Anyone else completely priced out of the buffets at Disney now?

SL6827

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
So has anyone else pretty much been priced out of buffets at Disney? We are completely. I was thinking about doing a breakfast at Trails End in December if we go but with the recent price increases, we are done. And I do hate it, because the one that we love the most was breakfast at Bomas. That is now what $30 per adult. We just won't do buffet meals any longer. When it cost $100-$120 just for a family of three or four to eat breakfast, we are done.
 
Not completely, but the character meals are definitely out for us for the time being. Just...no. I will still do Boma because I feel the food quality and selection makes it a more valuable meal, but that might be the only AYCTE in our future for quite some time.
 


This is us.

I'm going down with DD12 next week. I make a breakfast character meal and then I cancel it within 5 minutes. LOL I've done this about 10 times in the last 6 months. I would like to do one but $100 for breakfast??? I can't do it. I just can't.

I booked Biergarten for lunch before the huge price increase was announced. Still haven’t decided if we are keeping it.
 


Priced out? No
Unwilling to pay the insane prices? Yes
Exactly. They are way overpriced. I’m good with expensive if the experience warrents it. The prices have gotten just insane. We are just back from a 2 week trip. We nixed breakfast out because of the crazy prices. I cooked, we opened a bottle of champagne and ate on the screened in porch overlooking the lake at our offsite 1200 square foot villa.
 
I'm not a fan of most buffets anywhere so the recent price increases really aren't affecting me.
That being said, the one semi buffet meal, at Disney, that I like is at CG's (wuvved Narcoossee's too. Sniffle). After eating there late morning/early afternoon, I justify the price in part by the reality that dinner will be later than normal (if at all) and fairly light in cost and food quantities. Errrrrr also because it's just that good, LOL.
 
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The buffets & character meals are not worth it for us at this point.
They are expensive & we don’t eat enough to justify the cost. My kids are teens/young adults now, so character meals are not a “must do” right now.
I do look forward to the future when this might change if & when grandkids are in the picture!
I wish the restaurants that do the buffet character meals had a separate, dedicated area for people that would like to try the restaurant but don’t need the character interaction.
For example, Crystal Palace holds a lot of memories for me because we went there when my dad was alive, but we haven’t been for many years because it’s a buffet.
 
I do some, but often I just don't feel like eating that much at one time. I'm more of a grazer, I'd rather have a normal meal and then a few snacks. I don't think I'm priced out, but I also don't think some of the buffets are worth it. Unless they have unique items on the menu, it's not worth my time or my $$$, I'd rather pick things from all different menus as I go through the parks.
 
I have no idea what the prices on the menus are...we save for our trips and then eat what and where we want, price be darned.

We do too, but I cannot help but look at the prices. I will say that for my family, this is one reason we generally purchase a dining plan. We want character meals, and we like many of the more expensive dinign experiences, so having the plan in place for us makes the meals cost easier to accept. It is paid, and it was factored into the total price of the trip. But yikes! The costs have skyrocketed lately.
 
As a Canadian factoring in the exchange rate, there is just no way the cost is worth the experience for us anymore. We have taken 10+ trips (have stopped counting) since 2008 and dining has always been a huge part of our trips. We've done the deluxe dining plan, the regular dining plan and never have we eaten at less than one TS per day.

On our upcoming trip, we have no TS booked. We have noticed a decline in quality while prices have increased. I'm okay with an expensive meal if I left feeling like it was worth it. I'm not okay with spending $170 Canadian on dinner for two at 'Ohana when I'm really only going for potstickers and bread pudding. I'm not okay with spending $115 Canadian on dinner for two at Trail's End for some fried chicken and strawberry shortcake. And I'm certainly not okay with spending 6.20 Canadian on a fountain drink - this will be the first trip ever we bring our S'Well water bottles.

Will our upcoming December trip still be "worth it" to us without having the unique dining experiences that have always been central to our trip? I honestly don't know. I'm not sure when we'll plan another trip.
 

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