WOW - What a week at WDW

[Chi84]

who’s complaining about the 18% tip?

I believe in giving a 25% tip always... but I don't like the cheap tactics of counting a 6 month old as an adult to force a gratuity/tip

Ah, yes. But what about that infant?

Since there is no cost for infants to dine you are only paying the 18% for the rest of the party. So 5 adults + 1 infant would be the same amount of grat as just 5 adults.

 

[Disneylover69]

Ah, yes. But what about that infant?

The second message in your quoted post was complaining about the mandatory gratuity for the infant.
The third post just pointed out that besides making the gratuity mandatory by virtue of the infant making the party 6 people vs 5 the infant did not contribute anything to the bill that would have made the amount tipped any higher.

Again Disney makes it clear that parties of 6 or more have 18% gratuity automatically applied.

None of those messages though said 18% was too high

 

[NelsonRD]

who’s complaining about the 18% tip?

I tipped 18% 10 years ago. Since then, the tipped wage has almost doubled. Should we still be tipping 18% or less?

 

[Disneylover69]

I tipped 18% 10 years ago. Since then, the tipped wage has almost doubled. Should we still be tipping 18% or less?

I have no idea nor ever claimed to have any idea. I just don’t think the percentage should go any higher. The tiped wage makes up such a small percentage of Disney waiters income too

 

[Mr. Pusskers]

I can fully understand a true adult party of 6 or more will incur a service charge. Need no further explanation. However, to incur that charge due to an infant is uncalled for and ludicrous.

Now tipping, before when tipping was normal before 2020, I would tip and tip more all due to the service of the waiter or waitress. If they did their job, I never thought twice about tipping. The meal could be bad, but the waiter or waitress tried their best to serve, accommodate and kept a good demeanor, I would tip extra. When it comes to tipping, the better the service and personality the tip is deserved. It is not the waiter or waitress fault if the dinner is bad. However, the same holds true if the waiter or waitress service is poor and their attitude is poor and seem to be upset or complain, then they get tipped less. That is how it is. It should be just that simple. Tipping is not mandatory and is deserved based on service and performance. Great service, bigger tip, poor service less tip. I do this at all formal or informal eateries that I go to where a server is involved. Fast food, asking for a tip, No get real. you are getting paid to ring me up and order my food correctly. McDonalds ask's me twice and has me check that my order is correct only to mess up and forget my drinks or ketchup and so on.

 

[Disneylover69]

I can fully understand a true adult party of 6 or more will incur a service charge. Need no further explanation. However, to incur that charge due to an infant is uncalled for and ludicrous.

Now tipping, before when tipping was normal before 2020, I would tip and tip more all due to the service of the waiter or waitress. If they did their job, I never thought twice about tipping. The meal could be bad, but the waiter or waitress tried their best to serve, accommodate and kept a good demeanor, I would tip extra. When it comes to tipping, the better the service and personality the tip is deserved. It is not the waiter or waitress fault if the dinner is bad. However, the same holds true if the waiter or waitress service is poor and their attitude is poor and seem to be upset or complain, then they get tipped less. That is how it is. It should be just that simple. Tipping is not mandatory and is deserved based on service and performance. Great service, bigger tip, poor service less tip. I do this at all formal or informal eateries that I go to where a server is involved. Fast food, asking for a tip, No get real. you are getting paid to ring me up and order my food correctly. McDonalds ask's me twice and has me check that my order is correct only to mess up and forget my drinks or ketchup and so on.

I agree that if the service is bad one should be able to lower the percentage and if this occurs in Disney world, for a table of 6 or more, the only remedy is to call over the manager and express your concerns. I don’t think people should be able to lower the percentage just because they think it’s “too high” as that would just cause more issues, if their is a genuine issue though that would then be up to the discretion of the manager.

 

[TalkToEthan]

if the service is bad one should be able to lower the percentage and if this occurs in Disney world, for a table of 6 or more, the only remedy is to call over the manager and express your concerns.

…..and demand to remove the extra charge entirely

If bad service tip is 0

 

[Disneylover69]

…..and demand to remove the extra charge entirely

If bad service tip is 0

I agree, but the charge isn’t as discretionary as a true tip which is the case for parties of 5 or less.

 

[jloucks]

Ah yes, the auto gratuity. ...which makes it... something, but not a gratuity. Shameless service fee?

Anywho, I have no problem when I am hosting a large party and they hit me with an auto 18%. It is about 7-12% less than I tip anyway, so everybody wins. I say that, once a bill goes over $1,000 the gratuity caps at 20%. I figure $75 an hour from just one table is most reasonable.

That said, servers who know me know better than to tack an auto gratuity onto the bill. It seems almost everywhere it is not nearly as mandatory/automatic as you think. Go figure.

