Just back from WDW - Has the food gotten worse or is it just me?

[Fairiebee]

Well....I hate to hear that, but I take it with a grain of salt, because I am sure your theory has something to do with that [free dining] and that is a bummer when you're DVC members and paying. However, even Disney has bad days, [they'll never admit it] but it's true. You can't maintain 24/7 365 day perfection. A CM is going to have a bad day or the food is off...overall I think the quality is phenomenal, considering the volume of service they provide on any given day.

 

[drakethib]

because I am sure your theory has something to do with that [free dining] and that is a bummer when you're DVC members and paying.

You could not be more wrong in regards to the theory.

As I have said before and I believe a couple of others have said the same, I have no issue for paying for good quality food. I do it while I am at home, I have no problem doing it on vacation.

Again, some may find the food was great for the time period that we were there and maybe my families taste buds were out of whack that week. I don't know.

But when one the Rainforest Cafe was one of our best tasting meals in 7 days of dining, I think there is an issue.

Again. JMHO. YMMV

 

[BriarRosie]

I don't think I'd make a blanket statement that the food is worse at all the WDW restaurants. We've been going for years (20+) and there is an ebb and flow at each individual restaurant. For example, when WCC opened in the early 90's it was a great place to eat because of the food. Now its food isn't that special, but people love it for the antics.

Yeah, only one example here - there are many more - but the point is that you have to gauge each place individually and recognize that some will be on their way up, some on their way down. If you happen to hit the ones on their way down then I can see how you would come to the conclusion that the food is getting worse. If you happen to hit the ones on their way up, you'd say its getting better.

I wanted to chime in to add to the "on their way up" comments. But for me, I'm referring to the executive chefs themselves.

Back when Le Cellier was in its prime, the chef in charge was Brian Piasecki. He left Le Cellier to run Jiko after Annette Gray left Disney. And most recently in the spring, Brian left Jiko and became the executive chef at California Grill after Jens Dahlmann left to be the executive chef for Epcot food and beverage.

Again, Jens started at Flying Fish, moving to California Grill, on to Epcot now. Hopefully he can foster some change there. But as you see, some of the star chefs can impact the restaurants, too.

 

[Beckypooh1972]

We have had similar disappointing dining experiences at Disney. IMO, the counter service restaurants tend to offer too few choices while the T.S. meals are overpriced and poor quality (at times) compared to the quality you can get off property. That said, Disney does a decent job considering how many people they feed and let's face it, we're a captive audience. The DDP works great in terms of convenience but I know I can get better meals (value-wise) off property. We've never used the DDP unless it was free; the food options would have to improve for us to consider paying for the DDP. Also, we have small children so the T.S. dining experiences are sometimes a hassle if service is slow and the kids get antsy or we can't find something they'll eat on the kid menus. (Really miss the chicken strips!)

 

[snocrossmechanic]

I have never used the dining plan and I don't think I will. We have two little kids and they get hungry at off times and varied times.

I am quite bothered every time you sit down at a disney restaurant and are asked, " are you on the dining plan" as the first question. Can't we just assume everyone would like something to drink, dining plan or not? Maybe ease into the question when we start to order rather than present it as the first question. I feel that we are given different levels of service based on that answer. Also, I would not like to be told what specific items I can eat based on a "plan". I would like access to the entire menu and I choose the Tables of Wonderland as such.

I concur that the food has gone downhill in the last few years. We now eat two meals away from the parks and do our best to pick a simple lunch in the parks. My kids can live on Mickey bars if needed

 

[lindsey clare]

Maybe they should start adding beets?
It would hide the taste of the "meat".

i'm not sure if anyone else has pointed this out yet, but the beets on our burgers are not raw! they usually use canned beetroot which is pre-cooked and sliced. and it is yummy

 

[gbrchill]

We came back from WDW on the free CS DP at the beginning of the month. We found the range of food available on the CS dining plan a real problem. We were staying at PO FQ but the food court there and at POR didn't seem to have the same level of choice that they did have when we last visited two years ago. We enjoyed eating at CS in the Pepper Market, but there wasn't a great deal of choice there either (imagine being there for any length of time). There appeared to be lots of rubbish food but not much good food (lots of fried food [or chicken/ribs] but not much in the way of vegetables). We also thought that the quality was worse than last time.

