New Meal Plans Possible

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

During our trip to WDW last week, my husband was approached at the Studios. He asked to join a focus group at a designated time/place and told he would be compensated. He decided to participate. The purpose of the group was to get folks opinion of new meal plan options. There were several different variations:

Kids Eat Free - children 3 to 9 eat free with purchase of adult meal, beverage included, offer available at any food/beverage location on property

All-Inclusive (sit-down) - 3 meals per day with non-alcoholic beverage, one snack, available anywhere on property, appetizer and dessert included with sit-down service, $45 per day for 1-2 days, $42 per day for 3-4 days, $39 for 5+ days

2-Meals Per Day (sit-down) - 2 meals with non-alcoholic beverage, available anywhere on property excluding fine dining locations (CG, Flying Fish, Chefs de France, V & A, and Alfredo's), appetizer and dessert included at sit-down meals, $29 per day for 1-2 days, $27 per day for 3-4 days, $25 for 5+ days

All-Inclusive (quick/counter service) - 3 meals per day with non-alcoholic beverage, available at any quick/counter service location on property, appetizer and dessert not included, $17 per day for 1-2 days, $14 per day for 3-4 days, $13 for 5+ days

2 Meals Per Day (quick/counter service) - 2 meals per days with non-alcoholic beverage, offer available at any quick/counter service location on property, appetizer and dessert not included, $11 per day for 1-2 days, $10 per day for 3-4 days, $9 for 5+ days


Refillable Mug - All fountain drinks, available at any food and beverage location on property, excluded alcoholic beverages, $15 for 1 day, $19 for 2 days, $22 for 3 days, $24 for 4 days, $25 for 5 or more days

Free Drinks with Meals - offer available with the purchase of a meal, at any quick counter service location on property, excludes alcoholic beverages

The participants were asked to listen to all the options and give their opinions of the plans. My husband said he preferred the 2 meal per day plans, they would work best for us. He was there about an hour and a half and we were given $100 in WDW gift certificates.

I don't know how likely it is that any of these plans will ever be offered to the public but it is interesting that the company is considering some of these. Are they wanting customers to eat more food while they are visiting WDW or are customers eating off property more?

 

[marybdisney]

Those all sound like good deals to me. I am budgeting $60 a day per adult for food ($10 breakfast, $12 lunch and $25 dinner with $13 for snacks, drinks, and such). Any of those plans would pretty much suit my budget.

 

[Rneighh]

Those sound like great deals to me. We do breakfast in the conceirge lounge, lunch is usually sit down, and dinner is counter service. I budget around $150 per day for our family of four. I would just at those offers.

Renee

 

[lovespugs]

I would LOVE the two meal a day plan! DH and I used the Silver plan last December, and we really enjoyed the wishes we used at restaurants. Unfortunately , we recently purchased DVC so no more Silver plan for us. We would love to be able to stay in our DVC villa and still have a meal plan!

 

[BCV23]

I would love to see WDW offer these...any of them but my favorites would be the all inclusive 3 meals sitdown or 2 meal sitdown if the nicer restaurants are somehow included (perhaps like the 2 wishes/day on Silver plan). Sure hope it happens. Especially hopes it starts by November!

 

[msteddom]

All of those plans sound great! I would have a hard time choosing between them. They all sound like a good deal!

 

[KHuntress]

I would love for some of these to "come true" soon! The "wishes" programs (silver, etc.) have never worked for us, because it is hard for our kids (3 and 7) to get their money's worth, unless we are doing a lot of shows (Hoop de Doo, etc). However, we are pretty serious park commandos, and stay parkside pretty much sunrise through close of day. These plans seem much more reasonable!

 

[#1hockeymom]

I hope they put some of these plans into action! With my newfound love, the Swan, as my hotel of choice, we can't add the silver plan and still get the reduced teacher rate. This would be wonderful! I would think that the different meal plans would also help AP holders and the DVC members. I like the idea that they are thinking about lowering the prices for the meal plans per day depending on how many days you are staying.

I hope they're listening and reacting up there in the board rooms!

Debbie

 

[polyfan]

I would like to see the kids eat free. It sure would be great for us, especially with one who eats a single cookie at a character dinner. And to think Ipaid $10 for that cookie.

 

[GRAYWIFE]

It would be great if the kids could eat free. Our DD is a super pickey eater and it is hard to swallow paying so much for bread and milk!!! The other meal plans sound good too. It would be nice to have these options in the future.

 

[Kitster]

Any of the 2-3 meals per day plans would be fantastic. I just hope they would be available to people staying at the DTD hotels as well as on property locations. We usually stay at CBM, so this would be fantastic.

Here's hoping

 

[BCV23]

I agree that this would be great for AP holders &/or DVC members. We use to do an all inclusive package most trips but when we started going more than once/year APs made more sense. Now that we're DVC members room/meal packages are of no use to us.

I would love having a meal only package to choose.

 

[jennymouse]

I wish they would do this and give a choice between all of them. When I'm taking (if I ever do again) my DD29 & kids who are picky eaters, the 2 meal or counter service plan would work best. If I'm taking a friend who will dine at the good places with me the 3 meal plan will work best. I think it's an excellent value. When I sort of plan my food budget or advise anyone going with me about a food budget, I always tell them to figure $50 per day per person.

I sooo hope this comes to pass.

 

[disneyjunkie]

That sounds great. I love the 2 meal a day and the refillable mug plan.


The kids eat free deal sounds great also, but that one won't work for me. DS 's 11.

 

[SamSam]

As a DVC member I would love the 2 meal a day plan. Dh and I are extemely light breakfast eaters, but we do love our food the other 2 meals.
Since they're excluding the fine dining places from the sit down meals, could you name a few that would be inclued?

 

[eeyore0062]

They all sound pretty good, but since we hop all over the place, we are usually not in the same park for all 3 meals, and many times, not for even 2.

Therefore, I would probably not choose any of them.

 

[BabyMo]

This really sounds interesting. DH and I used Discovery Magic (now called the Silver Plan) for our HM trip. I liked it because it gave me a chance to sample a lot of the restaurants for my first trip but I didn't like feeling the need to gorge at the restaurants.

The two meals a day plan sounds great, although we generally only have one sit down meal per day...........those prices are pretty good, so I think I could make it my business to eat two sit-down meals per day.

I hope they offer some of those meal plans! Thanks for sharing!

 

[sherry8253]

That would be great if Disney did this. I would love to prepay for our entire trip. We used to add on the old Disney Dining option when it was available and miss is. My vote would be the 2 sitdown meal plan since we never do 3 big meals a day. Thanks for sharing the info.

 

[BCV23]

Originally posted by eeyore0062
They all sound pretty good, but since we hop all over the place, we are usually not in the same park for all 3 meals, and many times, not for even 2.

Therefore, I would probably not choose any of them.

As far as I know there have never been any plans that limit you to one park. We used to do the Gold Key plan and we always hopped. Still do. We're very rarely in one park for more than one meal. Really can't recall the last time we did so. The various plans have always been good in the resorts too.

 

[eeyore0062]

Perhaps I read the original post incorrectly, but I was under the impression that the meal deals would be for each individual park and purchased the day of use, like the one already in place at Animal Kingdom.

For those unfamiliar with the current meal plan in AK, it goes like this:

For $11.95 per adult and $5.95 per child you get a set of vouchers that are good for one entree with large drink, one box or popcorn or ice cream, and one bottled drink to be used the day of purchase at AK.

Therefore, if the meal deals are exclusive to the individual parks, as is the one at AK, it would not be of much interest to me, unless it was formatted similarly to that at the AK.