Dining plan 9 days-some observations-long

[NMW]

Let me start out by saying that food is a big part of our vacations. We were lovers of the old gold/silver plans and did not think they were overpriced. We would have eaten at these restaurants whether or not we had the plan. We were 3 adults/2 children for this trip. (my 10 year old being an adult)

We used the dining plan for dinners at: Cape May Cafe, Le Celliar, 'Ohana, Wolfgang Puck, Kona Cafe, Flying Fish, and Rose and Crown.

Counter service places we used the plan were: Peco's Bill (twice), Flame Tree, Sunshine Seasons, Cosmic Rays, America in Epcot, Fish and chip cart in UK. We also used CS credits for breakfast at Staring Rolls in MGM and the Boardwalk Bakery .

We paid CASH for the following meals: lunch at ESPN, lunch at SCI-FI, lunch at Brown Derby, dinner at Mama Melrose. Breakfasts we paid for: Crystal Palace, Donalds Breakfast in AK, Spoodles, 'Ohana with Lilo & Stitch, Norway's princess breakfast.

In general, the plan went well. We had good service every where we ate and had GREAT service at Le Celliar, Flying Fish, Kona, Rose and Crown, Wolfgang Puck. I didn't percieve any difference in our service when we were using the plan or paying cash, if that makes people not worry about service on the plan issues. I did notice that the CM's did not spend a lot of time chatting at the tables like on previous visits. I don't know if that has anything to do with the dining plan or not.

Probably the biggest thing I noticed, was a decrease in portion size, especially in appetizers. They used to be huge. We are appetizer people and have always ordered them at Disney. Now the appetizers seem sized for one person and not for sharing. The only place I can say had large appetizers (for sharing) was Wolfgang Puck. The rest were tiny. At Flying Fish you now only get 1 tiny little peeky toe crab cake. Two years ago you got two and they were bigger. At Kona, you only get three little potstickers now. At Rose and Crown, the prawn coktail had like 4 little shrimp and the soup portions are smaller too. Some desserts/entrees seemed a little smaller too, but the biggest thing you notice is how small the appetizers are now. Again, I don't know if this has anything to do with the dining plan or not.

The new kids menus are TERRIBLE. This I can not stress enough. They have the new menus at SCI-FI, Mama Melrose, Kona Cafe, Brown Derby. My 7 year old son tried the chicken pita pizza and the broiled chicken strips. He hated them and the two sides that went with them. DH and I thought he may just be being picky, so we tasted them. It was all I could do not to spit the chicken out. The pizza wasn't even frozen pizza quality. The salad was shredded lettuce with a ton of diced/cubed veggies (cucumbers, carrots) and my son didn't like the brown sugar/syrup on the green apples. The ala carte choices are pretty bad too. It's chicken noodle soup or a salad for appetizers everywhere-even the places WITHOUT the new kids menus like the Flying Fish. Le Celliar did have a kids portion of chesse soup and Wolfgang Puck had no kids appetizers. The chikcen noodle soup was very, very full of celery, onions and carrots and didn't have a lot of chicken or noodles. Only my 4 year old ate it some of the time. Both kids got very tired of these two appetizer choices and by the end of the trip they were just saying "no" to an appetizer.

The one constant on the ala carte menu is mac and chesse. The other item varied from a hamburger to spaghetti . I think it's a very carb filled menu, and I fail to see how it's all that healthy. I am not even considering the chicken strips because they were so bad! All the kids meals at the places with the new menus put grapes or green apples with the kids meals. My daughter could not get/sub french fries with her burger at SCI-FI, only apples. When I asked the CM why, she kind of sighed and said "if you want to complain, I can bring over the manager." I didn't want to, so I just asked her if a lot of the people are unhappy with the new kids menus. She said "Ugh, you have no idea." I just gave my DD my fries.

My two kids were very sick of mac and cheese and hamburgers by the end of the nine days. As well as chicken noodle soup and salad with ranch dressing at our TS lunches and dinners. Only Rose and Crown, Le Celliar, Wolfgang Puck and Flying Fish had nice kids menus. Next time DH and I may have to suck it up and do more buffets like Cape May Cafe. My kids really liked the food and their choices there.

