QS seating

[TheFloatingBear]

I read recently - can't remember where, but will try to find the link - that the policy now for QS restaurants was that a CM seats your entire party once you have your food - no more sending a scout to find a table. My understanding from what I read/heard is that this policy was sometimes in place during peak times, but now is going to be the policy all of the time. Has anyone experienced this recently? How widespread is it? Does it work okay or are you endlessly wandering around with food?

 

[DrivenByDisney]

From our experience it greatly depends on the crowd levels. Though I've only seen it at these QS restaurants on our recent visits: Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe, Backlot Express & Pinocchio Village Haus. It didn't really take long at any of these places to get a seat and we did not feel rushed to eat our food.

Now, we have been back to those same locations and they did not have this policy in place when the crowd levels were lower. Again, I believe they judge what is high/low and put this in accordingly to those levels.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Good to know it didn't take too long to find a seat - thanks!

 

[Neon Cactus]

I mostly did QS when I was at Marathon Weekend and no cast member was seating guests, even at Be Our Guest during lunch.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Maybe it's not very widespread - thanks for the info!

 

[happymomof1]

Sometimes this can be helpful. When one person is holding a table, and sometimes it DOES take large groups a long time ordering and then waiting to pick up their food, a group that had their food and was ready to eat could have sat down and finished their meal at that table instead, in that same amount of time.( the time that it took while one person "held the table)

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Sometimes this can be helpful. When one person is holding a table, and sometimes it DOES take large groups a long time ordering and then waiting to pick up their food, a group that had their food and was ready to eat could have sat down and finished their meal at that table instead, in that same amount of time.( the time that it took while one person "held the table)

Yes, there definitely can be pros and cons either way, it just wasn't what we experienced last April so I was curious if people had experienced it!

 

[HopperFan]

Also saw it often at Peco's Bills before the menu change - but I think it's only really busy times of year.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Electric Umbrella (Epcot-FW) does this frequently.
2) I really like the practice.
3) Too much table time is taken by people staking out seats.
. . . This doesn't count those who take seats/tables just for a rest without eating.
. . . Nor does it count those who eat their own food without buying it from WDW.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Hmmm. Despite the advantages, I don't love it. With a small child, it's helpful for one adult to wait in line to order all the food (no distractions!) while the other takes the child to find a table and get set up. We did this a lot last year.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Hmmm. Despite the advantages, I don't love it. With a small child, it's helpful for one adult to wait in line to order all the food (no distractions!) while the other takes the child to find a table and get set up. We did this a lot last year.

1) Some people might prefer the method of which you speak.
2) But, for the masses during busy times, it is far better to restrict seating to those with food-in-hand.
3) We have to remember that Disney is Mass Merchandising, and must meet the needs of lots of people.
4) The amount of people inconvenienced is pretty small, percentage-wise.
5) Sadly, you can't please or accommodate everyone at the same time, so you go with the odds.

 

[loves to dive]

Sounds like a good plan to me if the CM actually shows you to a table so you don't wander around aimlessly trying to find one. It might cut down on the people who take two tables, one for the people and one for their crap.

 

[mkla2015]

I think this would be great. It's not much fun to wonder around food in hand trying to find a table while others are sitting with no food. The hardest time we had finding a table was at a packed to the max Pinocchio's. It was terrible.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

I can definitely see challenges for people with small children or certain medical issues, but hopefully they address those as needed. We're past the stroller stage and a relatively small group (4), so we should be all right. Hopefully, it makes the flow more efficient overall? - I was just curious how it functioned in practice.

Hopefully it will help decrease situations like we had last year... I think that we were at Restaurantasaurus, and it was very busy. We ordered, then I took DS10 and DD8 to find a table. They sat while I went back to help DH with the trays - we had already ordered so we were back fairly quickly, but in the interim a woman had told my kids to give her our table for her family. They didn't know what to do and didn't want to be impolite, so they gave her the table. We wandered around for a bit with our food, eventually found another table and we were almost halfway through our meal before her family arrived with their food. I was a bit steamed, but I was hungry and tired so I figured it would be better if I didn't say anything before I had something to eat! Before we left, I stopped at their table and calmly told her my thoughts on the situation. Her adult daughter (or maybe DIL) looked mortified! That's probably one of the more negative experiences we've had at a QS!

 

[aaarcher86]

It worked well for us at Pinocchio. We were seated right away. At cosmic rays the line was crazy long and didn't look like it was moving. We found a seat in the upper level where there was no CM escort.

We just had one parent stand off to the side with the kids.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Sounds like a good plan to me if the CM actually shows you to a table so you don't wander around aimlessly trying to find one. It might cut down on the people who take two tables, one for the people and one for their crap.

Absopositively.

 

[Neon Cactus]

I wouldn't have a problem with it at all when it's crowded. I've had trouble in the past finding tables at Be Our Guest and Flame Tree and having somebody direct me to a table right away would have been helpful.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

I agree...

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

1) Some people might prefer the method of which you speak.
2) But, for the masses during busy times, it is far better to restrict seating to those with food-in-hand.
3) We have to remember that Disney is Mass Merchandising, and must meet the needs of lots of people.
4) The amount of people inconvenienced is pretty small, percentage-wise.
5) Sadly, you can't please or accommodate everyone at the same time, so you go with the odds.

True, true!