ESPN Zone: Never Again!

[spiderman]

I just got back from a family vacation to Disney World and just wanted to share this story with my fellow planeteers.

On Monday the 11th, while vacationing in Orlando my extended family and I decided we would watch the game at the ESPN Zone on the Boardwalk at Disney (I guess it's actually called the ESPN Club). Now up until this day I was a huge fan of the ESPN Zone, having watched big games at the restaurants in Las Vegas, Manhatten, and Baltimore. Needless to say I was absolutely shocked at what transpired.

We arrived about 30 minutes before the festivities began, and decided to grab 3 tables for the 11 of us located in the bar area. After sitting there for about 5 minutes without even a glance from a waitress I notice a guy in a Yankees jersey looking over at us. After a minute he stands up and walks over. At first I figured, uh-oh here we go, but he was actually a really nice guy and told us that about 5 minutes ago the Manager decided he would not be airing the game in the bar area, only the restaurant area, and that a lot of people had recently walked out as a result. He also made a couple of comments about the manager being a pompous a-hole, but that is neither here nor there.

Upon hearing this my significant other decides to question the manager as to why he is airing the Mets game, when the entire bar is composed of Yankee and Red Sox fans. The manager responded that he only had 2 servers, when she looked confused, he explained, much like a kindergarten teacher talking to 5 year old, that since he only had 2 servers he needed everyone in the restaurant area. At that point I gave my wife all the credit in the world for not flipping out at the way he was speaking to her, she didn't, it was more impressive then Sheff vs. right field.

At this point, it is about 20 minutes to game time and I'm beginning to worry about the way things are going down. So we all begin making our way over to restaurant. It is important to note that there are 3 significant individuals of my extended family with regards to what happens next, we'll call them Big Don, T, and Army Guy.

Big Don: We have a party of 11
Waitress #1: I can't seat incomplete parties
Big Don: Everyone is here
Waitress #1: I only see 7 people
T: That's because the rest of them are still walking over here from the bar
Waitress #1: I need to see everyone

So we end up cramming 11 people in the doorway from the bar into the restaurant, without room for anyone to get by and the waitress tells everyone..."wait right here". She walks away to find us a table and about 2 seconds after leaving we are greeted by another friendly waitress who begins yelling at us for blocking the doorway.

Waitress #2: You people can't be standing here, we need this doorway open!
T: She just told us to stand here
Waitress #2: I don't care, move now!

In the meantime a guy in a Mets jersey walks by us exclaiming that "This is the worst run place I have EVER been!" Something obviously happened to him. I have no idea what it was.

As we begin cramming ourselves against the wall, all the while doing our best to keep our spirits up, because afterall we are about to witness history 86 years in the making, waitress #1 returns.

Waitress #1: I can seat 10.

Yes, that's right. Not, I can seat 6 here and 5 there, or do you mind being split up. Nope just, I can seat 10 and then she just stares at us.

Big Don (confusedly): But I told you we have 11
Waitress #1: I can seat 10
Big Don: But we have 11, you can't squeeze 1 more?
Waitress #1: I can seat 10

At this point people are actually getting up from their tables in order to tell the waitress that they are more then willing to give up table space in order to accomodate us and she is totally ignoring them. We were all completely flabbergasted. I literally couldn't even process what was going on.

Big Don: If you only have 10 then I'm out of here
Waitress #1: Fine, would the other 10 of you like to sit down?

If I was a cartoon character my jaw would have hit the floor.

T: I want to talk to the manager.
Manager: What's going on.
T: She won't accomodate us.
Manager: She can only seat 10.
T: This is unbelievable, my cousin just got home from Iraq, we come here, willing to spend good money in your establishment and you aren't making any effort to accomodate us. This place sucks sh*t!
Manager: Watch your language in here!
Army Guy: Watch our language! I want to file a formal complaint.

