Ridiculous wait at Mama Melrose...

[steves100]

1) All ADR's say to arrive at least 15-minnutes early.
2) You arrived 5-minutes early.
. . . it is possible that you would have far further ahead in line if on-time for the check-in
. . . one does not know how many people got into line during the 10-minutes you did not check-in
3) CM's cannot control how many people get in line.
4) CM's frequently seat people with different party sizes prior to other smaller or larger party sizes. *
5) You have little for which to complain.
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NOTE1: The number of people in other parties does not determine if they get seated before or after you. Reservations Are made for table sizes. The ADR even states that an ADR gets you seated for the next available table at a specific time for your party size.
.
NOTE2: The delay in being seated may have also been caused by people staying at their tables longer than the "average" table-stay. Disney cannot force people to vacate their table, and many do take longer, especially if they are trying to kill time before fireworks or shows.
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NOTE3: Another possible delay factor is the use of Dining Overrides at popular eateries. Certain Concierge, and others, have the code to insert parties into any restaurant at any time on any day for any party size, even when the eatery is sold out or over-sold. When this is done, the ADR's with times after the override are delayed.

Yes I understand #1 and 2. But if #3 IS the reason that is NOT acceptable. You think just because you are Concierge you should get in faster/earlier than someone that has a ADR? Wow thought the caste system was just in India! You honestly can't defend that!

 

[dashofsunshine]

You mean ALWAYS sticking for Disney?????

Actually, it's kind of funny, he is just very factual about everything. At first when I started reading his replies on here I was like, "well, geez. Ok." But now I just expect it, lol. He's very logical and always tells it like it is. Sometimes on Disney's side, sometimes not.

 

[steves100]

Yeah, it's their job. But they're just human. Good Lord. Just because they work at Disney doesn't mean they're actually magical. They deal with hundreds of people every single day, and have to try to make every single one of them happy. I mean...that's really difficult. Not every employee at every restaurant can make every customer happy 24/7.

People have this expectation that everything always goes right at Disney and if it doesn't, they are entitled to free stuff or groveling or whatever. Disney may seem magical, but underneath it all its just another business. They apologized and offered you a fast pass, which was nice. Stuff happens that no one can control sometimes

I get why you were upset, anyone would have been. It sucks that you had to wait so long and miss Fantasmic. What would you have had them do? If your waiter tried to tell his supervisor that he had comped your entire meal or something over them not having any clean tables because it was busy, the waiter probably would have gotten in big trouble.

I didn't ask for anything free. I just made me feel that "hey his time is NOT valuable" lets just give him something that doesn't cost us anything!

 

[dashofsunshine]

I didn't ask for anything free. I just made me feel that "hey his time is NOT valuable" lets just give him something that doesn't cost us anything!

I think the fastpass is standard procedure. If you're not asking for anything free, what are you asking for? I'm just trying to figure out what you wish they had given you instead. Your time is just as valuable as the other 600 people (or whatever) who entered that restaurant that day. That's a lot of people, man.

 

[steves100]

OP, you did not say if you had booked the F! dinner package. If so, I hope you had them remove that and just let you pay for your food. I was there in early December and had a bad experience. As soon as we got there (20 mins before our ADR!) and saw how backed up things were, I asked to have F! dropped and we would just pay for what we ordered. So glad we did that, because once we got seated service was so horrible we could not get out fast enough. Server only stopped by once after dropping off our beverages, and that was just to comment that she was glad to see someone had brought out our food. She never asked if we needed refills, and we had to ask repeatedly for our check.

That experience was our only bad one for the week.

We were lucky their were 2 seating for Fanatsmic, we made the 2nd. The issue was we made reservations for the 1st. Atleast someone else SEES how bad 'M can be. As I said NO issue any where else for 8 nights!

Just MM, we will never be back, BTW the food wasn't that great!

 

[dashofsunshine]

Have you read him defend Disney Cruise line change the alcohol policy?????

He ALWAYS defends them!

