My Restaurant Rant...Please No Flames

[DawnaJean]

No Flames here either. One of the magical things about Disney is how more and more money magically comes out of our wallets and we smile the whole time as the money flies out!!!

I would love to eat at the castle again but the thought of paying $25 for my DS3 to eat a chicken nugget is hard to take. I am paying for Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace though - my DH will probably flip at the new prices (now that DD11 and DD10 are adults) and DS3 is now a paying customer .

I wish my pay went up as fast as these prices are rising!!!!!

Dawna

 

[mitros]

Well, based on the crowds and expectations it appears Disney is still considered a great bargin by more than enough people to fill the venues so don't expect them to become benevolent anytime soon.

I personally agree that they are getting close to tipping the balance of cost vs. worth for me but until the masses agree nothing will change...It's either worth it to have these experiences or it isn't.

Well Pete, unfortunatley you are correct. As long as folks keep paying, they'll keep raising. I wonder how many people go into some serious debt vacationing at WDW?

 

[Aimeedyan]

As long as people pay it, they'll keep hiking it. Which is a shame because it does prevent lots of families from doing those "special" things that Disney is known for (aka eating in the castle with Cindy).

I agree the prices are outrageous now at many of the buffets and character meals. Esp if you are a light eater! No flames here!

 

[Minniespal]

Interesting info ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[cjb71870]

Disney raises prices as well as Busch Gardens, Sea World, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. They all have similar prices and yet DW has way more to offer than they do!!!! All the parks raise at the same time.

 

[wendy_uk]

I totally agree Disney is very expensive. We have managed to go twice before, but in the school term time so it made it a bit cheaper, but this year we are having to go in the summer holidays due to my job and my ds doing his GCSE's so it is costing twice the amount as before £3800 just to get there, we are only staying Value, then add on tickets,car hire and meals. We are an average family and have had to save for 2 years for this holiday and I am sure I will still have to use my cc to pay for the tickets (we are a family of 4 DD11 DS14)

 

[LindsayDunn228]

No flames from me. Dining ANYWHERE in WDW can get pricey. In fact, my husband and I use our Disney Visa rewards for our table services.

 

[LindsayDunn228]

CRT is now $40? Holy crap! I thought the $24.99 was high, and yet it keeps climbing.

No kidding! We can go eat at the Caifornia Grill (our fave- a tradition on every trip) for cheaper than that. Good grief!

 

[ktmdad450]

We camp as to off set the food cost. BUT, fort wilderness is the only place I will pay 70 bucks a night to camp. I guess it's all part of a big market plan, but I'm sure Walt didn't have this in his vision.

 

[maggs]

No flames here either. Thats why I will be going off site as much as possible to eat. Much as I love eating inside WDW I have been pushed a little bit too far this time.

Maggs

 

[Caren]

A check of the old guidebooks (am I the only one that keeps them?) reveals that breakfast in the castle in 1996 cost all of $14.95. It was King Stephan's then and there were unspecified characters in attendance.

It's striking, too, how many eateries have disappeared without replacement--no wonder it's so hard to find a place to eat! My favorite place for breakfast in those days was the Tangaroa Terrace at the Polynesian. It felt sort of like a Denny's and the windows were perpetually fogged up but you could get a great breakfast buffet for under $10.

 

[Mad4Dizne]

You are absolutely right and I know we will be definately rethinking our dining budget/plan for our next trip and possibly those trips may be a bit farther apart now.

 

[Laura]

We're planning on only one table service restaurant--Boma. Everything else will be counter service until we get to St. Augustine. It's just way too expensive to eat table service all the time in WDW.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I have to say that not only have the prices increased, but the portions have shrunk and the quality I do not think is the same as we had when my children were little and we first started to coming to WDW.....

One that especially annoys my husband is the rice dream dessert at Norway, it is the incredible shrinking cup. We laugh over that one. I sometimes wonder if they think we do not notice.

No flames from me, I agree. Oh and Caren, I also remember the Tangorea Terrace at the Poly, my children loved to eat there. Great spot, I will never understand Disney's reason for discontinuing and not replacing.......it has to be a money decision, maybe the restaurant was losing money for them.

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

I agree! (And the 1983 guidebook I have doesn't have prices for meals, but considering a garden view room at the Poly was $95.00/night, I can only imagine!)

I think a great, relaxing dinner is part of the joy of a WDW vacation yet it's getting harder and harder to justify spending the money it takes.

In December, we pretty much ate where we wanted and ordered what we wanted to and just now am I paying off the bills from WDW! (Ironically the last bit of the December trip and the airline tickets for the next trip in August are on the same cc statement!)

I've learned my lesson- we chose one TS or buffet meal per day, except for one day where we're doing two (a breakfast which will be a brunch, really and a dinner) The rest of the time it's counter service or in-room dining (and I don't mean room service! I mean granola bars, oatmeal, and peanut butter and banana on rice cakes!) We're doing a grocery stop and will thus be avoiding most of the cost of snacks and breakfast items. We're also planning on sharing meals sometimes. We do it back home all the time, why not WDW?

I do have to say that admission to Universal is even higher than WDW! Prices for everything are getting out of control! And although slightly OT, I can really see a difference in the last decade or two in the amount of impoverished Americans. It seems to me that the amount of wealthy Americans grows, and the amount of poor Americans grows and the middle class is really dwindling. Sad, really.

And I do hope it changes.

 

[crisi]

Since 1996, I've noticed my grocery bill has gone way up too. I can't believe how expensive hamburger has gotten at the grocery store. And I used to be able to find plenty of good quality fruit for under a $1 a pound - now its difficult to find that unless the grapes look more like raisins. When gas prices go up, food prices go up, because it takes a lot of fuel to make and transport food.

Some of Disney's price increases are trying to balance supply and demand - I don't know if they have it right at Cindy's yet! But the majority of the price increase is that their costs have increased.

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

My niece loves Cinderella and would love to eat in the castle but with a party of 10, her being the only child, we decided it wasn't possible and not worth using 2 ts credits for, that makes it even seem like a larger amount to pay.

Last trip i took only DD for a party of 2 to make it more affordable. DD didn't eat a bite from excitement and it was still worth it to sit and have the characters come to us and to be IN the castle. Guys were sent off to Disneyquest which they thoroughly enjoyed for 8 hours.

 

[GailT]

I agree with you 100%. I am going to DL in Dec, the price for a standard room is almost $400.00. Disney has gone money hungry, I know this go up in price but for my 4 day trip there is is cocting over$1600.00 that is without the passes, so instead ostaying there, I am paying to fly to Vegas, gonns stay at the Bellasio for 3 nights and it is still costing less $$$$$$ then Disney. After this my Disney days are over, going to go outside of the circle and see other parts of this beautiful country

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

As prices have changed and our lifestyles as well we have found different ways to do things.

Instead of paying out $60-80 for a TS meal for the two of us we often just snack around the parks on our favorite things that are not available elsewhere. Even on our hungry days it still comes out to be about half of the price of the TS and we get exactly what we want when we want. Save a fortune on tips as well as time.

We also tend to eat our main meal before or after the parks OFF SITE. Since we drive to and from most parks it is simple to do.

I really cannot eat large amounts of food at one time anymore anyway so we seldom do a buffet.

I feel for those who do not drive or have a rental car as they are at the mercy of whatever prices the parks want to charge. I have been known to make a shopping trip for some that I meet.

If they come they will charge.

Slightly Goofy

 

[vellamint]

Our trip was just about paid for and then I actually started adding up what meals will cost........lets just say that my kids are hiding their toys and clothes so I dont Ebay them!!!! LOL (Kidding, kidding, or am I!)