People Angry Over Disney Dinning Plan

[dox]

One of the drawbacks of the DDP for us would be that we like to eat at places such as Citricos, Jiko, Artist Point and Brown Derby - places that take two credits and don't make the plan feasible.

This is one of the key problems with the new changes. If you add up the cost of a meal at a 2 credit restaurant such as those listed above, you really can come out losing money long term over the vacation given that you've lost an appetizer and now have to add on the tip. At most now it seems you just break about even with the plan rather than saving. But if you eat a 2 credit restaurant you could really come out losing money.

 

[Kashyyyk]

I agree. Using the places the require 2 credits would cause you to lose in the long-run. Although....the 2 dinner shows and Cinderellas Royal table require 2 credits but include gratuity (according to the brochure). That might make them more appealing.

 

[DisneyDadof4]

I need a little help on a question. If you have advanced reservations are you still able to use DDP at that restaurant or as stated already by others is it only certain restaurants on certain days? Also am I able to go to Cosmic Rays for lunch and use a counter service ? Thanks for any help because right know I am very confused!

 

[KevGuy]

Hey I hope people keep screaming about it and maybe Disney will put it back the way people want it with gratuity included. When things are not broke why do they feel they have to fix them? :shrug:

 

[wannabeBelle]

I need a little help on a question. If you have advanced reservations are you still able to use DDP at that restaurant or as stated already by others is it only certain restaurants on certain days? Also am I able to go to Cosmic Rays for lunch and use a counter service ? Thanks for any help because right know I am very confused!

Your Advance Dining reservations have no impact on if you will use your DDP or not. The Dining plan is simply the way of "paying" for your meal. The only reason why it is asked when you make the ADR is just so if it a 2 credit restaurant they can advise the guest of that so no nasty surprises at the restaurant.
Yes Anyplace that is listed for a Counter service that participates in the plan you can use a counter service credit at. Cosmic Rays is certainly no problem!!! Hope this helps! Belle

 

[Kashyyyk]

Okay...so I think I may have answered my own question. The copy of the brochure I am looking at online is for Disney Vacation Club members. It says 2008 so I am not sure if there is a newer, revised version out there. Strange since this is only January 9th.

Anyway...it does, very plainly state that children 3-9 do get an appetizer with their TS meals, but I just asked ADR about this and they say it isn't included. Why would the brochure (even if it is for DVC members) say this?

Good news is the Japanese restaraunt has been added to the list as of a few days ago. It wasn't listed in the brochure as being a place you could use the DDP. I am very happy because I love this place.

 

[Sam02]

If anyone is currently in WDW, or just returned can you explain something for me?

I am just reading the official 2008 DDP Brochure on the Disney website. It says that Appetizers are included for children ages 3-9. How is that working. The kids can have one but the adults cannot? Anyone with practical knowledge on how this is being applied?

Also, the brochure says gratuity is automatically added on all partys of 6 or more people. Last year it was 8 or more. Our party has 6 in it.

Although I haven't officially added the DDP to my reservation yet (you have until 48 hours prior to check-in to add it), it appears that all parties of 6 or more are going to have 18% gratuity automatically added regardless of being on the plan or not. This is what I was told when I booked all my ADR's for TS.

Trying to make a final decision. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

On some TS meals an appetizer of carrot sticks, celery, etc. are added to make the meal more balanced. Typically the entree is chicken fingers or mac and cheese, with no vegetable. Hence the "appetizer" of carrots or celery.

They did lower the amount of people in a group to 6. So yes you will have the automatic gratuity added to your bill. I don't know how it works if you want to lower that in case you get bad service, but at least you won't have to calculate your tip.

 

[DisneyDadof4]

Thanks Belle!

 

[kimmychad]

If anyone is currently in WDW, or just returned can you explain something for me?

I am just reading the official 2008 DDP Brochure on the Disney website. It says that Appetizers are included for children ages 3-9. How is that working. The kids can have one but the adults cannot? Anyone with practical knowledge on how this is being applied?

Also, the brochure says gratuity is automatically added on all partys of 6 or more people. Last year it was 8 or more. Our party has 6 in it.

Although I haven't officially added the DDP to my reservation yet (you have until 48 hours prior to check-in to add it), it appears that all parties of 6 or more are going to have 18% gratuity automatically added regardless of being on the plan or not. This is what I was told when I booked all my ADR's for TS.

