News Round Up

[Dean Marino]

Ok...I have to ask now...

Do you consider Disney world class food?

That depends. Do you live in Paris? NYC? Chicago? San Francisco? We do not . Our little burg's idea of fine dining is pretty much a third world Japanese Steak House, a joke restaurant owned by the town corporation, and burger/taco joints .

As a consequence? YES - we consider WDW to have far better offerings than our retirement town . Now - we are not fools.... just got back from San Francisco, and IT'S restaurants. Clearly superior .

BUT - we also get the difference between crippled DDP WDW restaurants, vs independent NON WDW OWNED restaurants. Heading much more to places that do NOT accept the DDP crippling experience .

 

[Dean Marino]

No, it's Disney trying to make every penny they can for a mediocre meal! There hasn't been a memorable meal served in WDW for a long time. The meals now are just overpriced generic foods that you find almost everywhere in America. Disney quit caring about making the dining experience special and started worrying about the bottom line instead.

Don't go.

 

[Eoghann]

more like subsidy for disney dining package if you arent on it =$12 that would replace iger lost in space because before the dining plan, the food especially at the character buffets was at least decent and it didnt cost $60. Some of the price increases are the result of increases in ingredient costs over the years, but alot of the cost increases are to cover the losses incured with the dining plan and of course it's even worse when they do free dining. Disney should get rid of the dining plan and cut prices for everyone. maybe instead of the dining plan you could offer a discount like the do in disneyland.

I'm not convinced Disney loses money on the dining plan. In fact the way it is set up, I'm pretty sure they make quite a lot because many people don't use all the credits.

However, to make it work they have clearly standardized a lot of the food across the parks.

 

[cmash95]

the snack credits are the ones that arent used up mpst of the time but the meal credits are almost always used

 

[rteetz]

Just to chime in here, where are you getting a steak at $24? Outback? Possibly. Ruth's Chris? Not even on your birthday. Most real steakhouses in my area,the Deep South, start at $40. Just an observation.

I think he was talking about what the meal is actually worth. You're always going to have an up charge for fine dining and when you're eating at a special place like a theme park. No meal is really worth more than $50 even if they charge that or more for it. It just all depends on the place.

 

[rteetz]

I'm not convinced Disney loses money on the dining plan. In fact the way it is set up, I'm pretty sure they make quite a lot because many people don't use all the credits.

However, to make it work they have clearly standardized a lot of the food across the parks.

I've done the dining plan twice. At the end we always had snack credits left we would just go in the gift shop and grab bags of candy that we could take home with us.

 

[rteetz]

That depends. Do you live in Paris? NYC? Chicago? San Francisco? We do not . Our little burg's idea of fine dining is pretty much a third world Japanese Steak House, a joke restaurant owned by the town corporation, and burger/taco joints .

As a consequence? YES - we consider WDW to have far better offerings than our retirement town . Now - we are not fools.... just got back from San Francisco, and IT'S restaurants. Clearly superior .

BUT - we also get the difference between crippled DDP WDW restaurants, vs independent NON WDW OWNED restaurants. Heading much more to places that do NOT accept the DDP crippling experience .

You know I have to wonder which Disney resort around the world has the best quality of food. Disneyland doesn't seem to have a lot of table service places because it's a locals park. WDW has places like Epcot that have all sorts of dining To choose from. DLP has two parks and I have never really heard much about their restaurants. Hong Kong is just one park. Tokyo might be the answer here but again I've never heard much about their restaurants. It seems that only at WDW people talk about the restaurants just as much as the attractions.

 

[rteetz]

D-tech on demand is coming to Disneyland

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...-debuts-at-d-street-at-the-disneyland-resort/

 

[916chipndale]

I've done the dining plan twice. At the end we always had snack credits left we would just go in the gift shop and grab bags of candy that we could take home with us.

Same, and the first time I did the dining plan I thought there was no way 1 snack a day would be enough but it was. The only time I really use a snack is at night when I get back to the hotel I will usually just get a brownie or something like that. Sometimes I use one in the park (usually for one of the slushie type things). I do usually have a decent amount of snacks to bring home.

 

[rteetz]

Same, and the first time I did the dining plan I thought there was no way 1 snack a day would be enough but it was. The only time I really use a snack is at night when I get back to the hotel I will usually just get a brownie or something like that. Sometimes I use one in the park (usually for one of the slushie type things). I do usually have a decent amount of snacks to bring home.

Yep exactly how we did it too. We'd always feel like well we don't want to waste a snack credit on a soda or something which is probably a good way to get rid of them on a daily basis. Otherwise we would get things like slushies or a dole whip.

 

[rteetz]

Behold a fantastic look at the mountains of Pandora! I've heard that this construction project and its imersiveness is likely to beat Diagon Alley and become the best themed land in the U.S.

http://damouse.com/2015/09/16/aerial-photography-shows-pandora-world-of-avatar-rising-into-reality/

 

[skier_pete]

Just to chime in here, where are you getting a steak at $24? Outback? Possibly. Ruth's Chris? Not even on your birthday. Most real steakhouses in my area,the Deep South, start at $40. Just an observation.

The quality is far closer to outback than Ruth Chris...

My valuation is oversimplified...granted...but there's has been - generally speaking - a 200% markup in about a decade.

