Disney Dining Going Down Hill?

[RedM94]

Is it just me or is Disney dinning going downhill? We visited WDW, for the ninth time in September 2010. We always purchase the DDP. We have always enjoyed both the sit down meals and the counter service food.

My DS and I returned from SWW at WDW this past Monday. The food was terrible. We didn't have a single decent meal the entire time we were there. The one night I ordered a NY strip steak. My DS sat there laughing at me because I couldn't cut into it. The steak knife they gave me was sharp and would cut into it. I actually thought it was some kind of a joke.

Has anyone else experienced a decline in the quality of food? We are going back to WDW in September and will have a one bedroom villa. We are seriously considering cooking our meals in our room, or doing the deluxe dining so that we can do all signature restaurants.

Agree or disagree, I would love to hear your opinion.

TIA

 

[Tink]

Chef Mickey's dinner was a tradition with our family on our first night. We always had a wonderful meal there, and the desserts were to die for. First the desserts were changed and they were not really that good. Then we had one meal where we found the quality slipping. We decided one bad time was a one-off thing and tried again - really bad. We won't go anymore.

Also, Boatwrights was one of our must do's each time, and they got chessey, cut out the salad that came with the meal, and took away our favorite choices.

Le Cellier is still wonderful, and we still love Via Napoli, but overall, I would rather to the QS now and pay oop for one or two of the good ones. I don't want to waste time eating just ok food when we could be enjoying other things.

 

[mskermit]

im still missing the pooh lasagna from Crystal palace . That is one place we have never ever had a bad breakfast!!

 

[disneychic]

Personally, I don't think the food is going down hill. I'd say that we've always been satisfied with the dining available at WDW. We love planning and making ADR's at our favorite restaurants for every trip. We've not had bad meals at any of our must-do TS restaurants (some of our favorites are Boma, Sanaa, Via Napoli, 'Ohana, Citricos, The Turf Club, etc.)

 

[wcpamotm]

In my opinion, overall the quality of the food may not be what it was at its peak (when Disney did more marketing to adults and fine dining had greater emphasis), but I don't notice any real difference in the last few years. My main complaint is that (perhaps due to DDP and especially "free" dining) variety in the various menus has been cut back and that prices continue to rise at a rate faster than the cost of living.

 

[TinkHappy]

I always hate to complain about Disney because I just love it so much.

In saying that, I would have to agree. We have been going there every year since our honeymoon 20yrs ago (I told you I love it! ).

I understand things change, but the food has continued to decline year after year, with the past five being the worst.

We save for our vacation and spend our hard earned money on Disney every year, because we know it is going to be a quality vacation each time, but lately we have been just a little disapointed.

I feel horrible saying that, I do love Disney, it makes me more sad than mad.

 

[Art 1]

Yes, because of the free dining programs. I'll be glad to see them go.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Well-need to know where you ate before I might reply. We always dine at Signature restaurants and most of the time, the food is quite good.

In fact, much of our vacation time at WDW these days is spent in dining out!

 

[Pakey]

I don't know that I really think the quality has gone downhill overall (there are certain restaurants where I think the comparison to a decade ago and now show a marked decline). What I have noticed is that the variety is gone.

Due to dining plan, the restaurants have had to bring costs down to keep things within the dining plan budget and that has resulted in unique items, higher end items, being removed from menus.

I still think there are good meals to be had, it's just not as easy to find them anymore.

 

[DisneyMommie4evr]

We were there last week, visited most of the normal places and tried a few new ones. We were surprised at Chef Mickeys always a fam favorite- dinner was not at all good. The wait times and slow service at a lot of our ADRs was disappointing! We waited 45 min for a table at the Plaza in MK, and then waited a long time for service inside. Didn't mind because we needed the break but, that trend continued at almost every place we ate. Hollywood and vine breakfast-45 min wait, and terrible service. Tony's Town Square, Whispering Canyon Cafe.... All took a long time and service was so so.
We had the best wait times and service at our walk in choices - Tusker house breakfast- was our first time there and we loved it!! Crystal Palace- ate there twice on this trip, great both times. Chef mickeys was quick service but food was not so great!!

 

[mskermit]

last year was the first time we took the dining plan and ate a few new restraunts. We were very pleased with the food. we do the hoop dee doo each time we go and i can never complain about the food there, always good. we tried chef mickeys for breakfast and i can honestly say, i wont go back. It no different than being at home and going out tho. you can go to a favorite place and have a great meal, go back the next week and its horrible. maybe depends on the cook.

 

[mommyrosa2]

I wouldn't say it's gone down hill...we've been enjoying the DP now for the last 6 years and have had some great meals. We tend to eat at some of our favorites (O'hana, Cape May Clambake - dinner, Teppan Edo, Narcooses) and have always enjoyed our meals. While I must admit some restaurants have been a hit or miss - i think the same can be true almost anywhere. I'll have to agree with one of the previous posts though about Chef Mickey's. That's the one place we too had always enjoyed dining at and has always been a must for us but the last time we there back in November, it was just plain AWFUL and given that was the second time our meal there was horrible, we sadly won't be back there again.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Our last trip was in February, and we went 3 times last year. I can't say that Disney Dining as a whole has gone down hill, but more like a few aspects.

