Disney Dining Died On 8/16/2010 RIP

[ems_mom]

While I agree with the PP's to a point, I also believe that geography influences the perceived value of the dining plan. I live on the east coast, I have a sibling in NYC, one in the suburbs of Atlanta and another in a ski resort town in CO. My sibling near Atlanta has by far the lowest food costs.

It costs the rests of us more for our everyday groceries, and more to dine out. It seems to me that depending where one lives, the price of dinner at a TS in WDW may or may not seem expensive. The quality may not be what it once was, but to some this translates to you get what you pay for.

A night out sharing one app, two entrées, two sides (they're often not included and must be ordered a la carte), one dessert and some alcoholic beverages can run $150 and up before tax and tip. So yes, WDW dining isn't exactly fine but its priced at a point I expect to pay for its location.

 

[crashbb]

I just signed up for Free Dining. I tried many permutations and combinations and Free Dining was the cheapest by a considerable amount. We are staying on-site (obviously) and won't be renting a car, so off-site restaurants are not an option. We'll be eating on site with or without the dining plan (free or not).

However, I'm staying at a Value Resort and traveling with people who prefer Signature restaurants to counter service (I upgraded to Deluxe). The room only rate discount is 25% which comes out to $28/night which is less than the cost of the QDSP.

I could see, however, that if you were staying Deluxe where the room only discount saved you more money, Free Dining may not be your cheapest option.

 

[Inkmahm]

WDW dining was never top notch to me. WDW caters to the masses and always has. I do not feel dining at WDW ever compared to dining site. For the money there are FAR better quality restaurants outside WDW that inside. Unless you dine at odd hours or low crowds days WDW restaurants are crowded, noisy, cramped and they were that way before free dining.

Nonetheless, I think the DDP is a great value and free dining allows us to visit WDW and have a decent meal every night we are there. I could not afford to go to Disney World otherwise. DDP was a far better value when it included appetizer and tip but still worth it.

Have you compared your trip with "free" dining to your trip using a room only discount and paying for your meals instead? I'm betting you could still afford to go to Disney World and may even same money by NOT using the DDP.

 

[sotoalf]

Without offending the OP, let me point out that one of these threads is created every four or five weeks. It might be true! It's less true in the less popular signature restaurants (i.e. Citricos). Even when Disney dining was at its supposed peak ten years ago, I thought twice before assuming food at a theme park like Epcot would ever be considered "signature."

 

[sotoalf]

I'd rather pay $60-$80 per head to go to the Orlando Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and get a great steak cooked to my specifications, than go to Le Cellier and be served an "okay" meal at a place which used to excel at being a singular dining experience (like Ruth's Chris still does), and now has to simply meet minimum standards of quality and quantity set forth by the dining plan.

But you can't compare food at a theme park to food at a decent dining chain. Even if the dining plan never existed, I wouldn't accept the comparison. Apples and oranges.

Like I said, I'd start to worry if the dining plan affected the presentation, service, and quality at the hotel signature restaurants like Citricos, Artist Point, and California Grill. However, eating at a theme park will always expose you to the worst elements of mass consumption.

 

[pauly's girl]

I have stayed in the world with and without the dining plan. I agree the food may not be up to some peoples standards. I enjoy the dining plan whether or not it is free. I do not think the food is any less quality then the the first time I went and paid oop for every meal. It isn't like the food is inedible. I am not a fancy diner and do not prefer to do signature meals. Many people who choose to stay at the value resorts save more by accepting the free dining...so what...good for us!!

 

[princessmom29]

I just booked our 2nd free dining vacation. We are going to do dining plan anyway for the convinience of having meals prepaid, so it saves us significantly more than a room only discount. We are 2A 1C and stay moderate. Room only discounts would have to be at 50% to save us what we save with FD. I have run the numbers multiple times and we basically break even with the DP versus eating oop so for us it is a huge savings. We have only been gonig to WDW since 2008 so I cannot speak of quality before FD, but we have had some really outstanding meals onsite with the dining plan, and a few not so good ones. The good by far outnumber the bad, however.

 

[bangzoom6877]

While I agree with the PP's to a point, I also believe that geography influences the perceived value of the dining plan. I live on the east coast, I have a sibling in NYC, one in the suburbs of Atlanta and another in a ski resort town in CO. My sibling near Atlanta has by far the lowest food costs.

It costs the rests of us more for our everyday groceries, and more to dine out. It seems to me that depending where one lives, the price of dinner at a TS in WDW may or may not seem expensive. The quality may not be what it once was, but to some this translates to you get what you pay for.

