The Dining Plan WAS a good deal but not anymore

[Now Is The Time]

Isn't it a wash though? For free dining don't you have to pay rack rates? And with a discounted room you can buy the dining plan. It sounds like it all works out the same.

Ha.. now that is interesting. We've done the free dining in the past but never thought about that. So I guess it's safe to assume that during the free dining promotion that you're having to pay full price for the room (or more?). Disney always sells that free dining promotion as a package so I've never bothered to check the room rate! Will do so in the future..

 

[bugsbunny]

When it first came out, it was a no brainer for how much food you got AND the gratuity was included! Even then, I said to myself, how could WDW make ANY money off this plan?

Turns out, a bean counter in Disney thought the same thing and here we are today. Since its inception, they have taken away the appetizer AND the gratuity, but RAISED the price?

Compounding this, the food quality has gone down notch and its become near impossible to get an ADR at a lot of places when the DDP is in a free period. Its pretty obvious that over the last couple of years the menus have gotten smaller and more inline with each other, no doubt to take advantage of buying supplies in bulk.

I do like the fact that you can pay upfront and not have to spend large amounts of money for dining while there. Its obviously just an illusion, but when you are there, you psychologically convince yourself its great simply based on the fact you aren't swiping your credit card or forking over cash as much. :ROFLOL:

When WDW gives it away for free, jump all over it, but expect ADRs hard to come by. Other than that, I don't think I will be getting it again unless they make a radical change in pricing and what it offers.

 

[Computer Magic]

Whether it saved money at one time, or still does today, I've never considered using it.
I hate the thought of feeling pressure to use all the credits........or ordering items because they "give better value" on the plan.....or ordering something I don't want because it's included and I "might as well".

I just order what I want when I want it, nothing else is considered.:shrug:
What could be more simple than that?

I understand using it during "free dining". Although paying rack rate for a room to get the "freebie" takes away much of the value.

I'm the opposite. I would be more likely to purchase a cheaper meal then what I want to save money. The plan allows me to not care about the price and buy what I want.

 

[Computer Magic]

. Its obviously just an illusion, but when you are there, you psychologically convince yourself its great simply based on the fact you aren't swiping your credit card or forking over cash as much. :ROFLOL:

.

I'm probably the exception but I actually do my homework before arriving at WDW. I review the menu from allears.net and get an ideal of what we might order. I write down the prices and compare the total to what the total plan cost. I have been able to save money every time. Now granted the savings has decreased over the years. I do want to compare free dining to room only discount the next time I go. There may be something there, especially if I can vist places not on the dining plan.

 

[tomm4004]

...Now with these newly increased prices ($46.99 during peak?! Are you freaking kidding me?) there's no way I can justify it anymore. ..

But don't you think they'll raise the retail prices as well? Perhaps they've already done so. Thus when you're comparing, the $47 will still seem like the same deal relatively speaking.

 

[Now Is The Time]

But don't you think they'll raise the retail prices as well? Perhaps they've already done so. Thus when you're comparing, the $47 will still seem like the same deal relatively speaking.

Not necessarily - If the price of food really did increase, do you really think Disney made sure that the price increase for the dining plan was directly proportional? Remember it's their own math that they use, not ours. Probably the biggest argument is the fact that the dining plan price is higher during peak season now. Food price doesn't go up at that time - Disney just knows that more people coming to the World = more people buying the dining plan so they may as well raise the price. How many times did you see any kind of price increase at Disney and think to yourself, "Well.. that actually makes sense for consumers." Yeah, me neither.

All I know is that with the peak price of $47 - it's the first time we've been able to calculate that having the meal plan vs. paying cash, even in a best case scenario, gives us little to no incentive to justify it. Even in best case scenarios we might break even or come within a dollar or two.

 

[RiversideBunny]

We don't buy the DDP because:

1. It's too much food. Too many sit down meals. Desert with counter service?- we don't do that.
2. It takes up too much park time. Going to WDW becomes an excercise in working around reservations and losing a lot of time waiting and sitting and eating.

