Too Much Food!

[PixiDust04]

I know I may get flamed for this, but I am speaking IMHO and just want to share my thoughts.

I understand that the DDP is keeping rooms full and attendance up at Disney, and it also allows many families who could not previously afford it the chance to visit Disney. BUT...

I just returned from 9 days at OKW (without the DDP) and was absolutely appalled at the amount of untouched food that was just tossed in the trash!! At CS restaurants like Pecos Bill's at MK, so many people were full from their meal so they just threw away the desserts. One family sitting near us asked a CM if their unopened yogurts could be taken back and given to someone else because they couldn't eat them and obviously couldn't carry them through the park all day in the 90 degree weather. The CM said no and had to throw away two full cups of Yoplait yogurt.

Somewhere in Disney's marketing and research, I'm sure it all equals out - Disney would not be doing the free dining all the time if they were really losing money. But it absolutely disgusts me that tons of perfectly good food is thrown away each day! I know there are no simple answers, but there has to be some sort of solution.

Everyone wants to get the most out of the DDP, but my advice is this: if you are at a CS restaurant and you know that not everyone will eat their desserts, tell your cashier you don't want them, or just get one or two to share! Yes, it will still cost you one CS credit per person, but if you weren't going to eat the dessert anyway its not really a waste of money. You are saving perfectly good food from getting wasted, and you won't feel bad for throwing something away that you didn't even touch. If you know that your meal will be enough, let Disney save that dessert for someone who will eat it. Or, if possible, bring your dessert back to your room and eat it later.

End of rant. Opinions?

 

[Ciciwoowoo]

I agree that with most meals, dessert is not really needed. After a few too many cookies, etc, I decided to just get the grapes in a bag for my dessert. They were easy to carry around the park and eventually they did get eaten.

It would be great if a family could pick their desserts AFTER the meal. Sometimes you might think you are starving, but decide half way through that you are really quite satisfied.

 

[tony67]

I agree 100%.

The most wasteful item seems to be desserts at the CS restaurants.
Most of us would rarley order dessert at a CS.
Part of the problem is people want everything they paid for.
The other part of the problem is you have to order before you have eaten.

The first year of the dining plan I recall uneaten desserts sprawled all of the outdoor dining area of one of the CS restaurants. They were left on tables, in trash bins and on just about any other possible surface. It was ridiculous.

I contacted Disney about this way back then and never heard back.
They should really give you a second snack instead. Then if you really want a dessert you can get it. Lots of people leave Disney with leftover credits anyway, but they probably did the math and I assume this makes more sense for the bottom line somehow.


I'd like to see an option to allow someone to skip the dessert and Disney could donate a dollar to a local food bank. They could probably even get a tax deduction for this. At leaste that would make up for some of the waste.

 

[Schmoodle]

I totally agree. Right now the options (if you choose to be on the dining plan) seem to be:

1. Eat more than you want or need to and feel uncomfortable.
2. Waste perfectly good food.
3. Exercise enormous self control and do not order the dessert unless you're sure you'll want it.

My solution was to go with a piece of fruit if that was allowed (apples and oranges travel great in your bag), get the packaged applesauce (also keeps and is good for breakfast), and my friend gets water - which also bugs me, because one of my New Year's resolutions this year was to not buy a single bottle of water all year. I have no problem drinking the water they give you at the CS and at home I stick to a glass and a tap. I think it's ridiculous that nobody thinks they can drink water anymore unless it's packaged in plastic. Of course, that's an off-topic rant for another thread!

Of course, if you are not going to eat all the food that comes with the plan, you should really look realistically at what you would order if not on the plan, and see if you are actually saving any money by buying it. If you are on free dining, then it should not be a problem to skip some of the food, since you are not paying for it anyway.

 

[emacek]

I don't think the problem is the DDP--it's the free dining. I do wish that DW would stop offering free dining or make it QSDP only.

 

[tiredsigh]

and my friend gets water - which also bugs me,

I'm confused. What drink is ok? I don't drink carbonated drinks or juice. When I am at Disney, it's water. At home, I don't do bottled water. I have a neat thermos that keeps my ice water cold all day We also have excellent tap water. In most other places, the tap water does not taste very good

I'm just trying to figure out if you purchase any drinks or if the restaurants pour it directly into your earth friendly thermos? Do you not get any drinks?

I'm not trying to be nasty. I am just trying to figure it out since I've gotten rid of my daily bottled water habit

 

[ShellyLynn3630]

It not just at Disney. Its all over this country. Resturants throw away food every day. There is a great many people in this world who go hungry and we just throw it away.

 

[djp0630]

The dining plan was too much food definitely. It is a shame. We brought some desserts home, but ended up throwing them out when we left. Who needs so many desserts? It is a shame about all the wasted food.

