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View Full Version : DLR Walk-up Dining Rant



JeffG
06-19-2005, 09:13 PM
I apologize in advance for ranting a bit here, but I had a somewhat disappointing experience with the higher-end Disney-owned dining locations at the Disneyland Resort today and wanted to find out what others here think about it.

Today, we spent a good portion of the day at Disneyland with a good friend and some of her family members that were visiting from out of town. Since we were getting to the parks fairly early and didn't plan to stay the whole day ourselves, my wife and I came up with idea this morning that we would like to go to one of the higher-end restaurants for a nice dinner to celebrate Father's Day.

First thing this morning, I called Disneyland Dining and asked about availability of priority seating reservations at either Napa Rose or Granville's. Considering that it was Father's Day, I can't say that I was overly surprised when I was told that there were no reservations still available. We basically shrugged and figured we would just try one of the restaurants fairly early and wait a bit for walk-in seating.

When we arrived at Napa Rose very shortly after they opened at 5:30pm, we were immediately informed that they were fully booked via reservations and had not saved any slots for walk-in guests. He said that there was the potential of getting in if there was a cancellation, but they could give no estimate of time or even guarantee that they would be able to accommodate us at all. He then called over to Granville's for us and confirmed with them that the situation there was identical.

I certainly can understand that Father's Day would tend to be a busy day for high-end restaurants and certainly didn't expect to be able to get in very quickly (we were prepared and willing to wait an hour or so, if needed), but it struck me as very strange that they would 100% pre-reserve these restaurants in this way. While I could kind of understand such a policy at fairly small restaurants in exclusive locations, it struck me as an odd and, frankly, rather customer unfriendly system to use in restaurants located in hotels within a major theme-park resort.

Particularly on Father's Day, I have a hard time believing that they would have a difficult time filling every table even if they kept some percentage available for walk-ups and I really think that completely shutting out guests that did not pre-reserve is apt to ultimately have a pretty high cost in loss of potential return customers. I wasn't a hotel guest, but I would be particularly irritated if I had been staying at the hotel and been turned away from its top restaurant due to a failure to book dining arrangements days or weeks in advance. I never was asked if I was a hotel guest, so I think it is a safe bet that they were not making any special accommodations for them.

We finally ended up over in Catal at Downtown Disney (which we visit fairly often) and were very quickly accommodated and had an excellent meal as always. While the restaurant was not crowded at all when we first got there, neither was Napa Rose. By the time we completed our meal, though, I didn't see any empty tables in Catal despite the fact that they were obviously still accommodating walk-ups.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable here, but I really think this is a policy that Disney needs to reconsider. Even as a local that visit the resort often (and a fairly frequent WDW guest that knows the dining challenges there), I didn't realize it would be this difficult to get into the high-end restaurants without having planned far in advance. I really can't help but wonder what kind of impact this has on more casual guests, particularly the ones that are paying top-dollar to stay in the resort's hotels.

-Jeff

Shortiemetoo
06-19-2005, 09:26 PM
We walked up to a restaurant in Sacramento on Mothers Day. Not only did they make reservations to capacity but they told me they automatically overbook 20% so no-shows will not keep the restaurant from being solidly booked...I couldn't believe that at all!!

Drince88
06-20-2005, 03:31 AM
I hear about the sit-down restaurants in the parks in WDW totally booking with Advanced Reservations such that they can't accommodate ANY walk-ins during the summer and holiday seasons. Your experience doesn't really surprise me on a busy day at a busy time of the year.

I'm glad you still were able to have a nice meal!

Stupid_American
06-20-2005, 05:12 AM
Mother's Day has always been a scary day to try to get a reservation.
I guess Father's Day is now following suit.

GrumpyUTboi
06-20-2005, 05:49 AM
The restaurant is trying to maximize the earning potential. You go to ANY high end restaurant and reservations are required, meaning that they do not allow walk-ins. I can see how they can be booked up for Father's Day. It is a special day.

