Saving Tables....A Complaint

[englishrose47]

I can't believe how this thread has taken off! It seems strange that a thing like getting a seat could be such a HOT topic!!

 

[Barbers2005]

I can't believe how this thread has taken off! It seems strange that a thing like getting a seat could be such a HOT topic!!

Yeah, it is a little odd...it never occurred to me that people might think it's rude to save tables until I saw it on the dis.

 

[faindrops27]

Clearly, I'm in the minority on this topic. But let me ask you this....what do you do as you look around and see folks with food struggling to find somewhere to sit down and there's table after table occupied by folks such as yourself...with no food. Do you feel sorry for them? Ignore them? Do you just not care? Or do you feel guilty because you know that you're sitting at a table that they could be using to eat their lunch? Seriously. I couldn't help but wonder what all of those people were thinking as they watched folks walk around with their trays of food in search of a vacant table. If it were me, I would give it up. I just couldn't sit there and ignore them. Clearly, their need is greater than my comfort.

I have only read the first page. But, where are those families supposed to sit after they give up thier table to you? the plan of attack should always be if possible. Someone, looks for a table and waits to hold it while the other orders food. That is not selfish at all. But again, this is JMHO

 

[Conservative Hippie]

Yeah, it is a little odd...it never occurred to me that people might think it's rude to save tables until I saw it on the dis.

30 pages! I can't believe people can get so worked up by this! I have eaten at a bench before and I am certainly not traumatized for life. I guess I should give up Fastpasses, because it causes the stand-by riders to wait in line longer. I should give up ADRs, because it keeps someone else who might be hungrier than I am from getting a table, not to mention some people may not know that TSs are hard to get into without them. I should give up a free room upgrade if offered one, because someone else might need or enjoy the upgrade more than me. I definitely should feel awful every time I use my CM park ticket, because there are definitely families out there that would really love to go to Disney and cannot afford it. I really should just hate myself and deprive myself of every little luxury, because I can't share it with the world!

 

[smoof]

I'm sorry, but I had to check the box for saving seats is okay. I find it much more annoying for entire families to wait in line, then have a big discussion (or argument!) about what to order up at the register. I much prefer to get everyone seated, find out what they want to eat, and then go up to order. Dh and ds stay at the table, get it cleaned off (they almost always need some cleaning), get napkins, plasticware, ketchup, etc. while dd and I go up and get all the food. If it's really busy and the lines are long, I'll get in line for food while dh waits for a table. As you've learned, there's nothing worse than standing around with a tray full of food, searching in vain for a table.

Having said that, I wouldn't have a problem with CM's asking people to vacate tables if they didn't actually have food yet, as long as they also help people who do have food to find tables. One without the other is just pointless.

Me too! I am not saying to send someone in to wait while you are on your last ride before lunch, but you need to separate and get a seat while someone is getting the food. It alleviates some crowding in line as well.

 

[tink_about_it]

I can't believe I am responding.
Howver, I have been reading page after page of this hopeless unsolvable thread, and I just HAVE to say that I am going to speak up on the side of the masses here.
Is sitting at a table with my little kids while my husband waits in line to order *rude*? I, personally, don't think so. I can see other people DO think it is rude, and if I am offending you by this practice, my apologies.
HOWEVER! When I am on vacation, on my VERY EXPENSIVE vacation that I have scrimped and saved for, with three very hungry and tired children and a marginally cranky husband, and *we* have the ability to nab a table and sit our tired buttocks down at it while one of the adults goes to order, am I sorry about this? Do I feel guilty? Let me just say OH H*LL NO! If you choose not to do this, your choice. If you cannot do this for one reason or another, I am sorry for that. If you didn't have the foresight to see how crowded the restaurant was and go somewhere else, YOUR choice. Now, if I have finished eating, and see a family looking for a table, you bet I will get right up and offer them my spot. If the table I have is bigger than what my family needs, you bet we will scrunch over and let someone share the table with us. Without question. If I see an elderly couple, or a pregnant lady, or a family with very tiny kids, or a handicapped person who cannot find a table, I would probably offer them my spot and go eat on a bench somewhere.
But if you are just Joe Q. Public and you are annoyed with me cause I happened to be lucky enough or plan ahead enough to grab a table for my family - sorry, no sympathies. As Captain Jack would say - I don't give an a$$ rats how annoyed you are with me. Next time it could just as easily be me how cannot get a table, and be that the case I will go find a nice shady bench somewhere to eat on, and remind myself to plan a little better next time. Sometime you win, sometimes you lose, people, and part of being a grown-up person is realizing that the world DOES NOT revolve around you.
I shall now leave this train wreck of a thread and go back to peacefully lurking elsewhere.

Nicely said!