My Letter To Disney

[Pakey]

Many restaurants get behind; that's why Disney doesn't do reservations. The time they give you is the time you are supposed to show up and put your name on the list; Disney does not guarantee a time you will be seated.

I don't know how many times you've been to WDW, especially if you are relying on Disney transportation, but you need to leave yourself a lot more time than that.

Disney does an amazing job of pushing tons of people through the parks, restaurants, transportation system, etc. Waiting for a table is better than the alternatives; either credit card holds on every reservation to guarantee everyone shows up (which would eliminate the need for overbooking) or having no type of system for a time and it's strictly first come, first served.

 

[VegasMike21]

Sorry you weren't able to do the breakfast, stuff like this happens all the time unfortunetly. Heck, I heard of one group waiting like 2 hours for a table at the rainforest cafe. Read about that in the Unoffficial 2010 Guide Book. But they still had a great time and a great meal, however no way would I wait 2 hours for a table. I do agree Disney needs to do something to minimize waiting times but everyone also eats at their own pace which probably had something to do with the reason why you were never seated on time.

 

[DISNEYFOS]

I agree with the OP...The letter should be sent. For our trip in August, we made an ADR for Chef Mickeys for a party of 11 with 2-2year olds, 2-5 year olds. We waited 45 mins after our reservation time. 45Min!! and we had arrived 15 mins before our designated time. So 1 hour total waiting with 4 young children. Thats really not acceptable.

Overbooking/Free Dining etc... I can tell you we won't be returning to chef mickeys for a while.

 

[tfoster]

I agree with the OP...The letter should be sent. For our trip in August, we made an ADR for Chef Mickeys for a party of 11 with 2-2year olds, 2-5 year olds. We waited 45 mins after our reservation time. 45Min!! and we had arrived 15 mins before our designated time. So 1 hour total waiting with 4 young children. Thats really not acceptable.

Overbooking/Free Dining etc... I can tell you we won't be returning to chef mickeys for a while.

The difference is that you waited 45 minutes AFTER your ADR time. The OP waited 10 minutes after the ADR time and ended up waiting so long in total because they went 30 minutes early. I totally agree that having to wait 45 minutes after your ADR is not acceptable and I think that's is a valid complaint.

 

[micknpluto]

Let us know when you hear something.

 

[goofy4tink]

Priority Seating was so much better than ADR. Too many people think they have a true reservation. Then, especially with character buffets, tables don't get turned over as quickly as hoped. If you are seated at a character meal, and your kids have yet to see all the characters, then you are going to stay there until they get to see 'em all, darn it. And it could very well be taking the characters longer to get around because some tables are taking their own sweet time with the characters (after all, they also waited and now want their fair share of time)....and it then snowballs.
Character buffets are among the worst meals for being seated on time. I have never, ever been seated on time or even within 15 mins of my ADR time at Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace or Donald's...not once.
When booking a meal on your last day, it's always wise to be sure you have about four hours to play with. If I had to be at the resort, ready for the bus, at noon, I doubt I would book a meal in a park that morning. But, that's just me. I don't want to feel rushed.

To the OP, I'm really sorry you had such an unhappy ending to a good time. Hopefully, others can learn from your experience. I don't think Disney is overbooking, I think guests are taking overlong at table.

 

[francie57]

As others have said, an ADR is not for a specific time. Not matter how they try, Disney cannot make people eat at a set pace. Disney has no way of knowing how long people will be taking a table, they can only come up with a guess on how close to book tables. We have had ADRs at LeCellier and have waited much longer and just go with the flow. Guess you have to go in realizing that there could be a wait - nothing is perfect. We also make an ADR on our last day for a great meal (usually Tappan Edo) for our last meal but we leave much more time than you did just for this reason.

 

[tfoster]

I don't think Disney is overbooking, I think guests are taking overlong at table.

I wonder about this though. So many report that they're too rushed at their meal and that they feel a lot of pressure to eat very quickly and leave. I wonder if WDW management is putting pressure on the restaurants to "get 'em in and get 'em out" as quickly as possible, thereby putting ADRs too close together and creating a back-log when diners don't "cooperate" and want to eat at a more leisurely pace. Maybe??

 

[B-Ride]

There is a problem, I think we all agree on that.

Making Disney aware of the problem is the right thing to do.

You are certainly within your rights to express your concerns. However, I don't think we have all agreed there is a problem. As others have said, an ADR is not a reservation. It is a promise to be seated before people without reservations.

With this in mind it is never a good idea to make plans which depend on being seated on time. Our experience is that we are usually seated pretty close to our ADR time, unless we are trying to catch a show or something afterwards. Our longest wait last trip was at the Wave were we showed up early hoping to zip over to MK afterwards to catch SpectroMagic. Turned out it was also our slowest service.

 

[LoraJ]

I'm sorry you missed the meal that you were looking forward to.
It can't hurt to send the letter. I wouldn't expect much from them, but it doesn't hurt to give feedback.

I love the word vexed.

 

[big_red_s]

OK, I'm convinced my Tusker House example is a bad one. We've waited with scores of people at least 2-3 times during that one week for other ADR's but were not pressed as we were at TH.

Let me state my point in a more generic term:

I paid an obscene amount of money for a one week vacation at a "resort". So much, in fact, that I could have gone to almost any place on earth for twice the amount of time and be treated like a king - but I didn't.
I chose that "resort".