Yes these places overbook as well, and no it is not stupid. I worked for an airline and we took the past history of no shows and figured that there was a certain percentage of people that would not show up. Southworst (Southwest) is the worst of them all. They will over book a plane by 100%, meaning that if the plane holds 130, they overbook the flight by 130. Most of the time they get it right, but sometimes it doesn't work out.

As with empty seats in a restaurant, this doesn't mean that they have seating available, what it means is that they do not have the staff to accomidate more people. With your experience, this could mean that the management staff prepared poorly.

EandCDad
06-20-2005, 06:09 AM
What they did seems reasonable. I can't see it having much long term impact on their business. The Disney Dining people probably could have made it clearer to you that no seats were available at all, but maybe the person didn't have all that information.

JeffG
06-20-2005, 07:05 AM
I certainly understand that the policy is about maximizing revenues, but I think this is a good example of the recent trend at the Disney parks and resorts of maximizing short-term revenues at the expense of providing the kind of overall guest experience that results in maximizing of long-term revenues. Unquestionably, selling out (or overbooking) restaurants like that will pretty much guarantee that every possible table will be filled that evening. But I also still believe this is an approach that doesn't mix well with the kind of complex that Disneyland is, resulting in frustrating the exact types of guests that Disneyland most needs to attract (the infrequent and/or out-of-town visitors).

I certainly can understand using this type of "reservations mandatory" system at high-end standalone restaurants such as Spago or something along those lines. The DLR restaurants, though, are located inside popular hotels adjacent to major theme parks. Both of these aspects create venues where it isn't as likely that guests would expect that they would have to plan their dining options well in advance.

As I noted in my original post, I'm well aware that Walt Disney World has for the last several years used similar approach at most of their restaurants. At least in the past, I hadn't really observed the same situation at Disneyland. Quite frankly, I think it is a bad idea at WDW as well for most of the same reasons and, in fact, I have personally known people that have been frustrated by the difficulties finding anything other than fast food down there if you didn't happen to know that you have to make a reservation for every meal weeks in advance.


Just for the record, I will note that when I called the Disneyland Dining number and wasn't able to make a reservation at either restaurant, I ended the call by saying to the reservationist that we would just take our chances with walk-up dining. That certainly would have been a good opportunity to let me know that the Disney-owned restaurants book to capacity, but she didn't bother to do so. If this is their policy, Disney definitely needs to make sure that it is known by those manning the reservation lines. It also makes me wonder whether or not they bother to inform those making lodging reservations at the hotels that they should make sure to book in advance if they want to eat at the hotel's restaurants.

I will also state that the staff at Napa Rose was very polite and helpful when we stopped by. They were apologetic for their inability to accommodate us and very open with recommendations for other places to try. The only complaint I had in this respect was that the first place that they suggested was Granville's and they offered to call only after I asked if they knew if it had any availability. On days when the restaurants are fully booked in advance, they should make certain that the staff knows which other restaurants are already fully booked. It certainly doesn't help an already negative guest experience to recommend somewhere else that the guest also won't be able to get into.

-Jeff

Alex S.
06-20-2005, 07:37 AM
I've been tuned away from Blue Bayou several times on non-holiday days, being told that they were completely reserved and would be very unlikely to accommodate a walk-up.

What Napa Rose and Granville's did seems pretty industry standard to me, and I'd be surprised if hasn't been their long standing practice. Honestly, it wouldn't have occured to me that I might be able to walk up to those two restaurants on a Mother's Day. I'm only suprised that so many people go out to eat on Father's Day.

Stupid_American
06-20-2005, 07:50 AM
I certainly can understand using this type of "reservations mandatory" system at high-end standalone restaurants such as Spago or something along those lines.

Napa Rose is, most definitely, "along those lines".
Many top restaurants are also associated with hotels.
This just happens to be a Disney property.

Matt Hamand
06-20-2005, 07:53 AM
I'm only suprised that so many people go out to eat on Father's Day.
We went to a local pancake house for breakfast yesterday after church. The wait was 45 minutes for the first available seat. This was at 8:00am.