Haha, nah, we don't do DCL so I don't spend much time on those boards. I don't know Rusty personally or anything, I was just commenting that he always gives those no bull numbered answers.

Disney is just like any other company, and I definitely think they make mistakes. Everybody does. It's a huge corporate business. I just don't think this was a time when they could do much about restaurant space it stinks. I'm sorry you missed Fantasmic, I would be sad too. Just try to remember that it happens, sadly.

 

[Jon84]

Have you read him defend Disney Cruise line change the alcohol policy?????

He ALWAYS defends them!

Sometimes I see the Disney Policy Changes, and I don't like it at a personal level, but I also see the Business reasons behind the changes.

Alot of people on the forums (not saying you are at all) don't get that there is a reason behind every decision, and there was probably a meeting to decide where to have the meeting to discuss the change. In a huge multinational company, for which I have worked for some, the layers of bureaucracy are many, meaning decisions are passed through many filters before they are made. No they will not always benefit the customer, but they will always be for a business reason, like streamlining a process, reducing cost, or improving customer experience.

Everyone's first thought is 'how does this affect me', not 'how does this affect Disney if they DON'T implement a change'.

Just 2 Cents

 

[steves100]

If you guys defend waiting 1 hour for a table you really don't get it. THIS IS THE REASON THEY HAVE ADRs!
I don't want to hear this BS check in 15 minutes early! NO WHERE IN THE WORLD DO YOU GET TO A RESERVATION 15 MIN EARLY! IT'S A RESRRVATION!!!!

Disney will have no problem charging you if you don't make a reservation, the least they can do is seat someone within 1 hour of it!

Guess you who defend them don't live in a part of the country the expects good service! It's not like MM is a Michelin rated restaurant. That's the end of my rant. Thought others might understand. Didn't realize the Disney cheerleaders who defend THE WORST service ever in the Happiest Place on Earth.

BTW - the reason imposted this, was i DID NOT complain to anyone, in just asked our server if this was common waiting 55 min!

 

[dashofsunshine]

Ok, whelp, I'm sorry that this happened to you, OP. I guess just start weeding out all the Disney restaurants where you have to wait past your ADR because thousands of people come to Disney every day. You can always bring a PB & J sandwich to the parks for dinner, once you've realized that regular people work at restaurants and crappy stuff happens sometimes that is out of anyone's control

I guess I just try to remember that everyone is human and everyone thinks their time is more valuable than everyone else's. I'm not really defending anyone - your server, Disney, etc...I admitted several times, what happened was sucky. Not fun to wait like that. No one enjoys it. I suppose just remember you're in Disney World with your family, and maybe try to let it go, and ride ToT a few times. And maybe eat a butterfinger cupcake? I dunno. Cheers. Lol

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Guess you who defend them don't live in a part of the country the expects good service! It's not like MM is a Michelin rated restaurant. That's the end of my rant. Thought others might understand. Didn't realize the Disney cheerleaders who defend THE WORST service ever in the Happiest Place on Earth.

BTW - the reason imposted this, was i DID NOT complain to anyone, in just asked our server if this was common waiting 55 min!

It is not common to wait 55 minutes, but it has happened before. We waited more than 60 minutes for our Plaza ADR on 12/30 one year when it was 36 degrees and no one wanted to go back outside. People were literally sitting at tables refilling coffees and sodas and not moving. There's nothing the CMs can do. It was a guest rudeness problem, not a CM problem. The CMs apologized, comped our desserts and we we're annoyed that the "system" didn't work due to rude people.

You are right to be upset about the wait, especially if you missed part of the Fantasmic package (not clear to me m if you had the package or not). I think 55 minutes is ridiculous without good reason. I would have definitely paid a visit to guest services if that was the case. An extra FP for your hour wait is a nice comp, though. I would have been happy with it especially during peak time.

So, I'm basically saying you're right to be upset, but the FP during peak time is pretty valuable, IMO.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I understand being upset about waiting an hour for a table. I'd be annoyed too. But, why did being given a Fastpass from the manager make you "even more mad"? What did you want them to do? Did you ask (calmly) for a different form of compensation for your time? Chances are, that manager would have attempted to fulfill a reasonable guest recovery request.

