Don't Stop - part one of Disney trip COMPLETED - Page 47 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Sunday 13 December – part five: service failure requires service recovery
We were soon called and all discussed the differences we saw between the place now and when it was Spoodles. It hasn’t changed that much, but you will spot some subtle differences, like the map on the front now reflects Greece and that part of the Mediterranean, rather than Spain and Italy, as it did in the past. Inside, it felt smaller, but generally seemed very similar to what we were all used to previously.
When the menu arrived, that didn’t seem similar at all. : It was full of wonderful sounding items. I struggled to say some of them and was very glad that they had descriptions of everything, so that I could work out what they were. I thought this was very adventurous for Disney, which does seem to have got more and more homogenous over recent years. You can usually walk into most restaurants and find the same items, but not here.
I went for two appetisers, the goat cheese-stuffed grape leaf and the spanakopita, which is traditional phyllo pie of spinach, feta, leeks and dill, according to the menu, along with the roasted red pepper and chickpea soup with hummus.
Mark had the Kouzzina spreads, harissa yoghurt, Kalamata fig and chickpea hummus with grilled pita for appetiser, followed by the wood-grilled flank steak with fresh herb saltsa and Kouzzina potatoes.
I really couldn’t fault the flavours in any of mine at all, very ethnic and full of unique tastes, although I did find the cps a bit overpowering in the grape leaf dish. The stand out was perhaps the soup for me, which did surprise me, as I don’t usually like chickpeas at all. Mark enjoyed his, although he found his meat a bit greasy.
The food was wonderful, the company was great, as we chatted away and put the world completely to rights. The problem was the service. It all started out so promisingly too. Our server was so enthusiastic when she greeted us and read out each of our names from our PassPorter name badges. I thought we were in for a great night, but how wrong you can be.
The photo our server took of us.... ... and a glimpse of her
The problems started when our entrees turned up as the appetisers were still being eaten. I think maybe Larry and I had finished, but Mark, Lorie and Heather were still eating theirs. That never sits well with me when that happens. It says to me that they are just not keeping an eye on things.
The real issue came at dessert. We were asked if we wanted to look at the dessert menu and about three or four of us said yes. We sat there and sat there and nothing more. Eventually, apparently our server came over and asked Bob if he wanted something from the dessert menu. He said no and she then took my menu away. I suspect that this all happened while I was in the bathroom, as I had no knowledge of this. Anyway, the check then appeared, before the rest of us had been asked if we wanted dessert. This really wasn’t on.
Let’s just say, perhaps mistakenly, I fired Heather up a bit to go and speak to the manager for the second time, as she had already spoken to her earlier in the meal and not been at all impressed by her attitude, shall we say. She headed off, with the rest of us cowering at the table. As Mark said, Heather is not the sort of person you mess with, in the nicest possible way. Don’t get me wrong, she is such a lovely sweet person, but when things get bad, she is a very good person to have on your side. She came back again and, once again, no satisfaction with the manager. It wasn’t good enough. We had had poor service and no-one really seemed to care. By now, the good food had pretty much been forgotten, as we were all left with a nasty taste in our mouths from service issues. We sorted out the check and our service reluctantly came over to us. She had pretty much tried to avoid us, ever since our first complaint, but as was pointed out, she was getting $35 for her troubles, as the 18% gratuity had already been added in, as there were six of us. You know, in hindsight, I wonder if we should’ve spoken again to the manager, as it grates that she got 18% for what I would call poor service, but by now, I think we were all tired of arguing and it was getting us nowhere. We settled up (I think it came to something like $34 per person, which was good value, considering that we had shared a pitcher of sangria) and headed out. What should’ve been a good dining experience had sadly been marred for us.
Heather at work, scribbling a message to them on the check – I seem to recall it’s something like service failure requires service recovery....
Kouzzina:
Appetiser 9 8½
Entree 8 8
Service 4 3
Atmosphere 9 9
Value for money 9½ 8
Average score: 7.60
Mark and Larry both demonstrating their flashing bits but you can’t see Larry’s – they were on his hat!
We headed to get the boat to the Studios, but there was such a long line, so the others opted to walk, but there was no way that I could do that for the second night running, so I opted to drive there. We were all standing with the others, waiting for Larry, who was chatting away to Mark and eventually they just suggested that he come over in the car with us, so we did that.
We picked the car up from valet parking and goodness they were fussy about giving us the free parking with the Tables in Wonderland card. I never experienced anything like it anywhere else, so I guess they have issues here. They asked for the card, as all places do and then they wanted the receipt. Well, because it was a group meal, I didn’t pick it up. I showed the woman the menu from there and found the final receipt where we’d paid using a gift card, but she sternly told us that usually we would have to present the first receipt, proving we’d used our Tables in Wonderland card. Good grief! Finally, she gave us the free parking, once she had finished grilling us and we drove over to the Studios. They were directing people to a lot towards the edge of the parking lot, so Mark asked the guy about parking closer, because of my Guest Assistance Card and he waved us through. We couldn’t fathom where the actual disabled parking was, so we just parked near the front of the lot, near the taxi rank, which was good enough for us. We walked in and took our time walking over to the Osborne Lights, getting some Photopass pictures on the way.