We were there 2 weeks ago at the same time and got a seat immediately.

hlbtimes2
06-20-2005, 07:54 AM
You can look at it two ways- your view, which is that they will loose future customers because they were unable to accomdate them this time, or it will train the guests to think ahead and plan more. I know that during our last trip we wanted breakfast at Goofy's. We didnt plan ahead. We showed up at the door hoping for a table. We were told we would have to wait more then an hour and even then we might not get in. We ended up going elsewhere rather then wait. You better bet I'll make call for priority seating before our trip this Oct!

pisces
06-20-2005, 08:30 AM
"frustrating the exact types of guests that Disneyland most needs to attract "--Jeff G.

Don't fault enterprise.

They are creating far more of a demand, than a frustration. It's all about supply and demand, and they'd rather have major demand, than meeting supply.

Father day, Mothers, Easter Sunday, Thanks, Christmas, New Years, .......you can't go anywhere and get a table, on those days, without a reservation.

Father's Day is always very crowded, everwhere, because it coincides with graduation and wedding parties.

I'm shocked that I got a reservation on Sunday, the day after New Years, at Blue Bayou.

I wasn't walk-up, but I reserved only two days before. Apparently they had a lot of cancellations due to the heavy rains and the Tsunami.

I don't think that'll ever happen again, and they quickly sold out shortly after I reserved.

Barbossa
06-20-2005, 09:05 AM
For years customer service at DLR has been unbecoming of the name "Disney". The service I received at one of their hotels (I won't drop the name, though it starts with "Paradise" and ends with "Pier".) would have been unacceptable at a Motel 6, much less a hotel that charges $400/night for a suite. Our overall opinion of DLR is still high, but they've got areas where they really need to clean up their act. Your experience wouldn't surprise me if it had happened on a normal day.

olegc
06-20-2005, 10:50 AM
JeffG - you have experienced what is part of the overall strategy of the DLR to become much more like WDW and cater to the out-of-town guest who is staying multiple days. this, along with the standard ways of doing business on holiday or event days as stated by others above, creates a double whammy at DLR restaurants.

Changing the reservation methods, multiple price increases on entry tickets, etc. make the casual walk-up or "on a whim" visits or dining more and more impossible for most guests. Who's left? on-property guests who are staying multiple days.

In that vein - note that AP holders at WDW were just told that they have to book their hotel stays 120 days in advance or more to get their cheaper rates. But - holding an AP usually allows for spontaneous visits. Hmm - maybe not anymore..

My guess is that in a couple of years we will see more of this type of segmentation at DLR - how do they ensure that the folks staying on property get the first priority on everthing.... even though the attendance mix here in california is almost 2/3 locals on a given day. They do this because they can - and as pointed out ealier - having too much demand makes exclusivity all the more "marketable".

cstephens
06-20-2005, 12:15 PM
I'm sorry to hear that more of the restaurants at the DLR are using the "book all tables in advance" strategy. There had been word a while ago that Blue Bayou, Goofy's Kitchen and another restaurant were going to a "reservations only" system. At least Blue Bayou hasn't gone that route. I understand the business aspect of taking reservations only, but I also do think it's completely customer service unfriendly, and I think a restaurant at the Disneyland Resort is completely different than a stand-alone restaurant.

We ran into this exact same problem 5 years ago at WDW. We were there on Thanksgiving and hadn't wanted to lock ourselves into a schedule, so we figured we'd go early and be prepared to wait. The restaurant we chose said they were booked and weren't taking *any* walk-ups at all. We encountered that at a number of other restaurants. We eventually ended up at Le Cellier at Epcot, and they managed to squeeze us into a small two-person table. They apologized for how small the table was and that it wasn't in the most desirable location, but we were fine with it. Their willingness to be accommodating, not to mention the great food and service, means that I will always think of that restaurant fondly.

Catal, huh? I hear the food's good there...

The old man
06-20-2005, 01:56 PM
I don't get this. High end, highly desired restaurants are to underbook in case some unknown number of walk ups occur on a busy day? And you know it doesn't happen at high end restaurants in LA, San Francisco, NY, Chicago, etc., but it should happen here because they are next to a theme park? Uh?
David