If it's not JUST because of the dining plan, then how do you explain the fact that until the dining plan was introduced, my wife and I were able to do a walk up at ANY Walt Disney World Resturant on any given day. (the exception being Cindy's Castle) I don't know about you, but my stomach doesn't know when it's going to be hungry or what it's going to be hungry for 6 months from now.
Prior to the Dining plan, we have done walk ups twice a year, for the last 15 years to such favorites as Le Cellier, Liberty Tree, Coral Reef, San Angel Inn, and even The California Grill.
Now it's almost impossible to walk up to any of these places w/o an ADR. You can't tell me that the Dining plan doesn't play a major role in this and have me believe it for one second.
My wife and I absolutley hate the dining plan, and imo we have good reason to. If we want to eat any full service meals we have to figure out what we'll be hungry for 6 months in advance....thats absurd.
First, send your hate to Disney, not me. It will do more good.
(Seriously, write them a letter and tell them how you feel. It's the only effective thing to do.)
But since you addressed it to me...so, in your experience, walking up just
twice a year somehow proves that ONLY the dining plan is at fault? Twice a year and you are an expert?
Sorry, I'll quote you and say I don't believe that for a second.
You seem very angry about this and when one is angry it's always human nature to reach for the easiest explaination and lash out at it. You fail to recognize all the other factors here.
The biggest of which is that, WDW busier right now than EVER. You are comparing apples to oranges in terms of pre-MYW dining plan and it's extremely myopic to see that as the ONLY change at WDW in the past few years that has increased traffic in general, and to restaurants specifically. And it also ignored the fact that WDW has always had some form of dining plan (at least for the last 20 years or so), but the increase was bundling that dining plan with the Magic Your Way strategy to increase attendance everywhere - which INCLUDED restaurants. Disney is doing EVERYTHING it can right now to keep people on-site, and those people need to eat, dining plan or not.
Much of it is due to Magic Your Way, and not the dining plan itself, as a matter of fact. Many less people are going off-site these days (many can't, that's why Disney invented Magical Express). This has had a HUGE impact on WDW Dining, meal plan or not. Gone are the days when people would go to Denny's for breakfast, spend the day at the Magic Kingdom, get a quick service lunch on site, and then get dinner off-site on their way home. Ask any of the local Orlando businesses that are off-site and tourist centric - vacationers using their products (car rentals, off-site dining, off-site hotels) are down. Orlando is doing just fine because it still has all the convention business, but many more people are planning Disney-centric vacations instead of central-Florida vacations with a few days at Disney as they used to. Ask Universal about this. On some days the amount of passholders in their parks outweighs tourists.
Now, the dining plan has had some impact. It just isn't as huge and all-encompassing as some people think. The difference is, now Disney restaurants are full. They didn't used to be. Disney needed to get more people in them, and they did, using ALL of these strategies.
The "I don't know when I want to eat 6 months ahead of time" position at first blush sounds reasonable, until you take into account the context. Things ALL OVER WDW now require much planning, it's very complicated. I mean, just deciding which day for which park becomes a spreadsheet worthy task when you take into account avoiding/attending EMH, special events, park hours, ride rehabs/closures, etc. It *is* too complicated in many ways to effectively spend your time at Disney.
On the other hand, no one said WDW was a simple way to spend a vacation. It's like people who complain about Fast Pass, as in "I don't want to have to plan an attraction several hours ahead of time, I'm on vacation!" The truth is, Disney just isn't appropriate for a willy-nilly carefree vacation. That's what a Sandals resort or a beach vacation are about. At WDW, if you want to have the high-demand experiences, you need to plan ahead and make a modicum of effort. You simply can't walk up to WDW, say "I'm here" and expect the resort to just lay itself out for you. Sad but true, but we are talking the biggest vacation destination in the world that literally has thousands of opportunities do to things, and it's not as simple as "I'm hungry, let's stop at the first place we come to" even if we wish it were.
(And what's wrong with planning anyway? I guess it's beside the point...but personally when I know I have a meal experience scheduled I plan being "hungry", i.e. I don't eat an ice cream two hours before, and if I'm going some place especially hearty - a buffet, etc.- I'll curtail my eating all day so I know I'll be hungry; I'm not ashamed to say I fast before the $30 feast, LOL. But that's just me.)
All that said, as K&K said above even a tiny bit of planning works. You do not need to call 180 days ahead of time for most restaurants. And as time goes on, it's clear that Disney releases more tables closer to the dates of availability, and even on the day of. So no one is asking you to predict when you are hungry six months from now (unless you are absolutely dead set on a restaurant, which people need to remember are usually about the "experience" not just the food), but calling the day before or the day of isn't too much to ask. And, again, if the "experience" of a certain restaurant is important to you, you do need to give more notice.
Walking up to popular theme park restaurants and getting seated is going to be a rare occurance, just like walking up to PotC and finding a 5 minute wait in the middle of the day is rare these days. Disney has changed, and even though some people, as I said, fall to human nature and jump to the first conclusion that seems convenient and easily "hate-able" it's just a LOT more complicated than that. I think there are drawbacks to the dining plan as well (the kids menu is horrible, I stopped eating that kind of food as a toddler and I can't imagine that food appeals to most 8-year olds, and it slows up lines when people have to take so much time deciding and figuring out what the plan includes at counter service), but it is not the root of all Disney evil as some people wish it to be.
AEfx
