Dining plan ever return?

[nursejackie]

Over my years on Disboards this topic as been the biggest bone of contention between felllow Disboarders, it's a love/hate topic for sure. As the OP asks if we think it will return, I won't make my own opinion known on the dining plan in this thread, as much as I am tempted.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If they can make money off of having it vs not then it will return.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

We have never seen the value on the DP, too much food. I believe it will come back because it makes Disney money.
Lots of folks point to the dining plan and blame it for the decline in WDW food in general. We can argue that one, but why does anyone assume that if the dining plan does not come back that the food quality will magically improve? Disney continues to find the most profitable point for everything it does. From the now-bland theme-free design of most of the DVC rooms, to the room amenities, to its merchandise, to the redesign of its stores. I would not expect that if they stopped a profitable venture such as the DP that they would decide to spend more money on upgrading the food service.

mac_tlc

For me it’s less about quality of food, but rather the variety. It’s seems that most restaurants have similar menus, whereas before the meals were truly unique to the restaurant and theme.

 

[NoTime42]

If they can make money off of having it vs not then it will return.

It’s an interesting discussion to me. Disney obviously made money on the dining plan, otherwise they wouldn’t have kept it for about 20 years.
Based on the tie-in, it must have been a cooperation between dining, resorts and tickets.
Was the dining plan profit additive, and they aren’t getting their base of full price diners with reduced seating?
Or is it resorts not wanting to subsidize dining?

 

[sethschroeder]

Was the dining plan profit additive, and they aren’t getting their base of full price diners with reduced seating?
Or is it resorts not wanting to subsidize dining?

The restaurants don't make much off the Dining Plan in comparison to the menu prices (think someone said like $35 on a $50 meal). So Disney likely had all the restaurants saying they couldn't survive off the Dining Plan. There likely is some clause in the contract allowing the restaurant to withdraw and thus Disney just cancelled the Dining Plan for now.

Disney themselves makes a ton of money. You are going to find very few people who spend more cash than they would on the Dining Plan. A few people make the math work but that is the exception not the general rule. You also need to remember everything is vastly overpriced by Disney just to make the Dining Plan look better (they even use it as a primary hotel discount).

Example would you go 8 nights in a row for a overpriced Steak if you had to pay $60-$70/plate? Likely you would opt for something cheaper some nights and hence the "value" of the Dining Plan is born in doing actions you otherwise would not.

 

[TinkB278]

Example would you go 8 nights in a row for a overpriced Steak if you had to pay $60-$70/plate? Likely you would opt for something cheaper some nights and hence the "value" of the Dining Plan is born in doing actions you otherwise would not.

For me this is the value in the dining plan. It is a mental thing. Many times I would want to order that expensive steak or seafood, but if I have to pay the actual bill I’ll probably just order the chicken or vegetarian entree. So for me, the value is not having to pinch my pennies mentally for my entire vacation. I can let go and just order what I want.

 

[igrsod]

I do like the dining plan for the convenience and the ability to be decadent without the guilt... but I'm also ok if it doesn't come back, we will just eat normally and not walk around stuffed all the time. lol
I think what we will do is load up a Disney Gift card with our food budget and use that while there, still getting that prepaid all inclusive feel.

 

[sethschroeder]

For me this is the value in the dining plan. It is a mental thing. Many times I would want to order that expensive steak or seafood, but if I have to pay the actual bill I’ll probably just order the chicken or vegetarian entree. So for me, the value is not having to pinch my pennies mentally for my entire vacation. I can let go and just order what I want.

Correct this is what they bank on. The "savings" you obtain is not financial savings in comparison to what they would have to charge without the DP.

Nothing wrong with that thinking because we did the quick service plan last time simply because of F+W and being able to just get whatever we wanted for a snack credit.

 

[disneyseniors]

I guess there's no right or wrong answer to this question.
My husband loved the convenience of the DP when we used it (when it first came out). I had to talk him into not using the DP, but it took a while before I convinced him to try it.
We just tapped our magic bands and paid for it with all the other charges at disney via a credit card. We saved for what we would need to pay the card off when we got back. That worked great for us. Just tap and it was taken care of. We didn't have to carry money or drag the card out every time we ate.
It's just different circumstances for every one.
There was a time when the grandkids were teens that the DP worked out well for our daughter. The boys ate like all teenage boys - they were never full. So in that case, the DP saved them money. they even had to pay out of pocket for some of their food because they were always hungry
It just depends on circumstances at the time.
We found it freeing to Not be on the plan. We ate only what we wanted, not what we felt we had to with the DP. We could go where we wanted, when we wanted to eat. We cancelled alot of reservations. I didn't like trying to get to a reservation that we really didn't want to go to because we had to make it 6 months out. We weren't always stuffed all the time from eating so much on the plan. We could eat snacks and goodies while wandering around. Never could do that with the plan because we were too full. So, we ate less and enjoyed more snacking without feeling guilty about not utilizing the plan to it's fullest.
Anyway, we won't be buying the plan anymore at this point in our lives.
It was initially started to try and get more people to book in the fall, September when most schools started mostly. That worked as most people just took their kids out to get the fall plan. But now??? I don't think they need it.

 

[RanDIZ]

The DP would have cost us $1492 for 8 nights. We spent around $1050 and still enjoyed the likes of many popular restaurants. For TS, we had Whispering Canyon Cafe, Tiffins, Chefs de France and Sanaa. For QS we did Yak n Yeti, Roaring Fork 2x, Geyser Point, Regal Eagle, Backlot Express, Beach Club Marketplace. Breakfast was always fast and simple. Numerous QS locations offer breakfast sandwiches, waffles, etc. We did way too many snacks to name, but trust me, we did not go hungry. I will say, if character dinners were happening and the fact we did a split stay, it might have been worth it for part of the stay since those dinners can be pricey. I'll cross that bridge on our next trip.

