We just returned from a very long WDW trip (5 resorts in 15 days), so I am very exhausted at the moment, but I wanted to make a quick post regarding our experience with the DP.
I come from an Italian restaurant family, so I have eaten in a ton of restaurants in my short 37 years of life - we've eaten at pretty much every WDW restaurant multiple times as we don't like counter service at all, but this time we also tried a few Signature restaurants as kids are great about being in restaurants (most of the time - LOL!)
We were on the Deluxe Plan for 11 nights, regular for 3 nights and nothing for 1 night. This was our 1st time on Deluxe, as we've done DDE several times and regular DP as well - we also did Concierge level at CT and Yacht Club. Much preffered the food/beverage offerings at Contemporary.
Here are my thoughts:
Food - Some restaurants have improved, others have downgraded and others have stayed the same. By far, the best meal we had was at Yachtsmen Steakhouse - it was superb! Next best were: Cali Grill, Citricos, Marrakesh & Kona Cafe. Worst food was at Chef Mickey's (we don't like it, but daughter does), Brown Derby & Spoodles.
Service - We had some exceptional servers: Cali Grill, Yachtsmen, Citricos & Coral Reef (all of them got more than 20% tip) and some good servers, but over the course of 15 days, we noticed that service has gone down. We had some servers who literally didn't come to our table at all, so we had to bus our own tables, didn't get refills, messed up receipts despite having lengthy conversations about placing tip on room, rude, forgetful & unpleasant servers. Honestly, some of them just disappeared and so we weren't sure what the heck was going on. By far the worst service we had was at Brown Derby, followed by: Boma (yikes!) and O'Hana.
Tips - There is just too much paperwork for the DP. Servers are forgetting about charging tips to room, so if they close their ticket, you are out of luck and must give cash, or, no tip. We received multiple copies of receipts with stuff crossed out in error and we had to wait for very (and I mean very) long waits for receipts. Most servers were good, but those who were not, made for very long waits (some servers also lost our receipts) and this was very frustrating. Would love to see tips included again as the whole process is a bit wacky as some servers blatantly asked us or reminded us about their tip at beginning of meal (and these servers surprisingly, gave bad service, go figure!)
Crowds - Hardly any restaurants were taking walk-ups at all. Most were booked up each and every night for dinner, but the few who took walk-ups (some were breakfast and some were for dinner) were giving about 45-90 mins waits, depending upon restaurant. Met many guests who thought they could just walk up to Chef Mickey's or Crystal Palace and get a table without reservations, so this made for some hostile situations at the podiums.
Refillable Mugs - This is a waste for us as we don't drink pop, and most resorts don't have apple juice, and this is a big problem. I don't want to debate the whole soda pop issue as I despise pop, so needless to say, the mugs got packed in our luggage and will be used here at home. We also didn't like the generic mugs either.
Misc - Restaurants that aren't owned by Disney are not allowing for bottled water while on DP because they only have large $6.50 bottles, and this made us crazy! This happened on last trip, but we honestly thought that with DX, they would have corrected that. When I can't get a bottle of water with an extremely overpriced $20.00 plate of pasta at Tutto Italia, yet the Plaza will give me that same $6.50 bottle with an $8.00 sandwich, we have problems!
Summary - We usually eat 2-3 TS meals per day, so the Deluxe was great in terms of finances (haven't figured it all out yet), but it was difficult at times to get to our ressies as the kids were having some issues. We did well though as we made use of snack credits for light lunches and bottled water. Regular DP has lost some value with absence of appetizer as we don't always eat dessert, but we stayed concierge level at end of our trip, and wanted a bit of a break. DX is a much better value - would love to see a DP with 2 TS and 1 snack per day and no refillable mug. We only order what we can eat, so we didn't order dessert or appetizers many times either.
We had some fabulous food, some stellar service and some incredible experiences (celebrated Mother's Day, birthday & anniversary). All in all, it was good, but some food and service needs to be drastically improved. Tutto Italia for instance is so grossly overpriced, just like Alfredo's was - I've had better food at Olive Garden, and places like Crystal Palace & 1900 Park Fare continue to be consistent by serving good food, great character interaction and good service, and most Signature restaurants, except for Brown Derby, are exceptional in every way! We also did the Mother's Day brunch @ Epcot, and were underwhelmed by this experience as well - food was ok, atmosphere was beautiful and service was ok - again, had to buy a bottle of water, which they added a service charge to - not impressed at all!
