On the receipt? Sure. But not in the system. Very suspect on that. Never heard of a hotel that doesn’t have insight into every line item in their system for purchases made on resort property. It gets summarized on a final receipt.
Apples and oranges. Talking about hotels and resorts. Individual restaurants are a different beast.
Another thing occurred to me relooking at the article…I think folks are assuming the by receptionist, it means front desk. But it doesn’t say that. Which means he could be referring to the restaurant receptionist.
She was staying at AKL and they could not see what was charged for a tip and billing could not see the detail when the front desk called billing.
This story says a random resort employee could not only see the charge, but the line detail that showed no tip.
It doesn’t say that, actually.
It says a receptionist. A receptionist whom he likely interacted with. Does he actually have to write the words, “An employee that I spoke with earlier in the trip” for the account to be true?
Originally I thought the host station too. And that’s not off the table. But they would have less access to the info. The front desk does make more sense.
That could be true…but they might be the ones who actually knows the most…meaning if they forgot a tip and there was discussion about it, the receptionist might know who it was and remember them later. So they might not even needed to have access to any system at that point.
It is just a possibility. I am finding lots of ways this story is possibly true, and very few that would make it NOT true. The reasons against are based on inferring things that aren’t actually part of the account.
You are inferring that a receptionist that was there in the morning, could be there later, and would randomly ask, “ He asked how our stay was going.”……” It was about that morning’s breakfast.”
So clarifying question- in your inference, did this conversation happen “that morning” or hours later?
I am saying there are plenty of scenarios that could have played out based on the telling that are entirely plausible.
How many do you want before you think it could be true? And any I tell might not cover even another TRUE scenario.
But…what I hear against this telling doesn’t make sense to me. Far less plausible that WSJ would allowing a telling that has entirely made up details, or that the author would have made up the details to begin with for no good reason. He is clearly a very talented writer! Instead, we are supposed to make assumptions about this telling which aren’t backed by the telling to support a narrative that he lied about it?
Again, this is a memoir style narrative meant to convey a point… details that don’t lead to that point are unnecessary. This is especially true in writing articles where word count is everything. Every word must serve a purpose in telling the story.
The details that could convince folks that his narrative is true frankly are unimportant to the point of the article and would be a waste of word count.
This story does feel very condensed. It’s even possible it was shortened by someone other than the author. Most authors don’t get much say in that regard.
My opinion is this dead horse has been beat enough. Until we hear word from WSJ or the author I don’t think there’s much else worth saying that hasn’t been said. Of course people are free to keep talking about it if they wish.
Oh sure, pull the dead horse card. What a spoil sport!
I have not been to the original Legoland. Would love to go the next time I’m in the land of the Danes.
In this specific case, I checked with Disney. They can see line items from meals. Even at Guest Relations in the parks.
I’m not sure if the same capability exists in the Four Seasons POS system. And in any event, the two companies’ systems don’t connect.
I have never considered a private tour in the past but honestly started considering it after listening to this week’s Disney Dish. If a tour group can be for ten, it seems like 2-3 groups might be able to make it work?
Are you referring to WDW or UOR?
I don’t want to get in the habit of doing a VIP tour! 
The only place I’ve considered it is USH where it was only like $300+ bucks per person for a day, which included admission.
I was referring to the survey about EPIC VIP tours. I believe that was what Len was referring to? Over $5k for 8 hours, 10 people, meals included? Express line for all attractions?
So $500 per person. Not crazy when meals, admission and express pass is included. Is admission included?
Yes this is what the discussion was focused on – they were just comparing to WDW and UOR so I wasn’t sure.
If I was going to do a VIP tour, a day at Epic would not be a bad way to burn it!
If they limit people to one day, and it is the only front of the line access, it is really an amazing value. I bet it ends up much higher, but the per person cost might still be worth looking into.