Food pricing...

[TChrist05]

Hello all.....maybe this is not the place to put this thread but my DW, DD and I just returned from 4 nights at the World.....we were there in May for 4 nights also.....is it me or have the food prices in the parks taken a rather large jump? We are vacation club members and generally have breakfast at the hotel but honestly, it seems things have gone up dramatically. Am I alone in this or have others felt this way. I myself wonder if Disney is raising the food pricing to compensate for all the free dining they have been giving away. What do you guys think?
Tom

 

[siskaren]

I suspect that it's simply due to the price of food going up in general. I know I've seen increases in prices when I go grocery shopping.

 

[catne]

Would blame it on the general increased cost of food everywhere. We go out a lot in our area & in Florida at our condo and the restaurants we go to have either raised their prices, or cut the portion size/and /or extras that come with the meal...or they've done both. Disney's prices, though high, are not out of line with other travel destinations we've gone to.

BTW, Free Dining is just one of many discount types Disney offers...when you take free dining, you pay full price for the hotel room on the package. Other packages you pay full price for the dining & room if you want it, but get the kids' package free. Or you get a substantial discount on the room, and pay full price for the food. All of the discounts are offered to increase room occupancy and park attendance in general...when rooms are empty and park turnstyles aren't turning, Disney is not making money. The Mouse has to be fed!

Hubby always says we can't leave until the Mouse has our last dime

 

[sharonabe]

The QS prices all went up at the end of August. It had been several years since they had increased the prices at QS establishments. That would account for the difference you experienced from May.

 

[havoc315]

Prices just recently went up at basically all QS locations, and many (if not all) TS locations as well.
Some items saw dramatic price increases -- Soda at QS locations and SQ kid's meals saw their first increase in many years, so therefore went up by a dramatic percentage. Kids meals, for example, mostly went up from 4.99 to 5.49, a 10% increase.
Outside of soda and kid's meals, other increases varied significantly. Many many many items saw absolutely no price increase. Some items went up anywhere from $.10 to $1... from $7.99 to $8.99 for example.

If you looked resort-wide, all TS, QS, etc... You're probably looking at an average of a 2-4% price increase, though much greater for some select items.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I think the increase reflects the same increase I've encountered in the grocery stores, the price of food is simply ridiculous. Smaller packaging same price, buy one get one free but with the huge price, what are you getting for free.

Disney dining prices have always been high and now even higher, unfortunately, "It's Disney" and they can get away with it, people have to eat!

We are vacation club members as well, we also drive since we're Floridians, so we cook in our villa a lot more and also eat off-site quite a bit. We save to eat at special Disney restaurants like Jiko, Blue Zoo etc., I'm no longer willing to pay those huge premiums and the DDP does not work for the way we like to eat on vacation.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We're not TS food people....never have been and with 40+ trips to our credit, prefer the room only discount over anything else, we always stay deluxe.....what it is, it is....nothing you can do about it....from my perspective and alot of trips...Disney meals are huge...easily shared, which the wife and I do and the prices are not that bad for a share....we like breakfast in the QS....eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and toast ofr 9 bucks (or there abouts, easily split.....lunches we prefer pool picnics with groceries we picked up in route: ham, salami and cheese sandwiches etc.....dinner we can get by with a pizza at FW, meatball sandwich at POFQ, hambuger at WL....we're not meat, potatoes and vegatable people for dinner......

So bottom line: we have no problems nor noticed any increase (we there 9/10-9/16) in any of what we purchased, were pleased in quanitity and everything we had, was quite good....

 

[Pakey]

I work in food manufacturing and I can tell you that ingredient and packaging costs have seen a huge increase in the past year.

We are DVC members also and are now doing the same as PP, paying OOP for a few special meals and then using our villa for the rest.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I've seen food prices jump everywhere recently. The only thing I really noticed at Disney is that a bottle of water is now $2.75 for Dasani instead of $2.50.

 

[TChrist05]

Real great points....and thanks for jumping in.....believe it or not I work in a grocery store in New York....and I do agree with food costs going up....difference with Disney is that they buy in such large quantity they pay a whole lot less than you and me.....have to admit we do a lot of little things to save us some money.....namely making our first stop at Publix or Walmart and picking up all the breakfast things we need like cereal, milk and orange juice. We always stay in a studio so we cannot cook anything except what can be microwaved.....Most importantly we pick up water, soda and some fruit juice that we bring with us when we get to the parks where we usually eat dinner. We do try to make a lunch stop at least once at Cracker Barrel and the Golden Coral....and usually a Mickey D run. Frankly, I was a little taken aback by the 8 chicken nuggets and fries for $8.19....and the suggestion about splitting meals is great! We try to get 2 meals for 3 people when my adult daughter goes with us and get some cups of ice and use our soda or water/juice with that meal.....saves about $7-8 dollars each meal we have.