Back from WDW - Dining Plan - impressions - second post

[disneymom2one]

We were a family of three - 2 adults and our daughter who is 11. We are very frequent WDW visitors (three or four trips each year) and also DVC members. Each year we take an extended trip in December. It's usually our favorite trip of the year. This year we were at WDW from December 14-22. It was our first time on the DDP and we loved it!

A few comments:

1) We shared at almost every meal (two meals for the three of us). With an eleven year old considered an adult it was just necessary and in fact the only way the Dining Plan makes sense for our family. We had to firmly state that we wanted to share at a couple of places but for the most part every place understood and cooperated. Sometimes they gave us extra plates but mostly we just used an appetizer plate.

2) Food quality has most certainly declined due to the Dining Plan BUT the food is still really, really good. Most notable was the similiarity among restaurants - the food at Olivia's, Kona, and Concourse was extremely similiar.

3) Service has also declined in my opinion. At most places our entire order (apps, entrees, and sometimes even desserts) was taken at once. This was wierd and hard to get used to but it was fine. The servers for the most part didn't seem quite as happy as in previous trips. Again though, it really wasn't a big deal.

4) The signage on the QS and snack places could have been a lot better. You really had to constantly ask to know what you could and could not order. WDW could make things a lot clearer in my opinion. We just got used to speaking up.

5) Even with all that the Dining Plan totally rocks and we won't vacation without it (unless they prohibit sharing). We loved the freedom. With an eleven year old battles are part of life and it was so nice to sit down and just let her order what she wanted without regard to price, her mood, etc. It was wonderful. And we had some great meals at places we had never visited before.

The bottom line? The DDP is part of life at WDW and we're glad. Dining at WDW has dramatically changed but we believe the positives outweigh the negatives. I'll post reviews on the review board (NOTE: reviews are up now) some time but we really, really are glad we did the DDP and will do it again for our spring break trip.

 

[bicker]

The bottom line? The DDP is part of life at WDW and we're glad. Dining at WDW has dramatically changed but we believe the positives outweigh the negatives.

Thanks for the summary!

 

[Lesleyluvsdisney]

I am inclined to agree regarding the quality of food and standard of service.

We went on our 7th WDW trip in September last year, and bought the DDP, as we felt that because we are usually there for 15-17 nights, and dont take car hire, we do ALL our eating and drinking in WDW, most of our money goes on food. I really hope it's here to stay, the only problem when they give it free it is way too busy!

I'm not entirely sure whether the servers actually get all the gratuities that is printed on your receipt as they never seem very happy and a bit annoyed! On several occasions we ended up leaving an extra $5-10 if the service was good.

 

[jodifla]

We were a family of three - 2 adults and our daughter who is 11. We are very frequent WDW visitors (three or four trips each year) and also DVC members. Each year we take an extended trip in December. It's usually our favorite trip of the year. This year we were at WDW from December 14-22. It was our first time on the DDP and we loved it!

A few comments:

1) We shared at almost every meal (two meals for the three of us). With an eleven year old considered an adult it was just necessary and in fact the only way the Dining Plan makes sense for our family. We had to firmly state that we wanted to share at a couple of places but for the most part every place understood and cooperated. Sometimes they gave us extra plates but mostly we just used an appetizer plate.

2) Food quality has most certainly declined due to the Dining Plan BUT the food is still really, really good. Most notable was the similiarity among restaurants - the food at Olivia's, Kona, and Concourse was extremely similiar.

3) Service has also declined in my opinion. At most places our entire order (apps, entrees, and sometimes even desserts) was taken at once. This was wierd and hard to get used to but it was fine. The servers for the most part didn't seem quite as happy as in previous trips. Again though, it really wasn't a big deal.

4) The signage on the QS and snack places could have been a lot better. You really had to constantly ask to know what you could and could not order. WDW could make things a lot clearer in my opinion. We just got used to speaking up.

5) Even with all that the Dining Plan totally rocks and we won't vacation without it (unless they prohibit sharing). We loved the freedom. With an eleven year old battles are part of life and it was so nice to sit down and just let her order what she wanted without regard to price, her mood, etc. It was wonderful. And we had some great meals at places we had never visited before.

The bottom line? The DDP is part of life at WDW and we're glad. Dining at WDW has dramatically changed but we believe the positives outweigh the negatives. I'll post reviews on the review board some time but we really, really are glad we did the DDP and will do it again for our spring break trip.

I find it amazing that you say that everything has declined, and you're OK with that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[GC&S]

Sounds like everything worked out for you, despite noticing some of the declines. We had several waiters ask us for our app and entree order at the same time, but never dessert. If we weren't ready to order our entree, it was no biggie, they took the order when they brought the apps. Several times we ordered both at the same time because we were ready. No big deal.

