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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

Just waited an hour for food in woodcutters. Food was okay, but not worth an hours wait. Sat by the side doors too and people (staff & customers) keep coming through and propping the door open which is making us a bit chilly. Very meh experience.
 
We visited Woodcutters yesterday and the standards seem to have slipped under Aramark.
We waited around an hour for food, the prices seemed slightly higher than last season. We both ordered burgers and they tasted like burger van burgers! Absolutely awful quality in comparison which is a shame as that was always our go to lunch option.
 
I don't think there has been any material change to the offer at Woodcutters this year. I would have eaten there yesterday, but we were a large group and there were serious issues with service speed - 1 hour for food. It has been the same today I understand.

Prices are 10% higher than at the end of last season but then... inflation is about that so I don't particularly begrudge that, even if I find the blanket 10% weird given we now have things priced at £xx.05p etc.
 
As previously mentioned, we ate at the Rollercoaster Restaurant yesterday evening after park close. I ordered a pint which came within about 5 minutes of ordering however my friend ordered a bottled drink which took about 15 minutes to come down the track to us. We both ordered our food at the same time (you now also order on your phone instead of using the tablets), probably not long after 6:35pm. My friend's meal arrived at about 6:45, with mine taking about another 10 minutes and arriving at 6:55. I didn't think a 20 minute wait on food was too awful, as it is a proper sit-down restaurant after all, but it's just a shame that both of our meals didn't arrive at the same time.

The quality of the food has significantly dropped, with the proper chips now replaced with cheap fries, and the burger patty quite clearly being a much cheaper one than was previously used. I'd probably compare it to the same as the ones they sell in the Burger Kitchen. We also ordered sides of Mac & cheese bites which were quite dry and cheesy garlic bread which was actually really nice, so I can't moan too much about that.
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The meal came to about £26 before annual pass discount (£19.72 with discount) for the burger and fries, a pint of Stella and a side of cheesy garlic bread. For the prices they charge, it's really disappointing they they seem to be using the same ingredients across all park food outlets, as opposed to a more premium burger as after all, you are paying a premium price.

Also noted they don't seem to do any steaks at all in the RCR, unless it was just an availability issue on the day. All in all, probably won't go back again, as the price rises along with the decline in food quality just isn't worth it anymore.

On another note, we did visit Just Chicken in X-Sector for lunch, which was actually quite nice. Although the new self-serve ordering screens are causing extreme overcrowding, with so many orders being placed at once. We waited about 15 minutes for our food there, and the drinks are also no longer self serve.
 
The general thing that’s coming out of this Aramark food thing is up goes the price, down goes the quality. Take your money and run, thanks Towers. 🙄

Morgan Price said:
EE15DDA4-A90A-4841-942A-AB4A3FE6D5CA.jpeg

We got a milkshake from there yesterday. Really visually impressive but not all that on flavour. Also had a meal at the RCR last night, currently getting ready for work so I’ll post my thoughts later on, but spoiler alert it wasn’t amazing
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The sugar in that! Enough to send someone in a fit just looking at it!
 
Morgan Price said:
Although the new self-serve ordering screens are causing extreme overcrowding, with so many orders being placed at once. We waited about 15 minutes for our food there
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I've seen this failing in a few places outside of themeparks, the screens being able to take a volume of orders the kitchen can't hope to keep up with. I went to Popeyes near me once and people were waiting over an hour for food with the screens still happily piling on the orders. The manager started crying and quit on the spot with no apparent way for them to either issue refunds or supply food. It was close to riot when I left.

They need a way to delay the screens accepting orders once a certain number of fulfilment are outstanding, or displaying an accurate wait time on the screen before taking payment.
 
But that would involve private companies not raking in as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, for the minimum number of staff...so it will never happen.
We have your money now.
Wait.
I just don't go there anymore, following two bad experiences.
 
The use of SOK's (Self-Order Kiosks) generally drives down service levels everywhere. Think of McDonalds in the pre-SOK days, when the food was in the chute behind the counter. Yes, you may have had to queue to be served, but you got service. Once you'd paid the crew member would get you your food there & then. If an item needed to be cooked to order, you'd be told it would be a few minutes wait. Now you're just a number on a screen - but as you've paid at the order point [the SOK] you're not going to walk away, so the service level doesn't matter. McDonalds claim the SOK's ensure better food quality - not convinced as the burgers are still cooked in batches and kept warm for a set time period in the kitchen, before they have to be binned. Food sat in the chute for a set time period, after which it had to be binned.

I used to work for a motorway service company (can't say which) and before we put SOK's into the coffee brand (one of the big two) we had, we employed an extra person to walk the queue with an order pad taking orders. If customers in the queue knew their order was taken, they generally didn't walk away even though they hadn't paid yet. We replaced the order pad with SOK's to save on a barista's minimum wage salary.

There is no way any company will tell a SOK to tell you an estimated wait time before they take payment - as a general rule they just want your money!

I am not against SOK type automation. My Doctors practice - like many - use a system called SystemOne. This lets you check-in on arrival for an appointment via touch-screen. It's extremely easy to use & it tells you how many patients are ahead of you in to see the Doctor in question & the estimated wait time. When it's your turn you get called to the relevant surgery via a big-screen message. This - in theory - frees up reception staff to actually answer the phones (not convinced on that one!)
 
Kraken27 said:
The use of SOK's (Self-Order Kiosks) generally drives down service levels everywhere. Think of McDonalds in the pre-SOK days, when the food was in the chute behind the counter. Yes, you may have had to queue to be served, but you got service. Once you'd paid the crew member would get you your food there & then. If an item needed to be cooked to order, you'd be told it would be a few minutes wait. Now you're just a number on a screen - but as you've paid at the order point [the SOK] you're not going to walk away, so the service level doesn't matter. McDonalds claim the SOK's ensure better food quality - not convinced as the burgers are still cooked in batches and kept warm for a set time period in the kitchen, before they have to be binned. Food sat in the chute for a set time period, after which it had to be binned.

I used to work for a motorway service company (can't say which) and before we put SOK's into the coffee brand (one of the big two) we had, we employed an extra person to walk the queue with an order pad taking orders. If customers in the queue knew their order was taken, they generally didn't walk away even though they hadn't paid yet. We replaced the order pad with SOK's to save on a barista's minimum wage salary.

There is no way any company will tell a SOK to tell you an estimated wait time before they take payment - as a general rule they just want your money!

I am not against SOK type automation. My Doctors practice - like many - use a system called SystemOne. This lets you check-in on arrival for an appointment via touch-screen. It's extremely easy to use & it tells you how many patients are ahead of you in to see the Doctor in question & the estimated wait time. When it's your turn you get called to the relevant surgery via a big-screen message. This - in theory - frees up reception staff to actually answer the phones (not convinced on that one!)
Click to expand...

I must be alone in thinking that besides the issue of delivery drivers crowding the outlets and order queues, service at McDonalds has significantly improved in recent years.

I can now walk in, pick a table, load up the app and have my meal freshly prepared and delivered to my table. No queueing, no loitering at the counter, no trying to explain that I don’t want gherkins but I do want onion, no choosing what I want and queuing up just to be told that it’s not available or the ice cream machine is broken, just quick and efficient service.

My point being - the kiosks aren’t to blame for AT’s catering woes. Used correctly, self service and mobile ordering can be a vast improvement. But only when staffing and food are also up to par.
 
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