The story on seasonal dining surcharges
We've been receiving some e-mail asking about dining surcharges during peak seasons, but we didn't want to report on them until we had a response from Walt Disney World. We've finally received that response, so here's the story.
"During certain times of the year, many of our Walt Disney World food and beverage locations experience increased Guest demand," said Disney spokewoman Zoraya Suarez. "As a result, new seasonal pricing has been implemented for select fixed-price dining locations during these periods, specifically during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, spring break, and summer vacation months. In other words, seasonal pricing is not a surcharge, it is the price of the dining experience during certain times of the year."
The dining locations effected by the seasonal price increases are:
*
1900 Park Fare
*
Akershus
*
Biergarten
*
Boma
*
Cape May Café
*
Chef Mickeys
*
Cinderellas Royal Table
*
Crystal Palace
*
Garden Grill
*
Hollywood and Vine
*
Liberty Tree Tavern (dinner only)
*
Ohana
*
Trails End
*
Tusker House
These price increases were and are in effect for:
* November 18 through November 24, 2007
* December 16, 2007 through January 5, 2008
* March 16, 2008 through March 29, 2008
* May 25, 2008 through July 5, 2008
Projecting forward, it's likely that we'll see them again for:
* November 23 through November 29, 2008
* December 14, 2008 through January 4, 2009
Again, the seasonal increase is "a result of high demand at select fixed-price dining locations," according to Suarez. So apparently, it's a supply-and-demand thing. Rather than keeping prices steady year-round and just dealing with people who can't get reservations, Disney has elected to see what price the market will bear and take the risk of pricing some people out in order to pull in a little extra cash from food & beverage operations.