Eat when you have to then move on.
Maybe one or two characters meals, on your own, but not on the DDP.

These comments do not apply if the DDP is 'free' but we would rather have room discounts.
The math may work differently for different guests depending on family size, resort selected, and eating habits.

IMHO

 

[fractal]

We don't buy the DDP because:

1. It's too much food. Too many sit down meals. Desert with counter service?- we don't do that.
2. It takes up too much park time. Going to WDW becomes an excercise in working around reservations and losing a lot of time waiting and sitting and eating.

Eat when you have to then move on.
Maybe one or two characters meals, on your own, but not on the DDP.

These comments do not apply if the DDP is 'free' but we would rather have room discounts.
The math may work differently for different guests depending on family size, resort selected, and eating habits.

IMHO

thanks for your post and confirming what I felt on our last trip.

The reservations definately caused us to lose time in the parks. I always felt rushed or under pressure to get things done in the park "faster" because i knew we had a reservation to make later. At the time I thought how much easier it would be to just hit a QS at the park instead of a sit down meal EVERY night. I was also less patient with longer wait times on rides always thinking we didn't have enough time. Whether it was justified or not, I did feel more time pressure because of our reservations.

 

[Tiger45]

I thik it all depends on the party size and conveinence. We us it and have done the math, it is wirht it for our family of 4. It was a better savings when tip was included, and the appetizers, but still saving money by using it and ordering everything. Now you could argue that you wouldn't get as much food if you were not using the DDP, so you have to compare apples to apples though. the savings are their, just not as much. And it makes it a better vacation when you can budget for it and pay up front. Afterall it is a vacation and budgeting is the hardest part, plus you want to be able to enjoy it and eat at places you might not eat at if you did not have dinning plan.

 

[DisGal]

My husband and I are using the deluxe dining plan for the first time on our next trip and I really think it will save us money. The amount of money we spent on meals for our last trip was very high. We are dining at pretty much all signature restaurants for dinner, 1 credit restaurants for lunch, and we're not big breakfast people so will use one of the snack credits for that. Out of pocket would definitely be more than $72.00 per day without gratuity.

 

[Now Is The Time]

thanks for your post and confirming what I felt on our last trip.

The reservations definately caused us to lose time in the parks. I always felt rushed or under pressure to get things done in the park "faster" because i knew we had a reservation to make later. At the time I thought how much easier it would be to just hit a QS at the park instead of a sit down meal EVERY night. I was also less patient with longer wait times on rides always thinking we didn't have enough time. Whether it was justified or not, I did feel more time pressure because of our reservations.

Sounds like you should have just gotten the Quick Service Dining Plan which is 2 counter service meals (no table meal.)

As far as rushing goes, I guess it's just different strokes for different folks. We look forward to our table dinners at Ohana, Biergarten, Le Cellier, Chef Mickey's, etc. just as much as going to the parks. For us, this is a big part of the experience for us, plus the food is soooooo good. :sohappy:

 

[DisneyDude]

I think the Dining Plan has impacted on the quality of the food also, last year we had the Dining Plan for the first time ever, we were staying for three weeks at The Poly so we saved a fortune eating out. However we were very disappointed with the meals. We ate at The Yachtsman Steakhouse, Artist Point, California Grill, Le Cellier, Bistro de Paris and Victoria & Alberts and the food was extremely disappointing, so bad that we did not leave a tip at any of these restaurants. On each occasion the manager asked why we were not happy to leave a tip and each time I showed him the bill, they were all in the region of about $200 for the four of us as we had appetizers wine etc. For that amount of money I expect almost perfection on the plate but it was far from that. Steaks were tough, overcooked, food was cold, presentation was poor. We have eaten at all of these restaurants over the years and it was the only disappointment of the holiday.

 

[tomm4004]

I think the Dining Plan has impacted on the quality of the food also, last year we had the Dining Plan for the first time ever, we were staying for three weeks at The Poly so we saved a fortune eating out. However we were very disappointed with the meals. We ate at The Yachtsman Steakhouse, Artist Point, California Grill, Le Cellier, Bistro de Paris and Victoria & Alberts and the food was extremely disappointing, so bad that we did not leave a tip at any of these restaurants....

