State of Counter Service

[Greenfield1984]

Thanks podcast team for another stellar podcast. I thought i'd like to coment on Kevin's rant about the state of counter service.

To begin with, I completely agree with Kevin's disdain for the quality of food. I'd go one step further and also say that the service is subpar as i've noticed most of the servers in counter service restaurants are completely uninterested. Often i've found they don't notice your presence until you address them first and even then i've had times when they didn't say hi or thank you. This wasn't always the case. And you can still see the odd cast member striking up a conversation with you. Now however I find i'm the one trying to get a conversation going and tryign to spread a little happiness into their lives.

Now is where I sort of disagree with Kevin and i'll relate it to my fairly recent experience with pop century. To begin with I also apreciate the way the food court is layed out. I like that ther eare different bays with different selections. Also the quick serve options in the fridge, as well as the deserts are quite extensive. However, as Kevin pointed out, alot of the options were just not good. I love pasta but during my 8 night stay at pop I never actually ordered from the pasta section. And here is where my big issue with Kevin seems to be. WHY DO YOU KEEP ORDERING BURGERS!!! They are garbage! They have always been garbage! And will continue to be garbage! You are insane if you keep on ordering the same thing and expect a different result!!!

...
i'm kidding of course . As you pointed out the ABC comisary has finally found a way to make an edible burger. However I stayed at pop and never ordered a burger. The reason being is that through the dis i've informed myself. I research ahead of time which restaurants to eat at and which menu items are good. I know not to get the burger. I know not to get the nuggets. You keep getting these crappy items and are upset with them. And the reason you do so is so that you can chronicle the average park guests experience. I believe the people on these boards are not the average park guest. We keep ourselves informed and for the most part seek out the higher quality options. And they are out there. Out of all the options at pop I remember only willing to try a couple of options. And i enjoyed them. I then looked elsehwere for my future meals. One night we were rained in and were forced to eat at the pop and, again due to research, knew that i could order a full pizza with two disney dining plan quick service credits.

So again while i agree with you that much of the options out there are bad I believe you arey preachign to the choir. I believe your listenership is aware and knows how to avoid the bad choices. As we've seen with fast pass use, and general park planning, the majority of people in the parks do not listen to your podcast, or frequent these boards. They are simply unaware and are basicly trapped with their lack of knowledge. So basicly my only disagreement with you is that I don't believe the majority of people on these boards do tolerate this crappy food. I sure as heck do not.

This all being said. I've paid for little food out of my own pocket. We are always visiting with the quick or full service dining plan promotions. I know that if i had to pay for my meals out of pocket i'd be scrutanizing each and every purchase and i'd probably be much tougher on my choices. And so for the ammount you save on the dining plan i'd say it definately is a value.

And finally. The kids menu is a disgrace. Like i mentioned we get the dining plan promotion and so we order off the kids menu for my four year old. However even though the plan is free, as part of the promotion, i'm still not okay with giving my daughter crap. We used every one of her dining plan credits for her and my wife to have breakfast in the morning. How can you mess up eggs and waffels? And then we shared my wife and I's adult counter services for lunch and supper. That combined with the snacks worked out great.

So just to conclude. Theres alot of garbabe out there. But there are good counter service options too. I'll run across epcot to go to sunshine seaons. That place is fantastic.

I hope your rally cry ammounts to something. But I can't believe for a second that the well informed, educated, and downright decent people of these boards could actually tolerate all those crappy choices.

..can they?

 

[WebmasterJohn]

WHY DO YOU KEEP ORDERING BURGERS!!! They are garbage! They have always been garbage! And will continue to be garbage! You are insane if you keep on ordering the same thing and expect a different result!!!

I'm the one ordering the burgers at each location not Kevin. He's the one trying different items.

Part of the idea of this ongoing segment is to judge quality between counter service restaurants. One way to do that is to experience the "same" food item at different places. It helps narrow down the variables - while not 100% accurate I feel it's more accurate than ordering completely different items at each location. Obviously this doesn't work at a counter service restaurant that does not have a burger option - but when they do I will continue to order them.

Lastly I have watched what people order and almost every family has one burger on their tray. I feel that this is a 'go to' choice for some less adventurous eaters and one of the more common meal items for an adult to order - much like the chicken nuggets would be for kids.

I know their are exceptions to this and many people do not eat burgers.

 

[Greenfield1984]

I'm the one ordering the burgers at each location not Kevin. He's the one trying different items.

Part of the idea of this ongoing segment is to judge quality between counter service restaurants. One way to do that is to experience the "same" food item at different places. It helps narrow down the variables - while not 100% accurate I feel it's more accurate than ordering completely different items at each location. Obviously this doesn't work at a counter service restaurant that does not have a burger option - but when they do I will continue to order them.

Lastly I have watched what people order and almost every family has one burger on their tray. I feel that this is a 'go to' choice for some less adventurous eaters and one of the more common meal items for an adult to order - much like the chicken nuggets would be for kids.

