Magic Kingdom No Longer to be Dry

[GoofGoof]

I will respectfully disagree with you on Kronenbourg. Regardless of how it is marketed, it is an inferiorly brewed product and its flavor profile is extremely inconsistent. If you like it great. I am not trying to convince you not to. I know the brewing industry pretty well and under blind taste testing, Kronenbourg does not fair well. The others are fine. the Belgian style while popular, are not my style. I get the french theme and would agree it is required at BoG. I want to stress that I do completely respect your opinion. Tastes differ. I run into many people who will automatically degrade an American brewer for no other reason than they are American. Truth is in practice, ingredients and sanitation, American brewers are the gold standard.

I'm not really sure which post you were replying to, but I love a good beer discussion so I will jump in. Agreed that the Belgian beers fit well in the theme at BOG. I am definitely happy they didn't just throw in Blue Moon and call it a day.

This may be slightly off topic, but your post made me think of a brief discussion a little while ago on one of the DTD threads. I would love to see them open a nice gastro pub style place with a huge selection of craft beers and a good bar menu in DTD. The kind of bar where they would constantly change out beers brewed from around the country and you would always be surprised with something unique every time you went. There are so many good breweries making really good beer and the craft beer industry has taken off so I think there would be enough interest to keep the place in business. Definitely not a fit for the MK but I could use another good reason to go to DTD.

 

[hellowonderland]

I'm not really sure which post you were replying to, but I love a good beer discussion so I will jump in. Agreed that the Belgian beers fit well in the theme at BOG. I am definitely happy they didn't just throw in Blue Moon and call it a day.

This may be slightly off topic, but your post made me think of a brief discussion a little while ago on one of the DTD threads. I would love to see them open a nice gastro pub style place with a huge selection of craft beers and a good bar menu in DTD. The kind of bar where they would constantly change out beers brewed from around the country and you would always be surprised with something unique every time you went. There are so many good breweries making really good beer and the craft beer industry has taken off so I think there would be enough interest to keep the place in business. Definitely not a fit for the MK but I could use another good reason to go to DTD.

Although I have no interest in beer ... ... my husband is Welsh (as in, actually born there and lived there for the first 18 years of his life) and he loves good beer. Now that he lives in Canada, he mourns the lack of good, authentic pubs. He won't support the Canadian beer industry because of our government monopoly (don't blame him, my Dad is the same!). We always talk about the possibility of Disney putting in a great pub in DTD with outdoor seating, a fantastic menu, awesome beer and quality wines. And I agree with you about changing it up -- it would be nice to see a place that shifts with the times and surprises its guests from season to season.

 

[bubbles1812]

I'm not really sure which post you were replying to, but I love a good beer discussion so I will jump in. Agreed that the Belgian beers fit well in the theme at BOG. I am definitely happy they didn't just throw in Blue Moon and call it a day.

This may be slightly off topic, but your post made me think of a brief discussion a little while ago on one of the DTD threads. I would love to see them open a nice gastro pub style place with a huge selection of craft beers and a good bar menu in DTD. The kind of bar where they would constantly change out beers brewed from around the country and you would always be surprised with something unique every time you went. There are so many good breweries making really good beer and the craft beer industry has taken off so I think there would be enough interest to keep the place in business. Definitely not a fit for the MK but I could use another good reason to go to DTD.

I would love that! And this is coming from someone who is not even really a beer person... but I think it'd be so fun to try things from around the country or world for that matter. I've found some beers I do like but sadly I tried them in places that were not in my neck of the woods and aren't sold where I live. I think that would be a huge hit. I'd also love if they put in a Tapas bar! I know that is way off topic now, but I was just thinking about what they could put into DTD that would actually make me want to visit the place. I'm not a big shopper, especially of things I could have bought 5 years ago at a cheaper price , so I rarely make the effort to get over there. I guess we'll see after the refurb, when or more likely if it happens.

 

[nytimez]

I will respectfully disagree with you on Kronenbourg. Regardless of how it is marketed, it is an inferiorly brewed product and its flavor profile is extremely inconsistent. I know the brewing industry pretty well and under blind taste testing, Kronenbourg does not fair well. The others are fine. the Belgian style while popular, are not my style. I get the french theme and would agree it is required at BoG. I want to stress that I do completely respect your opinion. Tastes differ. I run into many people who will automatically degrade an American brewer for no other reason than they are American. Truth is in practice, ingredients and sanitation, American brewers are the gold standard.

I didn't say I liked it. I said it's not disgusting. Seemed a little harsh, considering the beer is somewhat bland and nothing I'd ever order again, but not certainly not "disgusting."

