Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Leave it to WDW management to come up with a solutaion five years too late! I gave up on dining on property years ago. Now I just eat off property. Much more reliable and affordable. Sorry, I'm not intrested in a $16 personal pizza.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: My sisters and I have a very good friend who is a waiter at one of the restaurants at DHS. He says they are constantly turning away walk up guests, claiming they're fully booked, when--in fact--they really aren't. It baffles him as to the fact that guests are turned away when there is plenty of seating available. It also costs him tips when this happens. He says that he has taken risks, in the past, and invited guests to come on in and shows them a table, anyway, whenever there are so many vacant tables. Thus far he hasn't been in any trouble for doing this. And, really, there's no reason why he should be. Sometimes management thinking is totally backwards.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I have made resevations at the Biergarten in the Germany Pavallion and because I made resevations I am let in, meanwhile there is a crowd waiting to get inside. My party gets in and the place is easily, easily at one third capacity. The members of my party are shaking our heads asking what is going on! Disney has some business model when they have paying customers waiting outside for a table and still turning away hundreds more! And running restaurants are one third capacity. There was also one time when I was walking through Liberty Square and there was a 8" X 10 " sheet or paper taped to the sign for Liberty Tree Tavern informing everyone that they were NOT accepting walk-ins! Talk about bad show! Obviously if people are walking up to sit down restaurants requesting a table and being a turned away Disney is loosing a huge potential market here! And then having closed sit down restaurants in the MK. Talk about stupid business moves!
Originally Posted By sjhym333 We are local but decided to meet some friends at the cafe in the Polynesian Village because we wanted the French Toast. It was 10am when we figured that most guest would be at the park. We walked up and there were tons of empty tables. I am talking throwing a stone and not hitting anyone empty. We were told 45 mins for a table. I had to ask how long a second time because I was sure I hadn't heard correctly. The hostess repeated 45 mins. I looked over her shoulder and told her that the restaurant looked empty that surely they could seat us quicker than that. She said the table were held by reservations. There must have been 10 other guests waiting also for a table. We waited 5 mins then opted to leave property for breakfast.
Originally Posted By PotNoodle This is just a stab in the dark and it comes from my craptastic experience as a "barista" at SBUX--so please take it with a grain of salt. I am thinking the managers of these restuarants earn bonuses for lean staffing. It's balancing act, overstaff and you've "eaten" into your bonus. Understaff, and you're getting complaints and comping patrons' meals--again--you're eating into your bonus. You have to find that sweet spot based on traffic coming into your restuarant at various times of the day. I think this is why you see so many open tables, not all servers are there serving his/her stations. The manager doesn't care about a server's tips, s/he is only worried about the bonus.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I'm not going to attempt to apply logic where there is absolutely NO logic. Create a less than magic experience by making your guests wait and turning away hundreds of others for no good reason? Only in WDW is it better to have empty tables than satisfied guests! Meanwhile, I will continue to eat off property like many guests do at the DLR.
Originally Posted By HMButler79 ""Isn't that your crowd, HMButler?"" You wish huney. I was eating at The Empress Room eating a flambed peppercorn steak.........at 15. Go back to eating your Cosmic Ray burger or BK Whopper.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo This is a tough call as WDW has created the ADR monster. Now if travelling a difference, having adrs makes sense. But they should fill the tables and allow walk ups for the unfilled tables (this is how DLP thankfully still does it, it works well.) But if this means we are more likely to get tables rather than the entitled people overlooking, then I suppose it is a plus. I would be bummed out though as our last trip to WDW we were booked at ohana. The kids were taken ill and we cancelled 5 hours in advance of our adr (the cast member at city hall remarked how unique it was for someone to cancel). I was really bummed out, and costing an additional $50 would have bummed me out further.
Originally Posted By -em I like they are doing this- BUT I wish it'd be a 2-12 hr window. Plenty of time to either re-book or throw it to the walk-ins as I realize things come up (illness,plans change, etc) that one may not know they won't be at their reservation 24 hr ago.. -em
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer Great move. It's about time. Hopefully they just dump the ADR system all together, save for "big" places, like this.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<I was eating at The Empress Room eating a flambed peppercorn steak.........at 15.>> You doe realize "flambed" isn't a word, right? Flambe already means "flamed" in French.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 <<You wish huney. I was eating at The Empress Room eating a flambed peppercorn steak.........at 15. Go back to eating your Cosmic Ray burger or BK Whopper. >> That sums up exactly what I said in my post.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Since when is eating burgers the most vile thing someone can do? I had 2 while I was at UOR this weekend. And *GASP* one was even a Whopper from the Whopper Bar in City Walk. But guess what, I also had filet mignon at Mythos. It is possible to like both and enjoy both. Eating a burger doesn't make you the slime of the earth.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Nothing beats a good burger. And you won't find it at any chain or at places like WDW, Universal, Sea World etc. The best place to always get a good burger is at a local dive bar.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb I agree with -em 100%. The best burger I ever had wasn't at a dive or a big chain, it was at Slater's 50/50 (about to open its 3rd So Cal location) the patty was 50% ground bacon and it was amazing.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> You wish huney. I was eating at The Empress Room eating a flambed peppercorn steak.........at 15. Go back to eating your Cosmic Ray burger or BK Whopper. << Doubt you're eating there on CM wages. You are a CM, right?
Originally Posted By DlandDug Eating "flambed" steaks at 15. Now a CM, and doubtless enjoying the fine repasts served at the, uh, backstage venues.
Originally Posted By TP2000 This is a smart move on WDW's part. This is already an industry standard practice at demanded restaurants in big cities, and it works well, so it's about time WDW got on board. This will create a much better experience for WDW guests overall.
Originally Posted By danyoung > DDP is having the burgers, dogs, n chickern finger crowd eat at Cali Grill and Narcoosees when they wouldnt have dared enter before. So now we have to deal w/ those people and the fact that PS leaves NO ROOM for walkups.< Y'know, I completely agree with you on this point, HMB. But as others have said, I don't think it has anything to do with the new credit card fees. It's simply a way to get people to book only one restaurant at a time. And it's also an incentive to keep a reservation. > But you all hate ANYTHING that me or TDLFAN post.< I look for the good in everyone and in every post. If I agree with you or with TDLFAN I say so. But more often than not we disagree, and I say so then, too. No need for any of us to take it personally.