At this point, it's about 10 minutes to the start of the ceremony and I'm seriously considering the fact that despite waiting my entire life to see the Red Sox receive Championship rings I might actually frickin' miss it. As if things couldn't get a worse, the manager then proceeds to tear half a sheet of notebook paper out of some book and hand it to Army Guy.

Army Guy: What the f*ck is this?
Manager: You know what to do with that.
Army Guy: Who the f*ck do you think you are?

The next part actually made me feel warm inside. I turn around and there was a whole crowd of Yankee fans and the guy with the Mets jersey yelling at waitress #1 & #2 about why we (a bunch of Sox fans) weren't being accomodated. It was quite a sight to see. Anyways now I'm freaking out so I start grabbing people and pushing them out the door (I didn't want to miss the ceremony and realized we definitely weren't spending our money there). After getting everyone outside we fan out into smaller groups and begin calling places and quickly trying to come up with an alternate plan.

The next part tops it all off. As we are on the boardwalk talking and using cell phones the manager calls security. Yes, that's right, the guy called security in order to get us kicked off the boardwalk because we told him his place sucked. Incredible, at that point we had already left peacefully. Unfortunately the story gets worse.

T calls Planet Hollywood and they say they'll air the game, we quickly devise an every man for himself gameplan, split up into small groups and jump into taxi's. We get to Planet Hollywood and the bartender tells us that whoever we talked to was crazy. They are forced to play a tape all day which shows previews and movie clips and they don't even have access to their televisions, but they tell us to try the Orlando Ale House on Palm Parkway.

We jump into another taxi, I'm completely frazzled and say to the driver "Orlando Ale House" you know where it is? He knods his head and off we go. Only we were headed to the wrong Ale House, by the time we actually figured out where we were going the ceremony was over. I walked into the Orlando Ale House at the bottom of the 1st with confused Sox fans that I didn't even know saying, "Man you missed it where were you???"

Yup, that's right, thanks to the ESPN Zone on the Boardwalk in Disney I missed the whole ceremony. Thanks, ESPN Zone I will never ever, ever again set foot into any of your establishments ever again and I will tell this story to all I know, for that was truly one of the most upsetting days of my life as a Sox fan.

Thanks for listening.

 

[B A Rabbit]

I feel for ya, Spidey. That whole "Downtown Disney" place is quite a joke.

 

[Bruschi 3:16]

I just got back from a family vacation to Disney World and just wanted to share this story with my fellow planeteers.

On Monday the 11th, while vacationing in Orlando my extended family and I decided we would watch the game at the ESPN Zone on the Boardwalk at Disney (I guess it's actually called the ESPN Club). Now up until this day I was a huge fan of the ESPN Zone, having watched big games at the restaurants in Las Vegas, Manhatten, and Baltimore. Needless to say I was absolutely shocked at what transpired.

We arrived about 30 minutes before the festivities began, and decided to grab 3 tables for the 11 of us located in the bar area. After sitting there for about 5 minutes without even a glance from a waitress I notice a guy in a Yankees jersey looking over at us. After a minute he stands up and walks over. At first I figured, uh-oh here we go, but he was actually a really nice guy and told us that about 5 minutes ago the Manager decided he would not be airing the game in the bar area, only the restaurant area, and that a lot of people had recently walked out as a result. He also made a couple of comments about the manager being a pompous a-hole, but that is neither here nor there.

Upon hearing this my significant other decides to question the manager as to why he is airing the Mets game, when the entire bar is composed of Yankee and Red Sox fans. The manager responded that he only had 2 servers, when she looked confused, he explained, much like a kindergarten teacher talking to 5 year old, that since he only had 2 servers he needed everyone in the restaurant area. At that point I gave my wife all the credit in the world for not flipping out at the way he was speaking to her, she didn't, it was more impressive then Sheff vs. right field.

At this point, it is about 20 minutes to game time and I'm beginning to worry about the way things are going down. So we all begin making our way over to restaurant. It is important to note that there are 3 significant individuals of my extended family with regards to what happens next, we'll call them Big Don, T, and Army Guy.