I don't degrade American brewers for simply being American. There are dozens -- maybe hundreds, I haven't tried them all (yet) -- of US brewers that make excellent beers, including some of the best beers in the world IMO.

But Bud, Miller & Coors -- especially their flagship products -- fit my own personal definition of "disgusting" far better than Kronenbourg 1664. And FWIW, I don't consider Bud to be an American brewer at this point, given the foreign ownership.

 

[Tomi-Rocket]

Not thrilled. Sometimes change is difficult for me even though I try to be accepting and at times welcoming. .....sigh.....

 

[tink33]

At first I was upset. But after thinking about it I changed my mind. Its only being served at dinner and beverages can't be taken into the park. Plus looking at the wine and beer prices, I don't see people going there just to drink to excess. Waiting to see if BOG will be 2 dining credits in 2013.

 

[bhg469]

Glad you approve

Seriously I'm way more offended that there are basically cupcakes being offered as dessert. That is just a lack of imagination.

 

[PRNCSAurora]

I'm curious to know how many people on your typical day at Magic Kingdom are aware of the no-alcohol "tradition." I mean, sure, they're aware of it when they realize they can't get an $8 Budweiser, but I mean the people who know that going in, or know the mythos of it.

I have been going to Disney since I was small with my parents and this never occurred to any of us when DH and I were booking our anniversary trip. We booked at CRT for the day of our anniversary and were a little surprised when we couldn't order a glass of wine to celebrate. Did it ruin our night? No But it would have been nice to have a little something. I think people just assume that alcohol will be served with dinner since it is everywhere else around WDW.

 

[wdwfan100]

I'm not really sure which post you were replying to, but I love a good beer discussion so I will jump in. Agreed that the Belgian beers fit well in the theme at BOG. I am definitely happy they didn't just throw in Blue Moon and call it a day.

This may be slightly off topic, but your post made me think of a brief discussion a little while ago on one of the DTD threads. I would love to see them open a nice gastro pub style place with a huge selection of craft beers and a good bar menu in DTD. The kind of bar where they would constantly change out beers brewed from around the country and you would always be surprised with something unique every time you went. There are so many good breweries making really good beer and the craft beer industry has taken off so I think there would be enough interest to keep the place in business. Definitely not a fit for the MK but I could use another good reason to go to DTD.

I think that is a great idea. Give me 20-30 taps (or more) and a great bottle selection. I would be a frequent customer.

 

[wdwfan100]

I didn't say I liked it. I said it's not disgusting. Seemed a little harsh, considering the beer is somewhat bland and nothing I'd ever order again, but not certainly not "disgusting."

I don't degrade American brewers for simply being American. There are dozens -- maybe hundreds, I haven't tried them all (yet) -- of US brewers that make excellent beers, including some of the best beers in the world IMO.

But Bud, Miller & Coors -- especially their flagship products -- fit my own personal definition of "disgusting" far better than Kronenbourg 1664. And FWIW, I don't consider Bud to be an American brewer at this point, given the foreign ownership.

Cool. Like I said, I respect your opinion. I also made a mistake in saying people degrade American brewers for being American. The most common reason is barrelage output. If it is too high than there is an assumption they must not be making good beer. My apologies if I implied that you were simply discounting the big 3 American brewers for those reasons. As to American beers, actually Miller and Coors are also foreign owned. In fact the consolidation in the brewing industry is extrordinary. Many of the majot names are uner only a few umbrellas. If I may switch gears and inquire, what beer do you enjoy?

 

[Rosso11]

I know this is off topic but I agree with you 100%. I would even go a step farther. I've always thought they should add a micro brewery in Epcot itself and explain the brewing process and the history of beer making as well as the importance of it throughout history. If it was up to me, which unfortunately it's not I would locate it in The American Pavillion and team up with one of the hundreds of microbreweries located in this country and even Florida such as Cigar City brewing out of Tampa. Then showcase all American Craft breweries. I have been in the food and beverage business my whole life and luckily get to travel the world a lot for business. Many people do not realize that throughout the world it is pretty much universally believed in the industry that it's the Americans today that brew the best and most innovative beers in the world. For the first time in American beer history it is the rest of the world now brewing American styles where in the past is was always Americans making European styles. I always thought this would be something pretty cool to showcase at Epcot but I'm probably in the minority on this one.

I'm not really sure which post you were replying to, but I love a good beer discussion so I will jump in. Agreed that the Belgian beers fit well in the theme at BOG. I am definitely happy they didn't just throw in Blue Moon and call it a day.

