Aren't they gracious!!!!!! Hmm, I might have to re-think this. Thanks for the quick reply though!
Yep...the loss of appetizer is the least of the problems. The 08
DDP is somewhat less food for quite a bit more money when you factor in the fact that you now have to also pay the tip out of pocket.
Just for fun, I did a hypothetical dinner at Coral Reef. This year, my hypothetical dinner would be a $7 appetizer, a $26 entree, an $8 dessert, and a non-alcoholic beverage. I don't know how much an iced tea is, but I figured $3. So I would have gotten $44 worth of food, and Disney would have paid the tip.
In 2008, I wouldn't get the appetizer, so I would only receive $37 worth of food, plus I'd pay an 18% gratuity, which would be $6.66. Loss of $7 appy + having to pay the tip myself =
$13.66 lost under DDP 2008.
The items I selected were middle-range appetizer, entree, and dessert. If I ate more expensively, I would lose more under the new system.
Another way to look at it is the $13.66 loss is
35% of the cost of the 2007 DDP ($13.66/$38.99). Looking at it that way, the $1 price reduction looks pretty puny.
All that said, DDP will still be a viable choice for some families, even though it is only a shadow of the former plan.