Big Don: We have a party of 11
Waitress #1: I can't seat incomplete parties
Big Don: Everyone is here
Waitress #1: I only see 7 people
T: That's because the rest of them are still walking over here from the bar
Waitress #1: I need to see everyone

So we end up cramming 11 people in the doorway from the bar into the restaurant, without room for anyone to get by and the waitress tells everyone..."wait right here". She walks away to find us a table and about 2 seconds after leaving we are greeted by another friendly waitress who begins yelling at us for blocking the doorway.

Waitress #2: You people can't be standing here, we need this doorway open!
T: She just told us to stand here
Waitress #2: I don't care, move now!

In the meantime a guy in a Mets jersey walks by us exclaiming that "This is the worst run place I have EVER been!" Something obviously happened to him. I have no idea what it was.

As we begin cramming ourselves against the wall, all the while doing our best to keep our spirits up, because afterall we are about to witness history 86 years in the making, waitress #1 returns.

Waitress #1: I can seat 10.

Yes, that's right. Not, I can seat 6 here and 5 there, or do you mind being split up. Nope just, I can seat 10 and then she just stares at us.

Big Don (confusedly): But I told you we have 11
Waitress #1: I can seat 10
Big Don: But we have 11, you can't squeeze 1 more?
Waitress #1: I can seat 10

At this point people are actually getting up from their tables in order to tell the waitress that they are more then willing to give up table space in order to accomodate us and she is totally ignoring them. We were all completely flabbergasted. I literally couldn't even process what was going on.

Big Don: If you only have 10 then I'm out of here
Waitress #1: Fine, would the other 10 of you like to sit down?

If I was a cartoon character my jaw would have hit the floor.

T: I want to talk to the manager.
Manager: What's going on.
T: She won't accomodate us.
Manager: She can only seat 10.
T: This is unbelievable, my cousin just got home from Iraq, we come here, willing to spend good money in your establishment and you aren't making any effort to accomodate us. This place sucks sh*t!
Manager: Watch your language in here!
Army Guy: Watch our language! I want to file a formal complaint.

At this point, it's about 10 minutes to the start of the ceremony and I'm seriously considering the fact that despite waiting my entire life to see the Red Sox receive Championship rings I might actually frickin' miss it. As if things couldn't get a worse, the manager then proceeds to tear half a sheet of notebook paper out of some book and hand it to Army Guy.

Army Guy: What the f*ck is this?
Manager: You know what to do with that.
Army Guy: Who the f*ck do you think you are?

The next part actually made me feel warm inside. I turn around and there was a whole crowd of Yankee fans and the guy with the Mets jersey yelling at waitress #1 & #2 about why we (a bunch of Sox fans) weren't being accomodated. It was quite a sight to see. Anyways now I'm freaking out so I start grabbing people and pushing them out the door (I didn't want to miss the ceremony and realized we definitely weren't spending our money there). After getting everyone outside we fan out into smaller groups and begin calling places and quickly trying to come up with an alternate plan.

The next part tops it all off. As we are on the boardwalk talking and using cell phones the manager calls security. Yes, that's right, the guy called security in order to get us kicked off the boardwalk because we told him his place sucked. Incredible, at that point we had already left peacefully. Unfortunately the story gets worse.

T calls Planet Hollywood and they say they'll air the game, we quickly devise an every man for himself gameplan, split up into small groups and jump into taxi's. We get to Planet Hollywood and the bartender tells us that whoever we talked to was crazy. They are forced to play a tape all day which shows previews and movie clips and they don't even have access to their televisions, but they tell us to try the Orlando Ale House on Palm Parkway.

We jump into another taxi, I'm completely frazzled and say to the driver "Orlando Ale House" you know where it is? He knods his head and off we go. Only we were headed to the wrong Ale House, by the time we actually figured out where we were going the ceremony was over. I walked into the Orlando Ale House at the bottom of the 1st with confused Sox fans that I didn't even know saying, "Man you missed it where were you???"

