Brown derby not serving lunch menu?

If Disney expects us to book dining 6 months in advance
Allows or enables - not specifically expects. Example: in another thread, yesterday, someone had found a number of options for that same day, Thanksgiving.
they need to know what they will be serving 6 months in advance.
Then no Disney restaurant ever would be able to make any menu changes whatsoever. Every single day is six months in advance of somebody's meal.
I am not asking for personalized or special treatment - you said I did. What I said is that in situations where they know they are going to fundamentally modify the menu, let people know. Not one just person , but everyone.
Did they know in advance, though? Is it a permanent change? Has anybody else anywhere at this restaurant posted about this same issue this day or any surrounding day? Could the change have been due to a supply issue? The lunch kitchen staff not being available (so the dinner staff covered and cooked what they cook best)? Could it have been caused by the latest romaine lettuce recall?
the way we found out about the menu change was my son asked to see the menu before we sat down. Had he not, we wouldn’t have know until getting a table.
You could still leave at that point. Nobody would have forced you to stay, order, and eat.
 
I totally agree. Right now there is a lunch menu on our ADR day as it was there when we booked it at 180 days. We have a reservation on 12/26 for lunch. It will be our first time eating at HBD and if they tell us no lunch I will ask to cancel with no charge. I don't want a heavy dinner at noon, I want lunch. If Disney expects us to book dining 6 months in advance, they need to know what they will be serving 6 months in advance.
This!!!

I get that the menu can be changed without notice. Changing the fish dish from salmon to swordfish is one thing. Removing all lunch items from one of the only restaurants that actually offers lunch is a totally different story.
 
There is definitely a difference between running out of an item or making a menu changes (where Disney does post a new menu) and removing all the lower priced options and not being transparent about it. Even in our capitalist society, we put limits on certain behaviors. Here is the definition of Bait-and-Switch from Wikipedia.

First, customers are "baited" by merchants' advertising products or services at a low price, but when customers visit the store, they discover that the advertised goods are not available, or the customers are pressured by sales people to consider similar, but higher priced items ("switching").

I don’t have any legal knowledge to say if it applies in a situation where a restaurant advertises lower priced lunch menu then removes all the lower priced lunch items during busy times without updating their advertisement or notifying customers who have an ADR. Then not telling them until they are seated that they can only choose the higher priced dinner items when they are under penalty of a $10 per person fee to leave and the social pressure against getting up and leaving after being seated. Again, I have no legal background but it sounds super sketchy to me and not the type of customer service that Disney built their reputation on. There are tons of ways for them to make money while making people smile (dessert parties and all the other ad ons). This is small fries — why make people unhappy and have to rearrange their plans for a few bucks a table.
 


Some people will defend everything, OP. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you posting this nor do I think there’s anything wrong with just simply venting if that’s what you wanted to do.

Disney’s IT is the butt of the joke often, but it’s not so terrible that it’s an impossible feat to communicate with guests. They can send out mass emails when they want to. They do send out one just before the ADR. If gathering the contact info of people who hold lunch reservations for a certain date range is that much of a challenge, they have bigger issues than any of us could have thought.
 
Or post on the website when you make the reservation that this day, there is no lunch menu. Considering all the moving parts they are able to do on the website, this wouldn’t be difficult to implement.

Considering my knowledge and experience with Disney websites, it would absolutely be difficult to implement.

specially one as robust and technically advanced as what Disney has created.

Ummmm. Are we looking at the same website?

Looking right now there are many menus mention thanksgiving menus.

Totally useful for those booking for 6 months from now, right?

That’s the level of technological advancement the Disney site has. They likely did not have those up 6 months ago.

What do you do if you get there and it is fundamentally different?

Me personally? Kick myself for not keeping up to date with this site’s menu info and allears’s as well.

I know that the menus only went up on the Disney site not THAT many years ago, and I know they are often outdated, and I know they have that “menus subject to change” mention, so it’s not something I trust. And given that I’m vegetarian and menus tend to have one *maybe* two items that qualify and that doesn’t mean it’s something I’ll eat, menu changes are vital for me to keep up with. So I keep up with them elsewhere.

That’s what I personally would do; realize I’d let myself get complacent. Oops.

Disney has been moving away from separate lunch and dinner menus and more towards an all-day menu, but HBD is one of the few restaurants that typically has a few additional items at lunch (sliders, Cobb salad) that are at a lower price point

That must have changed from when they first announced the dinner/lunch menu merge. Interesting. HBD was my fave and they got rid of my fave dish and went to dinner menus, and the restaurant went off my radar. Interesting that it sounds like they backed off.