Please feel free to ask any questions of me and I'll do my best to answer them! Happy eating to all, Tiger
I come from an Italian restaurant family, so I have eaten in a ton of restaurants in my short 37 years of life - we've eaten at pretty much every WDW restaurant multiple times as we don't like counter service at all, but this time we also tried a few Signature restaurants as kids are great about being in restaurants (most of the time - LOL!)
We were on the Deluxe Plan for 11 nights, regular for 3 nights and nothing for 1 night. This was our 1st time on Deluxe, as we've done DDE several times and regular DP as well - we also did Concierge level at CT and Yacht Club. Much preffered the food/beverage offerings at Contemporary.
Here are my thoughts:
Food - Some restaurants have improved, others have downgraded and others have stayed the same. By far, the best meal we had was at Yachtsmen Steakhouse - it was superb! Next best were: Cali Grill, Citricos, Marrakesh & Kona Cafe. Worst food was at Chef Mickey's (we don't like it, but daughter does), Brown Derby & Spoodles.
Service - We had some exceptional servers: Cali Grill, Yachtsmen, Citricos & Coral Reef (all of them got more than 20% tip) and some good servers, but over the course of 15 days, we noticed that service has gone down. We had some servers who literally didn't come to our table at all, so we had to bus our own tables, didn't get refills, messed up receipts despite having lengthy conversations about placing tip on room, rude, forgetful & unpleasant servers. Honestly, some of them just disappeared and so we weren't sure what the heck was going on. By far the worst service we had was at Brown Derby, followed by: Boma (yikes!) and O'Hana.
Tips - There is just too much paperwork for the DP. Servers are forgetting about charging tips to room, so if they close their ticket, you are out of luck and must give cash, or, no tip. We received multiple copies of receipts with stuff crossed out in error and we had to wait for very (and I mean very) long waits for receipts. Most servers were good, but those who were not, made for very long waits (some servers also lost our receipts) and this was very frustrating. Would love to see tips included again as the whole process is a bit wacky as some servers blatantly asked us or reminded us about their tip at beginning of meal (and these servers surprisingly, gave bad service, go figure!)
Crowds - Hardly any restaurants were taking walk-ups at all. Most were booked up each and every night for dinner, but the few who took walk-ups (some were breakfast and some were for dinner) were giving about 45-90 mins waits, depending upon restaurant. Met many guests who thought they could just walk up to Chef Mickey's or Crystal Palace and get a table without reservations, so this made for some hostile situations at the podiums.
Refillable Mugs - This is a waste for us as we don't drink pop, and most resorts don't have apple juice, and this is a big problem. I don't want to debate the whole soda pop issue as I despise pop, so needless to say, the mugs got packed in our luggage and will be used here at home. We also didn't like the generic mugs either.
Misc - Restaurants that aren't owned by Disney are not allowing for bottled water while on DP because they only have large $6.50 bottles, and this made us crazy! This happened on last trip, but we honestly thought that with DX, they would have corrected that. When I can't get a bottle of water with an extremely overpriced $20.00 plate of pasta at Tutto Italia, yet the Plaza will give me that same $6.50 bottle with an $8.00 sandwich, we have problems!
Summary - We usually eat 2-3 TS meals per day, so the Deluxe was great in terms of finances (haven't figured it all out yet), but it was difficult at times to get to our ressies as the kids were having some issues. We did well though as we made use of snack credits for light lunches and bottled water. Regular DP has lost some value with absence of appetizer as we don't always eat dessert, but we stayed concierge level at end of our trip, and wanted a bit of a break. DX is a much better value - would love to see a DP with 2 TS and 1 snack per day and no refillable mug. We only order what we can eat, so we didn't order dessert or appetizers many times either.
We had some fabulous food, some stellar service and some incredible experiences (celebrated Mother's Day, birthday & anniversary). All in all, it was good, but some food and service needs to be drastically improved. Tutto Italia for instance is so grossly overpriced, just like Alfredo's was - I've had better food at Olive Garden, and places like Crystal Palace & 1900 Park Fare continue to be consistent by serving good food, great character interaction and good service, and most Signature restaurants, except for Brown Derby, are exceptional in every way! We also did the Mother's Day brunch @ Epcot, and were underwhelmed by this experience as well - food was ok, atmosphere was beautiful and service was ok - again, had to buy a bottle of water, which they added a service charge to - not impressed at all!
Please feel free to ask any questions of me and I'll do my best to answer them! Happy eating to all, Tiger
cha ching