Yup, that's right, thanks to the ESPN Zone on the Boardwalk in Disney I missed the whole ceremony. Thanks, ESPN Zone I will never ever, ever again set foot into any of your establishments ever again and I will tell this story to all I know, for that was truly one of the most upsetting days of my life as a Sox fan.

Thanks for listening.

Dude

What did the note say that the Manager gave to Army Guy? TFF!
I was at the ESPN Club at Disney about a year or so ago and also had lousy service. That place sucks and I'll never go back there again.

 

[Hawg73]

Interesting story Spiderman.

I'm heading down there in two weeks and though I wasn't planning on it-- I just might drop by and look for an excuse to flip out and file a formal complaint.

I went there once before and hated it, but there is something to be said for watching a TV over a urinal. Namely, it is assinine.

My belief is that if you should basically hold it until a commercial comes on, which never takes very long and saves embarassing stains on your shoes.

I've learned you never argue with a "manager" who has gone power mad -- you go over his head until you find somebody that gives a crap about customer service and you ream THAT guy with the understanding that the idiots will not get off scot free.

Every large corporation has somebody whose job it is to listen to pissed off people and whack the offenders with the corporate correction stick.

You need to remember the names of the rude ones and exact quotes that are only embellished slightly to make sure the jerks hear about it.

I make a point of asking for name, rank and serial number when I run into a complete idiot and make my intention clear. If they still want to play, then.......too bad for them.

If they offer to send you a gift certificate would you go back?

 

[TrueBeliever]

For what it's worth, let me throw in a little incident that happened last year at a place in our very own Foxborough, Mass.

Every year a group of us from the Patriots.com chat room gets together to go to a home game. On Saturday night we all went to a bar and grill not too far from the stadium; I can't remember its name off-hand but I could find out quickly enough.

Anyway, here in Wisconsin, it's typical not only to choose how much to leave for a tip (only if you have a large party will the restaurant advise you how much to leave) but to leave it on the table even if you use a credit card. You simply write "OT" on your receipt to signify that you will leave the gratuity on the table rather than have it charged to your card. I don't know if that's foreign to y'all out east, but that's how we do it here. It's not because we don't leave tips, it's because we in the Midwest believe it is gauche to point out how much you spent on a gift, etc. Even if the service is awful you're still expected to leave a dollar or so, because stiffing wait-staff is just not done.

Well anyway, we were at the restaurant and the waitress was a ditz. She screwed up part of the soon-to-be Mrs. TrueBeliever's order and didn't correct even after being asked politely twice. So the time comes to pay our portion of the bill (there was a big group of us there after all) and put my check card in the little book they give you, then signed the receipt.

Well after this clown brings back my card, she asks Mrs. TB if there was a problem with the service. Obviously there was, but Mrs. TB didn't want to start a scene and says, "No, it was fine." That wasn't good enough for the waitress, who kept repeating the question over and over again like a broken record. Finally she says that wants to know why Mrs. TB isn't leaving a tip. (Never mind that it was MY check card - do you know many women named Jason???)

I broke in and said, "Linda (or whatever her name was), I'm sorry if there's any confusion; we're from Wisconsin and we usually just leave the tip on the table rather than include it on the credit card."

"Oh, okay," the waitress says, and then goes right back to grilling Mrs. TB. Finally a supervisor came over and called her away, apparently sensing that the whole thing was on the verge of becoming a scene. I asked Mrs. TB if we should stiff her for a tip because of the whole ordeal; Mrs. TB said we should leave enough lest "Linda" come chasing after us. (I think I left $3, which was way more than 15 percent.)

Outside the restaurant a bunch of us hung around waiting for the rest of the group to finish their meals so we could all head back to the hotel. Mrs. TB was so upset and embarrassed over the whole thing that she literally started crying. I wasn't much help because I had ate too much too fast and had a terrible stomach ache, but I consoled her as best I could.

