Luxurious_Lumiere
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2017
I recently returned from my WDW trip, and while it was an altogether wonderful experience, the final park day was needlessly frustrating thanks to a terrible experience at Chefs de France.
My boyfriend and I had a delicious meal there on a previous trip and wanted to take the larger party traveling with us this year to the restaurant as our EPCOT dinner. I was the designated planner this trip, and I arranged a 7:30pm dinner reservation so we could get out in time for Illuminations while still having plenty of time to explore World Showcase prior to eating.
We decided to check in early to see if we could get seated as soon as possible. So I went up to the hostess around 7:15pm to see if sitting down early was possible. She marked me as "there" but told us to come back at 7:30 as nothing was ready yet. No worries, just wanted to check. We sat in France and returned to check in at 7:30pm on the dot. She once again told us no tables were ready. So we waited in the front area...FOREVER. After 10 minutes went by I asked her what the wait time would be. She didn't remember my name or party from the two previous and recent interactions so I had to remind her. "No table" she says curtly. 25 minutes past our reservation time and I went up to her to ask for the table and her reply was "sorry. we will try our best." Huh? She got a manager at that point who came out to apologize...to a different party. He just walked into the vestibule and started talking (about my reservation, using my name) to the first person he saw. I spoke up and said actually that's me you're referring to, but instead of coming over to me, he started walking away. Another member of my party realized my aggravation and went over to him to say that we were the party who had been waiting. At this point I am ready to leave and grab quick service somewhere because Illuminations is fast approaching. And I know this will be my last time to catch said fireworks show, which has been one of my favorite aspects of every Disney trip.
As we were getting ready to call it quits, FINALLY we are taken to our table and sit down at 7:58pm. 28 minutes after our reservation time, despite checking in early, on time, and then repeatedly. And encountering rude or incompetent front of house staff.
Luckily our server was friendly and a welcome change of pace. But that pace apparently didn't apply to the kitchen. We knew we were on a time crunch for fireworks, so we ordered drinks and our entire meal right when he first came over (pre-fixe option). The soups arrived relatively quickly but then we sat and waited and waited until 8:40pm when the entrees arrived. So for a 7:30pm reservation, we didnt get our meals until 8:40pm. Fireworks in 20 minutes, we are forced to gobble down our food at light speed (the opposite of what you want when one sets out to enjoy a nice sit down meal) and order our desserts to go. We raced out and watched the fireworks right as the torches were snuffed out and the music started playing.
Does anyone else have experience like this at Chefs de France? And where on earth is the Disney customer service? I have worked in the restaurant world, and currently work in customer service. I know what its like to be in the weeds. Things happen. But there is no reason for the short rude replies from the hostess. The manager could have actually taken 1 second to make sure he talked to the right patron, rather than offering an empty standard apology to the wrong person. They could have offered to get us water while we waited or arranged for us to order cocktails in the waiting area. There are many ways to make a bad situation better. All I can say is that they are lucky they have good food. I wont be dining there again and will certainly stop recommending it to friends.
Maybe I sound whiny. But Disney World forces us to plan our trips down to the minute, many months ahead of time. I'm a planner, I enjoy the planning aspect and how it gets us excited for the vacation. But Disney has to uphold their end of the bargain if that is the system they want to have in place. We always end our trip with Illuminations in EPCOT. It holds many special memories for us too long and detailed to detail here. And all we wanted was one last special memory. Instead I got hunger and stress and rude behavior. Luckily I was surrounded by people I love and the fireworks were still special. Dinner definitely wasn't.
My boyfriend and I had a delicious meal there on a previous trip and wanted to take the larger party traveling with us this year to the restaurant as our EPCOT dinner. I was the designated planner this trip, and I arranged a 7:30pm dinner reservation so we could get out in time for Illuminations while still having plenty of time to explore World Showcase prior to eating.
We decided to check in early to see if we could get seated as soon as possible. So I went up to the hostess around 7:15pm to see if sitting down early was possible. She marked me as "there" but told us to come back at 7:30 as nothing was ready yet. No worries, just wanted to check. We sat in France and returned to check in at 7:30pm on the dot. She once again told us no tables were ready. So we waited in the front area...FOREVER. After 10 minutes went by I asked her what the wait time would be. She didn't remember my name or party from the two previous and recent interactions so I had to remind her. "No table" she says curtly. 25 minutes past our reservation time and I went up to her to ask for the table and her reply was "sorry. we will try our best." Huh? She got a manager at that point who came out to apologize...to a different party. He just walked into the vestibule and started talking (about my reservation, using my name) to the first person he saw. I spoke up and said actually that's me you're referring to, but instead of coming over to me, he started walking away. Another member of my party realized my aggravation and went over to him to say that we were the party who had been waiting. At this point I am ready to leave and grab quick service somewhere because Illuminations is fast approaching. And I know this will be my last time to catch said fireworks show, which has been one of my favorite aspects of every Disney trip.
As we were getting ready to call it quits, FINALLY we are taken to our table and sit down at 7:58pm. 28 minutes after our reservation time, despite checking in early, on time, and then repeatedly. And encountering rude or incompetent front of house staff.
Luckily our server was friendly and a welcome change of pace. But that pace apparently didn't apply to the kitchen. We knew we were on a time crunch for fireworks, so we ordered drinks and our entire meal right when he first came over (pre-fixe option). The soups arrived relatively quickly but then we sat and waited and waited until 8:40pm when the entrees arrived. So for a 7:30pm reservation, we didnt get our meals until 8:40pm. Fireworks in 20 minutes, we are forced to gobble down our food at light speed (the opposite of what you want when one sets out to enjoy a nice sit down meal) and order our desserts to go. We raced out and watched the fireworks right as the torches were snuffed out and the music started playing.
Does anyone else have experience like this at Chefs de France? And where on earth is the Disney customer service? I have worked in the restaurant world, and currently work in customer service. I know what its like to be in the weeds. Things happen. But there is no reason for the short rude replies from the hostess. The manager could have actually taken 1 second to make sure he talked to the right patron, rather than offering an empty standard apology to the wrong person. They could have offered to get us water while we waited or arranged for us to order cocktails in the waiting area. There are many ways to make a bad situation better. All I can say is that they are lucky they have good food. I wont be dining there again and will certainly stop recommending it to friends.
Maybe I sound whiny. But Disney World forces us to plan our trips down to the minute, many months ahead of time. I'm a planner, I enjoy the planning aspect and how it gets us excited for the vacation. But Disney has to uphold their end of the bargain if that is the system they want to have in place. We always end our trip with Illuminations in EPCOT. It holds many special memories for us too long and detailed to detail here. And all we wanted was one last special memory. Instead I got hunger and stress and rude behavior. Luckily I was surrounded by people I love and the fireworks were still special. Dinner definitely wasn't.
In seriousness, though, the rudeness is not okay and I'm sorry you experienced that. I have had that kind of experience at many restaurants, at Disney and outside Disney as well. Remember, though, that the restaurants in WS are not usually "Disney" owned and operated. For sure, Chefs de France is not Disney.
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