Brown derby not serving lunch menu?

Especially one as robust and technically advanced as what Disney has created.
Clearly, and in complete seriousness, you are not aware of have not been affected by Disney IT glitches.

As for what do you do? You politely express your disappointment and request that the no-show fee be waived. Maybe you even ask for help getting a reservation elsewhe
Plus, people are looking at the menus online now when planning for trips that are months away. They're not just for people going now.
@Molophino is right. People hoping to eat there next week, or next month, or six or more months from now, are also checking the menus. This is different from Thanksgiving, which is one specific, known date. Even if the mention of Thanksgiving dinners isn't removed at 10:01 PM this Thursday, a reasonable person would know that the restaurant is closed now and that the holiday is over.
 
It is perfectly Disney‘s right to have or not have a lunch menu. But either do or don’t. Don’t waffle about it. If if doesn’t serve the perspective of a specific location, don’t do it. 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.
Apparently Brown Derby is / was one of the last places with actual lunch items. It is completely understandable that folks who book lunch here - well - expect Lunch!! They have every right to be angry! If I was expecting to order a salad or burger and was presented with a diner menu I would be livid!
 
Clearly, and in complete seriousness, you are not aware of have not been affected by Disney IT glitches.

As for what do you do? You politely express your disappointment and request that the no-show fee be waived. Maybe you even ask for help getting a reservation elsewhe

@Molophino is right. People hoping to eat there next week, or next month, or six or more months from now, are also checking the menus. This is different from Thanksgiving, which is one specific, known date. Even if the mention of Thanksgiving dinners isn't removed at 10:01 PM this Thursday, a reasonable person would know that the restaurant is closed now and that the holiday is over.

I have definitely seen glitches with Disney’s system. It is by and far amazing in the big picture but as you look close there are plenty of issues that impact many people.

Dwspite that there are plenty of ways to inform people of an impending change. Easiest to implement could be an email.

I was frustrated when it happened as the only way we found out is my son asked to see a menu before they sat us. Then I asked. And after the lady was dismissive about it, we canceled our reservation and left. I didn’t feel like dealing with it. But I also was glad we didn’t find out after being seated - which I feel is a cold way to inform guests that - yeah I know we have a lunch menu, but we aren’t going to let you order off of it.

As for lunch menus in general there are other resteraunts at WDW that have them too. Wave does too.
 


The Wave isn't in a park. Mama Melrose, 50s Prime Time, and Sci-Fi each have the same menu for lunch and dinner. Brown Derby - if, indeed,this is a permanent change rather than a seasonal one - was the outlier.
 
Sorry that happened to you but thanks for the heads up. If this stays after the holidays I’ll be canceling my lunch reservation.

i agree that pulling the lower priced lunch items selectively at busy times is not at all transparent. 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 their right of course but they should put a warning that lunch items will not be available during select times to be fair to guests.
 
Sorry that happened to you but thanks for the heads up. If this stays after the holidays I’ll be canceling my lunch reservation.

i agree that pulling the lower priced lunch items selectively at busy times is not at all transparent. 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 their right of course but they should put a warning that lunch items will not be available during select times to be fair to guests.

They have menus & prices posted outside each TS, tho nobody wants to go through the hassle of asking a CM to remove the $10 fees because the menu or prices changed, and then scrambling for last minute alternatives. They're taking too much advantage of the situation.
 


There’s also something to be said about how this was communicated to the OP. It’s one thing not to have lunch items available that day- certainly that’s their right- but to say it “coldly” or in a condescending tone, as the OP mentioned a couple of times, is not what I’d expect from a Disney CM. I work in customer support and a lot can be accomplished with a warm, apologetic tone. 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”?
 
It's possible that "cold" and "condescending" were actually the tones in which the message was relayed. It's also possible that's (just) how the OP interpreter the tone. It's also possible that the CM was defensively delaying the message after behaving delivered the same message to umpteen then-aggravated customers who took it out on her.
 
I don't see the Cobb salad on the dinner menu. I would be really disappointed if I couldn't get that.
That Cobb is life, so I would skip Brown Derby
To keep this friendly, we will just agree to disagree what is possible to program in to the website. Especially one as robust and technically advanced as what Disney has created. Plus, considering that there is no longer a phone number to call to make reservations, the site should be very accurate.

Though you are right about the subject to change clause, it just feels a bit of a cop-out when it is a planned change for specific time frames.

You think Disney’s website is technically advanced? Its run on the absolute threadbare shoe string budget as an afterthought. Disney doesn’t need to market, its Disney. 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.
 
