screwed at garden grill

[DVCcurious]

I must vent. We got screwed at Garden Grill tonight:

what: character dining at garden grill at The Land EPCOT
who: mickey, pluto, chip, dale
reservation time: 8:10pm
seated: 8:40pm

At 8:45 (according to the picture on my iphone) Pluto stopped by our table.

Then.....nothing. At 9:15 the table next to us asked if we'd seen anyone. They were seated right after Pluto left.

Long story short: the characters went home at 8:55. Leaving a full restaurant of angry families who were all seated after 8:30.

We're relatively laid back, but is it too much to ask for the characters to stay at work until they've visited every table?

The manager walked around and apologized and gave us 3 anytime/anywhere character fastpasses. So we'll use those for Mickey, Cinderella, and A&E tomorrow. Luckily our kids didn't notice the lack of characters, but the poor family next door who saw no one had the kids asking every 10 minutes "where's Mickey?"

Worst character dining experience ever.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

That stinks! I'm glad they gave you Fast Passes, but we only go to character meals for the characters, so I know I would've been complaining.

 

[ariane37]

WOW! How can they do that to multiple tables?

Back in Nov. we were just about the last table seated for breakfast. Our reservation was 10:15; breakfast ends 10:30. We saw all the characters out and about as we were brought to our table and shortly after we were seated Dale came over, followed by Chip. Then Mickey walked by a couple times but never stopped. Then nobody. Finally after we'd finished eating (and hadn't seen any characters for awhile) and noticed we were one of maybe 4 tables still there, we asked our server if the rest of the characters were coming........she looked confused and nervous, went in search of them and ended up giving us a "golden" FP for Character Spot . Apparently Mickey and Pluto had gone to lunch Now my kids are 14 & 10 and were ok with missing the rest of the characters, and we did use the FP, but I had been looking forward to Mickey in his farmers outfit!

And in all seriousness it really stinks if your kids are younger. That's 2 stories too many regarding the characters missing guests at the same character meal.

 

[alwaysmom]

Character meals = character presence. I expect it. I'd be complaining.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

What??? That is awful, my son would have been bawling if he was expecting characters. Why did they leave? They usually stay at WDW till closing, no? I know at Disneyland that's not the case but you have warning what time they stay till when you book.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Sounds like a major scheduling issue. There are strict rules about character sets, due to the heat and weight of the suits. It sounds like character scheduling and ADR scheduling were out of sync.

Characters are a union role, so they can't just have them stay late, either.

 

[TML2012]

That stinks! I'm glad they gave you Fast Passes, but we only go to character meals for the characters, so I know I would've been complaining.

I agree. Three FP+ as compensation would not have cut it for me. The characters are why I am willing to pay their crazy buffet prices for so-so food.

 

[DVCcurious]

Our kids are 6 and 4.

The real problem is they were 30 minutes late seating people. If we were seated at 8:10 we would've seen everybody by the time they left at 8:55.

Oh well, I'm not dwelling on it. It's not like getting pissed will change anything. We have Crystal Palace at 8:45pm tomorrow so that should go better.

After all, tomorrow is another day....

 

[goofy4prez]

Sounds like a major scheduling issue. There are strict rules about character sets, due to the heat and weight of the suits. It sounds like character scheduling and ADR scheduling were out of sync.

Characters are a union role, so they can't just have them stay late, either.

Sorry, if this is how it went down (and I have no reason to doubt the OP), I cannot and will not give Disney a mulligan on this one. I'm of the opinion three FP's to visit characters is not going to suffice. People are there for the characters not the lousy slop they put on the buffet station that they call food, especially if they are paying at least $45 for an adult and $25 for a child. Each and every person who was visited by that manager should have been comped their meal if they expressed their disappointment. An extreme blunder as that should have resulted in Disney truly showing their remorse, not a few character FP's. I can only imagine if that was someones last night at Disney and this was going to be their special character dinner with the kids... Everyone makes mistakes, including Disney, but when you do show that you truly care and are sorry.

 

[baler31]

Disney frequently charges those who do not eat at buffets due to entertainment. Characters are part of the meal and more compensation should have been given to those who did not see the characters.

 

[TML2012]

Sorry, if this is how it went down (and I have no reason to doubt the OP), I cannot and will not give Disney a mulligan on this one. I'm of the opinion three FP's to visit characters is not going to suffice. People are there for the characters not the lousy slop they put on the buffet station that they call food, especially if they are paying at least $45 for an adult and $25 for a child. Each and every person who was visited by that manager should have been comped their meal if they expressed their disappointment. An extreme blunder as that should have resulted in Disney truly showing their remorse, not a few character FP's. I can only imagine if that was someones last night at Disney and this was going to be their special character dinner with the kids... Everyone makes mistakes, including Disney, but when you do show that you truly care and are sorry.

and congrats on your weight loss!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Inadequate compensation? Most likely.

But if the character players were off schedule, you cannot just add OT per contract.

It is easier to compensate guests than to deal with violations of labor agreements, much as you may be personally upset by it. Legal reality, even in a state like Florida.

 

[goofy4prez]

and congrats on your weight loss!

Thank you.

 

[goofy4prez]

Inadequate compensation? Most likely.

But if the character players were off schedule, you cannot just add OT per contract.

It is easier to compensate guests than to deal with violations of labor agreements, much as you may be personally upset by it. Legal reality, even in a state like Florida.

You may be 100% correct and I could live with that ... But three character FP's would not be fair compensation if it happened to me and I don't think it is fair to the OP either. I am willing to look the other way often and not look for any kind of compensation. I'm not one to complain if the broccoli is soggy, or my soda is flat, but if I was paying that kind of $$$$$$$$$$$ I expect more than what was given.

 

[DVCcurious]

The table next to me said their reservation was 8:15.

In my opinion they should schedule the characters at least 1 hour after the last table is reserved.

They were 30 minutes late seating everyone. If the characters were scheduled 1 hour after the last reservation they would've had a half hour to see everyone. Even if they rushed you with 30 secend visits all tables could have seen all 4 of them. Or at least 3.

But to have a table see 0 characters....There is no excuse.

At least we saw Pluto.

I'm ok with fps rather than a discounted dinner because I value my "disney time" more than money. An A&E fp will save us 90 minutes, Cinderella will save us 60, and an Epcot character spot will save us 30. So that's 3 hours of "disney time" we're getting as compensation.

Frankly it's not about the money, it's about the experience. If it was about the money we wouldn't pay $160 for a mediocre dinner.

 

[Disneylover99]

That's terrible. I'd be royally ticked.

So three characters didn't come around and you got three anytime fp's for characters. Except now you have to seek them out, and wait in line after paying big bucks to sit there and have them come to you. Not cool.

 

[pigletgirl]

That's awful. I'd almost say that I would of liked a total refund of the meal, plus the fast passes.

Especially with the prices, the characters better be there! I'd write a letter to Disney as soon as you get home.

 

[Paigevon]

I think I would personally send a polite e-mail to guest services regarding the situation.

 

[WonderWoman28]

That's horrible

 

[sndral]

After my last experience at Garden Grill in Dec. 2014, where, among other things, they were running 45+ min. late seating for dinner I decided not to dine there for awhile. Our ADR wasn't at the end of dinner seating so not seeing characters wasn't a problem. If the restaurant chronically runs late then they need to schedule characters to be there late, get their act together and seat guests on time or take fewer reservations or they are guilty of false advertising. I wonder if they've cut staffing as part of their recent penny pinching and this is a consequence.
I think I'd complain so that someone further up the food chain knows and if it wasn't a one off problem the issue can be dealt with so other families don't suffer the same fate.