That snap you heard? My camel's back is breaking!

[Weather_Lady]

Appropos of nothing, WDW raised food prices. (Yes, I know this happens every year, sometimes multiple times. Yes, I know WDW food is expensive. Yes, I know that everyone's price "breaking point" is different.) Dinner at 'Ohana is now near $60 per person, an increase of almost 33% over the $46 per person we paid when we last ate there in 2018 (as in, last year). DH and I talked it over this morning and decided that our limit has finally been reached: tradition be darned, we're canceling our last-night-of-vacation family dinner at 'Ohana in February 2020. (Neither us nor the kids can down enough food to make $60 -- actually $75 per person, with tax and gratuity -- feel worth it, and we'd eat ourselves sick if we tried!)

We plan to take a renewed look at the menus for all of our chosen restaurants as prices are updated over the next few weeks or months, to see if any more cuts should be made. It makes me sad to cancel plans, but it's a little bit liberating, too -- it helps us separate what's really important on a vacation from the things we've started buying simply out of habit.

Have any of you found yourselves doing some creative surgery on your WDW dining plans? Is there anything you cut that you later wished you hadn't? (And do you have any suggestions as to what would be a good, and less expensive, replacement for 'Ohana? We were thinking maybe Kona Cafe...)

 

[drizgirl]

I need to take a close look at our plans. Where are you finding the current up to date prices?

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Appropos of nothing, WDW raised food prices. (Yes, I know this happens every year, sometimes multiple times. Yes, I know WDW food is expensive. Yes, I know that everyone's price "breaking point" is different.) Dinner at 'Ohana is now $60 per person, an increase of almost 33% over the $46 per person we paid when we last ate there in 2018. DH and I talked it over this morning and decided that our limit has finally been reached: tradition be darned, we're canceling our last-night-of-vacation family dinner at 'Ohana. (Neither us nor the kids can down enough food to make $60 -- actually $75 per person, with tax and gratuity -- feel worth it, and we'd eat ourselves sick if we tried!)

We plan to take a renewed look at the menus for all of our chosen restaurants as prices are updated over the next few weeks, to see if any more cuts should be made. It makes me sad to cancel plans, but it's a little bit liberating, too -- it helps us separate what's really important on a vacation from the things we've started buying simply out of habit.

Have any of you found yourselves doing some creative surgery on your WDW dining plans? Is there anything you cut that you later wished you hadn't? (And do you have any suggestions as to what would be a good, and less expensive, replacement for 'Ohana? We were thinking maybe Kona Cafe...)

Last vacation I booked and cancelled several restaurants, fretting over which ones to keep which ones to drop, should I get a dining plan, should I get TIW card etc. In the end I booked a few, ordered take out one night(I had a car) and since I as doing a split stay, paid for a dining plan for 3 nights(and packed in some of our more pricey dining reservations). I found 2 of my more expensive meals a mixed bag. Beirgarten in Germany Epco for extended family and us out of pocket was OK...the food was meh, but my son did dance around during the music so one of those worth it moments, but without his dancing I would have felt completely ripped off. The big disappointment was the 1900 Park Fare Dinner, never met half the characters and dinner was way over priced, and not even a really great space to eat in(no windows??) A chance lunch at Maria and Enzoa was a nice respite, and take out pizza and meatballs from Celebration was probably one of everyone's favorite meals.
In the future I might take this course again for split stays, doing one half with a meal plan, but honestly eating at the right quick service or a pool bar is more our speed. What bothers me most of the price increases is the carts, sometimes a kid just needs a pretzel but 7 dollars? They are now beating the MLB ballparks with that robbery.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I need to take a close look at our plans. Where are you finding the current up to date prices?

The website that reported it (Easy WDW) cannot be linked to here, although you can find it easily via Google.

 

[larryz]

Must be getting near executive bonus time again...

 

[JTT]

Save money one night by splitting a large Pizza Via Napoli. IMHO - great pizza. Then splurge another night.

 

[westie]

We live like royalty at WDW then come home to Manwich's lol

 

[Weather_Lady]

Save money one night by splitting a large Pizza Via Napoli. IMHO - great pizza. Then splurge another night.

That is wonderful advice! Via Napoli (where, as you note, we can get a pizza for the whole family to share for less than the cost of a CS meal) is already on the schedule for a different day! We had lunch there 2 years ago and it was an instant hit.

