Fastpass + Dining Experience testing at Be Our Guest Restaurant in Walt Disney World

 I recently received an invitation to test Fastpass + for dining at Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom.  I was allowed to book lunch through a link in an Email that I received from Walt Disney World.  I was thrilled to participate in this test.  They gave me a 30 minute window of showing up and I could pre-order meals for my party.
I had some last minute changes and tried to make them online, but couldn't figure out how, so I tried calling the Disney Dining phone number.  For the lunch testing, Disney Dining was unable to help with my changes. so they gave me the direct phone number to the restaurant.  I called the restaurant several times, but was unable to get a person to answer.  There was an automatic pickup & hold, but after the wait, it eventually bumped me out to Disney Dining each time.  I was already aware that they could not help in my situation, since they directed me to the restaurant in the first place, so I thought I could make the changes in person by coming early to my reservation.

I went to the check-in area a couple of hours early to ask them about changing my reservation.  I could change food choices but not the number of people in my party, as I had some friends with me and wanted to include them in my lunch table.  Oddly, they did not have any record of the food I selected for anyone on my reservation.  But since I had trouble trying to change my reservation online the day before, I could have done something incorrectly and lost the submitted meals.  

We came back at the appropriate time and were able to walk right up to check-in, avoiding the long standby line for lunch in Be Our Guest.  That was wonderful!  We scanned my Magic Band and went inside.  They did seem to have a nice system for his process.   

We were directed toward stations where there were two sides and a Cast Member in the middle to help both sides.  You could look at menus, put in your order and pay right there.  They link your order to your Rose (pager) and direct you to find a table anywhere in their restaurant.    It all worked well to change the food orders, and they even allowed us to split tabs within my reservation.  The cashier gave us another rose for my friends' order and said she had a flower garden under her station for situations just like this (meaning our duplicate tabs per table.)  With our meals on separate tabs, we were still welcome to sit together, anywhere in the restaurant.  We took our roses and chose a room.

I do think that this system would be a wonderful enhancement to a planner like me who enjoys looking at menus before I go somewhere and pick what I think I would enjoy most.  As I went around to take a few photos, my meal came before I got back to the table.  I would suggest you walk around in every room.  Each has it's own theme and amazing details.  I even enjoyed the theme in the soda dispensers at Be Our Guest - and as I took a picture, another guest told me that she just took the same photo.  There were such nice Disney touches throughout the restaurant.
For my lunch choice, I had the Vegetable Quiche and it was wonderful!
I brought home some dessert.  I had the Master's Cupcake which is chocolate sponge cake topped with Lumiere's special grey stuff..."it's delicious!  Don't believe me?  Ask the dishes!" I also got a Lemon Meringue Cupcake which is Vanilla sponge cake, lemon custard filling, flamed meringue icing and crunch - If you're a fan of Lemon Meringue Pie, you'll love this cupcake!  I brought it home for my hubby since he had to work and missed our yummy lunch.

I enjoyed a wonderful time with friends and we all came away with happy bellies and a wonderful time together.  I learned that I need to get used to the Fastpass + System for reservations like this online.  I do believe that it will be a wonderful system for planners like me.  I would truly enjoy being on vacation and speeding up the ordering process to get back out and enjoy more magical moments in my Disney vacation!   I also think it will be a great system for Disney to get more families in and out quicker to allow more guests.  If you take out the time to look at the menu and order, those extra minutes for each family will allow a lot more guests to come through.

  I was thankful to be a part of this test and look forward to using it more in the future.  Also, as we left, I noticed a wonderful new view of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which will be opening soon.  New Fantasyland has some of the most amazing views and it just keeps getting more amazing with every dream!