When you figure it out, the average appetizer cost is $6 to $10 at WDW. And the 18% tip would be $3.60 on a $20 entrée (without appetizer or dessert). Add a $7 dessert to that and your tip is $4.86. So, if you order $27 worth of food at your TS meal (which I know is low) and continue to tip at 18%, your total cost of the day's plan (adult) is $37.99 +$4.86 +$6.00 for the appetizer that you either had to pay for or no longer will purchase. So, in effect Disney has RAISED the plan price to $48.85 (not including a tip for the appetizer price) per day. If you don't get the appetizer your plan has been raised to $42.85 at a minimum, Therefore the price to the consumer has gone up at a minimum 8% if you tip at 18%. And this also does not include tip on the included non-alcoholic drinks.
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that the price should have dropped more than $1.
OK, I'm going to break out the devil's advocate routine here about a couple of things in this thread. First off, the above math only proves that the dining plan was a
great deal before, not that it is a bad deal now. To see if it really is a deal or not, let's do some math shall we? Thanks to AllEarsNet.com's menus and prices, here's a rundown of what you could expect to spend at Disney's Hollywood Studios for a day's worth of items covered by the dining plan:
Lunch at the ABC Commissary:
Cuban Sandwich - $6.69
Chocolate Mousse - $3.59
Soda - $2.09
Snack at Min and Bill's Dockside:
Apple Cinnamon Stuffed Dessert Pretzel - $3.79
Dinner at the 50's Primetime Café:
Old Fashioned Pot Roast - $15.79
S'mores - $4.79
Soda - $2.00
Total - $38.74
So, obviously not a huge savings per se, however I deliberately selected items that were not at the top of the pricing scheme. I could have selected Sirloin Steak and a Sundae and pushed my tab for the day up by another $6+. So, you can still save money with the dining plan. I did not include taxes with my figuring as I am not sure what the going sales tax for dining is in FL, nor am I sure if the dining plan price of $37.99 also might get taxed at the time of purchasing the package. Depending on that information, even more money could be potentially saved.
Personally, I feel that depending on how you use it, the dining plan can still definitely save you money. The problem is comparing what you get and how much things cost for 2008 vs. how the plan was priced in the past. To me, the dining plan when we went earlier this year was a HUGE savings. With the appetizer and gratuity, we easily saved $10-15 per person, per day of the trip. It boggled my mind before that people would think that the dining plan was not a good deal for what you got. Now, after using the plan last April, I did have some complaints about the plan, namely that there was too much food. While, it is a bummer that we are getting less for our money than before, an appetizer, entrée, and dessert per person was, quite frankly, more food than I wanted to eat. So, in some ways, I actually like the fact that there will be less food...if that makes any sense.
One other thing about the dining plan - I'm tired of people complaining about the dining plan drastically reducing the availability of walk-up reservations (nothing personal). Yes, I get it. Yes, the dining plan has forced the need for advanced reservations. However, stop to think about what exactly this means was going on pre-DDP... The dining plan in and of itself does not require people to get advanced reservations - it works just fine if you walk in. So, the problem has come from the large influx of guests going to table service restaurants when in the past they did not. Which in turn means that pre-DDP,
the table service restaurants were operating somewhat below maximum capacity/efficiency. So, this only goes to show again that the dining plan is/was a great money saver and convenience. I'm not really sure that I understand how anyone can complain that Disney is trying to boost their revenue by increasing attendance at their restaurants...sorry, but I just don't see that as a bad thing. I'm pretty sure that the wait staff that was working the less than capacity restaurants are probably not too unhappy about the increased tips from the increased attendance either. Regardless, the reason that Disney can offer the variety of dining experiences they can is dependent upon people actually eating at those places...
All the above said, my biggest disappointment about the changes is the lack of convenience of not having to keep track of or set aside separate money for tips, appetizers, etc. This was really the selling point of the DDP to me, and this does diminish things some. However, ultimately I think I can deal with that. Before our next trip (next year?
), I'll have to sit down and figure out if we want to do the plan again, but the changes are not as bad as some have made them out to be and they do not make the decision an automatic "no"...