Completely disappointed in the DDP...

[troyseyfert]

So my wife and I were completely disappointed to see the new rates for 2012 for the dining plan.

My wife and I usually go for free dining in Aug/Sept...well, we are reconsidering what we are going to do because of the huge difference in the price between quick service and regular dining plans.

For the last several years, it's been $10-$11/day per person to upgrade to the regular dining plan from the quick service dining plan...now, they are asking $16/day per person???????? What??? That means I would be paying $32/day (plus tip) for my "free" dining? It's ridiculous!

Yeah....not such a great deal, especially when you get no discounts on room rates...and the quick service dining plan (for the value resorts which is where we usually stay) is not that great, especially when you've been spoiled with the regular dining plan for so long (c'mon, many of you know what I'm talking about).

Anyways, had to vent....anyone else feel this way too? Share your thoughts

 

[julirina]

I completely understand where you're coming from. We did FD in 2008 when a Value stay still included the DDP. Now that we're a family of 6, our options for where to stay are limited to an ASMu family suite, a FW cabin or offsite. If we opt for the suite (which is outrageously expensive at rack rate for 520sq ft and only one real bed), we would have to pay nearly $400 more to upgrade from QSDP to DDP for the week! Plus, with 6 ppl at each meal (even though one is a baby and won't eat), we'd have the added expense of the automatic 18% gratuity. Even with "free" dining, we can stay offsite in a 4BR townhouse at a savings of nearly $800 (and that's before the upgrade from QSDP to DDP), have much more room, and be able to save on meals/snacks as we'll have a full kitchen. That leaves us with a lot of wiggle room for buying some nice TS meals OOP.

I always thought the people that questioned the value of FD were just sticks-in-the-mud, but the reality of the numbers just didn't make sense for us this time. I think Disney has really made FD work for their bottom line over the years, and I don't blame them -- it's what makes things like the Fantasyland expansion possible even in a crummy economy -- I'm just thankful I did the math and saw that "free" doesn't always mean "costs less" in the wonderful world of Disney.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We have quick service included (notice I did not say free, as you have to give up the room only discount to get it!) on our upcoming stay and agree with you...for us the price difference to upgrade is $15 per person, plus gratuity on the price of the meal making it probably around $45 to $50 or more, and that gets you one table service meal. We re sticking with the counter service and are trying to maximize it based on recommended dining spots that folks have said are a better value.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

The TIW card is a nice alternative for the very reasons you've discussed here. DDP is NOT a deal in most cases. The only thing it's done is ruin the majority of the dining experiences at WDW as far as we are concerned.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We also made the decision this year to forgo the DDP as I just could not get the numbers to work. We chose to take the room discount for our spring stay and so would have to pay for any dining plan. I could justify the 300.00 for the upgrade from QS to DDP but could just not justify the actual cost of the QS plan to begin with. I know many on here get bent out of shape if you criticize Disney but I just do not think the Dining plan is that great of a value at this particular time for our family.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

The DDP hadn't made sense for us for the past several trips and so I hadn't really been paying attention to the cost. I had a bit of sticker shock when I looked at the prices for 2012. But in the I did add it to our package because we're doing a bunch of fixed price meals (Biergarten, 'Ohana, Akershus, etc.) and so it made sense. Most of the savings I think comes from what we save on DD, who is still at the kid rate.

ETA, I also moved the start of our trip by one day later when the DDP rates go back down from the holiday/Easter rates.

 

[icc2515]

I am very confused here. You are upset because the free dining is costing you something. The free dining is not costing you a thing. You want to upgrade, no one is forcing you.

Then you go on the say that you feel that the free dining is not such a great deal since you get no room discount and you usually stay at the value resort. I just checked and 6 nights starting on Sept 1 at the Music is $607. I might be wrong on this one but isn't the All Stars discount usually only 20% so that would be a savings of $120. Now for the same time counter serve dining would cost you $420 for 2 adults. Sounds like free dining is a pretty good deal. Now lets say you want to eat at 'Ohana or a character meal every night. Is it worth to you $16 per person? I think $16 is a good deal since a TS will cost you OOP $30 and up with dessert and drink. Remember it is free, free free free. You are not paying for it. If you don't think it is a value, take the $120 room discount. My family has to go during the summer and we gladly fork over $$$ for the DP. We think we save money with it.