I have always had a steak that met my standards. Were they the "best" steaks I have ever had, NO. They were good though. I can't understand if your steak was that bad why you didn't return it, or order something else. I have never been to a restaurant at Disney that did not fix a food problem. We have only had a few, but they were fixed!

 

[HoneyPooh]

You didn't have a single decent meal? Wow, bad luck. I've had a lot of meals that were great all the way down to yuck, but I've never had a trip without one single thing being even decent. I would really like to know your list of where you ate.

 

[darlaya]

My husband and I visited in May for our Annivesary. We purchased the dining plan to be able to eat at nicer TS restaurants w/o worrying about cost. Over the five days, we included our favorites: Bomas, Biergarten. San Angel Inn and added two restaurants we have never been to: Raglan Rd and Les Chefs.

Now we haven't been to WDW since 2007 when we had great dining experiences through the dining plan. This trip, we had more of a mixed experience.

During our May trip, our best meals were at the Biergarten and Raglan Rd followed by San Angel Inn. We were disappointed with the food quality at Bomas which was so different form the last two times we were there. So maybe we hit it on a bad night, but we have decided not to put it on our list for our upcoming September trip. Our meals at Les Chef were kind of bland, but our appetizers were very good as was the bread and the service. It is hard for me to know if it is any different than before as we have nothing to compare it to.

In September, we are travelling with our two teenage boys so we have focused our TS meals at buffets. The line-up is:
Ohanas, Biergarten, Chef Mickeys, & Raglan Rd.

Honestly, I have been on the fence about cancelling Ohanas as so many people have talked about its decline over the years. I put it in the line-up because my family has so many great memories having meals here that I chose it more for nostalgia than the food. I may cancel on the day of and choose to pay OOP for House of Blues instead...we'll see.

Overall, the dining plan adds to our experience when visiting Disney. I am sure we would not eat at as many nice TS meals. So even if the quality goes down a bit, I would still use the plan for the experience...unless the quality goes waaaay down.

 

[Agri]

I think a big part of the problem is that when you visit WDW A LOT, you start realizing that hey, Tutto isn't better than the place back home that I like to go to. Or that Le Cellier isn't that great the third or fourth time.

I'm not sure what impact the "free dining" has on things because its not really free. Most of the free dining packages go with regular room rates instead of a discount, so they're still technically paying for it even if they don't think they are.

We had APs for the past year and went 5 times. By the fifth visit we didn't want to do Le Cellier or most of the WS restaurants because we have better or can cook better at home. We didn't want to waste time in WDW eating stuff that we can get better and cheaper at home. When you visit a lot, you have the same expectation to get the Disney WOW feeling and its just not going to happen.

TBH, its difficult to adequately respond to the OP without even knowing the restaurant(s) they ate at. I don't think many people would be surprised if someone said they mostly ate at DHS and didn't have a decent meal. DHS is probably the hardest park to find a sure bet good meal in. By our fifth trip, we weren't even eating in DHS if we could help it - only meal we had there was at the Brown Derby for Dine with an Imagineer.

 

[Lou Holtz]

Has nothing to do with free dining as you said, because it is not really free. They're getting the same amount of money out of you. It is all because of the dining plan in general and unfortunately, the dining plan is never going anywhere and people will continue to sop up whatever garbage Disney decides to serve. We are at a point now where there is no incentive for Disney to provide top notch food because the restaurants will be full no matter what they put on the plate. It's going to get worse before it gets better (which it likely won't anytime in the near future).

 

[Agri]

Has nothing to do with free dining as you said, because it is not really free. They're getting the same amount of money out of you. It is all because of the dining plan in general and unfortunately, the dining plan is never going anywhere and people will continue to sop up whatever garbage Disney decides to serve. We are at a point now where there is no incentive for Disney to provide top notch food because the restaurants will be full no matter what they put on the plate. It's going to get worse before it gets better (which it likely won't anytime in the near future).

Yeah, we were on a dining plan over 20 years ago, so I don't think the plan is going anywhere. I think park attendance is just continually increasing, so naturally more people are using the plan and more people are eating. And just like everyone else here, most people want to get a good deal, so costs have to be cut somewhere.

 

[RedM94]

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and input. I see a number of signature TS meals listed with compliments. This supports my thoughts on getting the deluxe meal plan and eating only at signature restaurants.

I don't want to mention any of the restaurants by name because service has always been 10 out of 10. They were all restaurants that we have eaten at before. None of them was a signature restaurant. Even the CS meals were at places we have eaten in the past.

The first thing I thought of was when a manufacturer has to raise prices, and the increase is too high, sometimes they will lower the pack size by a few ounces and not increase the price.

I've been eating the CS burgers at WDW for a lot of years. I've always enjoyed them. This time the roll was terrible and the patty seemed like it had a lot of filler.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

I have a slightly different view in that I have medically necessary dietary restrictions. Disney is probably the only place I've vacationed at and felt like a "normal" person. Like all businesses Disney watches cost. Are they using lower grades of steak? Probably. Is there less variety? Yes definitely. Have I ever had something that I have sent back at Disney? Yes. However when I factor in the number of times I have eaten at Disney. 1 out of probably close to a 100 is a really low number.

There is room for improvement. That will be true in every restaurant. When we ate at Victoria and Albert's you would think a five star restaurant could come up with more than sorbet or creme brulee for an allergen dessert especially when given one month's notice.