Cheese plate as an entree? I think I've seen everything, now! We were at CG a week or so ago (not on DDP). We ordered appetizers, entrees and then shared the cheese plate for our cheese course. We followed this with a shared dessert. The meal was wonderful and, I agree, the cheese course was to die for. However, it is a cheese course and nothing more. It is not and never could appropriately be called an entree.
It seems that the DDP is (i) causing some weird shuffling of things such that something that is clearly an appetizer or dessert is suddenly an entree and (ii) losing value rapidly with such shuffling.
If DH and I had paid for DDP, we'd have had to forego the approx. $100 per night AP discount we got on our room. That's $700 right there. Plus, we'd pay approx. $40 per person per day for DDP. That's $560.
So, 7 days of DDP could be said to cost us about $1200. Even if you take the conservative $80 per day, I'm not sure I'm seeing the bargain.
For CG, we'd have to use two TS credits, so call it $160 (minus the cost of 2 days' worth of snacks $10 or so total and CS $30 or so total). $160-40 = $120.
For our CG dinner, we also had two glasses of pinot noir, followed by a 1/2 bottle of a lovely French Red. We also had one spiked coffee and one port. None of that would be included.
Now, if we'd had to purchase our sushi appetizer (approx. $20) plus our cheese plate (approx. $16), we'd take the $120 and add $36 plus tip and tax for that so $50. Now we've paid about $170 for our dinner for two.
With wine and alcohol and a very generous tip for our excellent waiter, our dinner (using the DDE experience) came to $225. The wines and alcohol were at least $70 alone.
Frankly, we did better buying our meal OOP using DDE than we'd have done with the DDP, given the current menu and categorization of things like the cheese plate as an entree. And, we did better paying OOP even if you don't take into account the we'd have had to pay rack rate for our room had we purchased DDP!!
One thing is for sure -- WDW introduced the DDP with great fanfare and has made it appear to be a great value. But, they are systematically chipping away at everything that made it a great value. Perhaps that was always the plan? Get people hooked on it by making it a loss leader, and then systematically make changes to menus (including kids' menus) until the DDP price is in line with the food/service cost! Certainly seems to be the approach.
In any event, a cheese plate (even a fabulous one!) does not an entree make. And, making the cheese plate an entree cannot with a straight face be called a "seasonal change"!
