The last week of school and McDonalds

[Mighty Girl]

I had to drive to an area I'm not familiar with, and it coincided with lunch time, and the first place I found was a McDonald's. As the mother of a preschooler, I know not to mess with schedules TOO much. So we pulled in got our stuff and sat down, and was thanking the powers that be because not 10 minutes after we sat down, I swear two full busloads of kids descended on that place. All of them were around 9 or 10 yrs old.

If they would have gotten there first, we would have found something- ANYTHING- else.

I was just wondering- do the schools or teachers give any kind of warning that they're about to bring total chaos to that place? I mean, every line was 8-10 people deep, the old folks that were there took off immediately, my daughter was sitting there kind of eating, but looking around stunned, and the bus kids were running around with fries and mcflurry's and it was so loud that we had to shout just to hear our own voices.

Is it wrong that I wanted to smack the teachers in the head?

[Megg]

No, they don't usually warn us. No, it is not wrong to want to smack them, as long as you refrain.

The week before school let out, a busload of kids, 9-11 years old if I had to guess, all descended on my job. It was fun, since it was 10:15 and there were only two of us working. I was kind of glad they didn't call, because I couldn't have done anything about it anyway. They all paid with twenties, too. Where DO kids get that kind of money, and why wasn't my mom rich too?

Thank goodness my 11 o'clock person showed up at 10:30. Hey, I let her go home early.

[Sliceanddice]

because momma or maybe daddy forgot bout the field trip, ran by the atm on the way to school and gave it to them

[Luna Baby]

This past Friday, my 'partner in crime' and I took 20 children, ages 5-12, on a field trip to the National Corvette Museum. They also got to eat lunch at the Wendy's that is right near by. This is an annual field trip for most of them (this is a karate camp throughout the summer), but we didn't call ahead to the restaurant. We (p-i-c) and I sternly warned these boys and 1 girl that if there was ANY misbehaving while we were out, they'd never get another field trip this whole summer (they have no idea that we can't really do that!).

While I realize that 20 kids isn't the same as a school bus load, many of these kids have some sort of attention/behavior issues. They seem like 50 kids many days. While were there, several patrons approached me with varying comments, most of them saying something along the lines of "I don't know how you 2 are doing this!". Needless to say, they were all angels (aside from the typical kid stuff) and left their areas cleaner than when we came in. No fighting, bickering, etc.

The staff at this Wendy's had seen many of these kids over the last couple of summers already and were really impressed at how well behaved they were. I'm glad we didn't call ahead to warn them. I think I would have jinxed us.

**side note** There were 2 men eating at the same time we did that were also touring the corvette museum at the same time we did. They finished up just after we did and approached me while we were taking a final bathroom/fountain break before heading back to the karate school. They were so impressed with this group of kids that they had 2 pins for us to present to the 2 most well behaved kids. Boy, they don't know how hard that was for us. But considering the behavior issues we had dealt with the 4 days prior, we had to do it to make an example of what happens when you do what is expected of you and not ignore the rules. There was a couple of sad faces but I think they got the point. Next week we go to Mammoth Cave for a 2 1/2 hour tour!

[smileyeagle1021]

Ok, first, no schools never give that kind of warning to fast food places... I know that BSA at least used to have a policy that anytime it was a official activity someone in leadership had to notify the restaurant in advance as a courtesy.
Oh I hated that when I worked at Carls Jr when we'd just have groups of 5 buses pull up (granted there were 3 other restaurants in the shopping center, so we weren't handling them all, but it still sucked).

[Becks]

Wow.

If any of the schools I attended didn't give advance warning when we went on huge school movie-lunch-rollerskating trips... That's just wrong.

[Eben56]

Do not take this as a rebuke.. I am only reminiscing. About 20 years ago, I was part of a group taking 20-25 cub and boy scouts to a Red Sox game. I figured we aught to call the McDonalds we were going to stop at after the game. (don't remember the exact one, but about 45 minutes North of Boston on Rt #1.)

They thanked me for calling and asked me exactly what time we would arrive. I told them I could not give them an exact time as it would be about an hour after the game ended, so I could estimate between 5-6PM. (no cell phones in those days).

