Free Dining affecting food quality and choices?

[DisMN]

No offense to the people who are enjoying the mass quantities of food they're given on the free dining plans but........has anyone else felt that this has negatively affected the overall food quality in ALL the restaurants on Disney property?

We noticed a significant decline in most of our favorite restaurants and it all happened right around the time of the free or significantly reduced meal plans.

Either the food quality went way down (for example the filet mignon in Japan is no longer the out-of-this-world Kobe beef but a much lower quality, something that can be had in any restaurant anywhere. Not the unique product it once was.) or the recipes have changed (for example the fettucini at Spoodles. It no longer has the fresh peapods and prosciutto ham tossed with the cream sauce. The sauce NOW stands alone........it's nowhere NEAR as delicious as it once was.)

Something else we noticed is less choice. Teppanyaki, Tempura Kiku, Brown Derby, Yachtsmen Steakhouse all seem to have a much shorter menu than they used to have.

I'm curious if anyone else noticed a dramatic decline or change. Or maybe it's just us?



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[marlynnp]

Our last trip was 2004. While planning to make ADRs I checked the menus for a few of the places we really enjoyed (Teppanyaki and Brown Derby being 2 of them) and I thought they were missing some of the items we had.

Glad it wasn't just me.

 

[bicker]

There are still wonderful dining experiences to be had, but they're being focused on the signature restaurants. I suspect what we're seeing is a closer alignment between what people want and what the restaurants are providing: Few people care more about finer and rare ingredients than they care about getting a good value. So Disney is listening to the voice of the customer and giving us what we want, in the measure we want it.

 

[DisMN]

I suppose that's true Bicker. Glad to know I wasn't the only one to notice the change though.
I really hate the idea that Disney is dumbing down everything this way including the food.



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[bicker]

These things go in cycles. Eventually we guests, as a group, will get smarter, again, and the restaurants will follow-suit.

 

[afcgirl]

Other than the 5 weeks or so that they have the free dining promotions, the dining plan is not free. We paid around $100 per day for the dining plan on our last trip for the 4 of us. Yes we saved money on what we would have paid out of pocket, but we may not have gone to the same restaurants so I doubt the restaurants are suffering that badly. The restaurants also make money on alcoholic drinks which are not included in the plan. I also doubt they would change menus or food preparation for the few weeks of actual free dining each year.

This past trip we didn't notice any difference in the quality of food. We enjoyed everything, including Teppanyaki (other than Ohana's new menu, which had nothing to do with the dining plan). I believe Teppanyaki did remove lobster from the list of entrees due to the meal plan, but it is still on the menu under another heading so it can still be ordered.

As for the "mass quantities of food", yes we had an extra peanut butter mousse at lunch that we normally wouldn't have ordered, and maybe an appetizer or two that we might not have ordered at dinner, but the meal plan does NOT include breakfast and we usually had a soft drink for the snack (since the good snacks like chicken legs or Dole Whips are NOT counted as snacks on the plan). So, I would not characterize the food given on the meal plan as being of mass quantity.

 

[DisMN]

Thankyou for your input afcgirl, and you're right, the dining plan isn't free. I really worded it bad didn't I? LOL

Good points you've made but there's still a significant lowering of standards I've seen since the dining plan was implimented. A lowering as far as actual product being of lower quality and of less choices on the menu as well as waitstaff that seems a bit put off by the whole program. All in all that adds up to less magic, and noticably so IMHO.



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[afcgirl]

as well as waitstaff that seems a bit put off by the whole program

I am sure this is true, although they are covering it up well as every wait person was very pleasant and we never got a negative reaction when mentioning we were on the dining plan. Usually they bent over backwards to help us understand the plan, which we appreciated.

BTW, this may have been mentioned before, but the waiters include their tip on the alcohol. So we double tipped for our wine at two restaurants before we realized our mistake. Too much wine I guess, LOL.

 

[formernyer]

There are still wonderful dining experiences to be had, but they're being focused on the signature restaurants. I suspect what we're seeing is a closer alignment between what people want and what the restaurants are providing: Few people care more about finer and rare ingredients than they care about getting a good value. So Disney is listening to the voice of the customer and giving us what we want, in the measure we want it.

I can't speak for Disney dining pre-DDP, but I can say I was very impressed with all of the places I ate on the DDP last week.

I think Bicker hit the nail on the head...people who want a fine dining experience will be more than willing to pay 2 TCs for it. Most people (myself included) are more concerned with good tasting, but simpler, foods in large portions. No matter what is on the menu, I'll almost always order a steak with potato and veggies. The addition of an appetizer is a nice treat for me, but I tend to choose the more basic items. The desserts at the 1 TC restaurant are works of art IMO and I can't imagine them being any better.

I guess what I'm saying is that the general population doesn't feel like Disney is cheating them on the DDP meals. In fact, most of us are eating better than we could ever dream of eating without the DDP. Those people who appreciate fine dining generally also have the financial means to afford the Signature Meals.

 

[bicker]

All in all that adds up to less magic, and noticably so IMHO.

Surely some folks would feel that way, but I suspect the majority (including folks like formernyer, and my mother, incidently ) see it quite the opposite: They see the dining plan as new magic, that more than makes up for the things that have changed to accmmodate satisfaction of this new guest desire being satisfied.

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

The dining plan got my parents to go back to Disney after 15 years. I found extremely cheap tickets ($60 RT!! on a now defunct charter airline) and the dining plan enticed them to go when they otherwise wouldn't. My dad still talks about Le Cellier -- and I know I wouldn't have gotten him to eat there if we were paying OOP.

I haven't noticed much of a change at the character dinners, but I'll be taking a closer look this Sept. to see if I experience any of what you're explaining.

 

[Yellow_Stitch]

As far as the waitstaff is concerned, why should they feel annoyance at the plan? They get an automatic tip of 18% based on the total bill. The plan gets you an appetizer and dessert, 2 items which would many times not be ordered by non-plan diners. Waiters we had encouraged us to maximize the plan and therefore their tip. I've heard some people complain that the tip should be higher! Of course you can always add more to the tip if you wish, but I'm guessing that a waitress at Denny's would love to get an 18% tip based on food at Disney prices!

Afcgirl, we did the same thing with the alcohol tipping at Citrico's. I'm sure our waiter was delighted with the plan that time-he got a $45 total tip, which I feel was still a good value since he even gave us a bonus glass of dessert wine.

 

[bicker]

As far as the waitstaff is concerned, why should they feel annoyance at the plan? They get an automatic tip of 18% based on the total bill.

First, they only get the automatic tip on the parts of the bill covered by the Dining Plan. So there may be some concern that guests won't provide cash tips for OOP portions of the bill. Second, there are some indications that, for participating non-Disney restaurants, the servers are tipped based on the amount Disney compensates the restaurant, rather than on the actual amount of the items purchased.

The plan gets you an appetizer and dessert, 2 items which would many times not be ordered by non-plan diners.

Generally, I've found that the plan basically costs as much as the entrees, and so you're basically getting these two items "free".