My family goes to Disney World to eat. Admittedly, we like
everything else about Disney as well (with the exception of the heat. In
Florida. In August.) but really, the star of the trip is usually the dining.
Over the years we have tried the majority of the Signature restaurants several
times and we are rarely disappointed with our meals. On our last trip though,
we found something to be lacking…the service. With Disney’s high standard of
customer service, we were shocked to find the restaurant services extremely
lacking. With that in mind, on this trip, I made it my mission to review our
dining experiences – not for the food, which we know to be excellent, but for
the service. The cast of characters on this trip include my mom, my sister, my
fiancé, and me. We booked five fancy dinners including Be Our Guest, Yachtsman
Steakhouse (a new restaurant for us!), Monsieur Paul, Artist Point, and
California Grill (first visit since the remodel). Some of my comments might be
outdated practices (e.g. waiting to clear plates until everyone has finished
eating), some may be oddly specific (e.g. it is important not to drip wine on
the table when it is poured because let’s face it, wine is good to the last
drop), and some are just obvious to anyone who has ever eaten at a restaurant
(e.g. the tempo of the meal being too fast or too slow for what is ordered). As
an added complication to the tale, we were using the Disney Deluxe Dining Plan
which entitled us to an appetizer, entrée, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage
at every meal. Ok, that’s enough background! On with the reviews!
Just kidding. One more note: I will be changing the names of
most of the servers because anyone can have an off-night. The names of the
truly exceptional will be retained and maybe if they like to google their
names, they’ll find a good review of their service. Ok, now onwards!
Just kidding again. I'll also include pictures of my entree and Zak's entree even though this is about service, not food. But seriously, yum. So just to get you hungry, you'll get some pictures too. Ok, for real this time, let's go!
Our first stop was Be Our Guest which is the new
restaurant in the Magic Kingdom at Beast’s castle. The last time we dined here,
we had the best service of our entire trip. So our expectations were pretty
high. My sister and I checked in at the castle exactly on time for our 7:20
reservation. My mom and Zak, however, had underestimated how long it takes to
get from the hotel to the restaurant so alas, we were THOSE people who got
buzzed but didn’t have our whole party.
So we waited behind the iron gate of the castle, punished for our sin of checking in without our entire party. On the bright side, we met a fascinating member of the custodial staff who entertained us with discussing Doctor Who and his encounter with John Barrowman (BARROWMAN!). Once the late people arrived, we were escorted into the restaurant. The hostess nicely explained the different rooms in the castle and we were seated in the West Wing. Our waiter greeted us and took our drink orders. We ordered a bottle of wine for the table (Conundrum, a crisp, fruity white) and while we were all pulling out our IDs, he kept trying to push us to order appetizers. I mean, really? We had barely even read the menu yet! We shooed him away until after our drink orders arrived. We placed our orders and as he walked away, we realized that he never actually explained the dining plan to us. This wasn’t a big deal to us because we knew what was included but we also know that they’re supposed to explain the inclusions of the plan to us whether we want them to or not. Strike 1. The next major test is the pouring of the wine. Our waiter gave us nice, healthy pour with no drips. Also, I got to taste the wine which is so rare! Probably because I always look like the youngest there. However, the wine pouring failed during the appetizers. Understandably, it’s hard to split a bottle of wine among four people but what you don’t do is top off three people’s glasses until the bottle is empty and give nothing to the fourth person. We are not a fan of that. So, alas, my mom only got one glass of wine during this meal. She also got the short end of the stick because the appetizer plates were cleared while she was still eating. This may be my biggest pet peeve. Everyone should be done eating so no one feels rushed. The same thing happened to Zak during our entrée.
The waiter then
tried to show us the dessert cart while our entrees were still on the table.
Talk about being rushed! We actually did not let him describe the desserts
until after we were done with our entrees. The moment our plates were cleared
though, he was back to give us our desserts. He didn’t even offer dessert drink
options (since we hadn’t yet used our non-alcoholic beverage) and we had to ask
for the types of tea and coffee that were available. There was also some
confusion when the check came because only then did he mention the dining plan
which he kept referring to as “coupons” instead of “credits.” Overall, the meal
was pretty rushed. We anticipated this a bit because it is a restaurant inside
a park and I’m sure most people want to get moving quickly. However, a good
waiter would have recognized that we were in no rush after one of our multiple
attempts to get him to slow the pace. A couple of side notes: the waiter was
quite soft-spoken for a loud restaurant and the room we were in routinely had
loud thunder which scared the bejeezus out of my sister every time. Overall,
not a great service experience but it was what I’d call ok. Not offensive, not
outstanding, just a mid-level start to our vacation.
Next up, we have the Yachtsman Steakhouse at the
Yacht Club. This was our first time ever dining at this restaurant. We were
very excited though because this was where the best steak is rumored to be. We
arrived at 7:00 and were seated at 7:10 so that was quite good. We were waited
on by Lulu from Bangkok, Thailand which was fun for us because my
great-grandmother’s name was Lulu. And no, that wasn’t her nickname, that was
her given name. Our waitress, however, had Lulu as a nickname. Enough about the
name though. We also noted that the restaurant was quite loud when we sat down
(another pet peeve of ours. Put in some soft wall hangings or some carpets,
people!). Lulu was very knowledgeable about the menu and described all of the
options very well. When my mom was bouncing between ordering medium rare and
medium, Lulu actually suggested “medium rare +” which was exactly what my mom
wanted.