The note about menus being subject to change to me has been for covering themselves when items are out or when they make periodic adjustments to the offerings, not selective removal of lower priced items during the busy times.

That’s what you feel it is for or want it to be for, but obviously it’s not what Disney intends it to be for.

How hard would it have been to say with a sympathetic smile, “I’m sorry that the lunch menu isn’t available today, but we have lots of other options we hope you’ll enjoy”?

Guarantee you there are people who will take that as being cold.

In fact that last part would be taken by me as being useless, since there generally aren’t lots of other options that I can enjoy. There’s usually just the one maybe two.

I envision a single chimp working a 1960’s switch board, smoking cigarettes and trying to keep the website up and running. Thats how much Disney puts into its Apps and pages.

Close. Underpaid 18 year old interns doing the bidding of guys who left amazon to be in management for more money but without the management experience. (It’s like I know people who work at Disney IT up in Seattle or something...).

If Disney expects us to book dining 6 months in advance, they need to know what they will be serving 6 months in advance.

They don’t. We can “they need to” all we want, but. they. don’t.

Had he not, we wouldn’t have know until getting a table.

And at that point you could have sweetly talked to the server and maybe the chef to see if they could make an exception. And if they couldn’t then you could have explained things and still left.

Then no Disney restaurant ever would be able to make any menu changes whatsoever. Every single day is six months in advance of somebody's meal.

Exactly. Can you imagine the potential list of differences? No one reads the info anyway, so it would just be a list to point to after the fact...

Could it have been caused by the latest romaine lettuce recall?

Another? Man oh man.
 
Some people will defend everything, OP.

It’s simply realism. This is Disney, this is Disney IT. It’s not dynamic, it can’t handle big changes, and they simply don’t care to create something overly useful. Disney doesn’t really WANT to give us the info ahead of time. Most people won’t leave. Most people don’t research much. Most people won’t have a true yearning for a specific menu item. They’ll make do because they are hungry. Disney knows their general audience and they stick with that course.

If you think that’s somehow defending Disney, rather than *seriously* insulting them, we are never going to see eye to eye lol.
 


It’s simply realism. This is Disney, this is Disney IT. It’s not dynamic, it can’t handle big changes, and they simply don’t care to create something overly useful. Disney doesn’t really WANT to give us the info ahead of time. Most people won’t leave. Most people don’t research much. Most people won’t have a true yearning for a specific menu item. They’ll make do because they are hungry. Disney knows their general audience and they stick with that course.

If you think that’s somehow defending Disney, rather than *seriously* insulting them, we are never going to see eye to eye lol.

That’s is though. It’s a choice, like you said. They don’t want to give the info.

People are acting like it’s impossible to send out an email letting people know it’s dinner menu only. They obviously have the capability to send emails related to booking times and dates as they already do this to remind you to show up and eat at their restaurants.

They chose not to contact people and lay it on their front line staff. It is not a crazy expectation to be contacted about major changes.
 
“Had he not, we wouldn’t have know until getting a table”

And at that point you could have sweetly talked to the server and maybe the chef to see if they could make an exception. And if they couldn’t then you could have explained things and still left.

I debated doing that... for a extremely short time. But I didn’t want to waste a bunch of time and deal with my kids freaking out because they are hungry. If they said no to an exception, after dealing with all that wasted time, then I still would had to find a new place to eat. I didn’t see the value in risking it.
 
We did leave at that point.
NO. I meant even know f your son had not requested a menu (menus aren't posted outside the door any more?), and you had been seated and then given the menus, you still could have left at that point when you discovered it was the dinner menu. Specifically in response to, "the menu before we sat down. Had he not, we wouldn’t have know until getting a table."
I don’t have any legal knowledge to say if it applies in a situation where a restaurant advertises lower priced lunch menu then removes all the lower priced lunch items during busy times without updating their advertisement or notifying customers who have an ADR.
I don't think this is considered bait & switch. For starters, the menu items and prices aren't advertised, they're simply made available for viewing as a courtesy. Each has the, "...subject to change" disclaimer.

