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We were in Hollywood Studios we were sitting down to the Indiana Jones show with plenty of time to still spare to get to our reservation. We had about fifteen minutes to get to Mama Melrose and we knew the fastest way to get there that would hold less traffic. I should have known better first of all. They had a large number of people in the restaurant trying to sign in. Finally, it was my turn to sign in and the cast member that I was dealing with was more interested in what was happening with her cast mates than assisting with check-in. She claimed she could not find my reservation even though I easily pulled it up on my phone through the My Disney Experience app with the confirmation number. She looked at me and told me that I was not in the system. By this point, it is 7:15 and time for my check in at the restaurant as my reservation time was for 7:15. I do understand that this is just times to pretty much check-in. That was not the problem that we would have. She told me she would put me and my family in as a walk in and that she was going to put me down as 15 minutes late. Let me point out again that it was 7:15 and my time was for 7:15.
Honestly, I was pretty upset about this and had I thought about it at the time I should have asked to speak to a manager about the problem. Moral of the story at the moment always ask to speak to someone if there is a problem and the cast member assisting you is not actually assisting you. While we are sitting there waiting we notice people who have come in long after we have been seated. Thirty-ish minutes come and go, and once again I should have asked to speak to someone. My at the time four-year-old is hungry and ready to eat. I start paying attention to the conversations being held by the cast members. "Oh did you hear about so and so dating so and so?" or "Did you see what happened at such and such last night?" and "Oh I can't wait to get off tonight so I can go to the such and such club." These were the conversations cast members were having right there in front of guests.
I'm getting pretty frustrated as time continues to go by and by the time we have been sitting there for forty-five minutes I get up to ask to speak to someone when they FINALLY call for us to be seated. I'm pretty frustrated and my husband is trying to stay calm for the two of us but I'm not one of those people who will take my frustration out on someone who doesn't deserve it. We are seated in Stephi's area. I don't know if Stephi is still working for Disney but she just made things so much better for us. She made sure to turn my frown upside down into a smile. She was so attentive and the atmosphere around her was so positive it was hard to be in a bad mood around her. We order our food and she makes sure that the kids come out quickly even if ours is not done. I was so thrilled with this because Short Round was near to tears because of being so hungry.
She brought the kids something to snack on pretty quickly and we appreciated it so much. When she brought the food out for the kids she asked them if they wanted cheese, you know how most Italian Restaurants do, and my kids love cheese. So anyways she puts cheese on their food and we had to tell her when to stop on Short Round's food because he would have let her go forever with the cheese if he could have. So she leaves to go and check on the adults' food and about fifteen minutes after the kids' food has come out she's brought out ours. It may not have actually been fifteen minutes it could have been less time than that. Anyways, she's amazing I will continue to say this until the end of time. She came back with the cheese and my husband and I, of course, received cheese on our food and Short Round looks at her and says, "Can I get more cheese please?" And she thinks he's the cutest thing and of course she complies after making sure it's okay. She talked with us a short while later to make sure the food was good and while she was standing there Short Round once again asked her for more cheese and she complied once again.
Stephi just made the night so much better. The fact that the cast members at the front door were lacking a bit of professionalism was completely forgotten because of Stephi. I did email and tell them about excellent service that she gave us. My husband is not big on sweets and she even made sure to tell him that he could get one of the drinks as his dessert instead. She just made the night so much better and she tried as quickly as she could to move us out of the restaurant so we could go see Fantasmic.
This many years later and she gave that much of an impression that we still remember her. When asked about one of our favorite cast members we always mention Stephi. We do make sure to mention that we are not sure if she is still working there but she made one mom's night so much better.
When I got home she was the praise in the letter that I sent out and of course, Disney being Disney did contact me later and even told me that she had been recognized. It was in this phone call with Disney that I would later discover that it apparently appeared that many of the reservations had simply 'disappeared' for Mama Melrose. They were amazing and went above and beyond to make things better. We were going to be back in July that same year for a trip to the water parks and so the $100 gift card that they sent us was put to good use going back to them during that trip. If something is wrong to say something when you are at Disney. They will try their hardest to fix it and now when we are there and there is a problem I try not to wait until I get home to mention something. I try to say something then and there. They cannot fix the problem if they do not know there is a problem.
Have we been to Mama Melrose since this incident? No, we have not but that is not because we don't love the restaurant. It's because there are so many other dining options to choose from and we love trying new things.
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