Our favourite place to eat was Wolfgang Puck Express. The food was consistently good, from a broad menu, although there's only so many times that you want to eat creme brulee.

The free CS dining plan saved us money, but there's no way that I'd spend money on it or the TS one. I'd rather spend my dining dollars eating decent meals off site.

The best meal we has was also the cheapest one (at Manny's Chop House in Haines City).

 

[rosiep]

I've been to Disney every year for the past 6 years and there is a noticable decline in the quality and variety of foods being offered. I make it a point to go out of my way to make my meal experiences diverse but I am finding a lot of the food disappointing to say the least. The Asian foods are grocery deli quality, The Italian restaurants all offer the same dishes, and the hamburgers have begun to taste like cardboard!

So what's the answer? Is letter writing effective? Do our opinions matter more than cost cutting?

I don't know...but I do know that if we don't speak up Disney will assume that the changes are not being noticed and the quality will continue to decline.

 

[Joshua_me]

I am quite bothered every time you sit down at a disney restaurant and are asked, " are you on the dining plan" as the first question. Can't we just assume everyone would like something to drink, dining plan or not? Maybe ease into the question when we start to order rather than present it as the first question.

This bothers us as well.

It's as if the server is saying, "I need to know if I have to pretend to be nice to you or not..."

That's not *always* the case, of course, but I've seen too many smiles on server's faces when we tell them we are NOT on the dining plan to think otherwise.

The restaurants at The Swan and Dolphin get more and more appealing on every trip. "The Fountain" at The Dolphin is where we eat most of our meals these days, and we leave feeling happy and full.

 

[Jennygt]

This bothers us as well.

It's as if the server is saying, "I need to know if I have to pretend to be nice to you or not..."

That's not *always* the case, of course, but I've seen too many smiles on server's faces when we tell them we are NOT on the dining plan to think otherwise.

The restaurants at The Swan and Dolphin get more and more appealing on every trip. "The Fountain" at The Dolphin is where we eat most of our meals these days, and we leave feeling happy and full.

I agree, we just came back and the food was not as good and the ddp is now a pain, just try to get out at the end of a meal with 4 adults who are in 2 different rooms and all on the plan, we walked out with 6 reciepts, most of the wait staff can not explain things and it makes for long delays getting oiut and I am sure later adrs for others, I also felt very rushed, Cali grille was the exception and Chefs was better, Kona had no idea how to do the bill and it took my parents 45 min to get out with only needing to pay for one kids meal and tip. I am done with ddp after this trip and I was a fan in the past. What is the cost of talbles in wonderland? Where can i get it? How long does it last?

 

[teskak]

i'm not sure if anyone else has pointed this out yet, but the beets on our burgers are not raw! they usually use canned beetroot which is pre-cooked and sliced. and it is yummy

Hooray - an Aussie to stick up for us! If you no want beetroot - do not ask for an Aussie burger

 

[Kimberle]

The food and service has become much, much more generic and "assembly line". There is an old saying "be careful what you wish for, you just may get it". Well, WDW "wished" for more people to eat more food on property, and they got it. Many times they are not capable of handling the volumn. The dining was the worst I've ever seen it during our August trip. Because of "free dining", more people were eating more food than they normally do. The counter service lines were ridiculously long. I waited over 20 minutes to get lunch at TL. When I left, the line was more than double. I felt bad for the staff as they were working hard, guest were getting short tempered. They were just not equipt to handle such a volumn.

I hate "free dining". You have to pay full price for a room. You get way to much food. When not on the dining plan, how many people really order dessert with each counter service meal? The dining plan itself is poorly designed. My 10 yo was served giant portions of adult meals that mainly went into the trash. What a waste. Many times we'd eat when we really weren't hungry because we had to follow the "schedule". You couldn't make last minute changes to your TS meals because everything was booked. We'd walk into a park and see signs that all TS locations were full, and please try xyz counter services locations.

I do think "free dining" will be around for a long time. It's gotto be a big money maker for WDW. Guests seem to "love" it.

 

[kaligal]

It's not you, OP. Selection and quality have been declining steadily ever since they started the dining plans.

 

[kbelle8995]

The food has become monotonous. The Cheeseburger, pasta dish and cucumber melon salad are everywhere. The individuality of the restaurants has disappeared. I find myself looking for restaurants off property more and more

I've always placed this problem on the dining plan. I just don't see the dining plan as being a bargain.

