Why have reservations at all?

[jaygalterio]

I apologize in advance, I just need to have a good rant to keep from exploding on someone.

In Epcot right now and just showed up for dinner rez and got told they are running at least 30 minutes late. No beepers to let us know when our table is ready. Just one girl with a voice you can barely hear over the crowd noise.

A $10 no show policy just seems incredibly wrong if you are going to over book. And not be able to honor those rezes.

 

[minnie mum]

I completely understand your frustration with having to wait, but you must remember that an ADR is not a reservation for a specific time, but a reservation for the next available table at that time. There's not much that the CMs can do in instances where people occupy tables for considerably longer than the average, which can, and frequently does, result in protracted wait times for guests with later ADRs. Certain WDW restaurants are, in fact, notorious for seating guests late. Hope your meal is worth the wait. And Merry Christmas.

 

[mesaboy2]

I completely understand your frustration with having to wait, but you must remember that an ADR is not a reservation for a specific time, but a reservation for the next available table at that time. There's not much that the CMs can do in instances where people occupy tables for considerably longer than the average, which can, and frequently does, result in protracted wait times for guests with later ADRs. Certain WDW restaurants are, in fact, notorious for seating guests late. Hope your meal is worth the wait. And Merry Christmas.

Well put. I'm sure the problem is amplified during crazy-busy seasons such as this one.

 

[3floridarays]

Sorry you are having a frustrating time. However, the difference between having an ADR and not having an ADR is the difference between getting a table, even if it's a little late, and not getting a table at all. As PP said, the CM's have no control over people who linger, and linger, and linger. Considering that tonight is Christmas Eve, I would be thankful if the wait is only 30 minutes. Hope the rest of your trip is wonderful and that you have a Merry Christmas!

 

[OKW Lover]

Just curious which restaurant this was at.

 

[Berlioz70]

If you chose to leave based on wait, they should not charge you $10. That $10 is for no shows.... you did show, they just didn't have a place for you.

That's our policy at TPL anyway, so I'd assume it's the same throughout property.

 

[Jennasis]

As explained, it is NOT a reservation per se. It is like holding your spot in line for the next available table for your size party beginning at that time. At this UBER busy time of year a 30 minute wait is both to be expected and not unreasonable. Without that ADR you'd be shut out completely or be looking at a wait of 1 hour plus.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'd be curious to know if they have made any adjustments to the number of tables they book since the new cc guarantee policy started. It seems to me that they used to need to overbook by a bit to account for the no-shows. When you take the no-shows out of the equation, it seems to me they would no longer need to pad the number of ADR's to make up for it. If they made no adjustment, it seems like they will likely be overbooked for a while.

 

[Bullseye]

No beepers to let us know when our table is ready. Just one girl with a voice you can barely hear over the crowd noise.

When we had lunch at Chefs de France last summer the entrance of the restaurant was swamped and the maitre d' was barely audible when he was calling names. Consequently, we missed him calling our name. When I finally went back up to check, it honestly felt like he was pooh-poohing me.... you know giving me the "stupid American" attitude.

Like come on brah, I know you're trying to stay in character, but this ain't really France

 

[disnut8]

A $10 no show policy just seems incredibly wrong if you are going to over book. And not be able to honor those rezes.

They didn't over book. And they are honoring your advanced seating. And you did show up so no $10 charge.

I would challenge anyone to go into a decent offsite place on Christmas Eve and not have to wait more than 30 minutes. Denny's probably even has a wait.

 

[Berlioz70]

Denny's probably even has a wait.

Yeah... but they're probably out of Chocolate Milk and Hot Apple Pie.

 

[larryz]

I don't blame you, OP -- we wound up having to wait for 45 minutes at Biergarten, of all places, last year for a fairly early dinner.

I've been in restaurants all over the world, and none of them seem to have as much trouble seating guests on time like the ones in WDW theme parks.

Now, that said, I've never had to wait at The Hollywood Brown Derby more than a few minutes -- in fact, they've let us in early more often than not!

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

I too, question the $10 no-show charge....it's only at the restaurants that are so popular that they are not going to lose out any money if people don't show, because there are ALWAYS others waiting for a table. We made the mistake of booking 'Ohanas the day we arrived, and I was so stressed about losing $40 if we cancelled past their 24 hour limit, because we were so exhausted. But there was no question In my mind that there were many people there willing to take our place. Just my opinion.

 

[jaygalterio]

I only have three points I want to mention. Just trying to keep this from turning into a flamewar...

1.. I originally posted that message while standing outside the restaurant in question. It was my way of blowing off steam instead of blowing it off on the staff. I didn't think that they were responsible for the issue, so I didn't want to take it out on them. There were *a lot* of people waiting who had no misgivings about screaming.

2... If your wait is going to be that long (come on, "at least 30 minutes" is a kind of mealy mouthed "we really don't know what's going on" answer) then it is kind of unreasonable to expect everyone to crowd around the door and wait. Particularly when there is nowhere to sit, a lot of agitated people, and no way to hear the person making the announcements.

I don't really see "the park is busy" as an acceptable reasoning either. The park is almost always busy on a Saturday night, holiday or not. Anyone who has tried to make reservations recently knows that. "The park is busy" is not a reason to allow more reservations to be made. Personally I would prefer to be disappointed beforehand (by not being able to make a reservation) then being disappointed the night of.

And communication was sorely lacking. None of the staff seemed to know if the $10 per person cancellation fee applied if you gave up your reservation. There were multiple arguments going on just about this. With a few guests calling guest services for clarification.