Wanting lunch options is not at all a cost issue. It is a “ I would rather have salad or a burger at noon than a full dinner” issue.

I miss table service lunch at Disney. If it was still offered I would do lunch & dinner on the same day. I actually like lunch! Salads, sandwiches, burgers! And wine. Lots of wine. Disney is actually missing a revenue opportunity by only offering one option.
 
Wanting lunch options is not at all a cost issue. It is a “ I would rather have salad or a burger at noon than a full dinner” issue.

I miss table service lunch at Disney. If it was still offered I would do lunch & dinner on the same day. I actually like lunch! Salads, sandwiches, burgers! And wine. Lots of wine. Disney is actually missing a revenue opportunity by only offering one option.

There are some TS restaurants that do kind of offer that kind of menu, it’s just not usually lunch exclusive. Off the top of my head there’s The Plaza, Sci Fi, Beaches and Cream, LTT I think has some burgers and salads at lunch, Rainforest Cafe I guess could count, Grand Floridian Cafe, Ale and Compass, and I bet a lot of the non character non signature restaurants at resorts have that too.

Not an extensive selection of course, but no TS menus at Disney really have that. I agree with you though, we really like the lunch TS options that are not much more costly than QS but are still lunch type food.
 
It's possible that "cold" and "condescending" were actually the tones in which the message was relayed. It's also possible that's (just) how the OP interpreter the tone. It's also possible that the CM was defensively delaying the message after behaving delivered the same message to umpteen then-aggravated customers who took it out on her.

We were the one of the first to talk to her as she got to the podium at 11:45, they opened at 12. So I don’t think there was any umteen yet. Regardless, when the management imposes this job on the person at the podium, be prepared to say it a lot... and in the Disney way, with a smile.

I wasn’t the only person who thought that the way she said it was without any empathy at all.
 
You think Disney’s website is technically advanced? Its run on the absolute threadbare shoe string budget as an afterthought. Disney doesn’t need to market, its Disney. 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.

I do think it is. I don’t think it works perfectly, but think about all the things it can do. Fastpasses, dinning, hotel reservations, wait times, bus info, etc. And it is being interacted with with hundreds of thousands of people at any moment.... with semi-delayed real time info. Does it go down, and break, and have issues. Yes. And you are right, the apps aren’t perfect. But what they are trying to achieve is remarkable.
 
There’s also something to be said about how this was communicated to the OP. It’s one thing not to have lunch items available that day- certainly that’s their right- but to say it “coldly” or in a condescending tone, as the OP mentioned a couple of times, is not what I’d expect from a Disney CM. I work in customer support and a lot can be accomplished with a warm, apologetic tone. 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”?

I agree. It was not conveyed that way. It was more of “this is all we are serving, Deal with it”
 
Possible, but it is literally her job to not let that come across in her interactions with customers.
Sure, absolutely. If only she weren't human...hey! Disney should install audioanimatronic hosts as backup, for when potentially aggravating or annoying information needs to be dispersed. :) No emotion, no feeling, no "tone"!
 
Sure, absolutely. If only she weren't human...hey! Disney should install audioanimatronic hosts as backup, for when potentially aggravating or annoying information needs to be dispersed. :) No emotion, no feeling, no "tone"!
And quite literally, this is the leg OP has to stand on.

changing themenu gets younowhere now. Complaining about the less than Disney reception and poor communication is what gets you ... something, possibly a free fast pass ormocky bar. But you can’t complain about the menu change now, after the fact, or demand an unreasonable expectation, and uploading the menu change for an short term change is not reasonable.
Definitely complain about the delivery. Thats not Disney service.
 
The menus that have thanksgiving options say so online with dates and prices. It’s not unreasonable to think that Disney could have stuck a “Dinner menu only served all day from ______ to ______” at the top of the page, or sent out a mass email to everyone with a lunch reservation.

It’s a choice not to do so, it’s not some impossible task.
 
The menus that have thanksgiving options say so online with dates and prices. It’s not unreasonable to think that Disney could have stuck a “Dinner menu only served all day from ______ to ______” at the top of the page, or sent out a mass email to everyone with a lunch reservation.

It’s a choice not to do so, it’s not some impossible task.
I agree completely. They could even make a separate link and menu for the dates when they aren’t serving lunch items the way they have different links for kids menus (‘menu for 11/22-12/1’ in the link text). Either way it would take a few minutes for their web developers to make the change, nothing complicated in that.
 

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