A short while later, we found out that another member of our party also got into a tiff with the staff because the bartender cut her off, apparently because he couldn't understand how to mix a drink she wanted and he got mad when she tried to tell him how to make it.

Needless to say, at this year's game we're going to a different restaurant.

 

[PA_PATS_FAN54*]

(I think I left $3, which was way more than 15 percent.)

Ya cheap Bastid I always leave 20% but in the case of extremely poor service I have left 2 cents.

Spidey I would take Hawgs advise (mostly because i'm a stubborn S O B) and contact their corporate office. It may not benefit you monetarily but chances are the staff in question will get their azz's reamed.

 

[Alcoholic9*]

Ya cheap Bastid I always leave 20% but in the case of extremely poor service I have left 2 cents.

Spidey I would take Hawgs advise (mostly because i'm a stubborn S O B) and contact their corporate office. It may not benefit you monetarily but chances are the staff in question will get their azz's reamed.

I don't believe in tipping.

 

[Steve1]

I went to the ESPNzone at Disneyworld in August of 2003, I believe. I was studying rocket science (would ya' believe? We were making high-powered sport rockets at Nasa), and I went by myself to the disney espn place. I planned it out a couple of weeks before: The Patriots were to play the Giants in a preseason affair (it rained like crazy at foxboro....the Pats won, 14-0), and I'm pretty sure the game was on espn, so it was on the big screen all night!

It was great. I milked it for the whole game....pre-meal drinks, appetizer, meal, desert, coffee..I stayed the whole 3 hours, seated at a small table. On top of that, the Redsox game was on one of the "smaller" screens" (still big). The service was fine.

I'd go back in a heartbeat. Sorry about anyone's bad experiences.

 

[freak]

I didn't care for the Manhattan ESPNZone, but that was primarily because of the $9, 12oz Sammys. Horr-en-dous.

 

[Adams85]

Found the Manhattan E-Zone, not only expensive, but too loud could not hear the TV's or speak with the person with whom I was with. Also could not figure out what each place meant, the only thing that seemed easy was the gift shop.

 

[Annihilus]

I don't believe in tipping.

You beat me to it with that Reservoir Dogs reference. I actually didn't believe in tipping back in my younger days until I saw the scene in that movie. I still don't really believe in it unless I get great service, but I do tip nicely now - generally regardless.

Spidey, that story is crazy. Part of my job when I worked a major retailer and was a District Manager was to deal with problems like this - and while rare, they did happen. You can bet that they probably have had similar problems in the past at this unit and this will be another one to add to the pile. If not, then they should know about it anyway.

I'd send an email to their corporate office detailing the event. Tell them that you are so pissed off that you've already posted your story online and it is getting reaction.

If you do that, I'll bet you dollars to donuts you get a personal phone call from someone pretty quickly. If it were me, I wouldn't even care about getting a free meal - I just friggin' HATE getting punked like that and I usually won't shut up about it for days. Being as I worked in retail and/or service for nearly 15 years, I think I know when I'm being shat upon (and it sounds to me like you did too).

Keep us posted man!

 

[bideau]

I would even point out that you've posted your experience on an internet message board and point them here. Bad "word of mouth" publicity, especially when it can be read anywhere in the world, is not good for business.

I would also copy some Disney officials. Even though the Zone is independently owned and run, it still occupies space in the park. Disney is very sensitive to anything negative.

 

[Ras]

I am sure we all of had run-ins like these in the past and more than likely it will happen again.

In keeping with the thread, My wife, son and I went out to eat at a local Applebee's a few years ago and we had a waiter who was the worst server I have ever experienced.

It took him 10 minutes to come to our table to take our drink order, which was only 3 sodas. Then another 10 minutes laters, the drinks came and he took our order for apps and meal. The apps came out fairly quickly, but so did the meal. We had just started our apps when the meal came out. I asked him why the meals came out so fast and he replied that we didn't ask for the meals to be delayed. I looked at my wife and she had the same reaction as I did. After picking up my jaw off the floor, we had him box the apps and we began to eat our meals.

