Price increase too much?

[Praying Colonel]

A good deal of the increase in food costs is the weather this year. Our area farmers have lost crops due to rain, unseasonable cold, hail, etc. It has occurred all over the Country.

I'm sure when farmers have a good year and food costs decline, Disney will get right on decreasing those menu prices. (Insert sarcasm font here.)

For us the menu price increases were part of an overall increase in prices (tickets, lodging, etc.) that induced giggles in us. We responded by staying offsite more often and eating more of our meals either in our condo or on the local economy. Now we just spend our vacation $ elsewhere. None of this surprises me--we're not their target demographic anymore and there are plenty of people who will pay what Disney is charging.

 

[scard192]

when the grand kids were younger we had free dining which at that time was the DDP so they experienced lots of Character Meals. Now that they are older the kids are very vocal that "they don't want to waste time dining at TS places" when they could be riding attractions and frankly the TS prices are just too high for this Grandma. Could we pay it? Yes, but we choose not too. every part of a WDW vacation keeps going up: food, resort, tickets, airfare and we will be trying to save $$ on food.
I will have close to $200 in Disney Visa Rewards by our 2020 trip and the grand daughters will be the ones to chose where we spend it. They want CM or 1900PF.

 

[Nancyg56]

I'm sure when farmers have a good year and food costs decline, Disney will get right on decreasing those menu prices. (Insert sarcasm font here.)

.

I do not deny that Disney is very expensive in terms of dining. I am saying that while the increase may not be attributed in total to the increases in produce, meat and dairy, I would bet my farm that they are responding to them not only as they experience them but because they must forecast what is to come in whatever period they project their costs to be.

 

[Anthony1971]

The food prices are now obnoxious. I have a trip the end of the month for a dear friends wedding. I doubt we will be back any time in the near future. I hate the planning, I hate the prices of everything. Oh well, there is always someone else willing to go

Gotta say I like this....
For those who a trip was a splurge it becomes even harder. For those who it is not a splurge for it just leaves bad feelings. There is just no reason for most of the prices and changes like giving child size cups when you get an ice water at a QS.

 

[Ds4angels]

DS will be OSUT, if he gets the MOS (job he wants) so doubt he'll be home right after training. And I know his older brother just wanted to be home and visit w/ everyone when he got leave.
For those looking for pricing, Josh @easyWDW posted the new prices for buffet (which Disney never posts the actual price just a range)
Interesting to see everyone's take on this. I know food prices are going up, but $55 per person for the family style GG is a stretch, it's not like they are giving you top quality meats there.

 

[loves to dive]

We don't eat at buffets so those price increases don't bother us. We have never really thought the prices for TS at WDW to be too extreme given they are located in or around an amusement park and all food at all amusement parks is higher than your local food might be. We live in a college town very close to Atlanta so the prices here at decent restaurants is pretty close to WDW prices for us. And by decent I'm not talking somewhere you would need a reservation (there are no such restaurants in our town by the way) I'm talking just simple chain restaurants like Red Lobster or Outback. We can easily spend over $100 for a meal and that is without appetizers and sharing a dessert and each having one drink. Drinks in our bars are pretty close to WDW prices as well.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Oh yeah, Disney is only raising prices due to rising costs....

Let's see cost goes up 5%, that equals at 15% increase in Disney.....

Costs are going up because Disney bought Fox and they need YOUR cash to pay for that deal

And I live in Atlanta. Sorry but the pricing here is better, the service is better and the food is better. LOL!

 

[mom2rtk]

Oh yeah, Disney is only raising prices due to rising costs....

Let's see cost goes up 5%, that equals at 15% increase in Disney.....

Costs are going up because Disney bought Fox and they need YOUR cash to pay for that deal

And when the deal pays off and Disney starts making money on it, they'll still increase prices. Remember when Shanghai Disney was the excuse for all the increases?

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

And when the deal pays off and Disney starts making money on it, they'll still increase prices. Remember when Shanghai Disney was the excuse for all the increases?

They never make these excuses publicly. And they will just have another internal reason the cash cow of the business (theme parks) needs to pay more. I am kind of over it.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I live in a resort area and have seen food prices go up a lot this year everywhere. I think it is a trend. A sandwich that used to be $13 was "not so bad" is now $17, and ridiculous. that bump is a huge percentage. I'm not sure if there is some greater trend in the country (like with construction materials going up due to tariffs going up) or what but I would not be surprised as a lot of produce and I bet even meat is farmed in central/south america. It seems like american farmers have been very affected by all this stuff going on and now we are having to subsidize them, this is going to trickle down to the cost of food.

A quick google shows that food prices escalating is a thing being talked about in the news, especially the rising price of eggs... which could explain the disproportionate breakfast rise.
.

You are definitely right that food prices are rising everywhere. DH and I were eating at a Cuban restaurant that we love by our house the other night and I noticed that the sandwich he always ordered had gone up by $3 in price.

 

[wcw57]

DW and I recently slowed (almost to a full stop) going to a local restaurant for lunch....its close, quick, and good food. Our bill has increased 20% over the past year. THAT is not food costs or labor (in this case it is not conjecture....) but the new owner trying to make a bit more $$$, which is okay with me. He can raise the prices to whatever he wants (as we do in our business) with the understanding that there may be fallout.

Disney has not reached a tipping point yet....it's pretty amazing, if you think about it, how much money people have to spend on vacations....I'm including myself here.

Personally, I don't get all the people buying into the time shares....uh, I mean DVC. By comparison, the meals are an absolute STEAL!!!