 

[TDC Nala]

I totally agree. Right now the options seem to be:

1. Eat more than you want or need to and feel uncomfortable.
2. Waste perfectly good food.
3. Exercise enormous self control and do not order the dessert unless you're sure you'll want it.

There's a fourth option - don't use the dining plans and order only what you will eat.

I don't purchase water either - too much of it available at no extra cost - but a lot of people do like to buy water.

 

[PixiDust04]

I'm just trying to figure out if you purchase any drinks or if the restaurants pour it directly into your earth friendly thermos? Do you not get any drinks?

With the DDP you do get drinks, and you also get a dessert with your meal. Some people choose to get a bottle of water instead of dessert at restaurants that allow it. I've never seen anyone ask if they could get their drink in their own thermos. But I know that a lot of people at Disney don't like the taste of Florida's tap water, that's why so many people buy bottled.

It not just at Disney. Its all over this country. Resturants throw away food every day. There is a great many people in this world who go hungry and we just throw it away.

Its the sad truth, isn't it? There are so many people who have nothing to eat each day, yet all over this country people throw away food as if it doesn't matter. After going to Disney almost every year since I was 10, somewhere along the way I came to the realization that we live in a wasteful society. It has given me a new perspective on life!

I'd like to see an option to allow someone to skip the dessert and Disney could donate a dollar to a local food bank. They could probably even get a tax deduction for this. At leaste that would make up for some of the waste.

I think that would be an AWESOME solution! Since they can't really donate unopened desserts to the food bank, a monetary donation would be the next best thing. Maybe then people wouldn't feel so obligated to order a dessert just to get the "most for their money."

 

[Tiger926]

There's a fourth option - don't use the dining plans and order only what you will eat.

I don't purchase water either - too much of it available at no extra cost - but a lot of people do like to buy water.

There is actually a 5th option, and that is not order what you are not going to eat. We don't usually get the CS dessert, and if we do, we might only get 1 for 4 of us to share, or, we are heading right back to our villa, and put in fridge to eat for breakfast. I didn't put this as a 6th option, because not a lot of people can go right back and put dessert away for later on.

So many guests seem to forget about this 5th option, and that is a big problem, IMHO.

Tiger

 

[2Tiggies]

There's a fourth option - don't use the dining plans and order only what you will eat.

I don't purchase water either - too much of it available at no extra cost - but a lot of people do like to buy water.

My practice is along similar lines - even with the Dining Plan, if we can't eat dessert, we just leave it and don't order it. I don't see how "maximising your credits" is valid if you take the extra food and throw it away. The Dining Plan is designed to increase convenience and save money. It is very difficult to lose money on any of the plans without consciously trying. They have been carefully calculated and the only question to be asked is whether it suits you and your party's individual eating habits and will still save.

For some people, eating lots of food they wouldn't usually eat is all part of the vacation so I don't think everyone thinks it is of the same view on this topic.

Maybe it would be nice if we had the option of leaving our dessert or whatever else we wanted and having credits accumulated for a donation to a food shelter or something. Not necessarily the exact item you would have ordered..... well, it was just a thought if people are REALLY unhappy about this, they may want to make the suggestion....! I don't really care. DDP is convenient for me. If I break even, I have scored. And if I don't feel like using it on a trip, I don't. Go for whatever works for you

It would be really great if

 

[Schmoodle]

I'm confused. What drink is ok? I don't drink carbonated drinks or juice. When I am at Disney, it's water. At home, I don't do bottled water. I have a neat thermos that keeps my ice water cold all day We also have excellent tap water. In most other places, the tap water does not taste very good

I'm just trying to figure out if you purchase any drinks or if the restaurants pour it directly into your earth friendly thermos? Do you not get any drinks?

I'm not trying to be nasty. I am just trying to figure it out since I've gotten rid of my daily bottled water habit

No, it's okay tiredsigh, I guess I wasn't very clear. We do order the sodas or juice or whatever if we want it. If we don't want it, we ask for water (in a cup). You are still creating trash with the non-reusable cup, and that does bother me, but I haven't figured out a solution to that yet, other than carrying my own bottle and refilling at the water fountains. But this last trip, I saw a guy washing his head in the water fountain - his hair was right up against the spigot, and I couldn't bring myself to drink from them after that. Plus, I really enjoy the big cup of iced water you get at the CS. What my friend did that I referred to was to take a bottle of water for later, which I wouldn't do because it would violate my personal challenge. And by the way, this is what's okay for me - I'm not suggesting everyone should do the same. We all set our own priorities, right? At home we use glasses and the tap. For short trips, we carry our refillable bottles. This is just because we try to live as green as we can, and the thought of how many plastic bottles are used and discarded each year is overwhelming to me. And so I decided to make it a New Year's resolution - I like to set personal challenges for myself each year. I have not been completely successful because we were at the beach this summer, and DS had run out of water, and was parching, and no place we tried on the boardwalk would let me have a cup of water over a bottle, even for purchase. As to what drink is okay, whatever drink is allowed on the plan that you choose to have should be perfectly okay!
I think breaking your daily water bottle habit is very commendable!