 

[kashzan]

The OP has now complained about Mamma Melrose, Cali Grill, and BOG. Just maybe Disney is not the place for him to be.

 

[Hopefully]

Have you read him defend Disney Cruise line change the alcohol policy?????

He ALWAYS defends them!

. Simply NOT TRUE

If you guys defend waiting 1 hour for a table you really don't get it. THIS IS THE REASON THEY HAVE ADRs!
I don't want to hear this BS check in 15 minutes early! NO WHERE IN THE WORLD DO YOU GET TO A RESERVATION 15 MIN EARLY! IT'S A RESRRVATION!!!!

An ADR is NOT A TRADITIONAL RESERVATION where they are holding a table for 4 At 7. It simply places you in line after you check in for the next available table for a party your size. You clearly do not understand the process or have appropriate expectations

Disney will have no problem charging you if you don't make a reservation, the least they can do is seat someone within 1 hour of it!

You were seated within an hour of your ADR.

Guess you who defend them don't live in a part of the country the expects good service!

I live in a Metropolitiian area in the Northest. I do expect good services.
![/QUOTE
],see comments above

 

[kamik86]

As someone who used to work in f &b, arriving at 5:05 was totally fine. You are told to arrive between 5-10 mins before reservation time

Otherwise, yeah, and honestly, we had a pretty bad experience in Mama Melrose when it came to this. I asked if it was possible to check in early, and was told it would be upwards of 50 mins, so I opted not to & we still ended up waiting AGES when we checked in on time. Things don't seem to run so smoothly over there, but that could just be me.

In f & b perspective, things do end up running behind, sometimes it's completely out of our control as well. Dining line also likes to "open up" reservations day of, so say we were fully booked at 100, now we all of a sudden have 200. It sucks. a lot. There were a lot of times there was nothing we could do, absolutely zero open tables,we literally couldn't seat on time. It does happen. And it sucks.

Well if this is the case then it absolutely is a disney management problem that guests should receive compensation for. It doesn't matter that department A screwed department B. Both departments are disney.

 

[kamik86]

#1. You check in early, you get a table faster???? What is the point of a reservation????
#2. Yes their table might have been avalible faster than mine except these were put together tables, they were not just large tables that fit 6
#3. THE STAFF IS UNDER PRESSURE!!!! YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!. This is their job!!!! I AM ON VACATION!!!
I was not irate, i did not do anything!l! As I said I got more mad that the manager thinksmthatbgiving 1 fastpass fixes their terrible management style!

#1 I have always hated this but yes that is how many of the restaurants do it. ONce you check in close to your reservation time they take you in the order of check in, not the order of your original reservation. So if I had a 12:00 reservation but showed up at 11:44 and got in line before you. You showed up at 11:45 for your 11:45 reservation. Many of the restaurants would seat me first (assuming same party size).

#2 Well they were ahead of you in line and I can understand why they would do this. If they sat you at one of the tables they couldn't seat the party of six without another matching table. Restaurants do have to balance holding one table waiting for the one next to it to make a big table sometimes, otherwise large parties would never get seated on busy nights.

#3 Somewhat agree here but remember that your waiter/waitress doesn't choose how busy the place is. The restaurant management may be somewhat at fault, if this is a recurring problem, but no matter how good a place is sometimes things will just not fall right. Sometimes you will get the perfect storm of issues that causes a backup and there is nothing you can do.

 

[Nancyg56]

This was the week before Christmas, I was there 5-10 minutes early. I hate people defending them, I have to show up early but hey can make you wait 1 hour?

Once you arrive you are in line. An ADR is NOT a reservation, but is similar to making being in line at an Olive garden. You sign in 15 minutes before your ADR and you are securing your place in line. MM is generally a pretty busy place, but they seldom run so far behind. You managed to arrive kind of late in relation to many of those other folks who were inline, so your spot was behind them. People have attempted to explain what may have happened, but you are not interested. I will say that several years ago I had made a reservation, not an ADR, at Del Frisco's in NYC. It was for 8PM. We were early, and still waited an hour past our time., for the pleasure of paying apx. $100 per person, including for my DGD who was 4, for dinner. No restaurant packs a table up and tosses them out to make room for the next.