Trying to make a final decision. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

the appetizers included for adults also if you purchase the deluxe plan, or if you go during free dining you can just upgrade to the deluxe plan. if you have 6 people in your party gratuity is automatically added, but if you have bad service it can be adjusted

 

[CBOMB]

Hey I hope people keep screaming about it and maybe Disney will put it back the way people want it with gratuity included. When things are not broke why do they feel they have to fix them? :shrug:

Simply because they want more of your money. If you have 2 people eating at TS let's just say the bill is $60. Let's say the appetizers you no longer get are $6 each. Tip $10.80, appetizer $12, that's a total of $22.80 minus the dollar less for DDP, and WDW save $21.80 for each day of your vacation over the 2007 DDP. I figured low on the meals, and appetizer as most people try to get the most expensive things on the menu. I thought the DDP started ruining dining at WDW two years ago. You could save a buck if you ate a lot of food each day. I would venture to say a lot of people end up spending more than they normally would because they think they are getting a good deal. I seriously doubt if WDW will go back to the old plan because as you can see some people still think this is a good idea. The only way WDW is going to drop prices are improve dining is if they have another huge drop in attendance like what happened after 9/11. Until then it's rake in the money.

 

[spaceghost]

When these changes were first announced last year I went through and did a "cost study" to look at the value of the new dining plan and you still can save money using the plan. Depending on where and what you eat, the dining plan can still be a deal. I will not rehash my math here, but if someone was really interested I'm sure we could search and find the old post.

That said, to me my attraction to the dining plan was never about saving money, it was about convenience and knowing that my meals were all paid for ahead of time. The changes do affect the convenience some now, albeit minorly, and I will have to set aside extra money for the tips, so that is a hindrance as well.

Despite those complaints, I would still consider using the dining plan again. In truth my larger complaints with the plan are the amount of food (too much - although the loss of the appetizer does in a way help with that) and the amount of time it takes out of the day to get to and eat a sit down meal. Well, that's my $.02 anyway.

 

[aero029]

I'm one of those who would prefer to do away with the dining plan completely.
It's made walk ups impossible and my family likes to eat when we're hungry, not make dining plans months in advance. Disney has made this plan so complicated that it's slowing down counter service lines and upsetting a lot of people who think they are getting something for nothing.

Here's a new concept....Buy a meal, pay for it.
Not to sound rude, but I wouldn't dream of going on vacation unless I had enough money to pay for my meals.

I have practically stopped doing sit down meals because I got tired of listening to the table next to me arguing with the wait staff about the price of their (Not so Free) meals. That is of course if I can even get INTO a sit down restuarant. Now I pay 10 dollars for a meal at a Counter service place and leave no tip instead of $90 a meal at a Sit down meal where I used to leave a 20% tip. Sorry Disney Dining Plan genious creators...I win...and your plan loses.

My family and I had a similar experience this past September. We wanted to change reservations and could not find anything unless we chose to dine at either 4:30 or 10pm! What a waste of a plan! Even when we were trying to make reservations 3 months in advance, we had to constantly rearrange our park dates to match the restaurants we wanted to dine in.

 

[wdwmagic]

I was thinking the same thing. It can be a little annoying to arrive at a really expensive restaurant, dressed up and prepared to shell out good money for a meal, only to be seated next to a group of people not dressed properly, not behaving properly and acting like they were basically eating really fancy for free.

I'm not judging those who use the dining plan. I'm sure the old plan was a wonderful money saver for families. And I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to go a nice restaurant when using it. It just seemed that the plan allowed more than a few bad eggs to slip into the crate.

Yep I think that sums it up perfectly, that is exactly what is going on in a lot of Disney's fine dining locations.

 

[aero029]

Neither myself nor my family has ever used the DDP before, we can only hope that the changes made will have a slightly "negative" effect on crowd levels at various dining locations. It's been virtually impossible to get in to eat anywhere without having reservations months in advance, due in large part to the DDP.

As my family and I all hold annual passes, we're not the type who book ADRs months in advance, usually we wind up getting our hotel and travel plans together about a month or so before we actually arrive there. Don't get me wrong, as I want other people to be able to enjoy their vacation, but at the same time I want to enjoy mine. Hopefully this ADR months in advance malarky will taper off (doubtful, but hopefully) and some of the spontaneity of dining can come back.

I'm with you. After our latest experience, we decided that we are going to hold off even going to WDW for a while. There is no point in DDP if you can't eat when and where you want...

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

I was thinking the same thing. It can be a little annoying to arrive at a really expensive restaurant, dressed up and prepared to shell out good money for a meal, only to be seated next to a group of people not dressed properly, not behaving properly and acting like they were basically eating really fancy for free.

I'm not judging those who use the dining plan. I'm sure the old plan was a wonderful money saver for families. And I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to go a nice restaurant when using it. It just seemed that the plan allowed more than a few bad eggs to slip into the crate.