I wouldn't think the DDP would have much impact on the Steakhouse, Artist Point, California Grill, the Bistro or V&As. The first three are Signature Dining (two credits) and thus less frequented by those on the plan. The latter two are not on the regular plan at all. If anything, they would have to raise or maintain their standards to attract retail patrons. Perhaps other factors were involved.

 

[RiversideBunny]

I don't think that you should stiff the waiter if the food was not to your liking.
A complaint to the manager would be appropriate but not the depriving of a tip to the waiter.



(It's really hard to believe that Victoria and Alberts was bad.)

 

[DisGal]

I don't think that you should stiff the waiter if the food was not to your liking.
A complaint to the manager would be appropriate but not the depriving of a tip to the waiter.



(It's really hard to believe that Victoria and Alberts was bad.)

I agree 100%

 

[DisneyDude]

I dont get the tipping culture your side of the pond. First of all in many restaurants in America the person that takes the order very rarely serves you, someone else generally brings the food. We are usually a family of five when on holiday and a bill can be between $180 - $300 obviously depending on where we go. The tip demand can sometimes be as much as $40-$50. That's ridiculous I can't think of any reason why I would give anyone a tip for that amount, it just can't be justified. I've worked in the service industry in the past in top restaurants in London and have to say Americans were generally the poorest tippers.

 

[Mystic]

Last year we did 2 trips, one in June and one in December. The trip in June was off the dining plan and the trip in December was on the basic plan. We found that not only did we have way more flexibility off the plan but the service we received was 10 times better overall when we were off the plan than when we were on the plan. We've decided that from now on, unless Disney is giving it to us for free, we're not paying for it, even then we're going to see if there is a room discount available and compare which will be the better savings for us overall before we take the dining plan.

 

[Mystic]

I dont get the tipping culture your side of the pond. First of all in many restaurants in America the person that takes the order very rarely serves you, someone else generally brings the food. We are usually a family of five when on holiday and a bill can be between $180 - $300 obviously depending on where we go. The tip demand can sometimes be as much as $40-$50. That's ridiculous I can't think of any reason why I would give anyone a tip for that amount, it just can't be justified. I've worked in the service industry in the past in top restaurants in London and have to say Americans were generally the poorest tippers.

The problem is that the wait staff are paid very low wages and have to rely on tips for the majority of their pay. Not only that, they have to share the tips between the all the wait staff plus everyone else that works in the restaurant. In other words, just because the waiter is the one that took your order and someone else brought it and someone completely different cleared the table, they all get a share of your tip.

 

[tomm4004]

...we received was 10 times better overall when we were off the plan than when we were on the plan....

Interesting. I thought it might be different now that tipping is not included and the waiters have motivation to provide good service.

 

[DisneyDude]

The problem is that the wait staff are paid very low wages and have to rely on tips for the majority of their pay. Not only that, they have to share the tips between the all the wait staff plus everyone else that works in the restaurant. In other words, just because the waiter is the one that took your order and someone else brought it and someone completely different cleared the table, they all get a share of your tip.

That's too bad, so how many people do they share the tips with? I know it's a different country so it's a different culture but we've had some bad experiences regarding tips over there. In New York this Christmas and New Year it seemed like everyone we bumped into wanted a tip. We carried our luggage thousands of miles from England, the taxi driver got a tip naturally but did not seem impressed with $20,then staff from the hotel wanted a tip for carrying our luggage all of ten yards to the door from the cab, then another guy carried the luggage from the door to the desk and wanted a tip.
Our room was not ready so the luggage was put in a room and we were given a ticket, that guy wanted a tip and when we returned two hours later after taking a stroll the guywho got our luggage out of the room also wanted a tip. I'm sorry but my wife and I work damned hard for our money so I'm not giving it away to people simply because its a custom. Hotel and restaurant staff are generally low paid all over the world but I've not experienced the intense level of tipping as I have in the U.S.