Thanks for your review and comments!

 

[bicker]

FWIR, for most satisfied guests, it is the advantage of having everything paid-for in advance is a strong point. Also, being free to order practically anything on the menu you want gives a lot of people the flexibility to try new things. Finally, many satisfied guests note a comparative price-savings over the alternatives that make the Dining Plan a real winner for them. Beyond that, the actual significant concerns that the OP noted (except #4) were generic, pertaining to dining at WDW, in general, rather than being in any way specific to the Dining Plan.

 

[disneymom2one]

I find it amazing that you say that everything has declined, and you're OK with that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know Jodi ... I lost my father a year ago. He was a Katrina evacuee and he died suddenly while living with my family during the aftermath of the storm. We couldn't even have his funeral for two months and when we did 75% of the people at his funeral had lost everything due to that horrible storm. We had his funeral in November and then one month later I lost my second mother, also a Katrina evacuee. To be honest, I don't even know where she's buried. She died 3,000 miles away from the only home she knew.

My point is that what I find "amazing" is that you don't seem to get just how incredibly blessed we are to be able to visit Disney (many of us multiple times). Why focus on the negatives? We had an absolutely amazing time and can't wait to go back again and again and again. The point of my post was that it's _still_ Disney. And in the end, the minor changes just really didn't matter because we focused on just how incredibly blessed we felt to even be there. The restaurants still had great food. The servers still did their job (and some were great). We had some fantastic meals. The dining plan was a super deal. And we were at Disney. And that is "amazing" enough for me.

 

[jodifla]

You know Jodi ... I lost my father a year ago. He was a Katrina evacuee and he died suddenly while living with my family during the aftermath of the storm. We couldn't even have his funeral for two months and when we did 75% of the people at his funeral had lost everything due to that horrible storm. We had his funeral in November and then one month later I lost my second mother, also a Katrina evacuee. To be honest, I don't even know where she's buried. She died 3,000 miles away from the only home she knew.

My point is that what I find "amazing" is that you don't seem to get just how incredibly blessed we are to be able to visit Disney (many of us multiple times). Why focus on the negatives? We had an absolutely amazing time and can't wait to go back again and again and again. The point of my post was that it's _still_ Disney. And in the end, the minor changes just really didn't matter because we focused on just how incredibly blessed we felt to even be there. The restaurants still had great food. The servers still did their job (and some were great). We had some fantastic meals. The dining plan was a super deal. And we were at Disney. And that is "amazing" enough for me.

Sorry, but I don't see how things things tie together at all.

Worse dining selections, food quality and worse service is worse...period.

WDW shouldn't have to rely on family calamities to make their dining experience look good in comparison.

YOU deserve better. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Not glad that the DDP is bringing the dining experience back to the bad old days I remember so well.

 

[Lucky'sMom]

Beautifully said, Disney Mom. Perspective is everything.

 

[chilis]

We were a family of three - 2 adults and our daughter who is 11. We are very frequent WDW visitors (three or four trips each year) and also DVC members. Each year we take an extended trip in December. It's usually our favorite trip of the year. This year we were at WDW from December 14-22. It was our first time on the DDP and we loved it!

A few comments:

1) We shared at almost every meal (two meals for the three of us). With an eleven year old considered an adult it was just necessary and in fact the only way the Dining Plan makes sense for our family. We had to firmly state that we wanted to share at a couple of places but for the most part every place understood and cooperated. Sometimes they gave us extra plates but mostly we just used an appetizer plate.

2) Food quality has most certainly declined due to the Dining Plan BUT the food is still really, really good. Most notable was the similiarity among restaurants - the food at Olivia's, Kona, and Concourse was extremely similiar.

3) Service has also declined in my opinion. At most places our entire order (apps, entrees, and sometimes even desserts) was taken at once. This was wierd and hard to get used to but it was fine. The servers for the most part didn't seem quite as happy as in previous trips. Again though, it really wasn't a big deal.

4) The signage on the QS and snack places could have been a lot better. You really had to constantly ask to know what you could and could not order. WDW could make things a lot clearer in my opinion. We just got used to speaking up.

5) Even with all that the Dining Plan totally rocks and we won't vacation without it (unless they prohibit sharing). We loved the freedom. With an eleven year old battles are part of life and it was so nice to sit down and just let her order what she wanted without regard to price, her mood, etc. It was wonderful. And we had some great meals at places we had never visited before.

The bottom line? The DDP is part of life at WDW and we're glad. Dining at WDW has dramatically changed but we believe the positives outweigh the negatives. I'll post reviews on the review board some time but we really, really are glad we did the DDP and will do it again for our spring break trip.