I also don't think that completely eliminating a meal menu qualifies. It would be something more like, "come in for our one dollar burger!" only to arrive and find out there was literally one, single burger for the solar and an earlier diner got it, "But you didn't want it anyway, you'll be much more satisfied with our $15 Maplewood smoke bacon cheeseburger. Or Target not having any of the $70 televisions at all and refusing to give rain checks.
 
NO. I meant even know f your son had not requested a menu (menus aren't posted outside the door any more?), and you had been seated and then given the menus, you still could have left at that point when you discovered it was the dinner menu. Specifically in response to, "the menu before we sat down. Had he not, we wouldn’t have know until getting a table."

I don't think this is considered bait & switch. For starters, the menu items and prices aren't advertised, they're simply made available for viewing as a courtesy. Each has the, "...subject to change" disclaimer.

I also don't think that completely eliminating a meal menu qualifies. It would be something more like, "come in for our one dollar burger!" only to arrive and find out there was literally one, single burger for the solar and an earlier diner got it, "But you didn't want it anyway, you'll be much more satisfied with our $15 Maplewood smoke bacon cheeseburger. Or Target not having any of the $70 televisions at all and refusing to give rain checks.

by that logic, all the Epcot restaurants could serve Mexican for cinco de Mayo.

or the buffet restaurants could say a they are only serving pre-plated meals for efficiency during the busy season.

The entire purpose of a sample menu is to give you an idea of the types meals served, price points, and a basic overview of what to expect.

but what you described is exactly the same. You didn’t want that $20 entree, enjoy this $40 one instead for lunch. How is it different?
 
Updating those who have an adr is a good idea. A better one would be not removing the few lunch items from the menu. Goodness their Cobb salad is famous and many go just for that. Who would expect that such a popular and iconic item would be removed.
 
Updating those who have an adr is a good idea. A better one would be not removing the few lunch items from the menu. Goodness their Cobb salad is famous and many go just for that. Who would expect that such a popular and iconic item would be removed.
I think others said you can still request the Cobb? That would help the situation, then guests coming specifically for these dishes would be granted the option. The Cobb has a huge following. I wonder what would happen if someone requested a burger now during lunch.

Disney probably is trying to increase 'season premium' profits, tho sometimes menu changes are mistaken to have this motive. To add current menu trends, some items need to be removed or else the menu becomes a book eventually. Often restaurants allow ordering the removed dish, provided they have the ingredients.
 
To circle this around a bit.

Isn't the Cobb salad available in some shape or form on both the lunch and dinner menu
 
Allows or enables - not specifically expects. Example: in another thread, yesterday, someone had found a number of options for that same day, Thanksgiving.

Then no Disney restaurant ever would be able to make any menu changes whatsoever. Every single day is six months in advance of somebody's meal.

Sorry I didn't word it perfectly. I am sure others knew what I was getting at. Although there are options for same day ( we have found places to eat same day many times) The popular places are booked up fast at 180. So yes Disney expects me to grab one of those early if we want to eat at a popular place. Also I was not saying they can't make menu changes. I think everyone knows that happens but advertising lunch even the same day then telling people no lunch is total BS. But honestly I don't know why I bother as you are always commenting on my post and replies telling me how and why what I say is wrong. Time to figure out how the ignore feature works.

:disrocks:
 
So yes Disney expects me to grab one of those early if we want to eat at a popular place.
That's an interesting concept. Personally, I have a better time at enjoyable restaurants, the heck with popularity. I mean, 'Ohana is (supremely) popular, but has so many complaints I wouldn't choose to eat there.
But honestly I don't know why I bother as you are always commenting on my post
Interesting. I respond to posts, not posters; i.e. what is said, not who says it...but"always"? Could you please expand on that, or rescind it?
 
That's an interesting concept. Personally, I have a better time at enjoyable restaurants, the heck with popularity. I mean, 'Ohana is (supremely) popular, but has so many complaints I wouldn't choose to eat there.

I don’t think the intention was about being popular. It was about trying to get a reservation at a restaurant that fills up quickly.

the reason they are “popular” is many people want to eat there, but also the inability to easily get the reservation could make eating there more desirable.

obviously, not everyone likes to eat at the same places. And lackof dining plan may make the $60+ per person at buffets seem steep.

either way where people choose to eat is largely falls into pre-planning, desire, price, availability, location, or the x-factor. Someplace that makes one person happymay not appeal to someone else.
 
Does anyone have concrete info on how long this dinner menu-only policy for the holidays is scheduled to last? We have an ADR for lunch on January 5 that we will likely change if the lunch menu is not available.
 

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