3... Right at that moment it just seemed as if Disney was having their cake and eating it too with the $10 fee. If a guest no shows, then I can understand the fee and it is perfectly reasonable to charge it. On the other hand, charging the fee if you change your reservation within 24 hours? And have the restaurant overbooked for those reservations?

With the number of people who walk up or attempt to make last minute reservations you can't tell me that the same abandoned reservation wouldn't be "gobbled up" within four our more ours remaining.

I am still going to maintain that the place was overbooked. We aren't talking about a "Mickey Mouse" operation here. Most resteraunt managers already know how many guests they can handle at a time. A delay of twenty minutes is reasonable, thirty minutes is borderline, but "at least 30 minutes" just smacks of poor planning and management IF the place was not overbooked.

If nothing else, Disney is experts at crowd control. They know the flow of people and how long things take.

........../end rant

The situation did not bother me that much to be honest. It still doesn't. I did feel bad for the families who showed up at the same time as us, 8:45, to be told that they wouldn't be seated until at least 9:15 / 9:30. I can't imagine having to deal with that with young children.

I also felt bad for the staff members who were literally getting it in the face because of the policies. They didn't need to be treated like that on a holiday either.

By the way, I didn't even mention that when they announced our name we got half way to our table when another staff member stopped our hostess. "Who are you taking down?"
"Oh no, they have to wait."
"We switched tables."
"It will just be a bit longer."

That was the only point where I came really close to losing it.

[And the bad puns here were intended to try and lighten the mood a little. Dinner was at Le Cellier. It was excellent as always. Our server was excellent as well. I even decided to risk the Creme Brulee with my lactose intolerent stomach. It was worth it.]

 

[Bete]

is probably the most popular restaurant in Epcot. Add to it you are at the end of the night for a meal and this is a double whammy. Any delays during the day are all put to the test at the end of the night. There's no way to catch up at the end of the night. Let's add to the fact that everyone is getting tired at this time of the day and probably moving slower at this point in all regards. Let's add the holiday time to the mix and you absolutely are going to wait way beyond normal. Also, some where still able to get free dining if they started their vacation at the right time to do it. This always adds to the time factors; because, more people are doing TS meals with free dining.

I do feel Disney/Le Cellier should take this all into account and not have as many reservations for late evening meals.

Personally, I've become disenchanted with eating meals at the parks. There is such a time committment to do it. Every minute in a park restaurant is one less minute to enjoy the park. Now, add insult to injury and let's pay top dollar for a meal. Our next trip will be off site (I've been on site for at least 20 trips); I feel it's time to try it another way. Off site will lend itself to eating more meals away from the parks.

 

[GirlDreamer]

I don't think they overbooked. I used to work at the princess dining (Akershus) as an assignor, and we were never overbooked. The only times we had any problems were if one of the resorts wanted to do a favor for their guests and canceled an existing reservation to book for their guest instead. I guess they didn't know the managers could go into the system and see who did it

And secondly, I believe it was probably because of guests not leaving, especially now in the christmas time. That would happen regularly at Akershus, and it's very important that guests there leave when they're supposed to because of the princess rotation. But it did happen that a family didn't want to leave and of course we couldn't kick them out. They just took their time, and when they saw the princesses coming out again, they wanted to see them again, not knowing there would be a family outside being upset because there's no table for them and they would have to wait for the next seating which would be an hour later.

 

[DaisyMaisie]

Yeah... but they're probably out of Chocolate Milk and Hot Apple Pie.

Burned the turkey?

 

[mom2rtk]

I don't think they overbooked. I used to work at the princess dining (Akershus) as an assignor, and we were never overbooked. The only times we had any problems were if one of the resorts wanted to do a favor for their guests and canceled an existing reservation to book for their guest instead. I guess they didn't know the managers could go into the system and see who did it

And secondly, I believe it was probably because of guests not leaving, especially now in the christmas time. That would happen regularly at Akershus, and it's very important that guests there leave when they're supposed to because of the princess rotation. But it did happen that a family didn't want to leave and of course we couldn't kick them out. They just took their time, and when they saw the princesses coming out again, they wanted to see them again, not knowing there would be a family outside being upset because there's no table for them and they would have to wait for the next seating which would be an hour later.

I never thought Akershus would overbook. They didn't have a reason too. They have required a cc guarantee for a long time. What I was saying is that the restaurants that did NOT used to require a CC guarantee(but now just recently do) probably were used to overbooking to compensate for the no-shows (a much bigger issue when not guaranteed) and now that they they have the guarantee the no-show rate should be next to nothing (I would guess). So if they never changed their booking numbers in conjunction with the cc guarantee change, I could see things really backing up.

 

[jaygalterio]

I never thought Akershus would overbook. They didn't have a reason too. They have required a cc guarantee for a long time. What I was saying is that the restaurants that did NOT used to require a CC guarantee(but now just recently do) probably were used to overbooking to compensate for the no-shows (a much bigger issue when not guaranteed) and now that they they have the guarantee the no-show rate should be next to nothing (I would guess). So if they never changed their booking numbers in conjunction with the cc guarantee change, I could see things really backing up.

That is what I was thinking too. Plus there are also the people who wont cancel now. After all if you are within 24 hours then you are already going to get charged. So why not take the chance that you might make it?

 

[MikeSF]

Well the ADRs are basically the entire fault of the system, they take "reservations" 6 months out expecting to know how fast any particular party is going to eat.

Ditch the whole ADR system, or make them as long as the longest ticket you can get, 10 days. WDW really seems ill equipped to feed everyone unless you want counter meals, at least DLR has hundreds of restaurants within a short walking distance of the parks.

OH and I'm ranting because I'm sitting at home, on the couch looking at the xmas tree, and my wife isn't awake to let me open my presents