This may be slightly off topic, but your post made me think of a brief discussion a little while ago on one of the DTD threads. I would love to see them open a nice gastro pub style place with a huge selection of craft beers and a good bar menu in DTD. The kind of bar where they would constantly change out beers brewed from around the country and you would always be surprised with something unique every time you went. There are so many good breweries making really good beer and the craft beer industry has taken off so I think there would be enough interest to keep the place in business. Definitely not a fit for the MK but I could use another good reason to go to DTD.

 

[mickey2008.1]

It just hit the news here this morning, and watching as I write this, the general consensus is that it is not a big deal. They are actually making fun of it. You will have the one or two who will be an idiot. " Disney World is not just a kids park", "drinking too much and going on Mad Tea Cups, or even worse Mission Space", "they already serve alcohol at the pother parks", "the parents need it", "oh great, drunk dad meeting Mickey" Those were just a few of the quotes to the news cast here in ohio. Just passing it on what people think who are in a general news poll, not WDW fans or followers.

 

[nytimez]

Cool. Like I said, I respect your opinion. I also made a mistake in saying people degrade American brewers for being American. The most common reason is barrelage output. If it is too high than there is an assumption they must not be making good beer. My apologies if I implied that you were simply discounting the big 3 American brewers for those reasons. As to American beers, actually Miller and Coors are also foreign owned. In fact the consolidation in the brewing industry is extrordinary. Many of the majot names are uner only a few umbrellas. If I may switch gears and inquire, what beer do you enjoy?

You're absolutely right, I had totally forgotten that Miller-Coors is foreign-owned as well.

One of my favorite brewers is actually now owned by InBev -- Goose Island. Honker's Ale is one of my favorite "session" ales, and it (thankfully) hasn't changed (yet) despite the new corporate ownership. They also make a number of other great brews (and if anyone visits Chicago, their brewery-restaurant is excellent).

I like some of the brews from Weyebacher (especially Verboten and Heresy), Arrogant from Stone and any number of Hefeweizens from both here in the US and Germany (especially Weihenstephaner). And I always enjoy a Sam Adams -- I wait all year for their Winter Ale.

In NY -- where I won't be much longer -- we have excellent laws on growlers so many beer distributors now have taps set up and you can take home a growler of beer from small brewers that don't bottle. They're often hyper-local, so the names won't mean much outside of the area, but I've enjoyed a number of brews from Greenport Harbor, Captain Lawrence and Long Ireland. My understanding is I won't be so lucky in California.

Bringing this back on topic, I think the biggest "miss" at WDW isn't the lack of booze at MK -- it's the missed opportunity to offer so many more beers in World Showcase.

And you? Which brews do you like?

 

[righttrack]

I am a beer snob. When a beer snob denigrates "American beers" they are not speaking of American craft brews or even mass-produced good brews like Sam Adams. They are against a style of brewing, that appeals to prohibition tastes. That is beer that is designed to get you drunk for the least possible production costs, using various other grains such as rice and corn. During prohibition, the gathering of lots of malt was considered criminally suspicious. So people made their beer from a mixture of malt, rice and corn to avoid getting caught. These changing consumer tastes influenced the beers that came out of prohibition, bud, coors, schaefer, etc. Pre-prohibition beers and their style are revered and often made by American Craft brewers, a few mass market brewers and of course international brewers who faced no tragedy like prohibition.

 

[tomman710]

Ehh... naps, cups, show cuts don't improve the guest experience at all. Adding things to the menu that the guests WANT - does. How on earth do you call this 'no different'? One is an expansion of offerings, the others are all operational cuts with nothing to offer to the guest.

How does one make such a comparison??

Sorry I am late on this but like I said in my original post ... I like the change but this is a change based solely on profits NOT on enhancing guest experience (YES it will enhance SOME guests' experiences [mine included] but as for why TDO did it, well, it wasn't a situation where they were sitting around going "how can we make guests more happy ... hey let's add wine and beer to BOG" ... as we know they care very little for guest satisfaction).

So because this is a CHANGE based solely on profits I said this is all part of "Things That Were Part of the Magic That Got Changed To Make TDO More Profits" ... that's why I likened it to napkins, shows, whatever ... not that they are the same but philosophically the driving force to change the napkins, shows, and add alcohol was money ... at no point do I believe TDO factored in guest satisfaction into the decision making process for any of those changes. So all those things are changes to make money (for TDO bonuses [allegedly]).