I know their are exceptions to this and many people do not eat burgers.

Darn I was hoping that would come across properly. I have a hard time using emoticons and so I find myself not expressing myself properly. I was absolutly joking. I was more poking fun at how horrible those burgers are.

Oh and thanks for taking all those bullets. Sorry for giving Kevin the credit.

 

[DisneyKevin]

Thanks podcast team for another stellar podcast. I thought i'd like to coment on Kevin's rant about the state of counter service.

To begin with, I completely agree with Kevin's disdain for the quality of food. I'd go one step further and also say that the service is subpar as i've noticed most of the servers in counter service restaurants are completely uninterested. Often i've found they don't notice your presence until you address them first and even then i've had times when they didn't say hi or thank you. This wasn't always the case. And you can still see the odd cast member striking up a conversation with you. Now however I find i'm the one trying to get a conversation going and tryign to spread a little happiness into their lives.

Now is where I sort of disagree with Kevin and i'll relate it to my fairly recent experience with pop century. To begin with I also apreciate the way the food court is layed out. I like that ther eare different bays with different selections. Also the quick serve options in the fridge, as well as the deserts are quite extensive. However, as Kevin pointed out, alot of the options were just not good. I love pasta but during my 8 night stay at pop I never actually ordered from the pasta section. And here is where my big issue with Kevin seems to be. WHY DO YOU KEEP ORDERING BURGERS!!! They are garbage! They have always been garbage! And will continue to be garbage! You are insane if you keep on ordering the same thing and expect a different result!!!

...
i'm kidding of course . As you pointed out the ABC comisary has finally found a way to make an edible burger. However I stayed at pop and never ordered a burger. The reason being is that through the dis i've informed myself. I research ahead of time which restaurants to eat at and which menu items are good. I know not to get the burger. I know not to get the nuggets. You keep getting these crappy items and are upset with them. And the reason you do so is so that you can chronicle the average park guests experience. I believe the people on these boards are not the average park guest. We keep ourselves informed and for the most part seek out the higher quality options. And they are out there. Out of all the options at pop I remember only willing to try a couple of options. And i enjoyed them. I then looked elsehwere for my future meals. One night we were rained in and were forced to eat at the pop and, again due to research, knew that i could order a full pizza with two disney dining plan quick service credits.

So again while i agree with you that much of the options out there are bad I believe you arey preachign to the choir. I believe your listenership is aware and knows how to avoid the bad choices. As we've seen with fast pass use, and general park planning, the majority of people in the parks do not listen to your podcast, or frequent these boards. They are simply unaware and are basicly trapped with their lack of knowledge. So basicly my only disagreement with you is that I don't believe the majority of people on these boards do tolerate this crappy food. I sure as heck do not.

This all being said. I've paid for little food out of my own pocket. We are always visiting with the quick or full service dining plan promotions. I know that if i had to pay for my meals out of pocket i'd be scrutanizing each and every purchase and i'd probably be much tougher on my choices. And so for the ammount you save on the dining plan i'd say it definately is a value.

And finally. The kids menu is a disgrace. Like i mentioned we get the dining plan promotion and so we order off the kids menu for my four year old. However even though the plan is free, as part of the promotion, i'm still not okay with giving my daughter crap. We used every one of her dining plan credits for her and my wife to have breakfast in the morning. How can you mess up eggs and waffels? And then we shared my wife and I's adult counter services for lunch and supper. That combined with the snacks worked out great.

So just to conclude. Theres alot of garbabe out there. But there are good counter service options too. I'll run across epcot to go to sunshine seaons. That place is fantastic.

I hope your rally cry ammounts to something. But I can't believe for a second that the well informed, educated, and downright decent people of these boards could actually tolerate all those crappy choices.

..can they?

Okay....you have me confused.

You sent a long email letting us know that we had wandered off course and that you were not interested in the topics we were discussing in the recent past. You suggested that we get back to basics and talk about trip planning.

We thought about what you said and realized that this was our original goal and that maybe we did need to bring things back in line and talk about planning a WDW vacation. This was always our intent.

We have gone back to basics and started talking about planning a trip to WDW and now you suggest that we are"preaching to the choir" and that our listeners don't need this kind of information.

I'm not entirely sure where the middle ground is in this situation. I guess that you are just going to have to realize that we can't please everyone all the time.

You are welcome to agree or disagree with anything said on the podcast

As John has posted, we are trying to form a basis for comparison and ordering a burger offers that. And no....all burgers are not created equal on WDW property.

The point we are trying to make is that if one operation can make a decent burger (for $1.00 less0 then why can't every operation make a decent burger.

 

[Greenfield1984]

My ability to comunicate my weird sense of humor online appears to be lacking. Please take down my previous posts.