 

[lugnut33]

My experience with CS meals in the parks (had about 4 while we were there) was less than pleasurable. The food quality was low and prices high.

All other meals we ate either in our villa (DVC, you can do that) or off-site. We had some really good meals off-site, especially Sweet Tomatoes. Loved that place and it was about $11 per person for a huge delicious salad, soup, potato, and desert buffet.

 

[TDC Nala]

I don't post here normally but this is the only board my computer will actually open for some reason and I need to use up my lunch break.

When the servers ask first thing if you are on the dining plan, they don't do it so they can decide whether or not to hate you - they do it because dining plan checks are different from non-dining-plan checks and they have to know what kind of check to ring up. If you have people at one table like the last time I went to Artist Point - 2 on the dining plan, 2 not on the dining plan, non-plan people using TIW, plan people using TIW for a bottle of wine - guess what, the server got everything mixed up and split all the checks incorrectly and it took forever to get out of there because there wasn't any easy way to fix the checks - they had to get manager overrides and ring everything up over again. No wonder they're relieved if they get a table that isn't using the dining plan and just wants a regular old check. I loved the food at Artist Point but I am not really interested in going back for awhile after the service issues.

I do NOT like the dining plan. I can't imagine using it for a long trip. Actually I would now have a difficult time using it for ANY trip. I like spontenaity, and the really good restaurants at WDW don't take it. Some are forgetting the other variable about Disney keeping people onsite - Magical Express. If you don't want to rent a car (or pay for a cab) you lose the option of eating offsite, and a lot of guests (like me) are not going to rent a car to eat offsite when we can get our transportation at no extra cost. We just have to know where to go to eat - and now, if you want consistently good stuff you almost always have to pick a restaurant that won't take the dining plan.

Read the restaurant board sometime - just today we had a post from a guest who loves the California Grill, just got back, and said the sushi was "awful." Agreed upon by the poster, her husband, and the people at the next table. Went back on another night, got entrees, didn't like those either. I was there September 1 and found the sushi as excellent as I've always thought it was. So a month ago it was excellent and now it's awful? Are these the same restaurants? That happens a lot on the dining board.

The CS restaurants aren't awful but they're not all that great either. I was especially disappointed in Wolfgang Puck Express (August 30) which was serving soggy pizza with dry chicken pieces on it. And most everyone else seems to love Wolfgang Puck Express (so did I when I bought pizza there a couple years ago).

 

[DisneyKevin]

I don't post here normally but this is the only board my computer will actually open for some reason and I need to use up my lunch break.

Welcome....even if we are your default choice.

 

[TDC Nala]

Thanks...I'll wander back to my own board when it works... was trying to see if anyone else was getting "awful" sushi at CG.

 

[wishspirit]

My experience with CS meals in the parks (had about 4 while we were there) was less than pleasurable. The food quality was low and prices high.

All other meals we ate either in our villa (DVC, you can do that) or off-site. We had some really good meals off-site, especially Sweet Tomatoes. Loved that place and it was about $11 per person for a huge delicious salad, soup, potato, and desert buffet.

We loved Sweet Tomatoes too. We walked (yes walked John, I told you we'd do it! ) from Downtown Disney one night, which was only about a 20 minute walk. Although Goodings was terrible (most of the food there was cheaper at Disney! ), Sweet Tomatoes was great for a bit of fruit and veg!

 

[dgackey]

It would be interesting to overlay overall satisfaction with dining with attendance numbers and whether "free dining" was an active promotion or not.

Based on the fact that many posters report a wild inconsistency in food quality from trip to trip or even during the same trip, it seems only reasonable to assume that patron volume is really hurting the overall quality of the dining experience.

I haven't been to WDW in a decade, but am planning a trip in May (including taking both my young kids who have never been) and have been considering the DDP as a cost-saving measure, but some of the comments in this thread have given me pause.

I certainly don't want to be driving all over Orlando for dinner. Staying on-site carries a premium and part of that is knowing we don't have to do that. I can even deal with the 6-months-early reservations (I'm a planner) but I'm a little dumbfounded by the idea that after all of that, the food just wouldn't be good.

I don't expect gourmet (all the time), but I do expect better than average.