Dining plan observations

[RLevy29]

We just got back from a wonderful stay at SSR. We had the dining plan and used all of our credits. We feel that it was not worth it for us for a number of reasons. We had done the plan in the past and thought it was a great value(when the appetizer and tip were included.) We will not get it again for the following reasons:
1. CS meals were inferior to what we had experienced before.FTB in AK was our favorite CS. I had always liked the Barbecue chicken salad. It was horrible this time! Just pieces of chicken over wilted iceberg lettuce.YH in Japan at Epcot no longer has skewers but but just pieces of chicken over some rice. We tried a sandwich at the bakery in France and it consisted of one slice of turkey, one slice of cheese and a huge hard roll. I do not eat desserts usually but if I refused them, I was always told "Take it- it's included!" The best CS was the Earl of Sandwich in DTD. Great sandwiches and salads!
2. We were happy with the full-service restaurants but do not think that they are worth getting the dining plan for. We ate at Narcosse's, Spoodles, and Artist Point. Since the tip and appetizer are no longer included we ended up putting in about $50 each meal for tips and we would split an appetizer. We felt that we could do better ala crate using the TIW discount.
Maybe we just hit the counter service meals at a bad time but we will not be getting this plan again.

 

[ehrn]

I agree w/your observations! It seems to me that Disney has almost forced people into getting the ddp by raising the prices of their meals to such an outrageous level. And there really is nothing special about the cs desserts, total waste imho, like I need to waste calories on mass produced chocolate cake?! not! We found some really interesting off site places last time, it was a nice break for us too.
Now, we are doing free dining this fall, it happens to work out for us, but let me tell you how I've been obsessing on how we will get the most out of it--I really don't think that's healthy, lol!!!! Luckily, we got most of the ADR's we wanted but what is this nonsense now where getting a stinking ADR @ LeCellier is like winning the lottery?? lol, it's getting a bit out of hand. By the way, we could only get lunch there, but I'll deal w/it!!!

 

[JacksDaddy]

I agree - most of the counter service desserts were disappointing. The only desserts we enjoyed were the mickey ice cream bars. We were looking forward to France counter service - sounded like a rare find to get a bakery sandwich and a special dessert - NOT! A huge hard roll with very thin slices of meat and cheese. The Creme brulee was nothing like the table service variety at Chefs de France. You would find a better creme brulee in the yogurt section of your grocery store.