For CS meals I know I'm probably going to get flamed, but we got adult entrees for our kids several times. The CM's didn't seem to care and we were split up quit a bit, so we didn't order all 5 at one time, except at Flame Tree and Sunshine Seasons, and my kids got the kid's mac and cheese at both these places anyway. Some of the kids choices are rather strange. I can't imagine a lot of kids liking them. Pecos Bill did get rid of the hot dog pieces in beans though-they now offer a sloppy Joe.

The snack credits we mostly used for beverages/ice creams/pop corn/samples in the world showcase for the food and wine festival.

To sum up, it was a pretty nice plan. We will do it again. I just wish you could get a plan with 2 TS meals a day and 1 CS I plan to pay the adult price for my middle child next Dec. He will have just turned 9 and he really was not thrilled with the kids menus. He got to watch his brother eat much better food the entire trip and I just can't imagine him doing that at 9 years old.


edited to add-We are AP holders and have the DDE card. We used this in conjunction with the meal plan to pay for our alcohol when we used the DDP. We also used it at all the TS meals we paid OOP for. It's a great card and using it with the DDP is pretty easy and a money saver.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. YOu are helping me out a lot. I have a 9 year old too and I doubt she would be interested in the children's menu. So, we'll have to see how our trip goes.

 

[disneymoss]

I think this new "Healthier" meal for children is the pitts! I have a son, 9, who eats very well, he's not a junk food junkie. He's not gonna like not having fries with his burger. Or nasty chicken strips. What in the world is Disney thinking. I can see it now that we will be paying OOP for fries. I'm glad we have 4 buffets planned. I cannot wait until he turns 10 and I won't have to worry about the children's menu.

Maybe that's what Disney wants us to do pay OOP besides being on the DDP. I leave in 19 more days, I will make sure to post all about our Dining Experience.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Thanks for sharing and I agree that the new kids menus are horrible.

 

[all4fun]

We had to deal with those rancid kids menus.

I recently e-mailed WDW dining guest relations with my concerns about the awful choices in the new "healthy" menu, and was contacted by one of their representatives.

I was told that the restaurants are allowed to add to the new standard menu, and you can also request accomodations if you have a child who is picky and insists on food that is edible. (Calling my child picky would be a vast understatement. He is underweight, and lost weight because he wouldn't eat the nasty baked chicken strips or any of the other choices.)

If the menu is there, ask for options. If the server won't help, ask for a manager.

 

[Dani&TJsMom]

Thank you for your perspective on the DP. We leave in 17 days, and everyday, the kids choices seem to get worse and worse. I'm so disappointed that things have changed. I'm worried about them having the same choices for 7 days. The chicken pita pizza sounds horrible! My kids don't like chicken noodle soup and just pick at salads, so the appetizers, too, are disappointing. Do you know if at Kona they offered a cup of their chowder for the kids? That my dd would love! I'll probably just pay OOP for her to get that the night we're there.

 

[NMW]

No, Kona did not have a cup of their chowder for kids. Only the chicken noodle soup and ranch dressing salad. The same appetizers everywhere. Only the restaurants in the World Showcase that we ate at had different appetizer choices for kids. Different, but still only 2 items. Some type of soup and some type of salad. Rose and Crown did have a cheese and fruit plate and a cup of potato leek soup. Le Celliar had the cheese soup and a salad. You get the idea.

 

[MomPOM]

I am so not looking forward to this menu. My son is turning four next month and is a somewhat picky eater but eats healthy food, just not a lot of it. He hates mac and cheese, doesn't like any kind of sauce or dressing on anything and doesn't eat salad. I'm just hoping that by February they'll have made some kind of changes to the menu.

I think it's great that they want to have healthy food for the kids but they needed to add the healthy choices with the other choices, not completely eliminate everything else. Blech!

 

[Linda 441]

I cannot wait until he turns 10 and I won't have to worry about the children's menu.

I had to chuckle at this because until the new and "improved" kids menu alot of talk had been about how "unfair" it was that 10 year olds had to be "adults" on the food plan. Now everyone can't wait until their kids are 10!
My daughter is 10 and 90% of the time orders off the kids menu when we go out to eat. We were wondering if when we go we should pay opp for her kids menu meals and use her ddp credits another time, but I guess we probably won't do that!
Thanks for the report!

 

[fws]

This may not be a huge help for counter service, but for table service I suggest using the buffets as much as possible. The range of foods is great for all ages and kids tend to enjoy them much more, plus you're not tied to the restaurant for ages. We had buffets and family style meals most of the time and loved them. We had an early lunch about 11 o'clock most days and a fairly early dinner and only paid OOP for one breakfast as we were too full. I didn't finish one meal and still gained three pounds, so I'd thoroughly recommend the buffets!