To add to this debacle, the order came out wrong. It wasn't the kitchen's fault, but was actually ordered wrong. I had the wrong meal, my wife's sandwich had mayo (she is allergic) and my kid's meal was incomplete. When we told the server the problems, he looked at the order and said that is what we ordered. I told him he was wrong and repeated the order. He then looked at the slip again and realized he mixed up another tables order with ours. As our luck would have it, the other table had not received their order yet.

Once the order was straightened out, we waited another 20 minutes for the order to come out. When the meal did come out, 2 of 3 meals were correct, but my wife's meal still had mayo on it. We tried to get this guy's attention, but he disappeared in the kitchen. I had to get another waitress to go get him to get the order correct. It finally did.

Not once during the meal did he come and see what was going on or if everything was okay. I did see him hanging at the end of the bar, goofing with some customers and other staff.

Once we were finished, we waited 10 minutes for him to show up and clear the plates and get my son his desert that came with the meal.

After he left the check, I paid it and gave him a 5% tip. He picked it up and I watched him go back to his service area and saw his reaction. He wasn't happy, but he never came back and said anything.

Before I left, I asked to speak to the manager and when I met him, told him about what happened and that the server we had was the worst server we had ever experienced. The manager offered to pay for our meals, but I refused saying that I wasn't looking for a free meal, but wanted to let him what type of server this was.

About 6 months later, my father-in-law died and in between calling hours, all of the family went the same Applebee's for supper. I had already called ahead for the arrangements.

When we got there, the manager recognized me and said that part of the staff he had for us was the same waiter we had a problem with and he switched him with someone else. 22 people, not one problem.

We have been going back since and every time we are diverted away from this waiter. Just recently this server was fired and no longer works there. We are friendly with the manager now and we asked why it took so long to get rid of him. He said that the waiter was a nephew of the district manager and he could not do anything about it. But, he was able to get rid of him because the district manager was recently fired by corporate after they looked into some questionable practices.

That was my worst experience to date.

 

[mgoblue101415]

I waitressed through most of my early 20s so I'm a little more forgiving sometimes. Like if the service is a little slow I'll look around and if I notice they have a large party or 4 or 5 other tables, then I'll cut them a little slack. But if I see they only have 1 or 2 other tables, then the tip goes down to 10%. I always start at 15% and it goes up or down depending on the service. And just a note about tipping... My husband's father didn't believe in tipping. The first few times we had gone out to eat with his parents and they paid, he left maybe a 5% tip. After that I'd always make I left the table last and I'd throw down a few bucks. What people don't understand is that "tips" are counted into a server's salary. A base salary at most of your popular restaurants (Olive Garden, Applebees, TGIF) is between $3-$4. And for tax purposes, when a server cashes out at the end of the night, it automatically tallies your "salary" on 10% of your receipts and that's what shows up on your W2s.