I post way too long a message anyhow. The real posting should have been read as such:

You guys are completely right about all your criticisms and praises of Disney. I can relate from my own experience as a occasional visitor.

The Podcasts, in my opinion, have gotten to a whole other level. They are phenomenal and I literally have no complaints. Not one.

Please keep up the great work team and try to ignore me until I properly learn how to communicate. My wife will tell you. My sense of humor doesn't always come across as intended.

 

[mjtm610]

I get the hamburger. I love hamburgers!! I do agree that the fast food at the MK is poor. It needs improvement! I guess my expectations are low....but burgers are often crummy at places like baseball games, cafeterias, sports arenas, concerts etc. I would like to see them improve. Improvement is always the goal

 

[kbelle8995]

The only place I get burgers at Disney is at Beaches and Cream because it is not sitting under a heat lamp.

I like that there are more healthy choices out but I wish that the food was of better quality and consistent across the board.

I had a piece of bacon that had no flavor at pop and I should have complained. I love Bacon. It should be so delicious and salty that I feel bad about eating it. I had bacon at a sit down restaurant that was really good. The whole meal was very good. Even the sit down restaurants are consistently good. You can go one time and have a delicious meal and the next time it's lousy.

So the problem is not just the quality but the consistancy of quality at the various restaurants and fast food areas.

 

[DEA]

I hope your rally cry ammounts to something. But I can't believe for a second that the well informed, educated, and downright decent people of these boards could actually tolerate all those crappy choices.

..can they?

Well, I'd like to think that I don't tolerate the crappy choices. I don't go places where I get crappy food. As you mention, there are good places out there, and I vote for those with my wallet.

You mention that you haven't been paying for your WDW meals lately due to free dining plans being offered. I have been paying for all my food lately, avoiding the dining plan for the past couple of years in order to have more choice in my dining decisions. That means that, instead of a kids' meal, I can have my daughters split the salmon and broccoli adult meal at Columbia Harbor House. More expensive, yes, but much better quality, and I'm not paying over $5 for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I don't know how else we can practice intolerance of bad food except by avoiding it. Kevin and John (and others on the Podcast) can give a heads-up ahead of time to help me avoid the pitfalls of bad dining, and I appreciate the work. For example, I have not ever darkened the door of Shutters. I occasionally find stuff that I like that flies in the face of reviews on the Podcast, yes, but everyone has different likes and dislikes.

I am lucky, I guess, to have avoided a lot of bad food (Four meals out of 100+ at WDW: ABC Commissary and Tony's Town Square, to which I haven't been back, one of three visits to 'Ohana, and one entrée at Brown Derby that I got replaced). It's that last one that I owe completely to the implied advice on previous Podcast Restaurant Reviews that Kevin made concrete on this last episode. If you don't like something, send it back. If they make you something better, great. If they can't, get a refund, and don't go back. I wish I'd given those other restaurants a chance to improve things, but instead I just don't give them my business.

 

[quigs3]

I'd like to respond to your comment regarding the cast members at the food court. I used to agree with your statement that, in general, they aren't very friendly and tend to ignore guests. I think the cast members in the cafeterias have to be pretty miserable as a whole. Those kitchens are so incredibly hot, they're on their feet continuously, the crowd level and noise can be overwhelming, and they're serving demanding guests. One while waiting for my food I observed a cast member standing over the grill who had such a scowl on her face. She not interacting in any way with the guests. At first I thought to myself, what is someone like this working at the "Happiest Place on Earth"?! Then I decided to talk to her. I said that it looked so hot back there, and that I didn't think I could stand it for very long. It was amazing how quickly she smiled at me and started a conversation. We chatted the whole time while I waited for my food. As I was leaving, she told me to have a wonderful day. I try to remind myself of that experience whenever I run into a less than pleasant cast member.

 

[max'sdad]

I really enjoyed this episode and will definitely go over to Sleepy Hollow when we visit in August.

We've done the standard dining plan and the counter service plan, so we've got plenty of experience with counter service. This year, we're going out of pocket, doing selected table service (maybe half the days of our trip) and the rest counter service. We'll see how it goes. I think the dining plans are ridiculously priced now, and frankly, it was always too much food (who eats desserts at every meal?).

I can share some of my favorite counter service gems - Wolfgang Puck Express for flatbread pizzas and rotisserie chicken (if you're using counter service credits, great bang for your buck). Sunshine Seasons - the grilled entrees in particular. The Aloha Pork Sandwich at Captain Cooks at the Poly (and self-serve Dole Whip for dessert!). The African Stew in the bread bowl at Mara at Animal Kingdom Lodge. The sandwiches at Starring Rolls at the Studios are always a winner. As far as burgers go, I've enjoyed Pecos Bill's, mainly thanks to the toppings bar.

I think one big reason people do counter service is to save time, and I must say that for the most part, Disney is really efficient at moving a lot of people through those lines at the counter service restaurants.