I'm just curious, you say that the 3 of you shared 2 meals most of the time...I thought you had to purchase the dining plan for everyone in your group. Did you just not use a portion of your dining credits or only pay for 2 people?

I am only asking because we are also a family of 3 (dd is only 7 though.) Anyway, my husband and I split entrees all the time and usually our daughter just picks off of our plates. It would be nice to only order 1 adult meal and
save the extra TS meals for the character meals that only my daughter and I will be attending. Does that make sense?!?! I certainly don't mind paying for all of us to utilize the plan, I just want to make the most of it as possible.

 

[disneymom2one]

I'm just curious, you say that the 3 of you shared 2 meals most of the time...I thought you had to purchase the dining plan for everyone in your group. Did you just not use a portion of your dining credits or only pay for 2 people?

I am only asking because we are also a family of 3 (dd is only 7 though.) Anyway, my husband and I split entrees all the time and usually our daughter just picks off of our plates. It would be nice to only order 1 adult meal and
save the extra TS meals for the character meals that only my daughter and I will be attending. Does that make sense?!?! I certainly don't mind paying for all of us to utilize the plan, I just want to make the most of it as possible.

No ... we purchased the DDP for all three of us. But we just used two credits at most meals - like Kona for example. Two apps, two entrees, and two desserts (plus the bread at most meals) was more than enough for the three of us. In fact, we usually had to have desserts boxed up. This worked for us for several reasons. First, my daughter has a great appreciation for good food and will eat almost anything. Secondly, we eat healthy or reasonably so at home. So we're used to watching what we eat and not eating huge portions of food. I also never serve dessert with meals so we're not big on that either. This just made it easy to share. Also because she was an "adult" on the plan we felt like we weren't doing anything wrong. The third credit would have been a complete waste. We did use that credit obviously - at a different meal. But there were no child credits to deal with so it wasn't "cheating." We also shared at some but not all counter service places. It was easy to share because we actually do this at home too. My eleven year old won't go near most "kids meals" but doesn't need a full entree when we go out. So she's used to sharing. We all took turns choosing what we would order. I love crabcakes so we made sure to have those a couple of times. My husband loves a good rare steak and we made sure to order that for him. But really ... it was easy. And we rarely paid OOP for anything. My dh likes ice water for drinks anyway so we didn't even order an extra drink at most places. I'll be really unhappy if they ever outlaw sharing because we would do it whether on the DDP or not. It just makes sense.

 

[Sammie]

I'm just curious, you say that the 3 of you shared 2 meals most of the time...I thought you had to purchase the dining plan for everyone in your group. Did you just not use a portion of your dining credits or only pay for 2 people?

I am only asking because we are also a family of 3 (dd is only 7 though.) Anyway, my husband and I split entrees all the time and usually our daughter just picks off of our plates. It would be nice to only order 1 adult meal and
save the extra TS meals for the character meals that only my daughter and I will be attending. Does that make sense?!?! I certainly don't mind paying for all of us to utilize the plan, I just want to make the most of it as possible.

You will have to purchase the plan for everyone in your family group, but when you get ready to order, not everyone has to order. That is what the OP did.

The main changes to the plan are no adult can order an adult meal and use a child's credit and no feeding others that are not on the plan. Other than that you can use your meals as you wish.

At any given meal you could order 2 adult meals and one child, or one adult meal and one child and possibly even just one adult meal. What they have stopped is someone with your family makeup ordering 3 adult meals at the same time.

Hope that helps.

 

[disneymom2one]

More about sharing ...

My favorite place to share was the Main Street Bakery. We did this twice for breakfast. For one CS credit you could get 1 drink plus two items. So for 2 CS, I got a chocolate milk, a diet coke, two french toast loaves, and two breakfast croissants. We took the food to go to a quiet table in Frontierland one morning and relazed. It was more than enough food for the three of us and was so good!

We had a harder time sharing at CS for lunch. If we did that we would sometimes buy either a kids meal or an extra something - like mac n cheese. That made the two CS stretch just far enough. Usually though we just used three credits for lunch.

It was super easy to share at TS and we did it everywhere except at places where we couldn't - buffets and preplated.

We ended up leaving only two TS credits on the table and only because we left a little earlier than planned due to a bad storm coming through on our way home. We did very little OOP and I also didn't bring much food at all to keep in the studio. Just bottled water and some juice and a few crackers. Usually I pack an entire bin with food for the room but there was no need this time. We used our snack credits whenever we wanted and then used the last eight at Goofy's on our last day.

Also ... one last hint. I'm a bit of a germ worrier and nothing bugs me more than unwrapped plastic silverware. So I routinely save the wrapped silverware from takeout at home and then bring it to WDW. I keep a few in the backpack and a much happier person when I come across silverware that has obviously been touched by way too many people. A little strange but this worked for us.