I am not trying to sound harsh, but it really bothers me when somebody gets something for free and then complains about it. A lot of people think they are entitled to free dining. Disney would like nothing more than to completely do away with this free dining promotion. Once they feel they can fill the rooms without free dining, it will be gone. I would not be surprised if they test out half priced dining in the future.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

PP nothing is free. Disney is not doing away with "free" dining because it generates income for them and their staff. The room only discount is not as attractive at first glance because you appear to be getting more of a discount with the "Free" dining because they charge so very much for the dining plan that seeing you are getting a 800.00 dining plan (the price for our family to get reg DDP OOP)"free" seems like a better deal than getting 120.00 of your room (more for us because we are staying POLY). Well that may be if your family actually eats 3 meals a day and 1 snack and everybody eats every meal unlike with my 3 year old who will eat sometimes and not others. Did you ever intend to eat 800.00 in food (the number for our family to pay for DDP) That is the real question of whether "free" dining is better or room discount. For us paying rack rate to get "free" dining and then paying even more to upgrade to reg dining to cover the actual meals we want (character meals) did not make sense mathematically. Anyways if you use critical thinking you would see that your savings is artificially generated by Disney because they can put any price they want on the dining plan and then tell you your are getting a good deal because now it is "free". Sort of along the lines of JCP over inflating their prices and then slashing the prices with sales and coupons and never having had the intention in the first place to ever charge full price.

 

[icc2515]

PP For us paying rack rate to get "free" dining and then paying even more to upgrade to reg dining to cover the actual meals we want (character meals) did not make sense mathematically.

Why would you have to pay to upgrade your dining. If you are staying at the Poly you already get the reg dining plan (1CS and 1TS per day).

 

[TDC Nala]

Why would you have to pay to upgrade your dining. If you are staying at the Poly you already get the reg dining plan (1CS and 1TS per day).

They may be speaking in general at that point about how they'd feel in the OP's place and not specifically about their Polynesian stay.

Depending on the amount of room discount offered, staying in a deluxe, even the regular dining plan "free" may not be a better deal than just taking the room discount.

And the original poster seemed to make it very clear that he didn't want the quick service dining no matter how big the discount is, he wants the regular dining, and he feels he's been priced out of the upgrade. Another poster comes along who doesn't understand how he feels that way, but it's his money and he knows what dining choices he wishes to make, and there's no reason he shouldn't feel that way. He could price out upgrading to a moderate resort to get the "free" regular dining though, unless he is considering using one of the recent PIN codes.

I do not agree that Disney wants to do away with the free dining promotion. If they wanted to do away with it, they'd do away with it. They're tweaking it to see how much it can fill rooms that would otherwise go unbooked (which is its only function, and one at which it is extremely successful) and still be more compatible with their bottom line.

 

[troyseyfert]

I am very confused here. You are upset because the free dining is costing you something. The free dining is not costing you a thing. You want to upgrade, no one is forcing you.

Then you go on the say that you feel that the free dining is not such a great deal since you get no room discount and you usually stay at the value resort. I just checked and 6 nights starting on Sept 1 at the Music is $607. I might be wrong on this one but isn't the All Stars discount usually only 20% so that would be a savings of $120. Now for the same time counter serve dining would cost you $420 for 2 adults. Sounds like free dining is a pretty good deal. Now lets say you want to eat at 'Ohana or a character meal every night. Is it worth to you $16 per person? I think $16 is a good deal since a TS will cost you OOP $30 and up with dessert and drink. Remember it is free, free free free. You are not paying for it. If you don't think it is a value, take the $120 room discount. My family has to go during the summer and we gladly fork over $$$ for the DP. We think we save money with it.

I am not trying to sound harsh, but it really bothers me when somebody gets something for free and then complains about it. A lot of people think they are entitled to free dining. Disney would like nothing more than to completely do away with this free dining promotion. Once they feel they can fill the rooms without free dining, it will be gone. I would not be surprised if they test out half priced dining in the future.

ICC....I do not think you understand what I am trying to say...
#1: Regular DDP used to be included with ALL resorts (including value) for at least 3-5 years....so, value was the way to go.

#2: So, Disney then decided to only give Regular DDP to Moderate and Deluxe resorts...and come up with a quick service plan for values...but, if you want to upgrade, it would only cost you about $10/day per person...still a great deal!

#3: Now, they upped it about $5/day per person in the course of a year...I find that to be a HUGE jump...also, the DDP is not as great of a deal as you think...I do not eat dessert for every meal....I also could split meals with my wife...I could also split drinks at a lot of the counter services and also order water to drink at many restaurants...when you take everything into account, the DDP is not that great of a deal (especially if people are paying $45-46 day for it).

I AM NOT complaining about what you were talking about above. I'm complaining because they have significantly increased everything over the course of this past year...plus, it now costs close to $100 for one day to go to all the theme parks????? Crazy!!!!!

