Its time to remember the magic, not experience it !

WDisnut

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 16, 2006
I feel stupid for not following the disboards for changes to the dining plan and food changes in general. I haven't been to Disney in a little over 2 years and I just got back from 8 days of free Disney dining. Oh yeah it wasn't even close to free, beside paying the normal full room price we had to by a photo book I don't think we will ever get for $100.. As you can tell I'm really upset. Over the past 2 years I have been telling people about things good at Disney to eat specifically SNACKS. When I got to Disney the snack world was totally different. Like the twilight zone episode.. I will never feel like telling anyone anything good about Disney dining plan because everything good get taken away.. I mean I have followed the plan for about 8 or 9 years and have been through a number of changes but this time it was ridiculous. Not only I noticed but I heard cast members taking about the changes, other guest in the parks and on the buses. Oh and the vendors rebuttal saying its up to them is just crap .. When a contract is made both parties agree. One side doesn't just make all the decisions. Here is some I remember . I stayed at Coronado springs.. Buffet gone, steak dinner quick service gone, skillet breakfast gone, portions smaller, pastries i got before were bigger and better. snack credits in gift shop many have been taken away.
magic kingdom the ice cream at the end of main st. is now eddys', this made me almost cry. Main st bakery no more cherry filled turnovers. and the turn overs they had were smaller and not even close to the ones before. I didn't see any french toast loaf, but I'm not total sure on that one .. The ice cream cookie sandwich we got and was still awesome but there is no dining plan snack stamp next to it but luckily we still got it as a snack I'm sure that will be gone soon also. once again I notice pastry smaller.
The mickeys premium ice cream bar was not the dove dark chocolate one i remember for years will the hard inside vanilla ice cream. the fruit bar had less fruit in it .
Epcot, School bread was smaller and I think also cheaper than before. The chicken dinner I had in France was dry and gross. I went to rose and crown in England. Beside my dinner being dry and tiny I got the Sundays roast. when we checked in we had to wait like 15 mins then our preference for sitting inside was thrown out and we were put outside.. I said no we said inside, the wartier said oh that was just your preference.. I wanted to smack him. Mind you we had reservations and only 2 of the almost 15ish tables inside were being used. so we had to wait another 10 minutes and then we were allowed inside. Once again only 2 table were being used.. when we left only 6 out of 15ish were being used and they kept sitting everyone outside.. only if you complained were you sat inside ... throughout Epcot and the rest of Disney i saw the price manipulation for on snacks.. size changes etc... making things near $5.
Downtown Disney you can no longer get the goofy hand dipped rice crispy treat.. was my favorite as a snack. no more.
Beaches and cream the burgers and hot dogs are not all beef anymore. The buns everywhere i went where the gross supposed healthier buns.
I could go on and on... But it was just the food the rides seemed slower and effects were missing all over "saving money". Its time to remember the magic because you can't experience it at Disney anymore when it comes to food.


I leave you with one story a family told me on a bus. A family of 4 had the deluxe dining plan. And stayed at the Coronado springs so they could have a buffet breakfast every morning and then eat a nice dinner somewhere. But at Coronado springs there is no longer a buffet. So they went to pepper market because there kids wanted cereal.. The Maya grill is horrible for breakfast. The waitress first asked if there kids wanted milk for cereal. Cereal. And then when they said there kids wanted juice the waitress said they could only have the milk or juice... Remember they have the deluxe and theirs no buffet anymore where this would no have been ever brought up. so they got in argument with the waitress for there kids to get juice saying they would pay out of pocket for the juice , just bring the juice. Now yes the waitress have to follow the plans because its only a quick service but the kicker was before they left the waitress told them the adults get 2 beverages so would they like a bottle water to go each......

Hey Disney, I'm done for a long time!
 
I didn't see any french toast loaf, but I'm not total sure on that one ..

Yes, the french toast loaf is gone. Has been for at least a year, probably more than that I think.
 
Yes, the french toast loaf is gone. Has been for at least a year, probably more than that I think.

It was dropped shortly before our March 2009 trip. I found the recipe at allears, though, and we've done it for Christmas morning every year since 2008.
 
Maybe I'm one of the few but I'm kind of glad the snacks aren't as huge as they used to be... I swear by the time we were at the end of our vacation (and we were on the DDP), I was so full and was sometimes using my snack option on even smaller items just because it was food overload at times... or using my snack credit on things to bring home.

I can't imagine much as changed since last January but I thought the food/snacks were plenty at Disney on our trip and really felt like we go our money's worth... I don't know, we're going back in a few months and I'm pretty excited about all of our options.

Sorry you had such a bad experience though. :sad1:
 


Well, there are 2 things that I can see you're not remembering right, first, Edy's has been the ice cream served in the Magic Kingdom for years now. I go 3 to 4 times/yr. and I know it was that way at the last Pirates & Princess Party and that was about 3 to 4 years ago.

Second, Nestle has been making the Mickey Bars for many years and they haven't changed. I think they're just not freezing them so hard anymore, which I think is better.
 
The strawberry ice cream that I have had since I was a kid used to taste more like a type of candy-ish and not very much like strawberry. I was told by a worker there at the location and in the customer information center that they had changed it and many others have complained. One cast member said it was a change to eddy's. I guess that could of meant eddy's changing there version of strawberry? Weather that part was wrong or the cast member was wrong isn't the problem... It was that it was changed some how and the taste was not the same, not even close. I was told dove by information but, nestle or not, I remember the ice cream bars were dark chocolate and had a harder inside. It just fell apart and melted very quickly. I saw many people and children with left over bar all over there faces and hands. which i guess can be cute as long as your not the one eating it . And once again i was not the only one there complaining about the bars not being the same . I hate change and this year there was a lot of it for me .
 