I would agree at say Le Cellier, but we go to high-end steakhouses a couple times a year. And Yachtsman is on par with any steak I've had anywhere - and honestly the price - $40 to $50 a meal WITH a side - is on par with better end steakhouses - we find that Yachtsman is actually one of the better "values" (maybe not the right term) at Disney. Again, the signature restaurants, while certainly not cheap, are more on par with big city restaurants in quality and price.

The buffets are in fact ridiculously priced - but you are paying through the nose for those character interactions. $20 for an slightly above average all you can eat buffet - $20 to meet characters without having to wait in line. I agree with your point @lockedoutlogic that prices go up much faster than they should, but people continue to pay the prices, so why would they stop. (Like $60 dessert parties and $80 Halloween parties.)

 

[luisov]

You know I have to wonder which Disney resort around the world has the best quality of food. Disneyland doesn't seem to have a lot of table service places because it's a locals park. WDW has places like Epcot that have all sorts of dining To choose from. DLP has two parks and I have never really heard much about their restaurants. Hong Kong is just one park. Tokyo might be the answer here but again I've never heard much about their restaurants. It seems that only at WDW people talk about the restaurants just as much as the attractions.

Paris has some lovely restaurants (Bistrot Chez Rémy being an excellent meal) but it is quite pricey. I've heard Tokyo has some pretty cool restaurant experiences (Magellan's at DisneySea seems to be amazing based just on the theming), but I'm not sure about the food quality. DL doesn't have as many options, but Carthay Circle and a few others are quite good. But yeah, overall food seems to be a lot more important at WDW than it is at most of the other resorts.

 

[luisov]

Behold a fantastic look at the mountains of Pandora! I've heard that this construction project and its imersiveness is likely to beat Diagon Alley and become the best themed land in the U.S.

http://damouse.com/2015/09/16/aerial-photography-shows-pandora-world-of-avatar-rising-into-reality/

Can't wait to see the final product. As I've said before, you don't have to be a fan of a story to appreciate a highly immersive and beautiful land.

 

[soniam]

Paris has some lovely restaurants (Bistrot Chez Rémy being an excellent meal) but it is quite pricey. I've heard Tokyo has some pretty cool restaurant experiences (Magellan's at DisneySea seems to be amazing based just on the theming), but I'm not sure about the food quality. DL doesn't have as many options, but Carthay Circle and a few others are quite good. But yeah, overall food seems to be a lot more important at WDW than it is at most of the other resorts.

Carthay Circle is really good. I think Napa Rose at Grand Californian is supposed to be good too.

 

[rteetz]

Carthay Circle is really good. I think Napa Rose at Grand Californian is supposed to be good too.

Doesn't the same chef run both?

 

[soniam]

Doesn't the same chef run both?

Possibly, I don't know.

When we ate at Carthay Circle, we were seated next to an Imagineer and his boss. She was taking him to lunch for his 5 year work anniversary. It was hard not to eavesdrop

 

[skier_pete]

Carthay Circle is really good. I think Napa Rose at Grand Californian is supposed to be good too.

Doesn't the same chef run both?

We were very impressed with Carthay Circle and we've eaten there twice. Most of Disneyland's best dining though is outside the parks. (Napa Rose as mentioned, also Steakhouse 55 are both in the hotels. Catal was also very good.) We've also eaten at Cafe Orleans which we thought was pretty good. I was not particularly impressed with the in park QS food outside of Hungry Bear, but I've only been twice so there is still quite a bit to sample we haven't tried. Hoping to get in a little more variety come February. Overall I would put the quality on a similar level to WDW, maybe a little weaker because the variety is limited.

I think WDW tends to be more restaurant focused because of the abject desire to keep you there all the time. DLR doesn't keep you trapped at the resort. Therefore the food has to keep you satisfied. We've been a dozen times, eaten probably on the order of 200-300 meals, and I can count the meals I've been disappointed in on one hand with a few fingers left over. (And two of those fingers are reserved for Chef Mickey's.) Are the meals expensive? Yup.

The other thing I'd like to point out is some mention the DDP. While the price for meals have gone up significantly in the past 10 years, the DDP has gone up outrageously. It has nearly doubled in 10 years, while I say food prices have perhaps risen by 30-40%. The DDP used to be a great value. It now CAN be a decent value - if you eat a lot of character meals for example - especially with children under 9 - then it's still a good deal - but not always. Our trip just two weeks ago we spent $141 a day average in food for 3 people. We only had 6 TS restaurants across 11 days (one character meal, and one signature restaurant in there), but still...the DDP would have cost us $180 a day, which over 10 nights would've been $400 more (not counting that tips are OOP), so we could have easily chosen more TS options and STILL spent less than the DDP. We did watch our spending to a degree, but we easily beat the DDP with minimal effort. (10 years ago when it first started, it was $35 a person, and included tip.)

I also want to point out in 1997 my wife and I had a $100 a day budget for food, and at the time struggled to stay under it, 18 years later we just did a $150 a day budget with our daughter included, and beat it - so just thinking really how much have prices really gone up?

I apologize, I swung way off topic on this post.

 

[Joben]

way to not take the thread too far off topic Pete

I know I'm getting a bit OT from the news and rumors thread -

 

[soniam]

@skier_pete
I love Hungry Bear. I so wish they had that fried green tomato sandwich at WDW or at home. That sandwich was an amazing surprise. I had read an article before our DLR trip, where chefs in Southern California were talking about their favorite sandwich and a few of them mentioned that one, even though the article wasn't about DLR. The cupcakes are very good too, but it would take a lot to ruin a cupcake for me