Oh wow, so sorry to hear about the poor service. You'd think the manager would be interested in keeping guests happy so they come back The food looks pretty exotic, probably a bit too adventurous for my taste
That is a shame you paid for an 18% tip. I think at thaty point I would have told the manager to take it off immediately because your group was not going to be pay that - not because you're cheap, but because the service does not merit that amount of a tip. Ken always leaves notes on the check if the service is bad saying something like "the problem with the cheap tip isn't me... it's you."
What a disappointing experience at the restaurant. DH would love to try it but the boys and I are not very adventurous eaters.
When you started your report I was worried for you that your condition would slow you down but I am amazed at how you were able to keep going and get so much done!!
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I still enjoyed "your party" even with the few mishaps.
As we discussed previously, I'm still thinking about April 2011. Just need to work it all out. Did you note that Easter is at the end of April in 2011? I would guess that all of April will be busy. So I need to consider all that before deciding since we want to stay at Poly part of our trip.
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ºOº ~*~
Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
I'm glad to hear the excellent company made up for lousy service at Kuzzina. I have to agree with if the server isn't great, not worth a high tip, and certainly not 18% at that. Sorry about your Valet Parking troubles too. I hope it got better after that.
Dinner was good AND lots of fun . . . I just needed to retrain the waitstaff and the management
I really enjoyed the company and hope to see you all again real soon!
I had the stuffed grape leaves and the clams, which appear on the menu as Vongole. White wine, garlic and sausge. They were okay, but the Spoodles saffron and chorizo mussels were far superior! Maybe that's just because I know I can't get them any more. (The recipe for Spoodles garlic shrimp on AllEars is awesome though!)
In case you were wondering--you can still order the Sangria! (And YES! We did!)
A gratuity is to reward good service, too bad that server didn't learn that. What would be a shame would be if the word got out that management and the service staff are poor and people quit coming
I still enjoyed "your party" even with the few mishaps.
As we discussed previously, I'm still thinking about April 2011. Just need to work it all out. Did you note that Easter is at the end of April in 2011? I would guess that all of April will be busy. So I need to consider all that before deciding since we want to stay at Poly part of our trip.
that's one of the reasons we're going in Easter - our trip will lead up to Easter, which is very late that year. It works out well for us and for the family, who want to come as well, as they can use school holidays for their trip.
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: It was full of wonderful sounding items. I struggled to say some of them and was very glad that they had descriptions of everything, so that I could work out what they were. I thought this was very adventurous for Disney, which does seem to have got more and more homogenous over recent years. 
You can usually walk into most restaurants and find the same items, but not here. 
Don’t get me wrong, she is such a lovely sweet person, but when things get bad, she is a very good person to have on your side. She came back again and, once again, no satisfaction with the manager. It wasn’t good enough. We had had poor service and no-one really seemed to care. By now, the good food had pretty much been forgotten, as we were all left with a nasty taste in our mouths from service issues. We sorted out the check and our service reluctantly came over to us. She had pretty much tried to avoid us, ever since our first complaint, but as was pointed out, she was getting $35 for her troubles, as the 18% gratuity had already been added in, as there were six of us. You know, in hindsight, I wonder if we should’ve spoken again to the manager, as it grates that she got 18% for what I would call poor service, but by now, I think we were all tired of arguing and it was getting us nowhere. We settled up (I think it came to something like $34 per person, which was good value, considering that we had shared a pitcher of sangria) and headed out. What should’ve been a good dining experience had sadly been marred for us. 
but you can’t see Larry’s – they were on his hat! 
I never experienced anything like it anywhere else, so I guess they have issues here. They asked for the card, as all places do and then they wanted the receipt. Well, because it was a group meal, I didn’t pick it up. I showed the woman the menu from there and found the final receipt where we’d paid using a gift card, but she sternly told us that usually we would have to present the first receipt, proving we’d used our Tables in Wonderland card. Good grief! 
Finally, she gave us the free parking, once she had finished grilling us and we drove over to the Studios. They were directing people to a lot towards the edge of the parking lot, so Mark asked the guy about parking closer, because of my Guest Assistance Card and he waved us through. We couldn’t fathom where the actual disabled parking was, so we just parked near the front of the lot, near the taxi rank, which was good enough for us. We walked in and took our time walking over to the Osborne Lights, getting some Photopass pictures on the way. 
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The food looks pretty exotic, probably a bit too adventurous for my taste 
Deb
. But poor service hurts as bad or worse than less than stellar food. Shame on them! Thank goodness for great company! 
I would guess that all of April will be busy. So I need to consider all that before deciding since we want to stay at Poly part of our trip.
ºOº ~*~ 
AND lots of fun 
that's one of the reasons we're going in Easter - our trip will lead up to Easter, which is very late that year. It works out well for us and for the family, who want to come as well, as they can use school holidays for their trip. 
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