Warning about Fantasmic Package and Brown Derby

[Minybear]

We were on the waitlist for the Brown Derby and doing the Fantastimic package. Finally our waitlist came through we had PS's for 4pm on Thursday 12/9. We went to the Brown Derby at 4pm and found out we didn't have any PS's there. The guy at the resv stand looked in his system and found our PS's were for the Hollywood and Vine restaurant instead. We told the guy we had confirmed resv's at the Brown Derby (our confirmation letter sorry to say was in our room at AKL). The guy got very rude to us and said "We have guests with reall reservations and we will change the guests with Fantasmic reservations to the Hollywood and Vine restaurant due to overbookings" (or words simular). This guy was very condesinding, arragant and rude to us and he made us feel like he was looking down on us and that our $$ wasn't worth a dine in that restaurant.

We went to the Hollywood and Vine restaurant very angry about this situation and spoke to the Gretta the manager there. We asked her politely to cancel our resv's and make sure we weren't charged for those PS's and give our PS's to the nice lady's in front of us asking for PS's for that night. Gretta tried to have us have dinner there but we were to upset regarding the situation at the Brown Derby to eat anything. Gretta did give us a voucher to go into Fantasmic at their special entrance. We sadly didn't use this due to what happend and we saw the Osbourn lights instead.

We did call AKL Conceirge and let them know what happend due to they were the ones to make those resv's. Unknown to us after we got off the phone with them AKL concierge manager had called the Brown Derby and talked to the manager over there and they got us PS's for 6:10 pm. We didn't know about this until we got back to our room at AKL concierge (around 7pm) but due to this above situation we didn't want to eat there. AKL conceirge did comp us inroom dinning for the mishap. I just wanted to warn everyone that the Brown Derby can and will bump guests from their restarant to another restaurant due to overbookings.

One thing I hope someone would do in this situation is to let the guest know ahead of time that the Brown Derby or any restaurant was changing thier PS's to another restaurant and then let the guest decide what they want to do about it. If they want to keep the PS or cancel it insead of having an explosive situation like we had.

Minybear

 

[Hippychickali]

I worry about this kind of thing since the Fantasmic Dinner Package is the only PS we are making. So, if you don't mind me asking, did you confirm your ps before you left home? I'm just wondering how this could happen. I was feeling pretty assured by the people on these boards that if you make a PS and then confirm it at a later time before you get to WDW, there is very little chance of anything going wrong. Now I'm worried again. Thanks for sharing your story.

Ali

 

[Minybear]

I worry about this kind of thing since the Fantasmic Dinner Package is the only PS we are making. So, if you don't mind me asking, did you confirm your ps before you left home? I'm just wondering how this could happen. I was feeling pretty assured by the people on these boards that if you make a PS and then confirm it at a later time before you get to WDW, there is very little chance of anything going wrong. Now I'm worried again. Thanks for sharing your story.Ali

We did AKL concierge and those are the people that did our resv. When we go in our room our itinerary said "Brown Derby Fantasmic Package 4pm). We didn't call resv's and confirm anything due to its on our itinerary.

 

[wilderness01]

Wow I have never had this happen for any of our priority seatings. Sorry this experience happened to you.

 

[punkin]

Something similar. I made regular ressies for Brown Derby, but when we got there, they had no record of it under my name and the guy at the podium was quite rude. I searched thru my backpack and luckily found my ressie number (scrawled on the back of a torn piece of paper). Once he had the number, the ressie magically appeared with my name spelled correctly right next to it (I thought maybe they misspelled it and that's why it got lost). I never had this problem anywhere else. Usually, you go up and just give them your name.

 

[Micca]

There would have been frost in Florida if a CM said to me that comment about "real reservations". In many years of WDW trips and loads of PS, I have never heard of being bumped to another restaurant due to overbooking.
That's why they HAVE PS so that when they are booked they say to guests "can't help you, we're booked". I have seen this at Le Cellier quite a few times. Did you ask the BD CM to check with AKL concierge? I wonder if that would have made a difference. Sorry you had to endure this during your trip.

 

[tjmw2727]

Wow - I am sorry that happened - kudos to H&V for trying to make it right and two thumbs down for BD. I hope things worked out ok from then on and I am sorry you missed fantasmic.

I will take a lesson from your experience and remember to carry my ps numbers and times with me each day. I travel as the solo adult with my two dd's and our daily sit-down meal is a true "necessity". Especially at Fantasmic as saving seats for an hour or more is next to impossible as someone always has to use the bathroom, get food etc.

I hope you get some answers from BD!

TJ

 

[Scratch42]

AW, that's awful!

I hope the rest of your trip went better than that!

Scratch

 

[Minybear]

AW, that's awful!

I hope the rest of your trip went better than that!

Scratch

Hi Scratch

Out of the 4 days, the frist 2 days on points was great. We did the Sunrise safari and the California Grill and MVMCP. We had a great time. The nightmare began before I got up on the 3rd day. AKL conciege didn't post on our inhouse account our initial deposit. They had our 2nd deposit to pay off the room. I had a heart attach when DH came back and said they had to take another $100 off our VI. Knowing what our balance should have been there should have been a credit of over $400 on our account. This wasn't straighened out until the day we left. Apparently the hotels was upgrading their computers and dropped some deposits. One of them was ours. The concierge manager knew of the situaiton and wanted to make sure it was settled. I was on the phone with the concierge manager an hour prior to going to the Brown Derby and I had said we were going to the Brown Derby to celebrate our 29th anniversary. She said have a good time at the Brown Derby. She never expected me to call her up a little over an hour to hear what had happened to us.

I hope you have a great trip over Christmas and New Years Eve.

 

[Scratch42]

I am beginning to wonder about the computer system at AKL! Have heard too many complaints lately. They really should do something about it!

Have you posted a trip report?

I want to hear more!

Scratch

 

[Minybear]

I am beginning to wonder about the computer system at AKL! Have heard too many complaints lately. They really should do something about it!

Have you posted a trip report?

I want to hear more!

Scratch

No not really. I dont do trip reports. No one wants to hear about my trip. Right now whats important to me is to warn guests about the Fantastmic Package and to double check their resv's for the Brown Derby and have them check their PS's to the Brown Derby the day before or the day of and make sure everything is fine. I don't want anyone going though what we did. If we had known this was going to happen we would have canceled it and go into MGM around 6pm instead of 4pm and stay at MK longer.

By the way I agree with you 4 nights is not enough. We needed a longer stay. We saw the bus to Disney cruiseline and we remembered our trip on DCL in January.. Would love to go back to DCL.
Minybear

 

[Ajax]

We had a similar problem at the Brown Derby on New Years Day '02. They had our PS, but no record of a Fantasmic package. I produced our PS slip, the number was entered, and lo and behold, a Fantasmic PS surfaced. The woman operating the host desk was kind and polite, and not happy with a system that does not cross reference PS' from different sources.

I carry a Passporter in my fanny pack. As soon as we're checked into our resort, I go to guest services and have them print out our PS record on individual slips. Any problems or discrepencies can be resolved right then. I then put the slips in the corresponding 'slot' in the daily organizer in the back of the Passporter. Pulling out a valid PS and presenting it to the host/hostess will stop any problems before they can begin.