Also, you did sound harsh in your response and tried to make me feel stupid when you don't understand where I was coming from. I am on a budget and do feel that Disney is not making that great of deals for their hurricane seasons anymore. They will ALWAYS have deals during hurricane season, just like cruises do as well. It's the way it goes...I just wonder when people will quit spending because the prices will be absolutely ridiculous!

Now do you understand? I am not complaining about not getting something for free...I want to upgrade....but when they manipulate the upgrade to make it feel like you're not getting that great of a discount, it's not worth it. There's a huge difference between the quick service and the regular dining plan...you just can't be satisfied with just quick service when you were used to the regular dining plan. But, to make the cost go up so dramatically in a year is uncalled for.

There...now I'm done....and I don't want any more feuding from anyone else on here...this is supposed to be uplifting, not harsh or being disrespectful of someone else's opinion.

 

[DisGirl1971]

I completely understand where you're coming from. We did FD in 2008 when a Value stay still included the DDP. Now that we're a family of 6, our options for where to stay are limited to an ASMu family suite, a FW cabin or offsite. If we opt for the suite (which is outrageously expensive at rack rate for 520sq ft and only one real bed), we would have to pay nearly $400 more to upgrade from QSDP to DDP for the week! Plus, with 6 ppl at each meal (even though one is a baby and won't eat), we'd have the added expense of the automatic 18% gratuity. Even with "free" dining, we can stay offsite in a 4BR townhouse at a savings of nearly $800 (and that's before the upgrade from QSDP to DDP), have much more room, and be able to save on meals/snacks as we'll have a full kitchen. That leaves us with a lot of wiggle room for buying some nice TS meals OOP.

I always thought the people that questioned the value of FD were just sticks-in-the-mud, but the reality of the numbers just didn't make sense for us this time. I think Disney has really made FD work for their bottom line over the years, and I don't blame them -- it's what makes things like the Fantasyland expansion possible even in a crummy economy -- I'm just thankful I did the math and saw that "free" doesn't always mean "costs less" in the wonderful world of Disney.

Those really aren't your only resort options. We are a family of 7 and usually get 2 connecting rooms at a value resort and now plan all of our annual trips around free dining promotions. Dining Plan or not, we are always going to eat at least 1 table service/character meal per day and I'm not going to cook on vacation, so as long as there is free dining, even if we have to pay the upgrade cost, it's still cheaper for us to stay on-site.

 

[DisGirl1971]

There...now I'm done....and I don't want any more feuding from anyone else on here...this is supposed to be uplifting, not harsh or being disrespectful of someone else's opinion.

Actually, that's pretty unrealistic. You can look on here, or any other Disney planning board, and the minute someone posts that the DDP is not a value and Free Dining isn't really "free" you are goint to have a hot topic with A LOT of controversy. There's probably one nasty thread per week on this board on this very subject.

 

[DisGirl1971]

The TIW card is a nice alternative for the very reasons you've discussed here. DDP is NOT a deal in most cases. The only thing it's done is ruin the majority of the dining experiences at WDW as far as we are concerned.

The Table In Wonderland card can only be purchased if you are an annual pass holders. Most of population that visits Disney World or visits these boards are not annual pass holders and can not use a TIW card.

 

[TDC Nala]

And this is enough. I don't have a problem with anybody saying they don't think the dining plan is a good deal and I don't think anybody needs to attack them for thinking that way. I also don't have a problem with anybody saying the dining plan isn't really free because once you do the math sometimes getting something for "free" doesn't work out the way you think it's going to. Helping them to see why you think it's still a great deal is fine. But arguing and attacking the people who dare to say they feel that way is against board guidelines.

And I don't see why anyone should think they're going to get exactly the same great discount year after year, since Disney's been tweaking the discounting all this time to make it a better proposition for THEM, but it's okay to be disappointed about it and I don't see where the OP did any attacking of anyone in the first post (except maybe Disney and they're not posting here), although the discussion does look to be going that way now.

The Table In Wonderland card can only be purchased if you are an annual pass holders.

Annual passholders, Florida residents, and DVC members.

 

[Huff]

The TIW card is a nice alternative for the very reasons you've discussed here. DDP is NOT a deal in most cases. The only thing it's done is ruin the majority of the dining experiences at WDW as far as we are concerned.

TIW is only available to FL locals or AP'ers so not an option for most and for me as an AP'er its $75. With TIW, DDP or Free DDP our total trip costs have gone up considerably since just a couple years ago. Rack rates for Values in the summer are now $159+!! DDP is over $50, ticket prices have gone way up. Simply put, we're not able to go to WDW as often nor for as many days each time. We're forced to find other venues to vacation lately. The days of inexpensive Value stays with free dining or other decent values is about over.