Many years ago, I said Disney pricing works like this:
Take an item, a meal, etc.
Use your imagination to thing of the absolutely most outrageous price that one could charge for it.
Double that price.
That will give you the Disney price.
My formula held years ago, and it still does!
My complaint, now, is that the quality of the food and dining experiences for that high price are declining precipitously. I challenge anyone to order a dessert at any restaurant that takes the
DDP and compare it with dessert at a restaurant that does not. The difference is astounding. The quality of the dessert at a DDP restaurant will be low -- they are now mass produced due to DDP and free dining. And yet they still cost $10 a dessert!!
The last Artist Point dessert we had, before we swore off AP forever, was nothing more than a glorifed zebra dome, which I am no fan of anyway. It was only slightly larger than a zebra dome, was obviously supplied by the thousands by some third party vendor and simply pulled from the freezer and slapped on the plate with a squirt of sauce whenever dessert was ordered.
I contrast that with the absolutely scrumptious desserts we had at Fulton's, last month which does not take DDP. I would say their $8 key lime pie and cherry cobbler with ice cream were the two best desserts of our vacation (aside from the kona chocolate souffle at V&A).
We also used to love the cheese plate at CG. This time, although it still cost $20, it clearly had been pre-plated hours before. The cheese had already dried out. Disappointing. That, together with the wines by the glass, which were way past the point of being able to be served in terms of age and oxidation mean we have now sworn off CG as well.
Aside from Jiko, we now avoid any restaurant that takes DDP. And, we won't order dessert at Jiko anymore because their silly slab of "Peruvian" chocolate something we ate last month (not sure how we got from Africa to Peru, but whatever) was not worth $10 and was a pale shadow of the amazing desserts of yesteryear. So, we will continue to dine at Jiko due to the appetizers, entrees and excellent South African wine list, but we won't order dessert anymore.
Our best meals last month by far were had at Il Mulino, Bice, Emeril's, Fulton's and V&A.
Seems to be a pattern there.
IMO, food at Disney has simply become a way for management to improve the bottom-line. How can food (which is cheap for Disney) be used to keep people on site, and to maximize hotel room revenues. It's no longer about dining -- at all. I miss the Eisner days when things like dining and wine and sommeliers and the Disney Institute actually mattered. These days it is all numbers crunching, all the time. It shows everywhere -- from the quality of the food to the fact that lots of places around WDW looked surprisingly dirty and unkempt last month.
For the rest, I don't want to visit the outlet stores (and spend more money) and I don't want to visit other attractions (and spend even more money).
Disney isn't exactly a bargain, but they are certainly better than some places! And IMHO is worth every penny! Thanks for the post...interesting!
