What about if next time you ride POTC on your own, when the CM loading asks, “How many?” – you reply: “* Not in the back seat – just one please.”

*put what you want first. My son doesn’t like ice in his drinks, so now he routinely orders, “No ice – coke please” and 99% of the time, he gets his drinks with no ice. (Before he ordered like this, when he said, “Coke please, no ice” – it was a 50-50 as to whether he got no ice.)

I often request the back when I’m riding Splash Mountain (I think you get less wet there). I have been in a group that requested the front row of Soarin’. Sometimes you are made to wait a little bit longer to sit in a seat of your choice, but never has my request been denied, or have I been told ‘No’.

Erin

To be shorter and more to the point – they better not be making singles stand aside until a more right-sized table is available. Or make anybody share.

I have a lot of confidence that Disney understands that they first person – or group – in line gets the first available table. No exceptions.

You see, we also visited WDW when my son was in college. And I observed during that visit that on 2 occasions, when we had split up for an hour and then were meeting back up, that a CM would be talking to him.

Apparently, the CM’s take a particular interest in young males who are alone. My son, who can be (I don’t think I’m biased here) fairly charming and mannerly, knew exactly how to talk to the CM’s so that they quickly realized that he was no threat to the many little ones running about.

But because my son found it mildly annoying to be approached by CM’s when he was on his own, for our visit in September 08, we came up with a few adaptive strategies (not unlike your 20 minute adoptions).

As for myself, I have only been to WDW on my own once, but I would not hesitate to go on my own again. I have always enjoyed my own company, but during that trip, I discovered how much I like traveling on my own. I guess since I was enjoying being on my own so much, I can’t really say that I observed anything such as you write about – although I’m sure your observations are correct.

Now to get back to the article in the topic, I can see a few pros – but many cons – about such a system. For example, I wouldn’t be likely to eat there simply because I’d be unlikely to eat at a place that had stools instead of proper chairs.

But the bottom line is that bumps in the ‘new’ dining system exist for singles or groups or twosomes or families. If I was on my own and going to eat at Peco Bill’s – I’d get my food, and then I’d march up to the CM at the podium and ask for a “table for one, please.”

It remains to be seen – by ALL people who eat at these ‘counter-service’ places – if this system turns out to be a better system than the old one.