 

[disneymoss]

I have read somewhere that by 2008 Disney's menus will be healthier for all, including adults. What was Disney thinking by changing the children's menus first? Most children I know actually eat better than I do. I don't plan my vacations around food, but normally when we are on vacation we eat extravagantly for example we never have dessert anywhere's besides when we are on vacation, we normally do order an appetizer but 1 for the 3 of us to share. I don't think Disney is thinking things through. But that's just my honest opinion.

 

[NMW]

I have read somewhere that by 2008 Disney's menus will be healthier for all, including adults. What was Disney thinking by changing the children's menus first? Most children I know actually eat better than I do. I don't plan my vacations around food, but normally when we are on vacation we eat extravagantly for example we never have dessert anywhere's besides when we are on vacation, we normally do order an appetizer but 1 for the 3 of us to share. I don't think Disney is thinking things through. But that's just my honest opinion.

At Pecos Bill a man came up to the CM who was taking my order to ask why there was no cheese sauce at the fixins bar. She told him that they no longer have it because they are trying to be more "healthy." He was not happy. While I don't really eat any type of cheese "sauce", I have to kind-of agree with him. I really don't want restaurants deciding for me how much trans-fats I am going to consume on my vacation. I eat healthy all year long-why can't I splurge on my vacation if I want to?

 

[NMW]

I had to chuckle at this because until the new and "improved" kids menu alot of talk had been about how "unfair" it was that 10 year olds had to be "adults" on the food plan. Now everyone can't wait until their kids are 10!
My daughter is 10 and 90% of the time orders off the kids menu when we go out to eat. We were wondering if when we go we should pay opp for her kids menu meals and use her ddp credits another time, but I guess we probably won't do that!
Thanks for the report!

I can not imagine a lot of 10 year olds ordering ANY thing off this new kids menu. My 10 year old son orders from kids menus about 50% of the time when we go out around home. For example, at Carrabas he'll order the adult chicken parm, but at Texas Roadhouse he'll order the kids half rack of ribs. Not the same thing every time, but you get the idea. I couldn't of payed him to order off this kids menu-and I'm not kidding! I can pretty much gaurantee that no adult is going to order from it! Maybe that is what Disney was trying to do-cut down on all those adults and teenageers ordering the chicken fingers and fries!

 

[DisOrBust]

I just want people to realize that if you end up doing Buffets you whole trip you may want to consider doing DDE. AP s and AP room rate. Especially if your at a Deluxe. Just an FYI. I am kicking myself i didn't go this route.

That you used your kid credits for adult CS is just a result of the bad choices. I will do the same thing. You can have better healthy choices this is just the easy way out,IMHO.

 

[NMW]

I just want people to realize that if you end up doing Buffets you whole trip you may want to consider doing DDE. AP s and AP room rate. Especially if your at a Deluxe. Just an FYI. I am kicking myself i didn't go this route.

That you used your kid credits for adult CS is just a result of the bad choices. I will do the same thing. You can have better healthy choices this is just the easy way out,IMHO.

I'm sorry I'm not sure what you are saying. Yes, we did use some of our kids CS credits for adult CS meals, but that was up to the CM's that allowed it. What do you mean when you say "the easy way out" and "better healthy choices" ?? Are you talking about CS choices for kids or adults?

We have the DDE card. We are AP holders and DVC members. We used our DDE card for all of the TS meals we paid cash for-ESPN, Brown Derby, Sci-Fi, Cystal Place, 'Ohana-breakfast, Norway princess breakfast, donalds in AK. Plus, we used it for our alcohol bills at the meals we used the meal plan for. Maybe I'll edit that in original post, if people are interested.

 

[SamIAm21]

Thank you for your perspective on the DP. We leave in 17 days, and everyday, the kids choices seem to get worse and worse. I'm so disappointed that things have changed. I'm worried about them having the same choices for 7 days. The chicken pita pizza sounds horrible! My kids don't like chicken noodle soup and just pick at salads, so the appetizers, too, are disappointing. Do you know if at Kona they offered a cup of their chowder for the kids? That my dd would love! I'll probably just pay OOP for her to get that the night we're there.

I'm worried too! My daughter is not picky, but this menu is going to make her very sad.