if you argue it at a restaurant, they will tell you the same. With over 50 visits, surprised you haven't heard that before.

I know with them throwing the word reservation around that it's misleading but I'm just letting you know how Disney defines it when it comes to the time.

 

[maxiesmom]

Where do they tell me that? Sometime after "reserve a table at <specific time>" ??? Do they tell you somewhere later on the website, gotcha, we didn't really mean reserve a time for your table, we secretly meant reserve a time to show up and wait for a table??

I think the whole Priority Seating thing confused people. But it is more accurate than calling what we get a reservation of any kind. It does state on the web site that your ADR gets the next table available for your party size.

No matter what they call it, Disney is not known for seating people on time. Best to come to grips with it before you arrive at the restaurant. We were even told this past week more than once at Disney restaurants that we would be seated withing 10 to 20 minutes of our ADR time. Punctual they are not.

 

[shannon006]

I haven't read beyond the first page. DH and I ate at Ohana for the first time in September. We waited for 55 minutes for a 6:30 ADR for 2. DH did check at the podium to make sure we weren't somehow "overlooked", which we were not.

Our table was on the edge of the aisle where they do the kids show. I kid you not that during our entire meal we had people sit ON our table, pull out the 3rd chair at our table and sit, we were pushed by parents taking pictures of their kids. The lady who does the show with the kids kept telling the "cousins" to please be careful of the "cousins" who were trying to enjoy their dinner, but honestly it did no good. The food was good, not great.

We did not complain, looking back I wish we would have asked to be moved to another table. Based on that experience I don't see us ever going back. Our total time was almost 2 hours and 45 minutes from check in to walking out. I found it to be way too long for a meal that is just brought to you, meaning you don't order off a menu.

So transportation time included it was 4 hours for a dinner that we did not enjoy

 

[over50visits]

Agreeing with maxiesmom - if you argue it at a restaurant, they will tell you the same. With over 50 visits, surprised you haven't heard that before.

I know with them throwing the word reservation around that it's misleading but I'm just letting you know how Disney defines it when it comes to the time.

After several hundred delightful meals at WDW, I know precisely how Disney implements reservations. They promise you a time for your table, then often make you wait an unreasonable time, after asking you to be on time! We have all come to accept that, including myself, but Ohana treatment is so bad it is the one restaurant we won't use any more. Wouldn't it be nice if they were upfront with what they do every day....and not tell you you are reserving a table at a particular time. I feel so sorry for the dozens of anxious guests jamming the Polynesian lobby, knowing Disney could easily fix that.

Disneyworld is wonderful, the CMs universally fantastic, and the meal venues have cool themes and interesting food. We look forward to many more visits. They aren't perfect, though, and I won't be an apologist for their (very few) fixable problems.

 

[Fairbankz]

Please re read. OP. Talked to managers who appeared useless.


Here's the thing. Disney does not care. Restaurants are packed regardless of food or service. They are not depending on repeat guests like your hometown places. As long as folks pay top dollar for these subpar dining experiences Disney will not change

You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. The 50k+ people working at Disney try their very best to live up to everyones wildest expectations year round. Millions of people come and leave happy, and there will be some that slip through the cracks where mistakes are made.

One of the rules of message boards is to take every time listed and subtract about half of that for a more reasonable time frame. You have no clue how many times Ive heard " Ive been waiting for over 1 hour to be seated!!! /grrr". Little do people know that there is access to the time a pager was handed to you, a time is kept for the time you were seated, and the time your check was processed. After a small investigation, you realize the guest has been waiting about 20 mins.

Then comes the " It took over 1 hour to get our food!!!!" Next tiny investigation commences. Hit the print check time screen, make sure the server didn't forget to ring in order , /check. Check the kitchen screen to see when the ticket sold , ../check.. Then pull a closed copy of the check to see when the ticket was closed out.../check. Amazingly the food arrived at the table in 25 mins, not over 1 hour... etc etc...

People embellish a ton to get sympathy and the chance at a free meal. If something isn't going right, speak up at the time. Its that simple.

 

[AmyB2006]

If you were there on free dining then you should expect service like that and not complain.

I don't know that I would necessarily agree that you should expect bad service, but I do agree that service and food quality has declined since free dining. LOL

Are you being sarcastic? Free dining is a discount.

But I thought free dining was "free". LOL Isn't that what everybody says? (Totally being sarcastic by the way in case that isn't clear).

We just got back from Disney and we were at Ohana's. We had to wait 30 or more minutes for our "reservation".

And I've not looked and read every tiny word, but I've never seen anywhere on Disney's website anything that says anything about priority seating or whatnot. Their page says "reservation". And yes, it is ridiculous when you are forced to make your reservation 180 days out, plan your FP+ 60 days out and you still have to wait 1/2 an hour to get your reservation. There were a lot of angry people here on this morning, trust me. I was prepared to wait, so whichever, didn't matter to us. And this is actually the first time I've ever had to wait longer than 10 minutes to be seated for an ADR after checking in. Ever.