I also give Christmas bonuses to my favorite waitstaff. I have a few of them.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Hi everyone -

We've been going to WDW yearly for the past 25 years and I don't look forward to telling you our experiences this last week:

1. We stayed at the POP Century, and in our room had very little water pressure, making it almost impossible to rinse my wife's hair. We reached out to maintenance, although they agreed, they could not fix.
2. At the MK, we had purchased LL for the evening, for Tianna's and Haunted Mansion. But they were both broken down for the night. No refunds, no nothing.
3. The Beauty and the Beast gift shop was closed. hours are between 12 noon and 6pm. Really, shouldn't everything be open when the park is open?
4. Gaston's closes at 7pm, so an evening snack was out of the question.
5. We were on the food plan, 5 adults, one 6-month old baby. He was counted as an adult when it came to table count, putting as at the 6 person mandatory 18% gratuity
   1. Get this, we were told by Ohana management that the 18% gratuity is not the tip, and that we should tip the waiter separately, since he/she does not get any of the gratuity.

It used to be that if a ride was down, Disney would compensate more than necessary. These days, Disney not only doesn't compensate, but they give you the one finger salute....... so sad for the young children to miss the magic that once was.

We keep going, because we want to pass the Disney we once knew to our grand children, but logically we should give Disney the one finger salute back.

Lets look at the shear silliness of this post. Except for point 1, really everything here is just your fault, and lack of planning, which seems pretty insane for someone who has supposedly been going to the park for 25 year.

2) Rides brake down, its lousy but it happens. When it does with the new system you are automatically given a multi-experience pass. Its part of the software. If you understand the system its easy to see and simple. If you don't a CM would be able to show it do you on the app easily.

3) The hours of the shops are posted. They aren't hidden. So your complaining you didn't know when a store closes, or are you complaining that you think the stores should be open to fit your personal schedule? Your post here also either seems to be a lie, or an intentional misrepresentation. No the gift shop wasn't closed, it was open and operating during its posted normal hours.

4) Once again, restaurants, shops, snack stands, have different operating times. Gaston's doesn't hide when it opens and when it closes. So again someone who has allegedly been going to the park for 25 years can't figure out when things are open or not? Hell even outside of Disney I don't expect to show up to a restaurant after its posted hours and then complain about it not being open. And I love the hyperbole about an evening snack being out of the question. So Gaston closes at its normal time, and there isn't' ANYWHERE else in the entire park to get a snack?

5) Again here is another lie/misrepresentation. No the baby wasn't counted as a adult. They were counted as a person/human being for guest count. The same way our kids when we make reservations are counted as people for guest counts. The automatic gratuity is based on the number of people in your party, it could be 6 adults/0 kids, 4 adults, 2 kids, or could be 1 adult and 5 kids (Mickey help that loan adult.) It also has zero effect on your bill.

 

[Disneylover69]

Lets look at the shear silliness of this post. Except for point 1, really everything here is just your fault, and lack of planning, which seems pretty insane for someone who has supposedly been going to the park for 25 year.

2) Rides brake down, its lousy but it happens. When it does with the new system you are automatically given a multi-experience pass. Its part of the software. If you understand the system its easy to see and simple. If you don't a CM would be able to show it do you on the app easily.

3) The hours of the shops are posted. They aren't hidden. So your complaining you didn't know when a store closes, or are you complaining that you think the stores should be open to fit your personal schedule? Your post here also either seems to be a lie, or an intentional misrepresentation. No the gift shop wasn't closed, it was open and operating during its posted normal hours.

4) Once again, restaurants, shops, snack stands, have different operating times. Gaston's doesn't hide when it opens and when it closes. So again someone who has allegedly been going to the park for 25 years can't figure out when things are open or not? Hell even outside of Disney I don't expect to show up to a restaurant after its posted hours and then complain about it not being open. And I love the hyperbole about an evening snack being out of the question. So Gaston closes at its normal time, and there isn't' ANYWHERE else in the entire park to get a snack?

5) Again here is another lie/misrepresentation. No the baby wasn't counted as an adult. They were counted as a person/human being for guest count. The same way our kids when we make reservations are counted as people for guest counts. The automatic gratuity is based on the number of people in your party, it could be 6 adults/0 kids, 4 adults, 2 kids, or could be 1 adult and 5 kids (Mickey help that loan adult.) It also has zero effect on your bill.

I think OP’s point is similar to going to a mall and seeing the mall hours as 11am-9pm and thinking that all the stores hours are that same timeframe subject to a few exceptions. When half the stores and eatery’s don’t follow that schedule it would be extremely difficult to plan a trip to the mall and asking OP or anyone to sit there and memorize dozens of different times that don’t conform to the overall time would quite frankly be unreasonable. OP is on vacation and shouldn’t have to spend countless hours checking all the different hours of countless places, especially when Disney is known (and actively does) change times and hours without informing anyone.

