Saving rows of seats for others in the Walt Disney Theater: Enough Already!!!

[Zeppelin]

had to get this off my chest....

we got off the Fantasy this morning after a brilliant week long Eastern Caribbean cruise...everything was terrific especially Clayton, the cruise director...

but I got to say they really must put a stop to people saving rows of seats in the Walt Disney Theater for shows...

my wife told me about it happening during Wednesday's magic show and it happened again to us last night.....I'm not talking about someone saving two or three seats- i am referring to one person saving eight or nine seats; getting to the show extra early while others are lolly gagging or showering and saving a row of seats for friends/etc....

we were in the theater at 6PM for the 6:15 show....I asked some girl if we (3 of us total) could move into the row and sit..."these seats are saved"...i replied "the whole row???!!!"

eventually as the show was about to begin and the row was still empty a woman forced her way in and said to the girl "sorry- you can't save seats"...

same thing in the row in front of us; father and son saving about six seats...light go down, seats were still empty...

this i really unfair...

 

[jdb in AZ]

had to get this off my chest....

we got off the Fantasy this morning after a brilliant week long Eastern Caribbean cruise...everything was terrific especially Clayton, the cruise director...

but I got to say they really must put a stop to people saving rows of seats in the Walt Disney Theater for shows...

my wife told me about it happening during Wednesday's magic show and it happened again to us last night.....I'm not talking about someone saving two or three seats- i am referring to one person saving eight or nine seats; getting to the show extra early while others are lolly gagging or showering and saving a row of seats for friends/etc....

we were in the theater at 6PM for the 6:15 show....I asked some girl if we (3 of us total) could move into the row and sit..."these seats are saved"...i replied "the whole row???!!!"

eventually as the show was about to begin and the row was still empty a woman forced her way in and said to the girl "sorry- you can't save seats"...

same thing in the row in front of us; father and son saving about six seats...light go down, seats were still empty...

this i really unfair...

Don't put up with it. Help yourself, and if the seat hoarders complain, tell them to take it up with a CM. Guess who the CM will support? Not the hoarders.

 

[Zeppelin]

Don't put up with it. Help yourself, and if the seat hoarders complain, tell them to take it up with a CM. Guess who the CM will support? Not the hoarders.

you're 100% right on.....

i try and be polite and stay away from confrontation....not any longer moving forward with this deal...

 

[ZoeBell]

I don't understand the point of saving seats? Is it really that important a whole party to sit together in a theatre full of great seats.

Outside if saving a seat so someone in our party can go to the restroom I don't save seats. That includes my children. I like to arrive early enough my pick of seats. If my kids want to be guaranteed to sit with me they better come with me. Mind you my kids are older, but still.

On the other hand I don't understand people who want to arrive a minute or 2 before the show starts and expect to get a front row seat. Then look annoyed that no seats are available.

 

[MommaluvsDis]

I had just the opposite happen to me. Yes, I must confess,I'm a seat saver! We went to a show and it was about 10 minutes from starting when my friend, who suffers from Chrohn's disease flared up causing her to dash to the restroom. There was her empty seat and one more in our row. A man and his wife came up and started to sit in the seats. I politely told them my friend was sitting in one of the seats and would be right back.

He started yelling at me that it was against the rules to save seats! How dare I be so rude! Didn't I realize I was breaking the rules?

 

[jdb in AZ]

I had just the opposite happen to me. Yes, I must confess,I'm a seat saver! We went to a show and it was about 10 minutes from starting when my friend, who suffers from Chrohn's disease flared up causing her to dash to the restroom. There was her empty seat and one more in our row. A man and his wife came up and started to sit in the seats. I politely told them my friend was sitting in one of the seats and would be right back.

He started yelling at me that it was against the rules to save seats! How dare I be so rude! Didn't I realize I was breaking the rules?

There's a big difference between saving one seat and a whole row.

 

[ZoeBell]

I had just the opposite happen to me. Yes, I must confess,I'm a seat saver! We went to a show and it was about 10 minutes from starting when my friend, who suffers from Chrohn's disease flared up causing her to dash to the restroom. There was her empty seat and one more in our row. A man and his wife came up and started to sit in the seats. I politely told them my friend was sitting in one of the seats and would be right back.

He started yelling at me that it was against the rules to save seats! How dare I be so rude! Didn't I realize I was breaking the rules?

See I would have said "my friend is in the bathroom, do you mind??"

 

[darkwing818]

I don't understand the point of saving seats? Is it really that important a whole party to sit together in a theatre full of great seats.

Outside if saving a seat so someone in our party can go to the restroom I don't save seats. That includes my children. I like to arrive early enough my pick of seats. If my kids want to be guaranteed to sit with me they better come with me. Mind you my kids are older, but still.