The "resort" encourage their guests to make dining reservations months in advance for their most popular restaurants, and an un-written policy that it's perfectly fine to make the guests and their families wait for long amounts of time when they show up - if necessary.

And that's...OK?
Why?
Because it's Disney?

What I'm wondering is why all the folks who go to Disney every year didn't write letters like mine long ago?

And as LoraJ and others pointed out, this is feedback - and I believe it's invaluable feedback for Disney. I don't expect anything from them - we had a wonderful week at Disney.

 

[sydconmom]

What do you expect Disney to do about you complaining that you had to wait 10 minutes past your ADR (you cant complain about the 30 minutes you were early for)? You also cant complain that you would have had to wait 30 minutes past your ADR time, because you didnt nor do you know with 100% certainty that you would have. Also, the wait is not only something found and Disney, that is restaurants, whether there are kids around or not. You obviously had a tight morning and were trying to make the most of the magic, which no one can fault you for...but I think this was all just too close for comfort. What if the Disney buses were slow? Or your ME bus early for pickup to the airport? There were too many scenarios where that 30 minutes padding could have cause a problem. I really dont know what you expect Disney to do about this?

 

[TLSnell1981]

My thoughts....
One thing you have to think of when you have a reservation is the restaurant can not guarantee how long any one party stays at their table. .

I agree! Have you never waited past a reservation time at a non disney owned restaurant? We do all the time. .

I agree.

I agree with all of the above. An ADR is NOT the same thing as a reservation.

Aren't we told this when making ADRs.....the time is not guaranteed?

Of all the problems with Disney Dining....I would put this on the bottom of my list.

 

[big_red_s]

What do you expect Disney to do about you complaining that you had to wait 10 minutes past your ADR (you cant complain about the 30 minutes you were early for)? You also cant complain that you would have had to wait 30 minutes past your ADR time, because you didnt nor do you know with 100% certainty that you would have. Also, the wait is not only something found and Disney, that is restaurants, whether there are kids around or not. You obviously had a tight morning and were trying to make the most of the magic, which no one can fault you for...but I think this was all just too close for comfort. What if the Disney buses were slow? Or your ME bus early for pickup to the airport? There were too many scenarios where that 30 minutes padding could have cause a problem. I really dont know what you expect Disney to do about this?

OK, one more time.

We left after the staff made it clear that we'll be seated 25-30 minutes after our ADR - at best!

The 30 minutes cushion was built into the breakfast, not the day - which I think is very reasonable.

We had a one hour cushion for the bus from AK back to the AKL - that was one cushion which was none negotiable (that's 55 extra minutes, by the way).

I don't expect Disney to do anything - I'm providing feedback.

As I said, my example is a bad one but we had that happen at least twice more during our one week stay which means that this is the standard way that Disney treats their guests.

And that's not right!

 

[Rockmtn]

I really don't think your complaint is valid. I see nothing wrong with waiting 20 minutes past a reservation at disney or anywhere else. We waited 45 minutes past our reservation at ohana for breakfast and I will admit, i was preturbed...but that is alot longer.

I don't understand why you arrived 30 minutes early to a reservation..were you trying to get in early?

In the future, I would allow a lot more time so you don't have to rush so much.

If I am waiting at a restaurant with no reservations, then yes I would expect to wait 20-40 mins for a table.
When you make a reservation, you have a reasonable expectation to be seated close to that time. 30 minutes after a reserved time is unacceptable.

 

[maxiesmom]

Again, you are confusing an ADR with an actual reservation. They are not the same thing. An ADR does not guarantee you a particular time slot. It guarantees you the next table available for your party size after that time. It holds your place in line, more or less. It does not guarantee you a meal at a certain time.

 

[sydconmom]

And, the OP ONLY WAITED 10 minutes!! She has no way to no for certain she would have waited that much longer, just because the CM said so, maybe some tables were getting ready to leave.

 

[Pakey]

Again, you are confusing an ADR with an actual reservation. They are not the same thing. An ADR does not guarantee you a particular time slot. It guarantees you the next table available for your party size after that time. It holds your place in line, more or less. It does not guarantee you a meal at a certain time.

ITA. It's still the best system in lieu of every "reservation" having a credit card for no-shows, thus eliminating WDW's need to attempt to compensate (i.e. overbook) for the large number of people who makes "ADR's" and then never show up.

And how many of you complaining that waiting 30 minutes is so wrong would also complain if you were seated and then told you had to hurry through your meal and miss some of your character meets so that people dining after you could be seated on time? After all, we all spend obscene amounts of money which therefore entitles us to better treatment than the next person.

 

[rflorek]

Somebody brought up the Rainforest Cafe. When our local Rainforest opened at our local mall years back, even with your name on a "reservation" list, it wasn't uncommon on the weekends to have to wait 2-3 HOURS for a table (at least you had the mall to kill time in).

Nowadays, they're practically begging for business.

 

[PrincessKara22]

I think the longest wait we had was at liberty tree tavern and maybe it was because the lobby is so small and there was literally 200 people crammed into it waiting and it was sweltering hot but it was the worst 40 minutes of my disney life. No place to sit, lots of people in a very small room, apparently no air conditioning with the door open and more people streaming in--I was miserable. I think if they are going to have a huge amount of people waiting far longer than those people expected then they need to find ways of making them comfortable while waiting.