 

[TeresaWen]

We are here for two weeks. Other than a few food & wine lunched we booked, we will probably do 2 dinners in Signature restaurants. In fact tonight I’m cooking king salmon in my offsite villa. A fantastic bottle of Pinot to pair. Dining on our screened in porch.

We love Disney but we continue to modify how we do Disney.

I agree. Most of the prices are downright obnoxious. We were considering a breakfast out. Way way overpriced. For me overpriced is so much worse than expensive.

 

[gillep]

We usually book either Boma or Biergarten for our January trip, not this year due to the price, not worth it for us. We started going off site a couple years ago for one meal and we may expand that this time or at least do some DS restaurants instead.

 

[NYCgrrl]

About the only buffet we like to eat at is on Sunday @ CG and it's quite difficult to get a reservation. We'll be there for 4 Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas and nothing so far.

 

[deanimal]

We are a Canadian family travelling in Europe for 4 months and plan to drop in on Disney World for a couple of weeks in early December before heading back to Canada. I looked briefly at DW food prices while trip planning and just burst out laughing. What a rip off! We were last there in 2013 with preschoolers so we did a few buffets and character meals and even then we thought it was barely worthwhile with lower prices and one kid free. And to those who say prices are similar in their hometowns, let me break something to you: we're all getting hugely ripped off in North America!

I'm currently in Venice, Italy. Supposed to be the most overpriced city in Europe, right? Well, we can order two pizzas, large enough for two adults and two kids plus bottled water and wine for the equivalent of under $30 US. And that's just a few minutes from the real St Mark's square and Campanile. In Paris you can get pastries that are ten times better than at the France pavilion for half the cost. And that's in the tourist areas. Sure, you could seek out a few higher prices, but in over 3 months of travel now I've found that the quality is consistently better and the prices lower than in North America. Tips? Most places only expect you to round up by a few Euros and the service is always just as good as at home.

It pains me to think that people pay the prices they do for the quality they receive and think that's as good as it gets. You could literally fly to Bavaria for the price of ten meals at Biergarten!

Okay, rant over. Anyway, suffice to say that we'll be staying in a condo, grocery shopping when we arrive, doing our own meals and spending a total of about $400 on food for the entire two weeks. Oh, and taking Uber to the parks for about the cost of parking each day. It's one thing to pay huge amounts for the things that have no alternative, like admission tickets. For everything else I'll vote with my wallet.

 

[KenHutch]

I try very hard to not think of the cost and other posters here the quality of the meals have gone down. When we went this past June the food was so bad in some of our formerly go to places that my girls have removed them from our list forever ( the lack of quality at Mama Melrose. R&C and Pizzafari are now running jokes in our house ). It has gotten to the point where we go only every 3 years now because I pay for everyone and I refuse to go into debt. And I do have a reference for the cost our 2006 trip for 12 days cost me $6500. Our 2021 trip is going to cost me around $24k.

 

[kiramay]

Yes, I think our 2019 trip may be the last big trip. It just gets more and more expensive, between kids getting older, food, ticket, and rooms price increases.... our first trip in 2012 cost around $3500 with food (packing some and paying oop), mainly because I had 2 kids and 1 free baby. Next year is $7300 (splurging on the DP), because “Disney adults.” We’re about priced out now. I almost didn’t do the DP (we usually don’t) but we have a TS or character meal planned every day. Add in the alcoholic beverages and we break even, so it’s convenient.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

DW and I recently slowed (almost to a full stop) going to a local restaurant for lunch....its close, quick, and good food. Our bill has increased 20% over the past year. THAT is not food costs or labor (in this case it is not conjecture....) but the new owner trying to make a bit more $$$, which is okay with me. He can raise the prices to whatever he wants (as we do in our business) with the understanding that there may be fallout.

Disney has not reached a tipping point yet....it's pretty amazing, if you think about it, how much money people have to spend on vacations....I'm including myself here.

Personally, I don't get all the people buying into the time shares....uh, I mean DVC. By comparison, the meals are an absolute STEAL!!!

DVC is precisely why the meal price increases have very little impact on me. My room at Boardwalk is under $140/night (dues plus buy in cost) vs the $400+ retail at BW and sometimes less than a value resort, my APs cost me $550 late last year and they are platinum plus which are currently nearly $1000 each, and my family's $200-300 meal will be discounted $20 - $60 depending on the restaurant. I bought in for $10K last year and have a trip planned for 2019 after which I will have just about broke even on my buy in when comparing my stay to what I would have paid with a free dining discount direct thru Disney. So, even if they took away all my DVC "perks", my future trip room costs will be only the cost of dues (about $70 night this year in a BWV studio).

All that being said, they are raising prices, increasing minimum purchases, have stripped benefits from resale buyers, etc on the DVC side, too. Someone buying just 6 months after I did would not yield the same results. People who bought in 2009-ish.... they are the real winners!

 

[Moliphino]

I found some of my dad's old Disney trip spreadsheets last night. In 2002 you could get three adult meals at the Rose and Crown for $55 total, 8 nights at POFQ was $835. We apparently got AKL for $111/night because my parents did the DVC presentation. We did Le Cellier in 2001 with I think 12 people (some kids) for $186. It's really insane how much all of this has gone up in less than 20 years.

 

[Texans_loyal]

I have cancelled all of our buffet reservations, this is ridiculous. The only TS we are doing is Skippers, Via napoli, scifi and yak & yeti. the rest will all be QS or outside food.