Sorry, I don't know how to multiquote, but

There's a fourth option - don't use the dining plans and order only what you will eat.

As Nala said, of course this is an option. I was only listing the options if one was using the dining plan, but one is never obliged to use the dining plan. I edited my original post to reflect this. My last trip is the first time I used the regular dining plan, and I will not get it again, as it's not a good fit for my family. I enjoyed it though, and I can see the appeal. And I know without trying it that the deluxe plan would be overkill. We are going to try the QSDP next trip to see. If it's not a good fit, then we'll go back to OOP for food.

There is actually a 5th option, and that is not order what you are not going to eat. We don't usually get the CS dessert, and if we do, we might only get 1 for 4 of us to share, or, we are heading right back to our villa, and put in fridge to eat for breakfast. I didn't put this as a 6th option, because not a lot of people can go right back and put dessert away for later on.

Tiger, isn't this the same as my option 3?

3. Exercise enormous self control and do not order the dessert unless you're sure you'll want it.

I fell victim to this because some of those desserts look so yummy, and you kind of feel like you've paid for them, and you can justify it because you are on vacation, so it is so tempting. But certainly the better option is to not order it if you don't want it, or to share. I definitely learned my lesson the hard way about this! Although I discovered that many of the packaged CS desserts are not very good, and will be easy to skip.

I do think the food bank option is a great idea. It would eliminate some waste, thus saving Disney some money, and they would get some good publicity out of it as well.

 

[ReneeA]

We've always found another family not on the DDP to give our unopened desserts to if we can't eat them. We also make it a practice to share CS meals rather than order every person their own meal.

 

[Tiger926]

Tiger, isn't this the same as my option 3?

I fell victim to this because some of those desserts look so yummy, and you kind of feel like you've paid for them, and you can justify it because you are on vacation, so it is so tempting. But certainly the better option is to not order it if you don't want it, or to share. I definitely learned my lesson the hard way about this! Although I discovered that many of the packaged CS desserts are not very good, and will be easy to skip.

I do think the food bank option is a great idea. It would eliminate some waste, thus saving Disney some money, and they would get some good publicity out of it as well.

Nope, it's not the same. TDC Nala is saying don't do the DP at all. I'm saying, still do the DP, but only order what can eat.

HTH, Tiger

 

[2Tiggies]

We've always found another family not on the DDP to give our unopened desserts to if we can't eat them. We also make it a practice to share CS meals rather than order every person their own meal.

I often think of doing that, but never have because I thought we weren't allowed. So we just don't order dessert a lot of the time. That's really nice of you though

 

[Colleen27]

my friend gets water - which also bugs me, because one of my New Year's resolutions this year was to not buy a single bottle of water all year. I have no problem drinking the water they give you at the CS and at home I stick to a glass and a tap. I think it's ridiculous that nobody thinks they can drink water anymore unless it's packaged in plastic. Of course, that's an off-topic rant for another thread!

For some, it is more about the quality/taste of the water. At home, we use glasses and the tap and we each have a refillable bottle for when we're out, but I cannot stand the Orlando area tap water. It tastes funny/off to me and I don't care for it at all, so I stick to bottled when we're there.

Getting water or fruit to go is a great option for those who don't want to just skip something that the plan entitles them to but who don't want to eat dessert. Of course, even with the plan you don't have to order every course - we use the deluxe plan and don't eat CS, but at TS meals we enjoy our appetizers and often skip or share desserts.

 

[docsnort]

For some, it is more about the quality/taste of the water. At home, we use glasses and the tap and we each have a refillable bottle for when we're out, but I cannot stand the Orlando area tap water. It tastes funny/off to me and I don't care for it at all, so I stick to bottled when we're there.

I learned on my last trip that most of Florida gets their tap water from the Everglades! So even after all the filtering and cleaning they do of the water, it still may have a "swampy" taste to some. It's no wonder Disney sells so many bottles of water!

 

[ladyv]

We also gave away any CS dessert that we did not eat and it always appeared to be appreciated. 4 years ago, the dining plan at the table service restaurants also included an appetizer. I remember feeling stuffed all vacation long!
This time we mostly ate at buffets because we brought our 1.5 year old and between that and sharing our meals with DS, the amount of food was just right for us.

 

[KELLY]

We are on the DP for our next trip and yes it is free. It is the only reason why we are going. We already went once this year. Last year when we did the DP we just never ordered dessert. We ate a lot of buffets and just ate smaller portions. I'm all for getting the fd but not wasting food.