 

[AvidDisReader]

Our dining habits have really changed over the years. The original DP was great due to what was mentioned above, the great variety and guality of food. Over the years the menus became less unique and the quality went way down. So, we started doing the 2 counter service. For a while there there was some great variety and the quality was better than the basic fast food restaurant. Now, with COVID, we are changing again to more ordering groceries and eating in the resort- a lot cheaper and the quality of food we control. I do miss having a sit down meal at a full service restaurant so maybe twice on a typical 8 day trip we will book a reservation.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

We have never seen the value on the DP, too much food. I believe it will come back because it makes Disney money.
Lots of folks point to the dining plan and blame it for the decline in WDW food in general. We can argue that one, but why does anyone assume that if the dining plan does not come back that the food quality will magically improve? Disney continues to find the most profitable point for everything it does. From the now-bland theme-free design of most of the DVC rooms, to the room amenities, to its merchandise, to the redesign of its stores. I would not expect that if they stopped a profitable venture such as the DP that they would decide to spend more money on upgrading the food service.

mac_tlc

I don't know that anyone assumes the food quality will magically improve. I think we know the DP caused a decline in quality, and everyone who sees this wishes, would like, WDW to try to bring quality and creativity and some elements of dining (vs. just eating) back. But I also think we all know WDW will not do that. If they don't bring the DP back, they will come up with another idea. They used to have the Food & Fun plan before dining plans. They used to have My Pal Mickey before magic bands, to test out the technology and work on what they want to do with that new technology. Now they have been reeling from the effects of Covid, so they may not be able to think clearly enough, or willing to take a chance, on new ideas. But it is an opportunity for them to come up with new, better ideas and plans than that stale, old dining plan.
They can, if they are willing to spend the money. And they will make money off the new idea, just like they rake it in on DP. But easier to go with the tried and true DP, which makes them a TON of money.

 

[Yinn]

The challenge is the contracts. They are usually done between October-December for calendar year, effective 1/1. So they either get off revenue cycle by bringing it back early, or do part year-contracts. Given that normally it's a 3-month process, that latter may be burdensome.

Does anyone know how the contracts work for the vendors?

In ideal situations it's definitely a money maker, but depending on contract structure if may not be profitable or worth it for Disney to do it until they return to full capacity if it's structured a certain way.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Does anyone know how the contracts work for the vendors?

In ideal situations it's definitely a money maker, but depending on contract structure if may not be profitable or worth it for Disney to do it until they return to full capacity if it's structured a certain way.

The contracts are generally per utilization reimbursement. One use of DDP equals payment of $X. Use must be compliant with defined plan - if DDP, the eatery has to show it is entree, beverage, dessert or contracted substitute, or potentially not get reimbursed on audit.

 

[ford91exploder]

For me it’s less about quality of food, but rather the variety. It’s seems that most restaurants have similar menus, whereas before the meals were truly unique to the restaurant and theme.

Unfortunately that's unlikely to change and my guess menu's will become even more homogenized as it's simply cheaper to prepare the meals in a central kitchen and flash freeze them and then reheat at the restaurant 'kitchen'.

When was the last time you saw a steak or burger at a TS restaurant heck these were gone in 2017 because they required individual preparation instead of being tossed into a vat of boiling water and a timer started.

DDP makes much of it's money on the float of the money being in disney's accounts for months on end. Yes the food choices were slashed so that each restaurant would have a easily predictable cost model. The reductions in quality were more related to upper management insisting on cost reductions. Hell Tonga Toast fell victim to this, A SIGNATURE item was changed into something unrecognizable because Disney wanted lower cost bread, One would have thought that an exception could have been made for a signature item maybe even increase the price a bit...

But my take on Disney's dining is the cuts in food quality were independent of the DDP as I don't believe DDP is even part of food and beverage anymore, I think it's contained within the finance group but I don't think it's ALWAYS been there because up to 2014 or so you could buy DDP 1 day prior to arrival, Now it's at time of booking and as part of the finance strategy restaurant prices were jacked to the sky to drive people to the DDP. I remember when Boma was 19.99 in the morning and 29..95 in the evening and that was during the DDP purchaseable 1 day prior to arrival time period. And we used to do that purchase DDP right before we went on trip because our money could be earning interest for US rather than Disney for 11 months.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

On paper the dining plan makes Disney money. But what we don’t know is how much it costs them to run. Remember, time is money. So they have to pay people to negotiate the contracts with the restaurants they don’t own and IT people to make the systems work. Then you have the time it takes cast members to explain how the DDP works to clueless customers or argumentative customers, plus take extra time in the POS system for exceptions and errors. When you add up that extra time over multiple transactions, it means less QS meals sold and less turns of TS tables. So between fewer sales and labor costs it may not be a profitable product after all.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Free Dining is paid for by resorts, but I don't know if DDP is "owned" by resorts so much as the "pay for" of the free plans is a P&L shift. Restaurants, particularly those operated by third parties, aren't going to provide all that food for free to benefit the hotels.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Hoping it never returns. Would love to see more “ normal” food pricing instead of hyper inflating the prices to make it appear the DP saves you money......

 

[Yinn]

The contracts are generally per utilization reimbursement. One use of DDP equals payment of $X. Use must be compliant with defined plan - if DDP, the eatery has to show it is entree, beverage, dessert or contracted substitute, or potentially not get reimbursed on audit.

Is there a base fee to join or a guaranteed minimum?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Is there a base fee to join or a guaranteed minimum?

The reimbursement is fixed. If you serve someone a meal on DDP, you get a certain amount. Flat rate.