A night out sharing one app, two entrées, two sides (they're often not included and must be ordered a la carte), one dessert and some alcoholic beverages can run $150 and up before tax and tip. So yes, WDW dining isn't exactly fine but its priced at a point I expect to pay for its location.

I completely agree!! Living in Brooklyn, NY, $25 for an entree at a restaurant is not unheard of, it's reasonable! Even more expensive in Manhattan. So to me, Disney restaurant prices are up to par with what we see at home. We may spend more on a dinner at an a la carte Disney restaurant than at home, because we order an app to share, alcoholic beverages (we only occasionally get an alcoholic drink when going out to eat at home), etc. But the prices of those things are also up to par with what we see on restaurant menus at home.

While some people prefer the signatures or the nicer places on property that don't accept the dining plan (i.e., Shula's, Fulton's, Bluezoo, etc.), I think there are also those out there who just prefer chain restaurants like Applebee's and TGI Friday's, and I find the food at Disney to be nothing like those places (I think Disney's food is much better actually). For example, there was a man behind me in line at the Chef Mickey's dinner buffet complaining that there were no french fries on the buffet and "What kind of place doesn't serve french fries?" If this person is/was on the DIS, imagine the negative review just based on this one thing that turned him off, but many others would not feel that way in his shoes!

It's all about people's individual perspectives, expectations, and also sometimes, the fact that they are spending money.

 

[KTJAY]

In my opinion, the economy is more to blame than "free dining". If you look at Disney from a business standpoint, they lost $24 million in 2004 and that's when they began offering free dining to bring people in during slow periods. They had to start cutting some wages/employees and quality of food, hence the lack of good service and good food. This has happened everywhere in the last 4 or 5 years, not just Disney. I've gone to a restaurant in my town for the last 20 yrs-it's definitely not as good as it was 5 yrs ago. They are definitely cutting corners. Disney is a business struggling in the economy just like the rest of us.

I can remember around 1990 when the dining plan first came out and you could get breakfast/lunch/dinner any restaurant you want with an appetizer/entree/dessert/non-alcoholic drinks-Tip Inc!!! Every year we've gone since the dining plan first came out-we've said i'ts not as good as the first year! The bottom line is Disney is a business struggling in the economy just like the rest of us.

 

[DISNEY1975]

If you read the fine print, you will see that there are more black out dates than actual days to use it. Most of February is off limits. Practically all of March, April and May are blacked out. All of all but 2 days of June, all of July and 1/2 of August.

2010: Oct 1 - 7 • Oct 22 - 28 • Nov 12 - 18 • Nov 27 - Dec 2 • Dec 10 - 21

2011: Jan 1 - 5 • Jan 9 - 13 • Jan 21 - Feb 3 • Feb 11 - 17 • Feb 25 - Mar 3 • May 27 - Jun 2 • Aug 19 - Sept 29

 

[TLSnell1981]

Thought I'd add the ONLY reason I detest the free dining is because of what it's done to the food/menus/quality at all the restaurants. If you aren't a huge foodie and budget is more important then the dining plan makes sense......IF the dining plan were truly a savings that is. LOL LOL LOL

The big three....food/menus/quality. These are the reasons we choose to dine in the parks....less and less.

"Free" dining ends 9/29/2011? I think, I will refrain from booking any new vacations until October 2011.

 

[drenalin'junkie]

Disfood in the 2TS and signatures was and in some cases is equal or better to a chain of the same quality,location and theming.The 1TS have suffered the most.

We still eat a lot on campus but with Orlando having so many excellent places to go and us being relatively local we are starting to eat more off property.Many local eateries previously expensive are offering pre-fixe menus as low as $30-50 and make the 20 minutes it takes us to get there from the parks moot.

Be aware food is ALWAYS a subjective experience and we don't all have same tastes,budgets or memories of past Disney Dining.DW and I spent part of our honeymoon in WD in 1994 and I have been eating there since each park opened and yes the food is less than it used to be in many cases but so are many chains.

 

[rachel09985]

Free Disney Dining is the reason I have been able to go to Disney for the past two years- so I am very grateful!! Compared to what I have every day Disney Food is awesome!! I have only not liked a couple of things I have tried.

It is so nice to not have to worry about saving money for food before I head on vacation. I agree that now eating at Disney would be expensive if you weren't on the dining plan though. I don't think I will every go back to a non dining plan

 

[tinacaplan]

While I agree with the PP's to a point, I also believe that geography influences the perceived value of the dining plan. I live on the east coast, I have a sibling in NYC, one in the suburbs of Atlanta and another in a ski resort town in CO. My sibling near Atlanta has by far the lowest food costs.