Regarding the bill it does have an impact on the bill at it automatically inserts an 18% gratuity charge. The OP’s issue was also with the way the manager requested leaving an extra tip. I do agree that for purpose of getting to the 6 the infant counts under Disney policy, but disagree that it has no impact on the bill.

It looks like you may be twisting the facts and misrepresenting things more than OP.

 

[NickPytlinski]

Lets look at the shear silliness of this post. Except for point 1, really everything here is just your fault, and lack of planning, which seems pretty insane for someone who has supposedly been going to the park for 25 year.

2) Rides brake down, its lousy but it happens. When it does with the new system you are automatically given a multi-experience pass. Its part of the software. If you understand the system its easy to see and simple. If you don't a CM would be able to show it do you on the app easily.

3) The hours of the shops are posted. They aren't hidden. So your complaining you didn't know when a store closes, or are you complaining that you think the stores should be open to fit your personal schedule? Your post here also either seems to be a lie, or an intentional misrepresentation. No the gift shop wasn't closed, it was open and operating during its posted normal hours.

4) Once again, restaurants, shops, snack stands, have different operating times. Gaston's doesn't hide when it opens and when it closes. So again someone who has allegedly been going to the park for 25 years can't figure out when things are open or not? Hell even outside of Disney I don't expect to show up to a restaurant after its posted hours and then complain about it not being open. And I love the hyperbole about an evening snack being out of the question. So Gaston closes at its normal time, and there isn't' ANYWHERE else in the entire park to get a snack?

5) Again here is another lie/misrepresentation. No the baby wasn't counted as a adult. They were counted as a person/human being for guest count. The same way our kids when we make reservations are counted as people for guest counts. The automatic gratuity is based on the number of people in your party, it could be 6 adults/0 kids, 4 adults, 2 kids, or could be 1 adult and 5 kids (Mickey help that loan adult.) It also has zero effect on your bill.

I agree with most your comments here. fair play.



I'm from the UK so the gratuity stuff blows my mind lol its starting to find its way in over here with alot of things. i just dont know what servers earn these days to even say if they are on good wages or not. the UK have a standard minimum wage so its never really been a thing.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

I think OP’s point is similar to going to a mall and seeing the mall hours as 11am-9pm and thinking that all the stores hours are that same timeframe subject to a few exceptions. When half the stores and eatery’s don’t follow that schedule it would be extremely difficult to plan a trip to the mall and asking OP or anyone to sit there and memorize dozens of different times that don’t conform to the overall time would quite frankly be unreasonable. OP is on vacation and shouldn’t have to spend countless hours checking all the different hours of countless places, especially when Disney is known (and actively does) change times and hours without informing anyone.

Regarding the bill it does have an impact on the bill at it automatically inserts an 18% gratuity charge. The OP’s issue was also with the way the manager requested leaving an extra tip. I do agree that for purpose of getting to the 6 the infant counts under Disney policy, but disagree that it has no impact on the bill.

It looks like you may be twisting the facts and misrepresenting things more than OP.

To your first point, he stated he has being going to WDW for 25 years. While I don't understand why anyone would go to a mall or any grouping of different offering and expect them all to have the exact same hours, at WDW many different places are open different times. Its posted all over the website/apps/buildings themselves. Asking anyone to know the hours of a place you want to visit isn't unreasonable. Thinking someone would use there thumb to look up on the ap when something is open when they want to go there isn't unreasonable. If you want to go to a particular restaurant like say Gaston's and don't bother to check when it opens/close, your a moron. I don't care if your on vacation or not. If your talking about normal hours changing as a result of a special event, or emergency closure, sure maybe i could get behind that, although special closures for private events ect., are also generally posted with pretty long lead time that you should be aware of them. But this is just normal operating hours. In the day and age of apps where literally every piece of information you might need/want is available 24/7 at the touch of your finger, there is absolutely no excuse for not knowing when something is open/closed/prices, ect., except shear laziness.

As to your second point, I said it didn't have any impact on his bill, as he/she already said he tips already and over 18%. Now to be fair I 100% disagree with the idea of automatic gratuities, if is a mandatory charge its not a tip/gratuity, its part of the price your charging me. I don't like the idea that any restaurant does it, but its not a hidden feature for Disney restaurant. You know going in parties of 6+ are going to be hit with it, and it doesn't seem unusual that all people no matter age, are taken into account for party size. My main point is that don't complain about something that you knew about ahead of time, that you CHOOSE to do (they could have done quick service, split parties, or eaten off property), and then complain about it after. I don't like the policy, but its not my restaurant. If you decide to participate you follow their rules. I have known some people to not book a restaurant (wasn't a Disney one) bc they had such a strong disagreement with the automatic gratuity policy. My feelings on the matter aren't strong enough that i would walk away from a restaurant because of it, but that's an individuals choice.

