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

[Club Cooloholic]

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.

The layout there makes it kind of hard, we were literally the last table they would visit, and we were sat probably five mins after a rotation was done. Which is fine, but we were eating there well over an hour and still only saw 2 characters, and our waitress was pretty bad too disappearing for most of the meal. My kids were ready to roll by that point, and I did mention the situation to a manager who was nice, and hey stuff happens, not meeting every character isn't the end of the world.

 

[Jon81uk]

The layout there makes it kind of hard, we were literally the last table they would visit, and we were sat probably five mins after a rotation was done. Which is fine, but we were eating there well over an hour and still only saw 2 characters, and our waitress was pretty bad too disappearing for most of the meal. My kids were ready to roll by that point, and I did mention the situation to a manager who was nice, and hey stuff happens, not meeting every character isn't the end of the world.

Sorry to hear that, sounds like you had awful service for that meal.

 

[John park hopper]

Jiko is our go to WDW restaurant-- just took a look at the menu prices and it looks to have increase but I can't remember what we paid this last May. Any one know what the % increase is?

 

[larryz]

We are now officially in crazyland.

I believe the new strategy is to price people out of the resort, then sell off the parks and hotels to corporate raiders or another park entity such as Cedar Fair or SeaWorld. This is consistent with leadership's world view that Disney is an IP factory more than an amusement park and resort hotel company.

 

[Nottamus]

I looked at pricing increases and did see Hollywood & Vine the same price as "Ohana. If that is correct...that's almost insane.

I mean, Ohana is like light years ahead of H & V, in my opinion.

There are more and more QS places to eat that have good food (not just burgers and fries) that fill us up just as much as TS, for a lot less.

We pre book two TS every vacation week, and maybe add one while there. Keeps it cheaper for us.

 

[Jon81uk]

I looked at pricing increases and did see Hollywood & Vine the same price as "Ohana. If that is correct...that's almost insane.

I mean, Ohana is like light years ahead of H & V, in my opinion.

There are more and more QS places to eat that have good food (not just burgers and fries) that fill us up just as much as TS, for a lot less.

We pre book two TS every vacation week, and maybe add one while there. Keeps it cheaper for us.

At Hollywood and Vine you are paying a premium for the characters.

 

[Hockey89]

Restaurants we didn't have a good experienced in and thought would not be worth the money are:
1) Yachtsman Steakhouse

What they have done to this place is a crime... You can get a steak at the Longhorn for the same quality... The waitress was so odd too...I'll never eat there again...

 

[Weather_Lady]

Jiko is our go to WDW restaurant-- just took a look at the menu prices and it looks to have increase but I can't remember what we paid this last May. Any one know what the % increase is?

I just looked at a 2018 Jiko menu online, compared with the current one. Although appetizers have all gone up about 5 or 6% (specifically, almost all appetizer and flatbread item prices have increased by $1 each), it looks like all of the entrees and desserts that are still on the menu from 2018 are currently offered at the same price they were before. I didn't check drink prices.

 

[Dave B]

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

No convincing me of anything, I ran the numbers on the trip and it saved us over a $1000, I did compare what we would have paid for just the 20% room discount and paying out of pocket for what we received, no brainer

 

[xdan0920]

No convincing me of anything, I ran the numbers on the trip and it saved us over a $1000, I did compare what we would have paid for just the 20% room discount and paying out of pocket for what we received, no brainer

K

 

[Hockey89]

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

How do you use snack credits for entrees?

 

[Dave B]

The festival boots accept snack credits and you can use your QS as 3 snack credits, we went to the Canada booth and enjoyed a lot of Filet Mignon and cheese soup

 

[Animaniac93-98]

You can plan all you want to eat breakfast or dinner somewhere else, but when you're in the middle of a theme park and you're hungry and/or thirsty it's not always easy (especially for large families) to just drop everything and leave to grab a snack.

Disney and Universal bank on this and it's the hardest part of budgeting for that reason.

 

[Dave B]

But you can bring in food and drink from the outside, Disney does not force you to eat and drink at the parks

 

[Animaniac93-98]

But you can bring in food and drink from the outside, Disney does not force you to eat and drink at the parks

Besides being a pain to cart around more stuff, or pay extra for a locker, how much can you realistically bring into the park with you knowing it all has to be non perishable?

This is one of those things that's easier said than done.

 

[SSH]

The only TS we always do is Yak and Yeti's - we really like it there and as Landry Club Members, no ressies needed and points earned. Rest is QS or offsite. I really wanted to like Skipper's Canteen, but we had a pretty poor experience there food-wise.

 

[Dave B]

Besides being a pain to cart around more stuff, or pay extra for a locker, how much can you realistically bring into the park with you knowing it all has to be non perishable?

This is one of those things that's easier said than done.

We have brought in sandwiches and subs a lot, bottles of H2O, even leftovers from prior day, there is a choice if you don't want to or cant afford to purchase food, I don't see much of a difference between Disney food prices and what you pay at a sporting event or other amusement parks, in fact sporting events are probably more expensive

 

[Plowboy]

We were at the world just 3 weeks ago and I have to admit some of the price increases were (what's the word?) shocking. One of our go-to restaurants is Biergarten for lunch. We usually do it midweek so everything was like for like this time compared to previous trips. The only thing different was we had upgraded to AP's so the end result would be a 10% meal discount resulting in an approx same or lower price than last year. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. Last year we paid in the mid 90 $ range for lunch and 1 drink each for 2 adults including tip. This year it was almost $130 WITH the 10% food discount. How the h*ll does that happen?

It's not just the restaurants, It's the food courts too. We stayed at Pop. My usual practice is to get up first, go down to the food court, eat and bring Mrs. P back a pastry and coffee. My breakfast is not fancy, usually a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, pastry and coffee (same one as Mrs. P). Has anyone ever looked at the cost of the little cartons of milk for cereal? $2.99/ea for whole milk and $1.99 for 1%. Really? I buy a whole gallon of 2% at home for $3.00.

I love dining at WDW as much as the next guy but this is getting ridiculous.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

No convincing me of anything, I ran the numbers on the trip and it saved us over a $1000, I did compare what we would have paid for just the 20% room discount and paying out of pocket for what we received, no brainer

Ok...I gotta ask:

What are you eating???

 

[Dave B]

We were at the world just 3 weeks ago and I have to admit some of the price increases were (what's the word?) shocking. One of our go-to restaurants is Biergarten for lunch. We usually do it midweek so everything was like for like this time compared to previous trips. The only thing different was we had upgraded to AP's so the end result would be a 10% meal discount resulting in an approx same or lower price than last year. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. Last year we paid in the mid 90 $ range for lunch and 1 drink each for 2 adults including tip. This year it was almost $130 WITH the 10% food discount. How the h*ll does that happen?

It's not just the restaurants, It's the food courts too. We stayed at Pop. My usual practice is to get up first, go down to the food court, eat and bring Mrs. P back a pastry and coffee. My breakfast is not fancy, usually a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, pastry and coffee (same one as Mrs. P). Has anyone ever looked at the cost of the little cartons of milk for cereal? $2.99/ea for whole milk and $1.99 for 1%. Really? I buy a whole gallon of 2% at home for $3.00.

I love dining at WDW as much as the next guy but this is getting ridiculous.

Go to Target prior to your trip and purchase milk and cereal as well as some snack items, problem solved, if you don't have a car, they all deliver now as well