FWIW, after chatting with the family, we've decided not to replace the 'Ohana ADR with anything. We still have one TS meal per day (2 the day we eat at Via Napoli), and they're all at a la carte TS restaurants that are already considered a decent out-of-pocket value, and/or which will be 10% off with our Disney VISA (or $25 off with a Landry's reward), so we'll have some modest savings on top of that almost everywhere we dine. We already had an existing "splurge" among our ADRs which I don't plan to get rid of -- dinner at Jiko for DH and me (10% off, but still a splurge for sure! Before anyone accuses me of culinary child neglect, we did offer to take the kids, but they asked to go off on their own to a CS instead because they didn't want to have to "be fancy." Plus, at 11 and 13, I think they like the idea of having a couple of hours to be independent.)

Our kids will be happy with whatever we eat for our "last night in the nursery" on vacation, even if it's a last-minute CS or lounge food choice. This will give us maximum flexibility on our final evening at WDW instead of necessitating a trip to the Polynesian, so perhaps it's a blessing in disguise.

 

[networkpro]

Kona can be iffy, we try every 6 months or so but the last few have been dreadful. If you're looking for just a Back scratcher or LapuLapu the Tambu lounge. Ohana has been off of our list for a decade at least because the food hasnt been what we enjoy.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Kona can be iffy, we try every 6 months or so but the last few have been dreadful.

Thank you for your honest assessment. I'd taken a look at the Yelp reviews, and it seems many others felt the same way as you during more recent visits.

 

[Nunu]

I haven't been able to get an Ohana ADR for December, and after reading about this price increase, I won't be trying anymore.

We might head to Tambu Lounge to get a drink, a couple of skewers and the bread pudding dessert.

 

[Master Yoda]

Absolutely. We have all but eliminated every buffet on property from our choices. They are simply priced way too high.

I can get a better quality, cooked to order meal at nearly every non-signature restaurant on property for less than nearly any buffett. I leave just as full and a little heavier in the wallet.

 

[Freshee61]

The Mickey ice cream is up to $6? WTH

 

[Clamman73]

I have my breakfast plan for next week...on sale at Target this week. Lol

 

[fngoofy]

We were just down on the free dining plan, and we discussed whether we would pay for it in the future and which of the restaurants we would NOT want to pay for.
Restaurants we didn't have a good experienced in and thought would not be worth the money are:
1) Yachtsman Steakhouse
2) Rose and Crown
3) Tony's

The best experiences for the money we found were:
1) BoG (if you are going to do an "expensive" dinner)
2) Skipper Canteen
3) Flametree BBQ

 

[KevinPage]

As a local who took a few years off and came back this year, I knew ticket prices had rose, but didn’t think too much about food/drink.

So when we started looking into doing a few restaurants (namely O’Hana, as it’s a favorite), I guess I wasn’t overly surprised, even though I barely thought about it, that it also rose to the point of “hard pass” for our budget.

hence we haven’t gone and don’t dine at any full service restaurant anymore. Ultimately it saves me $$$ and calories. But 2 churros still cost almost $12, which in and of itself is insane.

 

[Dave B]

The churro cost among other snack items is why we LOVE the free dining promo, we would not normally buy, but get to indulge with the plan, we just used 12 snack credits at EPCOT on Filet Mignon and cheeses soup and it would have cost us $112, but 12 snack credits was great and not even a second thought

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Just strap Slim Jim beef snacks to your left leg and Peanut Butter-n-Cheese crackers to right. Good to go! Think of the money you'll save!

 

[Jon81uk]

The big disappointment was the 1900 Park Fare Dinner, never met half the characters

If I've been at a character meal and feel like I missed a character I always ask someone to try and get them over. I really wanted a pic with Pluto at garden grill, but we had finished breakfast and hadn't seen him. I asked a waitress and she got Pluto over to me a few minutes later.

 

[xdan0920]

The churro cost among other snack items is why we LOVE the free dining promo, we would not normally buy, but get to indulge with the plan, we just used 12 snack credits at EPCOT on Filet Mignon and cheeses soup and it would have cost us $112, but 12 snack credits was great and not even a second thought

This right here folks. This is why the price increases come 2x a year. Gotta convince Dave he got a great deal.