Our wine was served with a wine bottle plate and was poured with a
napkin to catch any drips, which is
always a classy move. Basically a great
start. Zak couldn’t decide between two of the sauces so she offered to bring
him both and effortlessly switched out his truffle fries for a twice-baked potato.
Very accommodating. She even asked if we were celebrating anything special.
That is always a nice Disney touch. Unfortunately, now we hit a slight glitch.
This time my sister got the short end of the wine pouring stick. She got only a
couple of drops in her second glass. The entrees arrived as the appetizer
plates were being cleared which didn’t give anyone much time to digest their
appetizers. For a steakhouse, that’s kind of a problem. And then Zak’s steak
arrived with the wrong potatoes. Lulu graciously allowed him to keep the
truffle fries and brought him his twice-baked potato but alas, when Zak cut
into his steak, it was basically still moo-ing. His medium steak was very very
rare. We suspect that he had accidentally gotten someone else’s meal. 
Unfortunately,
it meant that Zak only got to eat potatoes while the rest of us were eating our
steaks and his got cooked properly. He was offered a third type of potato for
his inconvenience though! Which he (thankfully) declined. After that blip
though, the service went back to being quite lovely. Clean, white napkins were
placed on our table post-entrée to simulate a clean tablecloth prior to
dessert. They had a lovely tea menu and Lulu poured our tea for us quite
nicely. She even got us tea to-go cups when we were just too full and tired to
finish our tea in the restaurant. So Lulu was pretty great but part of the
service is all of the food arriving properly cooked and on time and that’s
where we can’t call Lulu the best of the trip. Also, unrelated to the service,
we were all very disappointed in our steaks. We had much better steak at other
Disney restaurants. So despite the service being adequate, we probably won’t be
back anytime soon due to the food.
Ahhhhh, now we’re talkin’: Monsieur Paul. Formally known
as Bistro di Paris, it was once one of the fanciest restaurants at Disney,
second only to Victoria and Albert’s. In recent years, it’s undergone a
transformation that allows it to be a part of the dining plan and slightly
toned down its rigid standards. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still quite fancy but
it lacks the snooty-ness it once had. The last time we were there, we had a
waiter that would. Not. Stop. Talking. I’d take a mouthful of food and he’d ask
me a question. He was chatting with us while we ate. It was extremely
uncomfortable. So as long as we didn’t have that guy, we were pretty sure our
service would be better. We arrived early for our reservation but we were
seated almost immediately so we didn’t have to wait at all. Our waitress this
time was Sara from Nimes, France. She was extremely personable and explained
the dining plan well and succinctly. She chatted with us a bit when we asked
where she was from in France but did not overstay her conversational welcome.
She poured nice, even glasses of wine with the professional drip-napkin and she
even smelled the cork herself rather than offering it to one of us to smell. I
thought that was a nice touch since my response is usually “it smells like a
cork” and gives me no information. It at least gave the illusion that she knew
what she was doing, even if she didn’t. Good trick. She also managed to pour us
all a second glass of wine while still leaving some in the bottle. So yes, she
poured smaller glasses but that’s the best thing to do when you have four
people. We all drank an even amount, which was lovely. Another small touch I
love is the bread service that serves the bread with a fork and spoon. There’s
something so classy about that. I have no idea why they do that but it’s cool.
And having three options for bread is always a plus. This place was even classy
enough to trade out our utensils with the ones that would be appropriate for
our next course. After our appetizer (which was insanely delicious, by the
way), we were asked if we were all through with our appetizer before clearing
the plates and in fact, we were asked again at the end of our entrée when
everyone was clearly done eating. I also loved that our entrees were served by
four different waiters so that all of the entrees arrived at exactly the same
time. That’s classy. 
And I love it because typically, I always get my food
last. In fact, on our last Disney trip, we were consistently waiting for my
food to be delivered. That didn’t happen once on this trip which was a surprise
and a delight. After our entrée, the table Zamboni came out. By that I mean the
blade that they use to clean crumbs off the table but we always call it the
table Zamboni. Now that’s nice service. Somewhere around dessert, our empty
wine glasses magically vanished. I still don’t know when they were taken away.
It was done so seamlessly! The manager came over to talk to us for a bit and
check in and was especially interested in why I had a notebook on the table. We
explained that while I am certainly no food critic, I would be reviewing the
service of the restaurant. I sometimes wonder if I shouldn’t always pull out a
notebook just to get better service! Finally, in a moment of slightly outdated
tradition, Zak was handed the bill as the only male at the table. Technically
proper, so I’ll forgive that small bit of sexism. Oh, and I almost forgot: the
pacing of the meal was just lovely. There was the exact correct amount of time
between courses so we never felt like we were waiting around or that we were
rushed. Very nice tempo for the meal. All in all, the service was impeccable.
Perfect. However, even though the service was downright flawless, it lacked
what my sister and I call the “above and beyond-ness”. We could point to no
flaw in the service but at the same time it wasn’t exactly memorable as “Oh my,
that was the most amazing service I’ve ever had at a restaurant!” So we didn’t
leave there thinking that nobody could possibly ever beat this service but we
also didn’t leave wanting for anything more. Excellent job, Sara from Nimes!
So ends part 1 but no worries, the best (and worst!) are yet to come! No, really, they'll be coming sometime in the next five minutes.
