Be Shown to Your Seat at Magic Kingdom Counter Service Restaurants

One of the most frustrating things about eating at the Magic Kingdom counter service restaurants (or at any of the other parks for that matter) is that you can never seem to find an empty table.

Well Disney is finally doing something about this issue with the introduction of new ‘rules’ at the Counter Service places in the park. Inside four quick-service restaurants in the Magic Kingdom, Disney has begun restricting access — but guaranteeing seating — during particularly busy lunch rushes.

The usual practice is for guests to split up as they enter the restaurant – with one party heading to the order point while the other members of the group find a table. Apparently this can clog up one third of a restaurant’s capacity at any time!

The new method prevents you from splitting up – but guarantees you a seat, which sounds like a much better option to me!

“This has been very helpful for us from an efficiency standpoint, because everything’s so well-organized,” said Liz Clark, general manager of food and beverage in the Magic Kingdom. “It wasn’t really a good way to decompress or relax. So we’ve been really focusing on how we can enhance the whole dining experience.”

Under the new controlled access and seating programme, guests in certain Magic Kingdom counter-service restaurants are steered through a single entrance so workers can keep tabs on how many people are inside.

A greeter hands menus and steers the entire group to cash registers to place their orders. After they get their food, they are guided by another employee to an empty table.

Clark said the program has already evolved based on feedback from guests. The menus that greeters hand out were initially only available in English and were done entirely in text; they have since been changed to include multiple languages, pictures of the menu selections, and information about using a pre-purchased dining plan that Disney sells to resort guests.

Disney began testing the concept in the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café. But it has since been rolled out to three other busy counter-service restaurants: Columbia Harbour House, Pinocchio Village Haus and Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. Those restaurants range in size from about 400 seats to more than 1,000 at Pecos Bill and Cosmic Ray’s.

The controlled access is used only on days when the park is busy.

P.S. Do you want to know how to save money on a Disney World Resort hotel, or whether your employee status can get you into the parks for free? What about how to have your holiday photos taken at no extra charge or the quickest way to get to the Magic Kingdom? I answer all of these and more in my book Walt Disney World Tips & Secrets - download your copy today!

More Disney Vacation Planning Articles...

Picnic in the Park at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

If you ask people what food they expect to find at any of the Disney themeparks most people will say hamburgers and fast food. If you are looking forward to a Disney vacation but dreading a week of fast food then you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that Disney themepark food isn’t your usual [...]

Fantasyland Rumoured Expansion at Disney’s Magic Kingdom

Rumours are rife in the Disney online community today about a possible expansion to Fantasyland over at the Magic Kingdom.

Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee! comes to the Magic Kingdom for 10 weeks only

This swinging musical show is will treat selected theme park guests at the Magic Kingdom to a revue of song and dance to celebrate the upcoming Disney animated feature, The Princess and The Frog.

Magic Kingdom Wishes FIreworks Spectacular – Video

If you are heading out to the Magic Kingdom then you absolutely have to stay for the Wishes Fireworks Spectacular at the end of the day. The fireworks explode over Cinderella Castle in time to some of your favourite Disney songs and the whole show is compered to our friend Jiminy Cricket.

The Pirates League coming to Magic Kingdom

Little girls have been pampered and preened and turned into Little Princesses at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for a while now, but it’s not really a place where little boys want to hang out on vacation. Well, all that is about to change with the introduction of The Pirates League, a new attraction coming to the Magic Kingdom in June 2009 that will turn your little ones (boys and girls) into pirates!