We would happily pay more for good cookies with chocolate. But, that isn't an option. To accommodate the two snack credits for everybody on the DDP, the snack options have been cut back, reduced or eliminated.
The basic DDP only allows one snack a day.
We have been buying the chocolate cookie ice cream sandwiches in Sleepy Hollow for over 30 years. They have been consistently good with lots of yummy chocolate for 28 or so of those years. Of course, the price went up continually over those years, but at least the quality remained consistent. Only in the last couple of years did we see a noticable decline in the amount of chocolate, such that we don't even bother buying them anymore. I would so much rather see $1 or $2 added to the price than the chocolate cut back. But -- Disney is handing out so many of them as snack credits to free diners and DDP diners (and for most people who pay for DDP the snacks are still free), that they price they are getting for them in the aggregate no longer justifies the expense. So, the option is to try to reduce the cost of producing them. That is what has happened. Charge me $10 for an ice cream sandwich. We used to love them and we are on vacation. We will pay it! Nope -- we have to keep handing them out free, so we'll just lower the quality. Nice.
Nothing on the dining plan is "free." It's fixed into the price of the plan. If cost was an issue, they'd eliminate it as being available for a snack credit.
People may be tired of hearing that DDP is to blame, but it is.
Free dining makes the snack credits quite expensive to accommodate in the aggregate. Even for those purchasing DDP, the snacks are kind of a thrown in incentive.
If Disney didn't make money off the plan, they wouldn't offer it.
So, of course, the snacks are going to have to be made more economical. Am I the only one who has noticed that at most snack stands now the choice is a variety of chips in bags? Why? Because they are cheap and convenient.
That's every where, not just at Disney. Take a look in any grocery store, sizes of everything are smaller and more "economical."
Another point (while I'm on the topic!) is quick service desserts. It used to be that quite a few quick service places offered Hagen-Daz ice cream bars, as the dessert option.
Last time I checked, I could still get an ice cream bar. I'll have to check and see if they're still there next time I go, but I don't remember them not being there.
When was that last time anyone saw a Hagen-Daz bar as a dessert option? Every quick service place offers some kind of yucky cake with gummy icing. the one at Cosmic Ray's (or whatever that place is called) was, perhaps, the single most unappealing dessert I have ever had the misfortune to be served. Our group of four put them in the garbage immediately and never went back to the place.
Okay, I agree with you on that, the carrot cake at Cosmic Ray's is gross. But there are still plenty of yummy CS desserts.
I, for one, would like the option of buying a Hagen-Daz bar -- but then Disney would have to separate out the DDP desserts and other desserts. Since they don't want to do that, those of us who pay out of pocket are the losers.
No one's making you buy the yucky cake either. I for one wouldn't mind not having a Hagen Daz bar since I can get them at home, I'd much rather have a Mickey bar, and I know those are still available.
Bill
