Are WDW portions shrinking?

[SherylWrites]

I dont think its so much a issue of the portions shrinking as it is the average persons appetite is growing.

No offense intended to any of the above posters but America is fat and only getting fatter and so many restaurants are only making their portions larger and larger to draw in the crowds. America is a obese epidemic.

I'm not throwing stones as I have my own belly and I am working on cutting it, but on a whole we as a people are over eating WAY TO MUCH for our own good.

(feel free to flame me)

I couldn't agree more about the obesity epidemic. It's the same here in Canada. We rely too much on fast food, pre-packaged crapola and have the bodies to prove it.
When we were at Disney last fall, I found the portions to be HUGE. And I'm a good eater - especially after walking around the parks all day. We could never attempt dessert and always took it with us. We had six desserts sitting in our fridge that we ended up throwing away.
I appreciate that Disney gives more bang for your buck, but I felt really REALLY guilty throwing away so much food every day. It wasn't just the desserts, but the portions of meals that we couldn't finish or take with us that ended up in the garbage was awful. One that really sticks out in my mind was the skillet at Whispering Canyon. It was enough for three adults, let alone one. Such a waste!
If they are cutting back a bit on portion sizes, I don't see the harm at all. But when they raise prices on top of that and add an extra charge during peak times, that's just unfair.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Pay attention at home too, its an industry trend. Fridays and Ruby Tuesday's in particular advertise an entire "right size menu". We as Americans are too big, our kids are really at risk and the cost of food is skyrocketing (I pity those of you feeding teenage boys right now, just those daily gallons of milk ), so this is logical step.

That must be regional. I've left more than I ate at every place we've eaten out lately. I've not seen any change in portion size at the local mom & pop or chain restaurants.

 

[Katiebell]

Really interesting to see how polarized the opinions are -- Disney portions are either huge and almost too generous, or they are meager and not enough.

Lots of people in the past have said they couldn't possibly eat three courses, food went to waste, no one wants to carry leftovers through the parks, or the meals were so huge they could easily be shared. Looking at recent pics of Disney food -- like in MickeyNicki's great reviews -- the portions appear to be more than adequate. It would be interesting if someone posted pics of the tiny servings they have received, so there would be something to compare it to.

I do agree with the other posters about how we -- especially here in America -- don't really have a good estimation of what reasonable portion sizes are. Just as an example, one serving of soda is 12 oz -- the amount in a can. But we frequently order 24 oz, 36 oz, 48 oz, then get multiple refills It's quite an eye-opener to look at a package and find out the actual serving size is supposed to be

The most legitimate complaint I can see is getting charged as much or more for a lot less...but that's not just at Disney. $20 used to fill up my gas tank, now I'm lucky if that gives me half a tank It would be nice to see the price coming down if we are truly being given less, but...seriously folks...not likely to happen

 

[aribelle]

We (adult and two 12yos) shared quite a few meals, both CS and TS. We typically would order two CS meals and split things.....for TS we often would order an appetizer to share and two TS to split. Quite often when the girls told the server they wanted to share the TS meal they'd bring it on two plates for us and I'd add a little off my full TS meal to each shared plate...otherwise they'd bring a second plate and we'd do the sharing ourselves. When we did a buffet for late morning we could never do a big TS meal in the evening. I typically have only 1 TS meal scheduled a day, or else they're 6 hours or more apart so we are hungry.

I'd say we probably had a snack 3 or 4 times a week, but we also carried homemade trailmix in our fanny packs to nibble on. The bought snacks, honestly, weren't so much about hunger as they were about "I want to try that", and we often shared them.

I think a lot of it depends on what you're used to eating at home. We eat breakfast probably half the time...but it's usually something like a container of yogurt or toast with melted cheese on it, so high protein and keeps us full. We rarely do big breakfasts, and half the time we skip breakfast and do lunch before noon. But we also do dinner at 5-6pm when Daddy gets home, and I know that lots of people don't eat dinner until 8pm or so, so of course they're going to need more food.

It'll be interesting to compare in Nov/Dec since we're eating at many of the same places we ate at last time.

 

[Lehuaann]

Seems like I remember someone mention a while back that they (on DP) received a small meal portion however the next table over (paid OOP), ordered the exact same plate and had a noticable larger portion. Needless to say the DP guest was very upset. Could it be that the restaurants possibly instruct the chefs to differentiate (plate sizes) between OOP and DP orders?

Last Sept (DP/not FD) we found the meals sizes to be just enough to more than enough...it really depended on where we ate. For instance Le Cellier Filet looked very small however I was full after finishing smoothie, bread, soup, entree and dessert. Now at CRT Dinner; the Prime Rib of Beef was huge...and that included drink, bread, app, entree and dessert as well. Of course the app was included with DP last year. I am excited to try many new restaurants on the (FD upgrade DLXDP) next month~

 

[Disneyhappy]

Putting aside whether the portion sizes were too big, too small, or just right, we have definitely noticed a decrease in the portion sizes over the many years we have been visiting WDW. It became the most noticeble to us around the second year into the newest DDP. DH and I often shared an appy, entree and dessert before the onset of the DDP when most restuarants were still not that busy. When we did so, we often had a little bit of leftovers. While we can still share, the portions have been scaled down to the point that there are no leftovers and we were often left wanting. Our answer is that we now order our own entree but still share the appy and dessert. And believe me, it is not an illusion because our stomachs want to eat more. We compared photos of basically the same dishes when we first noticed the differences a couple of years ago. At the same time, we checked the prices and noticed that the prices went up at a higher percentage than the rate of inflation. Our assessment was that Disney raised the prices and lowered the portions because they could do so. The market allowed them to do so and they have a duty to their stockholders to make as much money as the market allows. As a consumer, we all have our options. While we still eat some meals onsite, we also choose to eat meals offsite, especially at Universal where the quality and quantity is more like WDW used to be. This is not a knock against WDW, just what I believe is our objective observation. We are still regular WDW visitors.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We noticed how small the portions were this year as compared with last year and the year before. We would always share entres and this year it was almost impossible to do that.

Last year we were at WDW twice once in Feb. and again in August for FD. In Feb I payed OOP for all the meals and sharing was not to tough. In Aug it was not an issue because of the DDP. This year we found ourselves in serveral conversations about how large the portions used to be. In fact my DH wanted to go and have dinner at CSR food court because he was wanting a bit more for his money and in the past he remembered how enormous their portions were. This year we were only able to share if we were planning on having dessert as well because the entre portions were about the same as what we eat at home. Our meals at home would fit on a lunch plate.

I don't really care that much about the portions getting smaller. What really bugs me is the crap that they offer on the kids menus and the lack of healthy options for everyone.