I have stiffed a server once. For some reason we ended up going to Pizza Hut, which I really don't like. First we had to wait for at least 5 minutes before anyone came over to seat at us. Already I was telling the hubby we should just leave. But no, we stay. We get seated and wait 15 minutes before our waitress comes over. Why we're still there, I have no idea. So she takes our drink order and as she's starting to walk away I tell her we're ready to order our food. She tells me she'll be right back. Yeah, sure. 10 minutes later she comes back with our pitcher of soda. We get an order of bread sticks and a med pizza. The waitress informs us that they're all out of the med dough, but she'll give us a large for the price of a med. Okay, fine. So like 50 minutes later, our waitress, who had not even come near our table or barely out into the restaurant, returns with our pizza. I point out we never got our breadsticks. "Well do you still want them?" Yeah, that would be nice. 15 minutes later she returns with motz stix. "Excuse me, we ordered breadsticks" "So you don't want these?" No. "Well do you still want the breadsticks?" Yes. And I can't believe I'm still civil at this point. We finish eating and after waiting for 15 minutes, with no sign of our waitress who we haven't seen since she brought the motz sticks, which of course means that she never brought the breadsticks, I finally go up to the counter and say we are ready to pay but our server is no where to be found. The girl there says she'll have our waitress come right out. I go back to the table and 10 minutes later go back up to the counter. At that moment the waitress walks by and I ask for our check. I also point out we never got our breadsticks. "You got motz stix" "Yes, but I ORDERED breadsticks" "Do you still want them?" "Yes, give them to me to go." It was the point at that time... I was going to get those damn breadsticks. So she gives me the check and as I'm looking it over I notice she has motz sticks on the receipt, which are about a dollar more than the breadsticks. I know it's only a buck but at this point I'm pissed. "You charged us for motz stix." "You got a large pizza for the price of a medium." Okay, that was it. "Can I speak to your manager?" "Why?" "If you need to ask you should never leave your house." "What?" "I'd like to speak to your manager." My voice is now raised, and the hubby can hear me from the table so he walks over, and starts to tell me to calm down. Too late. Not happening. The manager comes out like 15 minutes later and I inform him of everything that has occured during our 3 HOUR meal. He looks at me and says "I'll fix the price on the motz sticks." I then went on a tyraid, very loudly, everyone in the restaurant looking at me. I informed him that a $1 difference on the friggin stix was nothing, he was lucky I was paying for the damn meal at all. He took the stix off the check and asked if I still wanted the breadsticks... He would give them to me at no charge. I told him I didn't want the breadsticks and that I would never be eating at the restaurant again, and I was going to make sure everyone I talked to was informed what a incredibly lousy restaurant it was. I paid for the damn pizza and walked out the door. That's the only time I've ever not left a tip.



On Sunday, we went to the Rush game then went to a restaruant afterwards. They IDed me at the game, but not at the bar. No big deal. I had one of my Pats hats on and I do tend to look young in hats. So we leave the restaurant and head to another one. We sit down, start to order and the waitress asks for IDs. The other couple we were with, she wasn't drinking so obviously she didn't have to show hers, and he's 43, but he pulls his out anyway, even though the waitress never bothered to look at his or my husband's. She went right for mine. She's looking it over for a few seconds then informs me it's expired. Now keep in mind, it's a State ID, not a driver's license. It expired back in Nov. She wouldn't serve me. The guy we were with points out to the waitress that the ID being expired doesn't change my age. "She's 32, you really don't even need to ID her in the first place." "Our policy is if you're 35 or younger we ID. That's my manager's rule, not mine." So the guy we were with is ready to leave, but adoring husband and the other guy's girlfriend finish ordering. Okay, guess we're staying. I'll take a Pepsi. We have Coke. I'll have a water. And I was starving but I refused to give this place any money. So right before we leave I go to the washroom and as I'm walking into the bar area I notice a sign that reads "We ID everyone under 30" So I walk up to the bitch of a waitress and inform her she might want to get her story straight. The sign says 30 but she says her manager says 35. They might want to straighten that out. The guy we were with wanted to give her a bad tip but his girlfriend (who was on the waitresses side) said no, that wasn't right. Well neither was friggin LYING to me about what age they card for. So the hubby's giving me shiat, cause we're going to another bar and he's asking if we should go someplace that we know serves Pepsi. I told him, that damn expiration thing would never come up again (although, now that I know it's expired I have to go in this week and get a new one) and I bet him I wouldn't even get IDed at the next place. Did I?? No. Did he pay out on the bet? No.