 

[chilis]

Thanks for the info. I have already booked the DDP for the 3 of us and we are really looking forward to it. DD wants to do several character breakfasts and DH is not interested in going with us. I figured when we actually did TS dinners, DH and I would share and we would pay OOP for DD (or just let her snack before dinner ) thus saving 1 adult TS and 1 child TS for our breakfast.

 

[Sammie]

I for one can certainly understand the OP's point of view on this. Whether things have declined or changed is what I prefer to call it, not everyone thinks the changes or even the decline is horrible. They still enjoy the food and they enjoy the experience. They prefer to dwell on that, instead of dwelling on the negative.

Many do not find the changes to be so radical as to completely ruin the experience. In fact to me the changes are barely noticeable and if I had not read about some of the changes here, would have never noticed.

As to service decline, I would have to wonder if that is not true in large part to the time of year the OP went. The holidays this year were particularly busy and they don't have their summer/college staff to help out.

I am not convinced the changes to the menus are totally to blame on the DDP, but even if they are the good of the DDP outweighs the bad for the majority of guests. It also allows many families to experience restaurants they would never have been able to before it. I for one think that is a good thing.

 

[inky dinky doo]

Hugs, {{{disneymom2one}}}. I love your spirit and enjoyed your review. We felt the same way after our visit this December. I don't think I'll use the dining plan this Oct/Nov, though. It will be just my 8-year-old grandson and myself, and he's at that in between age -- too big for a normal 'kids' meal, too little for an adult meal of his own. I think we'll just order from the menu, this time. I hope they still have the dining plan the next time our whole group goes, though. I like having everything paid for and not having to think about who orders what.

Pat

292 days and counting . . . again!

 

[The Sweetness]

I , for one, can agree with the OPs opinion that even though there were notable declines in selections (understandable) and service( there would have to be, with so many more diners), that she was still pleased with the dining experiences she had in general. Maybe she is familiar with the choices at other family destinations and feels that WDW is on par with, or superior to US, 6 flags, Sea World, or wherever else she and her fam have had similar experiences. Its been too long since Ive been for me too comment. On top of that, on my prior dozen or so trips to WDW, I didnt have TS every day. Maybe one every other. It just wasnt in the budget, and with the DDp, we (and many others I imagine) can make it work.

 

[bicker]

I , for one, can agree with the OPs opinion that even though there were notable declines in selections (understandable) and service( there would have to be, with so many more diners), that she was still pleased with the dining experiences she had in general. Maybe she is familiar with the choices at other family destinations and feels that WDW is on par with, or superior to US, 6 flags, Sea World, or wherever else she and her fam have had similar experiences.

That's really it, I think. Comparing past to present is kind of an empty gesture -- folks can't travel to the past. And comparing WDW to places that folks can travel to (Six Flags, Sea World, etc.), well, WDW is simply superior. That's what people need to know.

 

[ElizabethB]

People aren't trying to "travel to the past". They are simply saying the food and service used to be better. That's not an empty gesture, it's fair criticism.

Looking back to when food and service were better is a valid means of coming to the conclusion that Disney could do a better job with food and service now if they wanted to. But, they don't.

No doubt, they see no reason to try if everyone returns and reports, "the food and service weren't as good as they used to be, but they were adequate -- and we're so pleased that we didn't die while we were there that we are thankful for what we got." Good grief. With thinking like that, if I were Disney, I wouldn't bother to improve food and service either!

And trust me, when I think of places I can travel to, Sea World and Six Flags don't come to mind! I have to consider carefully whether a trip to WDW compares cuisine-wise with other places I would actually travel to (Paris, e.g.) or if it even compares to staying home in NYC and eating here. When food and service decline, staying home (at least for NYers) is quite attractive!

 

[La2kw]

People aren't trying to "travel to the past". They are simply saying the food and service used to be better. That's not an empty gesture, it's fair criticism.

Looking back to when food and service were better is a valid means of coming to the conclusion that Disney could do a better job with food and service now if they wanted to. But, they don't.

No doubt, they see no reason to try if everyone returns and reports, "the food and service weren't as good as they used to be, but they were adequate -- and we're so pleased that we didn't die while we were there that we are thankful for what we got." Good grief. With thinking like that, if I were Disney, I wouldn't bother to improve food and service either!

And trust me, when I think of places I can travel to, Sea World and Six Flags don't come to mind! I have to consider carefully whether a trip to WDW compares cuisine-wise with other places I would actually travel to (Paris, e.g.) or if it even compares to staying home in NYC and eating here. When food and service decline, staying home (at least for NYers) is quite attractive!

I agree. Disney can do so much better. Problem is, too many people are willing to accept less and less. Disney has little incentive to improve.