Even at Chef Mickey's Wednesday morning, we checked in, took our picture, sat down. I expected to be waiting at least 1/2 an hour or more, because there had to be at least 40 to 50 people waiting and sitting on the couches all outside the restaurant area. But we were paged in under 10 minutes to get our table. So I don't know if those were walkups they were trying to accommodate or what.

 

[Don Disney]

If you were there on free dining then you should expect service like that and not complain.

Really? That's a reason to EXPECT poor service? Maybe on the planet that gave you that outlook?

 

[jtn]

I guess we may be the exception to the rule here.. I had received a 6:45 PM reservation time. When we checked in at the podium every seat in the waiting area was full so expected a horrible wait time.

The hostess gave us the little pager.. We walked to the bar area near the entrance... sat for no more than 10 minutes and the pager lit up. Now perhaps since we were a party of 2 it might have been easier to seat us. We did see lots of groups of 10 to 20+ people and I can see how that would create some seating problems.

Service was not exceptional but was acceptable.. We went with rather low expectations and were pleasantly surprised. Our waiter covered a pretty fair area and was also one of those circulating with the meat skewers. He handled it pretty well. Our total time for the entire meal was about 1 to 1 1/2hours.. Not bad.. We have waited longer than that to be seated and have a meal at a Cracker Barrel at a busy time.

As a previous poster mentioned we were on an aisle table right where the childrens games started. We had NO problem with any parents or kids at all. In fact being on the aisle enabled me to stop any waitperson going by when we needed anything.

Our biggest problem was not skipping lunch that day.. We simply could not do justice to all of the food. I did manage at least a sample of every item and pretty much enjoyed it all. Whatever you do leave room for the dessert.. It was by far the highlight of the whole experience... YUM...

 

[stitchaholic]

I would have been upset too , and yes , probably would have left , I find it long every time though , I think they need to re-organize or stop taking too many ADR's or walk up's .
I choose not to go there anymore as it is never pleasant , I prefer to go somewhere where I get great service and it is not a madhouse , spend all day fighting the crowds in the parks , when it comes time to sit for dinner , I want some R&R with good , polite service .

 

[dtats]

If I would have read this thread prior to our last visit this past August, I would have been more surprised at this happening at a restaurant on property. However, this past August, we finally were able to realize what we could never do during any of the many, many previous trips we've taken to WDW; dine at Ohana. My family very much looked forward to this dining experience and we expected it would be the best one we'd have on our last vacation. Boy, were we mistaken! Long waits, uncaring & rushed staff, and mediocre food do not make a wonderful Disney dining experience.

As we've reflected on the joys (and let-downs) of our past vacation, my family has concluded that we're not ready to give Ohana a second chance just yet. With so many other better establishments to choose from (and yes, we're repeat customers to quite a few), there's no need to waste an ADR there.

Honestly, I've had better food at Cosmic Ray's and Pecos Bills!

 

[nwcutie]

My DS14 and I are going in February and had a 8:20 reservation on our MK day. After reading all of the comments, I changed our ADR to Kona.

After a long day of touring, we like to kick back and relax. An hour wait for our ADR and bad service would result in one of us having a meltdown and really, who needs that?

 

[Priorityonecb]

We had similar service at Ohana. Awful, and we will not return. We did get our meal comped after sending an email once we left. We couldn't even get a manager to talk it over with that evening.

 

[jcjen519]

You were there and if you wanted to leave then you should. We were at ohana for dinner on dec 15 and had no trouble but at breakfast on the 16th we checked in at 1030 am for a 1035 reservation and were told they were running behind.

They sure were! 30 minutes later I very nicely inquired as to how much longer our wait would be. About 10 min after that we were being seated. It went about like that through the meal. If it weren't for my son and the fact that it was a character meal I would probably have left.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Tiggr924]

I don't blame you for getting frustrated in leaving though as previous posters mentioned I probably would have made a bigger deal to get better service.

We still regret waiting an hour and a half to two hours to be seating for Boma, and then had awful service as well. We were so hungry at that point that we just suffered in silence.

 

[TDC Nala]

Free dining has nothing to do with the restaurants at all. It's a resort discount. Unless you tell the restaurant server you have free dining, they don't have any way of knowing you have it.

Although I think the previous poster was of the opinion that service suffers because free dining increases traffic in the restaurants and WDW hasn't compensated with proper restaurant staffing. That's a possibility, but I don't know how it works in individual restaurants.

'Ohana is a strange restaurant. You can have two people posting who were there the same night and sat next to each other. One will say it was great and the other will say it was the worst experience ever.