Headed to Disney World March 28th-April 10th and still haven’t gotten your Le Cellier reservation? You’ve just won the lottery today!!
Disney Parks Blog has announced it’s testing the idea of an extra hour of dining for three Epcot restaurants for a limited time:
Give it a try from March 28 through April 10, and let us know what you think — you can book your “extra hour” table at Coral Reef Restaurant, Garden Grill or Le Cellier.
Are you interested in taking advantage of this latest test? Let us know where you’re booking, and send a review when you get home! Can’t wait to hear the stories! Fingers crossed this becomes “Disney law!”
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As someone who used to work at Le Cellier, I have to say that while this is a good opportunity for guests, and will almost certainly be successful, I kinda feel bad for the Cast Members; A dinner shift at a busy theme park restaurant like Le Cellier is exhausting even when the restaurant is only seating from 4-9. Service cast members usually get there at about 3:30, and leave at around 11:00 or later, usually without a break since you constantly have guests. With this option, service Cast Members might not get out until midnight or later, and that’s just a rough day all around. Cast members working “mid shifts” (lunch and dinner) would have even longer days!
They’ve tried this before, keeping a few restaurants open for an extra hour on Extra Magic Hour evenings, and I can vouch that it made for a loooong shift!
Tim, thanks for your comment. That’s a great perspective; I do imagine that would make for a significantly long shift. Are there any opportunities to be paid for “overtime?”
I’m not sure about hourly cast members such as front-of-house staff or culinary staff, but as servers we didn’t get any overtime pay. However, that’s because ours were tipped positions, so we would make more money since we’d be serving more guests in an evening than on a normal shift.
Thanks, Tim. It’s a great perspective to have. If they DO extend hours, do you think there’s a chance that they’re create another shift? If not, I’ll be sure to extra-tip in the evening!
I don’t think it’s very likely that they’d introduce another whole shift just for one extra hour. However, what they tried with the wait staff in the past was to have some of the servers that worked lunch stick around for a bit and serve the first round of tables at dinner (the lunch shift was always fairly short to begin with), and then bring in some of the dinner servers at 5 pm instead of right at the beginning of the dinner service at 4. That helped out a bit.
If you still have contacts, there, Tim, let me know what they’ve ended up doing. Thanks so far for your “backstage info”!!