The lady got snooty and asked why I was calling if I couldn't give them the time. I said I was sorry but though I was giving them a heads up and ball games did not end on particular schedule. SHe asked where the group was from and I told her Palermo, Maine. Heard a little snort and she proceeded to tell me that McDonalds was ALWAYS ready for a bus and they were a little more efficient than the restaurants UP in Maine. I said thank you but never mind. WE would go hungry for an extra hour and eat at one of our backwoods places.

AS I recall the fried clams and lobster rolls were delicious.(even if it was 8:00 PM)

[wolfie]

I pulled into a rest area on the PA turnpike around 8 PM, and had to take care of my PARS check before the broker closed. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to get out to buy my food, 3 buses had arrived (they were down to 2 servers because that time of the evening things are slow). It was a 3/4 hour wait to get to the counter - I would have gone someplace else, except I knew from experience that the next place along (Flying J) would be full by the time I got there. True, there were fast food places between the rest area and the J, but none with parking for 18 wheelers.

When a multi-bus rush hits, the fast food place should dedicate one server to people who aren't with the group. After all, why should the general public be delayed by a mob that arrives without warning?

[Luna Baby]

That's exactly what we did with the camp kids last week while at Wendy's. We wound the kids through the corral (sp?) to help keep them in line and then I remained at the rear of the line and ushered any new customers up the side of the corral to the waiting register that was specifically for any customer not with our group so they didn't have to wait.

I spoke too soon about how well they behaved. Today was a living hell.......

[InverseHellion]

The no-call bus was the most dreaded part of working at my old McDonald's. Since the entrance to our parking lot is visible to Drive-Thru cash we could get an at best 2-minute warning of busses coming in, and not just school busses. Greyhounds, tour busses on their way into the mountains. There was one week in July where you could expect between 2 and 6 busses everyday all arriving between 11-3. Noone could be counted on to be patient, they all wanted their 8 burgers OMGFTWRIGHTNOW.

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

I was just wondering- do the schools or teachers give any kind of warning that they're about to bring total chaos to that place? I mean, every line was 8-10 people deep,

Is it wrong that I wanted to smack the teachers in the head?

when I was in.... I think it was 6th grade, I was in an academic competition, where we took a bus load of students from all across the district, and they stopped at the same mcdonalds every year, so I'm assuming they gave them warning. we didn't have much misbehavior though, because we were the more well behaved kids, and they told us that if we didn't behave


every line was deep, but is there a point to adjusting staffing for a 15 minute rush? give the employees free milkshakes or something and call it even(not that a manager could come up with that)

and no, it's not wrong to want to smack teachers, I want to smack most of the morons I had when I went to regular school

[Stressball]

My year 11 Mutlristrand Science teacher was a good dude who knew that last period on a friday was useless for attempting to teach us anything. we had excursions/field trips/whatever you want to call it, and they always seemed to be on Friday mornings. They would run through until about midday, at which point we would run off to McDonald's until half an hour before school finished. He ALWAYS rang ahead at least 2 days ahead of time to let them know that we would be coming, and this class was only about 10-15 people. If he forgot to ring ahead, we didn't go.

Surprisingly, none of us students really complained much. I guess he made up for it by being such an awesome teacher

[Seenoevil]

Growing up whenever we went on field trips in my elementary school I always remember asking where we were going to eat. The person in charge would always have it planned in advance and mention they called ahead to warn them.

(yes most kids my age didn't know how to talk to adults but I've always been odd that way )

[notthecook]

My aunt is a manager at our local McDonalds and more often, schools/organizations are phoning in ahead of time to let them know they are coming. Meals are preordered, so they can be partially prepared for the rush (Happy Meals).

I think it's just common courtesy to call, well, in my case, it would be warn.

[Kogarashi]

I don't think my sports coaches ever called ahead when we stopped at restaurants after away games, but then we rarely had more than 25 students on the bus, and only once did we end up at a McDonalds at the same time as another bus full of athletes.

Incidentally, that was the one time I've ever gotten a free meal. I was one of the last to order from my bus, before the other bus-ful of athletes started ordering, and was left waiting around for quite some time while people who ordered after me in the same line as me were receiving their food. I finally asked at the counter where my food was (politely! my Mom didn't raise a boor), and got profuse apologies, hot food, and a fully-comped order.