On the other hand I don't understand people who want to arrive a minute or 2 before the show starts and expect to get a front row seat. Then look annoyed that no seats are available.

Totally Agree, unfortunately we've seen this on every cruise we've taken (10 to date). Personally I think it's up to Disney to stop this, as opposed to putting other cruisers in the position of challenging those who are saving seats. We've seen it where the same families were sending 2 or 3 kids to save a whole row of seats for the adults 3 nights in a row!!!!!! But hey it's their vacation, they are entitled I guess.

 

[Zeppelin]

Totally Agree, unfortunately we've seen this on every cruise we've taken (10 to date). Personally I think it's up to Disney to stop this, as opposed to putting other cruisers in the position of challenging those who are saving seats. We've seen it where the same families were sending 2 or 3 kids to save a whole row of seats for the adults 3 nights in a row!!!!!! But hey it's their vacation, they are entitled I guess.

I agree it is up to Disney- problem is there was no CM to complain to at last night's show- it was all waiters....we did put something about it on the comment card in the "problems" section...

 

[allbluezoo]

I had just the opposite happen to me. Yes, I must confess,I'm a seat saver! We went to a show and it was about 10 minutes from starting when my friend, who suffers from Chrohn's disease flared up causing her to dash to the restroom. There was her empty seat and one more in our row. A man and his wife came up and started to sit in the seats. I politely told them my friend was sitting in one of the seats and would be right back.

He started yelling at me that it was against the rules to save seats! How dare I be so rude! Didn't I realize I was breaking the rules?

I just wanted to say how sorry I am you had to deal with that - there IS a difference between saving a seat(s) and a seat being open bc someone went to the restroom! I also have Crohn's disease so I understand your friends need, it gets as at the most inopportune times

 

[darkwing818]

I agree it is up to Disney- problem is there was no CM to complain to at last night's show- it was all waiters....we did put something about it on the comment card in the "problems" section...

Now that's a problem!!!! Hopefully they'll read your comment card & others will make similar comments. I know we've commented on savings seats both in the theaters & lounges by the pools. But really haven't seen any improvements in the theater.

 

[wdwlover25]

We've had seat savers on every cruise as well and can't stand when people are so bold as to save half a row or more. I also can't stand when these same seat savers continually move around in front of you. I specifically try to put my DS behind a small person just to have the small person move down for larger adults to sit in his view.

I really would like to see the cast members assist families to their seats and pointing them to best available making it difficult to save seats.

 

[MommaluvsDis]

See I would have said "my friend is in the bathroom, do you mind??"

Well, I told him that my friend who just left the seat had an emergency and she would be right back. The moron only got louder and more intense but when I looked him in the face and told him he could have the seats but my friend would be sitting in his lap he called me a ***** and left.

 

[disneybound08]

When we were on our first cruise there was a lady sitting at the end of a row and little reserved signs were on all the chairs. About 5 minutes before the show started about 10 family members arrived and the lady collected the signs and placed them in her purse?!?! Now that's taking set saving to a whole new level.

 

[Golden Rose]

We have a fairly newly potty trained daughter and have run into similar problems. When she says she needs the potty, we stop what we're doing and run for it!

On our last Disney Cruise, we did have to run one kid or the other to the restroom once we had taken our seats on more than one occasion, and my response to, "is this seat taken?" was "my husband is running our son (or daughter) to the restroom and will be right back." We were fortunate that no one gave us any trouble about it, other than a roll of the eyes that may have meant they thought I was lying, and I admit I worried a little about it.

I don't support sending someone ahead to grab a row, but I think people need to be understand when someone needs to make a quick run to the bathroom, either for themselves or a child.

 

[lilpooh108]

Wow, um going to the bathroom is not the same as saving a seat. How rude was that man who yelled at you.

I agree about "saving" a whole row. No such thing. If there were other seats open, I'd just go elsewhere. If not, I'm sitting. They can have a "Disney Day."

 

[Ready to go]

Well, I told him that my friend who just left the seat had an emergency and she would be right back. The moron only got louder and more intense but when I looked him in the face and told him he could have the seats but my friend would be sitting in his lap he called me a ***** and left.

For Shame!!! And on a Disney Cruise no less! You probably handled it better than I would have!!!

 

[insureman]

Disney should charge the offending person a $250 seat saving fee.

 

[KittyKat1978]

I haven't come across this before, but I have not been on a Disney cruise (I have been on RCCL & CCL).

You are scaring me now that if my mom or I have to go to the washroom (I always show up 30 minutes before the show starts), that I am going to have someone yelling at me or my mom. What if I put a jacket on the seat? Will they leave us alone?

 

[jjje]

I got some great seats by sitting in a row someone claimed they were saving for someone. I would never try to take a seat from someone who ran to the bathroom but if you have two people trying to save seats for 14? Sorry, four of those seats are getting sat in.