 

[Moebius]

I actually played with restaurant management for a while, so like MGO I'm sympathetic to servers. I can remember once when I was running a Ryan's steakhouse (old Bonanza or Sizzler type chain with a huge buffet). Right before close we had a group of about 15 people from the COGIC convention that was in town. --For those not familiar Church of God in Christ - they have huge conventions that invariably produce rather large ladies wearing hats that won't even fit through the door, and ask for the manager if you run out of drummies on the bar for even 15 seconds.-- So anyway, we let them in and seat them in an area with my best server waiting on them. I watched the whole time, she never missed a beat, always had their drinks topped off, food out and dishes cleared. After staying in for a hour beyond close, they finally left and gave her a $2 tip for the entire party of 15. As soon as I heard, I was headed to the parking lot to go off on them, but my cook grabbed me kept me inside. We ended up all chipping in some cash to give her a good tip for the hell they put her through. My server also was in the middle of a huge battle trying to keep her kids (got national attention actually) which made it all the worse.

As for Spidey's incident... About the time the manager called security, I would have demanded the security supervisor, plus the DM's contact info for the Zone. I try to be forgiving having been on the other side of the counter, but that kind of behavior I would have fired people on the spot for.

 

[spiderman]

I appreciate all the support. I think I am definitely going to send an e-mail to corporate HQ about the incident. To answer a couple of the question that came up:

- The piece of paper didn't have anything written on it, that was what the manager gave to Army Guy when he asked to fill out a complaint form. It wasn't even a full sheet it was approximately a 2" x 2" piece ripped out of a notebook.

- I would have stayed and demanded to speak to the security manager, but I wanted to see the ring ceremony, so I didn't have any time to spare.

My wife when she isn't in school or being a mother works part-time as a waitress/bar tender. She's worked in the restaurant industry for years, from fine dining all the way down to local diners, so she is very well versed in the industry. It's impossible for any of you to know this, but in all honesty we are all a bunch of the friendliest people you could ever run into in public and always make friends everywhere we go, we are also very generous, for example, our tab came to $200.00 at the Orlando Ale House and we gave our server a $100.00 tip. I'm not kidding.

I appreciate all the feedback, and based upon the responses I'm glad I posted this story, I guess I just felt that this incident was just so outrageous that the story needed to be told.

 

[B A Rabbit]

It's impossible for any of you to know this, but in all honesty we are all a bunch of the friendliest people you could ever run into in public and always make friends everywhere we go, we are also very generous,

Hmm, I'm curious, do these friendly people know that your secretly Spider-Man?

Maybe disney found out about your secret identity and in fit of "copyright outrage" gave you a hard time on purpose.

Well, It COULD happen!!!

 

[bideau]

Hmm, I'm curious, do these friendly people know that your secretly Spider-Man?

Maybe disney found out about your secret identity and in fit of "copyright outrage" gave you a hard time on purpose.

Well, It COULD happen!!!

You may be on to something here. But it's more insidious than that.

Universal's Islands of Adventures park has a Spiderman ride. Disney probably figured that Spidey was on a mission of sabotage. Their CTU division kicked into high gear as soon as he walked into the building.

 

[Hawg73]

I try to be forgiving having been on the other side of the counter, but that kind of behavior I would have fired people on the spot for.

I know exactly what you mean. I spent some time as a cook and have counseled more than a few crying waitresses who were stiffed by cheap-assed people.

I tend to be generous when tipping because of that background and I know how hard they work.

Problem is, that in any public service job you find out that about 5% of the people in the world are idiots and you can either become bitter and treat everyone like crap or you look at the other 95% and accept that there are a few people in the world that suck.

I reward good service generously, but I do not tolerate rude or indifferent service. Just like in the public I've found that about 5% of servers don't belong in that line of work and I am happy to remind them of that fact if they decide to run amok and ruin my night out.

I wouldn't have been nearly as patient as Spidey and his crew were, ring ceremony or not.

 

[Moebius]

I wouldn't have been nearly as patient as Spidey and his crew were, ring ceremony or not.

That was my thinking. At that point, I would have missed the ceremony and used that for even more ammo. Not to fault you in any way Spidey, you made your choice based on what you wanted. I'm just sorry you ended up pretty much missing it anyway.