 

[Disneylover69]

To your first point, he stated he has being going to WDW for 25 years. While I don't understand why anyone would go to a mall or any grouping of different offering and expect them all to have the exact same hours, at WDW many different places are open different times. Its posted all over the website/apps/buildings themselves. Asking anyone to know the hours of a place you want to visit isn't unreasonable. Thinking someone would use there thumb to look up on the ap when something is open when they want to go there isn't unreasonable. If you want to go to a particular restaurant like say Gaston's and don't bother to check when it opens/close, your a moron. I don't care if your on vacation or not. If your talking about normal hours changing as a result of a special event, or emergency closure, sure maybe i could get behind that, although special closures for private events ect., are also generally posted with pretty long lead time that you should be aware of them. But this is just normal operating hours. In the day and age of apps where literally every piece of information you might need/want is available 24/7 at the touch of your finger, there is absolutely no excuse for not knowing when something is open/closed/prices, ect., except shear laziness.

As to your second point, I said it didn't have any impact on his bill, as he/she already said he tips already and over 18%. Now to be fair I 100% disagree with the idea of automatic gratuities, if is a mandatory charge its not a tip/gratuity, its part of the price your charging me. I don't like the idea that any restaurant does it, but its not a hidden feature for Disney restaurant. You know going in parties of 6+ are going to be hit with it, and it doesn't seem unusual that all people no matter age, are taken into account for party size. My main point is that don't complain about something that you knew about ahead of time, that you CHOOSE to do (they could have done quick service, split parties, or eaten off property), and then complain about it after. I don't like the policy, but its not my restaurant. If you decide to participate you follow their rules. I have known some people to not book a restaurant (wasn't a Disney one) bc they had such a strong disagreement with the automatic gratuity policy. My feelings on the matter aren't strong enough that i would walk away from a restaurant because of it, but that's an individuals choice.

It is unreasonable to request someone to look up every single place they want to go to in advance to see what obscure hours they have are. This was not an issue until post-Covid when Disney severely restricted hours.
You are not a moron for thinking that a place located in’s theme park open until 10 or 11pm will be open past 7pm. You are on vacation and it’s not shear laziness for not wanting to pull out your phone and query through everything you want to do, especially when some items are not even listed in the app. You know the magic kingdom eggrolls? Can you find the hours of it in the app? The fantasmic hours? Oh yea those change regularly along with the actual park hours. PeoplE shouldn’t have to go around the park ahead of time to check the hours of every single place. The hours should be consistent. This regarding this issue I think Disney needs to hire more employees or increase current employees hours to better match park hours

Regarding the second issue, I see your point that OP says he normally tips 25% (which i find to be too high of a percentage for average service). Regarding your technique of splitting the reservation i think it must be mentioned that in that case the parties must sit apart otherwise you will have reservations of 5 and 5 asking to be sit together to attempt to go around the policy and just cause headaches for everyone involved. I agree that OP’s complaint on this issue is unreasonable, but my issue is the way that the manager handled it. We are still uncertain about how the OP ended up talking to the manager such as if he was complaining about this or something else. Regardless my biggest gripe on this issue is what the manager apparently said that the automatic gratitude doesn’t go to the waiter/waitress which I find to be false and a highly problematic statement.

 

[Chi84]

We are still uncertain about how the OP ended up talking to the manager such as if he was complaining about this or something else.

Given the tenor of OP's post, if there was something else he had to complain about it would have been stated. Don't make up facts.

 

[Disneylover69]

Given the tenor of OP's post, if there was something else he had to complain about it would have been stated. Don't make up facts.

Huh? Did you read my post? My post was literally saying we don’t know the exact reason and not to make assumptions. You literally are using the “tenor” of a post to make up facts then telling others not to make up facts after admitting to making up factors based on the “tenor. Bizarre logic and posting.

 

[Chi84]

Huh? Did you read my post? My post was literally saying we don’t know the exact reason and not to make assumptions. You literally are using the “tenor” of a post to make up facts then telling others not to make up facts after admitting to making up factors based on the “tenor. Bizarre logic and posting.

No, you’re positing that he may have been complaining about something else based on the acknowledged unreasonableness of his stated complaint.

Why else state that he may have been complaining about something else when he clearly stated his complaint?

 

[Disneylover69]

No, you’re positing that he may have been complaining about something else based on the acknowledged unreasonableness of his stated complaint.

Why else state that he may have been complaining about something else when he clearly stated his complaint?

we don’t even know if he was complaining to the manager. Managers do walk around restaurants and talk to guests. OP should really come and clarify some things

 

[bwr827]

What a ridiculous thread.

 

[Chi84]

What a ridiculous thread.

I hope you appreciate the amount of effort it’s taking to make it so.