The nice thing about the DDP is it sometimes helps well-mannered and nicely dressed families afford nicer opportunities. Some of the "bad eggs" that slipped in may have done so even without the plan. Being financially well-off doesn't always mean you have good manners.
The DDP is either hated or loved with almost no in-betweens. Personally, I love it. I like having my meals prepaid and I like saving money. ADRs would be a bother for those of you living close to WDW that can stroll in for a dinner. However, for people like me, calling the 180 days ahead is a part of the WDW vacation experience. I look forward to planning the places to eat and calling to get the ADRs. Of course, part of that could be my extremely organized personality.

 

[aero029]

It was fun. Unfortunately, spontaneity goes out the window when you have to pick which Epcot restaurant you're going to eat at 180 days before you leave. I miss those days that an earlier post mentioned, when you could walk into the park, go to that video kiosk and make a reservation for later that afternoon.

I think that if I decide to return to WDW after a miserable dining experience, I will make reservations 180 days in advance in each park each night @ the same times. This way, I can get the spontenaiety back into a WDW vacation like it used to be.

I used to live in FL and was an annual passholder for many years. It is very sad to me that the flexibility and serendipity have been phased out of WDW. Who would have thought that with all of the growth that WDW has gone through over the years, it would have necessitated family dining/park planning sessions so far in advance that we now rival NASA's planetary mission planning.

 

[imamouse]

I think that if I decide to return to WDW after a miserable dining experience, I will make reservations 180 days in advance in each park each night @ the same times. This way, I can get the spontenaiety back into a WDW vacation like it used to be.

I met a family during a recent visit that did something similar to this. They made ADRs for the same day/time at Morocco, France, and Mexico because they didn't know what they'd be in the mood for that night. Shesh! I was annoyed, but then again, it does open up some availability for walk-ups at the losing locations.

 

[aero029]

I met a family during a recent visit that did something similar to this. They made ADRs for the same day/time at Morocco, France, and Mexico because they didn't know what they'd be in the mood for that night. Shesh! I was annoyed, but then again, it does open up some availability for walk-ups at the losing locations.

Yes, I realize that it may be a bit selfish. Unfortunately, we really enjoy eating TS meals every night. We had some Character meals booked, only to find out that my 2 year old LOVES the characters at 10 feet away. However, she starts to freak out once they come by the table!

TO our utter horror, we could not get another reservation anywhere during our stay. It was miserable to change any of our dining plans during our stay, and just drove us insane. If this is what WDW has come to, I guess I will have to go the "annoying" route, but I do pledge to make sure that once we have chosen the park to dine in on a particular morning, we will cancel the other reservations, lol!

On the other hand, we can probably give them to other people we meet during our stay. EBAY anyone? lol

 

[Dwarful]

Pam has been crunching numbers for us. Even with the changes, for us, it will be cheaper to do the dining plan. 7-23 to 08-02 at ASMovies Pref. room with 2 adults, 1 junior (11) and 1 child (7) with 10 day park hopper passes no water park optons w/tax $2515.43 w/o dining. $3755.03 w/dining. So if you take the $3755.03 - $2515.43= $1239.60 for the dining plan for 10 days. so that works out to be roughly $124.00 per day for our family. Now we have several favorites we like to go to. So here is just a one day example: Magic Kingdom: Cosmic Rays:
-Husband= 1/2 chicken/BBQ Ribs $13.49
-me = grilled chicken $ 5.69
11daughter=turkey wrap $7.49
7yr old =kids meal $3.99
3 sodas for adult meals $2.39@ $7.17
choc. cake x 4 $14.36
____________________________________
$52.69

Dinner at Crystal Palace
3 adults @ $27.99 $83.97
1 child @ $12.99 $12.99
_________________________________
$96.96

now add the two together $96.96
$52.69
and the snack option $16.00
__________________________________
$165.65

We used $165.65
we paid $124.00
we saved$ 41.65
we spent$ 20.00 out of pocket on tip
we still saved $21.65
and this is w/o the appt. option and at a buffet.

Now please help, if I have made errors or am wrong in the 2008 options, please let me know. We are trying to finalize everything for our summer trip.

 

[Rob562]

We used $165.65
we paid $124.00
we saved$ 41.65
we spent$ 20.00 out of pocket on tip
we still saved $21.65
and this is w/o the appt. option and at a buffet.

Now please help, if I have made errors or am wrong in the 2008 options, please let me know. We are trying to finalize everything for our summer trip.

You should remove the tip from your cost comparisons. Assuming you won't be stiffing the waiter if you end up paying out-of-pocket for meals, the tip would be paid by your regardless of which route you choose. So while you should factor tips into your overall trip budget, it's easiest to remove it from the equation altogether. (Assuming your restaurant choices are the same whether you're on the DDP or not)

-Rob