The Diamond Horseshoe closing for lengthy refurbishment.

[Communicore]

We just ate ate the Plaza for my birthday 2 weeks ago. Big ole cockroach climbing up the wall next to our table. Never again.

It would be much cleaner to eat in the bathroom!

 

[COProgressFan]

We alerted the server who "didn't know who to tell." She disappeared into the back for between 5-10 minutes while we watched to make sure where it was. When she came back, she said they would take care of it. We left before anyone came. We reported it to City Hall and they said they would alert them again. After talking to my wife, we both were underwhelmed with how it was handled, especially with the, what seemed to us, a lack of concern. We live in Florida so we understand they exist too, but there seemed to be no pride in their service. I emailed Guest Relations and spoke to them about it. For my trouble, 2 additional Fastpasses for our party. We probably should have demanded the price of our meal, but at that point I didn't feel like dealing with it anymore. I also didn't feel I should have had to suggest it, since it seemed like such a logical thing.

I asked because I was genuinely curious. So much for that legendary guest service...sadly.

Did the server or manager honestly NOT know how to handle this? Or did they just not care, or fear the repercussions of comping a $40 meal (which cost Disney $5)?

They've set up the organization so that CMs are interchangeable automatons who aren't permitted to make any independent decisions for fear of reprimand. Obviously the correct thing to do here was for the server to apologize profusely, alert the manager, who should have then come out and apologized profusely again, and offer to comp the meal and/or provide some other token for their experience. That would happen at my local TGIFriday's, so why not at the "premium" branded, and "premium" priced Walt Disney World?

 

[DougK]

We were just there end of July and it was open for lunch and yes we did partake. It amazes me that there are places in that park that are not open on a regular basis. And if their argument is that it does not make enough money, then turn it into something that does. Or here's an idea, have some spots open that are not so ridiculously crowded all the time. There is a thing called guest experience, and it is important. Sometimes, we will get food and take it to Gaston's Tavern and eat it in there. And why do we do this? Because it is not crowded, the small room is themed very well and we enjoy our food. Unlike, say, eating at Cosmic Ray's. I actually don't even mind the food there, it is just that the experience eating there reminds me of how packed a Red Cross camp might be like on the Syrian border. You don't always have to maximize profit at food locales throughout the park. The experience for the guest should be sufficiently varied. Additionally, the MK park in WDW should have a ton of choices for its guests considering it is (arguably) the most visited park in the world.

Wow you really hit the nail on the head. Overall this, not the continuously rising prices, may be the best example of how Disney has changed their management philosophy over the years. Everything must run at full efficiency. For example I remember we used to ride the boats on Seven Seas lagoon in the middle of the afternoon and sometimes my wife and I were the only ones on it! Why? Because they would run the boats so they came by every 15 minutes or so and of course it is less busy at certain times of the day. So then they started their efficiency model and now you wait longer for a boat and it is almost always full. On top of that they don't even run the boats at all at certain times if they don't expect enough people to fill them up. You can see the drivers marking down passenger counts on a paper on a clipboard, this is how they keep track of it. Efficient? Very. Good guest experience? Hardly. Superb guest experience? Not in the least. Add to this the busses which are handled the same way. Then add to this the amount of restaurants and carts that are closed so often you have to wonder why they even exist. God forbid you can sit down to a meal without crowding in with a few hundred other people any more.at WDW. And all in the name not just of profit, because I don't begrudge them that, but in the name of outrageous profit where there is never enough money to satisfy them. And we keep going anyway.

 

[COProgressFan]

Wow you really hit the nail on the head. Overall this, not the continuously rising prices, may be the best example of how Disney has changed their management philosophy over the years. Everything must run at full efficiency. For example I remember we used to ride the boats on Seven Seas lagoon in the middle of the afternoon and sometimes my wife and I were the only ones on it! Why? Because they would run the boats so they came by every 15 minutes or so and of course it is less busy at certain times of the day. So then they started their efficiency model and now you wait longer for a boat and it is almost always full. On top of that they don't even run the boats at all at certain times if they don't expect enough people to fill them up. You can see the drivers marking down passenger counts on a paper on a clipboard, this is how they keep track of it. Efficient? Very. Good guest experience? Hardly. Superb guest experience? Not in the least. Add to this the busses which are handled the same way. Then add to this the amount of restaurants and carts that are closed so often you have to wonder why they even exist. God forbid you can sit down to a meal without crowding in with a few hundred other people any more.at WDW. And all in the name not just of profit, because I don't begrudge them that, but in the name of outrageous profit where there is never enough money to satisfy them. And we keep going anyway.

This mentality treats paying guests like widgets being moved around at optimal efficiency on a factory floor. Compounded by the issues with FP+, etc., in this model Wall Street is the customer, not you.

Not very magical, and certainly not "exceeding guest expectations" of service.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

This mentality treats paying guests like widgets being moved around at optimal efficiency on a factory floor. Compounded by the issues with FP+, etc., in this model Wall Street is the customer, not you.

This attitude by corporate Disney compounded by the unruly behaviour of so many of WDW's customers is the reason why for the past year I've felt a WDW vacation is more trouble than it's worth. I don't think that will change anytime soon.