It costs the rests of us more for our everyday groceries, and more to dine out. It seems to me that depending where one lives, the price of dinner at a TS in WDW may or may not seem expensive. The quality may not be what it once was, but to some this translates to you get what you pay for.

A night out sharing one app, two entrées, two sides (they're often not included and must be ordered a la carte), one dessert and some alcoholic beverages can run $150 and up before tax and tip. So yes, WDW dining isn't exactly fine but its priced at a point I expect to pay for its location.

I think this is SO true, but probably because I live in the Northeast. I also have to say that I went to a Six Flags recently and paid more than ten bucks for a horrible cheeseburger and fries that would have made McDonald's look positively gourmet, so I don't think Disney is that terrible.

 

[pauly's girl]

Free Disney Dining is the reason I have been able to go to Disney for the past two years- so I am very grateful!! Compared to what I have every day Disney Food is awesome!! I have only not liked a couple of things I have tried.

It is so nice to not have to worry about saving money for food before I head on vacation. I agree that now eating at Disney would be expensive if you weren't on the dining plan though. I don't think I will every go back to a non dining plan

Amen~I will still go to Disney regardless of FREE dining and will use the dining plan!!

Our party of 10 staying at POP saved 1900.00 on dining this year~we were already doing the DxDP before free dining was released!!

 

[HunnyJar]

In my opinion, the economy is more to blame than "free dining". If you look at Disney from a business standpoint, they lost $24 million in 2004 and that's when they began offering free dining to bring people in during slow periods. They had to start cutting some wages/employees and quality of food, hence the lack of good service and good food. This has happened everywhere in the last 4 or 5 years, not just Disney. I've gone to a restaurant in my town for the last 20 yrs-it's definitely not as good as it was 5 yrs ago. They are definitely cutting corners. Disney is a business struggling in the economy just like the rest of us.

I can remember around 1990 when the dining plan first came out and you could get breakfast/lunch/dinner any restaurant you want with an appetizer/entree/dessert/non-alcoholic drinks-Tip Inc!!! Every year we've gone since the dining plan first came out-we've said i'ts not as good as the first year! The bottom line is Disney is a business struggling in the economy just like the rest of us.

I agree with poster. It seems like EVERY restaurant is doing some sort of cuts here and there. To put sole blame on the Disney Dining Plan is sort of ridiculous. Restaurants will serve a cheaper cut of meat to their patrons to cut costs, they will take away soup/salad options to cut costs.. That's at just about any restaurant these days not just at Disney. You want something to blame - blame the economy.

We have done free dining once. We choose to PAY for the dining plan for the convenience. We like the stress free feeling we get from prepaying our meals. And while they have taken away a few things (appetizers, tips) over the years, it is still worth it to us to have that stress free feeling. And honestly, we still enjoy the food. Is it the highest quality food? No, but neither is the local restaurant we would visit either. And I'd much rather be surrounded by Disney magic any day!

 

[bangzoom6877]

I think this is SO true, but probably because I live in the Northeast. I also have to say that I went to a Six Flags recently and paid more than ten bucks for a horrible cheeseburger and fries that would have made McDonald's look positively gourmet, so I don't think Disney is that terrible.

I can't stand the food at Six Flags...people go there mainly for thrill rides, so the food there is not a priority. I agree...it makes McDonald's look gourmet, and I avoid McDonald's like the plague! And don't even get me started on Sesame Place...$9 for a kids' meal at counter service! At least at Disney last month, kids' CS meals were $5...and the food was better quality too.

 

[mjp12831]

Very true...the restaurants at the Swan and Dolphin hotels do not participate in the dining plans, and many people rave about those. And, there are several DTD restaurants that do not participate either. No car needed, just take Disney transportation to either one!

Or book one of the blacked out periods

Or dine only at the signature places that dont get overrun with 1 ts credit regular DDP folks

 

[java]

I'm always confused at those that are so gung ho for Free Dining- For us the 40%off room rate savings far exceeds what we would pay for dining. We stay deluxe though. So I guess I answered my own question- if I was staying budget I would go for free dining.

 

[crashbb]

I'm always confused at those that are so gung ho for Free Dining- For us the 40%off room rate savings far exceeds what we would pay for dining. We stay deluxe though. So I guess I answered my own question- if I was staying budget I would go for free dining.

Definitely. As I pointed out above, if you stay value, you only get 25% off which comes out to $28 per night/per room. Even with only one adult in the room, you'd save more with the Free Dining (assuming all the normal dining plan caveats) with two adults in the room (so the savings is only $14 each), Free Dining is even better.

When I ran the numbers staying Deluxe, Free Dining would not have been worth it.