But while I love tradition and respect it ... I am good with the addition but again I'd love to know how the additional (probably very large) revenue stream will be used.

 

[bubbles1812]

But while I love tradition and respect it ... I am good with the addition but again I'd love to know how the additional (probably very large) revenue stream will be used.

Didn't you know they are building new Fast Pass kiosks at Small World? Everyone I know has been really calling for that to happen because it's always been such an issue getting on the ride in a timely manner via the regular line. But you know how expensive those things are...they have to make up for that somehow, hence the alcohol

 

[mickey2008.1]

If it's a money maker, let's just say 500 people have just one beer there a day, $2500. Cost of beer at $1.25 a beer $625 per day. Profit per day $1875. Total profit for year $684.375. Now that's just beer alone being conservative. Add in the wine, BOG probably will generate at least $2,000,000 from alcohol sales! Money maker yes, at least from my point of view, from TDO, it's a drop in the bucket, and makes more guests happy then not. It's a win win for TDO.

 

[flynnibus]

Sorry I am late on this but like I said in my original post ... I like the change but this is a change based solely on profits NOT on enhancing guest experience (YES it will enhance SOME guests' experiences [mine included] but as for why TDO did it, well, it wasn't a situation where they were sitting around going "how can we make guests more happy ... hey let's add wine and beer to BOG" ... as we know they care very little for guest satisfaction).

So because this is a CHANGE based solely on profits I said this is all part of "Things That Were Part of the Magic That Got Changed To Make TDO More Profits" ... that's why I likened it to napkins, shows, whatever ... not that they are the same but philosophically the driving force to change the napkins, shows, and add alcohol was money ... at no point do I believe TDO factored in guest satisfaction into the decision making process for any of those changes. So all those things are changes to make money (for TDO bonuses [allegedly]).

But while I love tradition and respect it ... I am good with the addition but again I'd love to know how the additional (probably very large) revenue stream will be used.

Ok, this is what we call "building on mud..." it makes the whole argument fall to pieces.

When you insert the word 'solely' into your postuation.. that means exclusively. Yet you then go and disprove yourself to say to will enhance the guest experience. Then you go onto basing your next claim based on the assertion that again, depends on 'solely'.

You also distort the principles of making money.. to infer it is to feed their pockets. They make money to be successful, which in turn they will be compensated for as part of their comp package. Don't make it sound like they are skimming the pot.

You then try to insert a new standard to demand 'where the money will go'.. come on, don't be foolish. Anytime someone is worried about where revenue will go with WDW.. all one needs to do is look at the scope of what WDW encompasses and realize there are a gazillion things you don't pay for and get the benefit of because margins where you do pay, feed the rest of the monster.

Will alcohol help the profit margins of a food service location?? In most cases, yes. But Disney isn't most cases. The mark-up on their other items is so high already, the boost from alcohol markup may actually be less than other establishments. Disney's prices for the alcohol aren't actually that high surprisingly.

 

[tomman710]

Didn't you know they are building new Fast Pass kiosks at Small World? Everyone I know has been really calling for that to happen because it's always been such an issue getting on the ride in a timely manner via the regular line. But you know how expensive those things are...they have to make up for that somehow, hence the alcohol

All that NextGen Data Mining Marketing Tool Guest Enhancement Initiative has to be paid for ... good point.

 

[Brewmaster]

You're absolutely right, I had totally forgotten that Miller-Coors is foreign-owned as well.

One of my favorite brewers is actually now owned by InBev -- Goose Island. Honker's Ale is one of my favorite "session" ales, and it (thankfully) hasn't changed (yet) despite the new corporate ownership. They also make a number of other great brews (and if anyone visits Chicago, their brewery-restaurant is excellent).

I like some of the brews from Weyebacher (especially Verboten and Heresy), Arrogant from Stone and any number of Hefeweizens from both here in the US and Germany (especially Weihenstephaner). And I always enjoy a Sam Adams -- I wait all year for their Winter Ale.

In NY -- where I won't be much longer -- we have excellent laws on growlers so many beer distributors now have taps set up and you can take home a growler of beer from small brewers that don't bottle. They're often hyper-local, so the names won't mean much outside of the area, but I've enjoyed a number of brews from Greenport Harbor, Captain Lawrence and Long Ireland. My understanding is I won't be so lucky in California.

Bringing this back on topic, I think the biggest "miss" at WDW isn't the lack of booze at MK -- it's the missed opportunity to offer so many more beers in World Showcase.

And you? Which brews do you like?

No fear, growlers are indeed legal in California. I've got a great 1L one I picked up at Stone a few years back