I understand your frustration. Things are quite different on the dining plan than they once were.
I usually will not do the dining plan now unless it is offered to me free. Otherwise, we propably wouldn't get our money's worth. We don't eat steaks at every table service.:laughing:

However, the ddp is also about convenience. Also, Disney is a company and times have changed. This is one of the ways it has.

I will disagree with the Pepper Market though, we loved it in October. It was the best counter service restaurant in a hotel we have styed at yet, even for breakfast.

I wish I could get DD to eat cereal for breakfast while we are at Disney. I know it is going to be all about the waffles!!!!
 


Well I had a wonderful time on the DDP and ate some great food - was so full didn't need the snack credit for food so I used it on drink and my daughter had no trouble getting the ice-cream cookie sandwich with her snack credit.

No dry food and excellent service everywhere.

I'm sorry you had a bad time, maybe it was unfortunate luck and next time will be different :hug:
 
I have seen Eddy's there for many years :confused3 DD loves it.

The mickey bars haven't been a dark chocolate in a longtime if I recall correctly. I am not a fan of dark chocolate but love the mickey bars.

Sorry things weren't what you had hoped :sad1:
 
Agree 100% that the pastries everywhere at Disney are often not as good as what they used to be. And I'm not mis-remembering anything from several years ago...we've gone to WDW about 15 times in last 4 years, on either the regular or Deluxe dining every time. The pastries started changing about a year ago and have gone downhill every time we've been there since Sept 2010 (which would be Nov 2010, Jan 2011, February 2011 and Sept. 2011) The pastries are often cold (refrigerator cold) and stale these days...I think they are now mass-producing them somewhere and storing them un-covered on the serving rack in coolers...hence the cold & stale when you buy them.

Now the regular restaurant food we have thought for the most part that it's all still good...have eaten at 50+ Disney restaurants over the last 4 years and have had bad meals at less than a handful.

Have to say a lot of the stuff that is no longer allowed for snacks I can see Disney's point...people used to buy a loaf of bread for a snack credit...or an entire box of doughnuts...or 1/2 gallon of milk. Obviously none of those items are meant to be a snack for one person (and people bragged about feeding their family of 4 with the milk & doughnuts for breakfast using only 2 snack credits.) But all of those are plainly labeled on the nutrition labels as multiple servings. The ice cream cookie sandwich is already not allowed as a snack credit at most locations...at Port Orleans French Quarter it's been off the menu since at least Nov. 2010...the explanation the castmember gives is that the cookie sandwich is actually 3 snack credits if you want to spend snack credits because it's two giant cookies (which are available for 1 snack credit each) and large scoop of ice cream which is also available for 1 credit as a snack: if you want 2 different snacks in one serving, it'll cost you 3 credits. Anyway, that's how they explained it. And the goofy-make-your-own treats...after finally seeing those in person a couple of weeks ago... how large those are! Again, plainly not a snack-sized item for one person unless you ordinarily would eat 1000 calories as a snack.:rolleyes1
 
WDW did in the past sell Dove ice cream bars...but they were not the Mickey bars. Although back then they probably were not Nestle, and they are Nestle now. Disney has a major contract with Nestle.

And the goofy-make-your-own treats...after finally seeing those in person a couple of weeks ago... how large those are! Again, plainly not a snack-sized item for one person unless you ordinarily would eat 1000 calories as a snack.

One of the other stories about Goofy's make your own treats was that they would get a lot of guests who had saved up their snack credits and wanted to order multiple treats, with multiple toppings, at one time, thus overwhelming the make your own counter.
 
One of the other stories about Goofy's make your own treats was that they would get a lot of guests who had saved up their snack credits and wanted to order multiple treats, with multiple toppings, at one time, thus overwhelming the make your own counter.

Guilty, your honor!

We spent out last 5 snack credits on Goofy's make-your-own treats on our way out of town, even though there were only 3 of us on the plan. I had picked up a small stack of forms earlier in the week and just dropped off the order while I went browsing in the rest of the store (using another 4 snack credits... we actually had 9 left, not 5). Of course, it wasn't particularly busy at that time, so I didn't feel bad about it.
 
One of the other stories about Goofy's make your own treats was that they would get a lot of guests who had saved up their snack credits and wanted to order multiple treats, with multiple toppings, at one time, thus overwhelming the make your own counter.

Yep, I suspect that was a bigger reason than cost for that change. Disney was undoubtedly losing out on sales because of the backlog. I know that I happily paid for two make-your-own treats out of pocket for my kids when we finally did get to try them; back in the snack credit days we decided against them twice after ending up behind someone looking to order a dozen treats in a last day snack credit binge.

I'm not a pastries person so I can't speak to that decline. The blueberry muffins are good just about everywhere, and the newer "gourmet" cupcake offerings are enjoyable and very sharable in size. Aside from that I don't think I've had a pastry at Disney in years. But the ice cream has been Edys as long as we've been going to WDW and I haven't noticed any change in the Mickey bars in that time (since '05). I do hate the change away from all-beef hot dogs, though! I don't eat cheap mixed meat hot dogs and Casey's used to be one of a very few places I would occasionally enjoy a hot dog, but that ended with the change.
 

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