So.... ALL week no issues ANYWHERE. And this is acceptable? I really hate people defending terrible service.

No one is defending terrible service. We just think you are confused about the difference between an ADR and an actual reservation, and that you have not taken into account the unusual circumstances all of DHS is experiencing this year with the termination of the Lights.

#1. You check in early, you get a table faster???? What is the point of a reservation????
#2. Yes their table might have been avalible faster than mine except these were put together tables, they were not just large tables that fit 6
#3. THE STAFF IS UNDER PRESSURE!!!! YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!. This is their job!!!! I AM ON VACATION!!!
I was not irate, i did not do anything!l! As I said I got more mad that the manager thinksmthatbgiving 1 fastpass fixes their terrible management style!

You are instructed to check in 15 minutes prior to your ADR. The same as everyone else is instructed to do. If you choose to check in "late" you can do so. You will not lose your ADR, but you do stand in line behind those who planned to arrive before you and who therefore are in line before you. You are on vacation, yes. The staff id under pressure, yes. If the party of six checked in earlier than you they get seated earlier than you, Unless you have access to the book, you have no idea what is there, who checked in when, and what their timeframe was. Many people try to explain that planning Disney dining is a bit different than in other places, but the reality is that no matter where you dine, no one can control the people before you. They sit longer? you wait. Try getting seated on time at CG if your ADR is about the time Wishes is taking place. No way will anyone there leave their table. They also are on vacation. Why should they?

 

[kamik86]

The issue here for these one off cases is really one of expectations. Disney calls these ADRs reservations. But they aren't. At any other place that takes reservations I would expect to show up at the time of my reservation and the table be ready and set for me to sit down immediately. Disney instead is really an extreme version of call ahead seating.

The only way to make these true reservations would be to massively limit how many reservations they can give to be sure x party is out before y party arrives. However already people complain about not being able to get into places. imagine the uproar if you walked up to a place you couldn't get an ADR for and found a number of empty tables but they aren't taking walk ups. They are just waiting for the next set of people to come in for their reservations.

Disney won't do this though because it would cut their revenue, upset all their servers (less table turnover = less tips) and upset a different group of guests... so in no way a win for disney.


However I don't understand why a fast pass wasn't good comp. You lost about an hour of time and a fp can easily make up an hour.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

If you guys defend waiting 1 hour for a table you really don't get it. THIS IS THE REASON THEY HAVE ADRs!
I don't want to hear this BS check in 15 minutes early! NO WHERE IN THE WORLD DO YOU GET TO A RESERVATION 15 MIN EARLY! IT'S A RESRRVATION!!!!

Disney will have no problem charging you if you don't make a reservation, the least they can do is seat someone within 1 hour of it!

Guess you who defend them don't live in a part of the country the expects good service! It's not like MM is a Michelin rated restaurant. That's the end of my rant. Thought others might understand. Didn't realize the Disney cheerleaders who defend THE WORST service ever in the Happiest Place on Earth.

BTW - the reason imposted this, was i DID NOT complain to anyone, in just asked our server if this was common waiting 55 min!

I think you are just angry that people were realistic rather than rushing to agree with you. We ALWAYS get there 15 min. early for any reservation anywhere. I would never arrive exactly at my reservation time and expect to be immediately accommodated. While an hour wait is excessive bottom line is that it happens at every restaurant at one time or another. I agree with PPs who say you need to get over it. It just isn't as big a deal as you are trying to make it.

 

[jrmasm]

I'd be annoyed. Had this happen twice out of two times I've been to O'hana and I will never go back.

 

[jimandami]

I was wondering if the wait ends up to long can you cancel the reservation and not be charged the no show fee?

Yes, I have done this at Le Cellier.