Rediculous Menu Prices!?

[Dr.Cinderella]

My coordinator sent me all of the menu's, and I cant believe the prices! Does anyone else think some of them are completely rediculous?? I mean I know its DISNEY, but these prices are more than double the prices of even many of the signature restuarants in Disney. It seems a little insane to me, for example, one of my favorite dishes in Disney is the Filet from the California Grill, it is about $40 and comes with mashed potatoes and veggies. The Filet on the wedding a la carte menu is $85! Granted it comes with an appetizer and salad, but you could order crab cakes for 2 people for around $10 and a salad for 2 people for around $10 from the California Grill, one of the most expensive restaurants in Disney! This just doesnt seem fair to charge almost double for pretty much the exact same meal just because its a wedding. Its not just because its filet either, the chicken dish is $75, and that it the cheapest plated option! Are you able to customize your own menu with your planner, and negotiate the price? Or tell her what you are able to spend per person and then see what the chef comes up with at the tasting? It just seems like they try to make it impossible to get a nice dinner, with bar, pre-reception food, and cake for anywhere close to the minimum ($125). Any tips? Sorry for the rant!

 

[BecBennett]

It's for a wedding, every price per head I've seen for a wedding everywhere is around this much, you're lucky to get away with it for less then $100 in Oz.

It's stupid, but as soon as you say the word "wedding" prices go up, this is everywhere, not just Disney.

You can speak to your planner when you get one though and see if they can do anything for you.

 

[The Scotts]

You said it yourself, it's Disney!

$8 for a draft beer! You can complain, but price is the one thing they won't budge on unfortunately. That's just Disney.

Hope that you can still get everything you want

 

[girli565]

You can customize your own menu with anything you want and it may come out cheaper. I built my menu from things we loved from wdw restuarants and from the menus DFTWs sent us. We have two proteins, steak & chicken, 3 side options (mashed potatoes, pasta with a la vodka, and an Alfredo sauce), salad, soup, fajita bar for the cocktail hour, and Mickey premium bars to be served with the cake for $78/person. It's a buffet so that probably brought the price down too.

 

[ColeV]

Wedding anywhere does make the price go up. However, some of it is justified. They don't have a kitchen set up right next to you that's perfectly made for the number of people, everyone trained to cook the same selection every night, knowing the same amount that will be ordered each night. Food has to be transfered to the serving room (sometimes a long distance), most chefs have to be trained on those particular dishes, and there might even be a difference in price of what they buy since it's not the same massive quantity. And by all means, the word "wedding" certainly adds a bit. As mentioned before, the buffet tends to be more cost effective if you're willing to do that.

 

[Brit_Jude]

If you were comparing like for like I'm not sure for the quality of food, service and attention to detail that you would find the catering menu's cheaper at a comparable hotel or wedding event site. There is a lot more effort involved with catering for an event than a normal restaurant operation. I don't think you can compare restaurant menu pricing with event catering prices.

Just as an example for a wedding at the Hilton Hotel in Downtown Disney their plated meals run from $110 to $146 per person.

By the way here in DC we can pay $8 for a draft beer too

 

[helloirishkitty]

I live in WNY, which is hardly considered "wealthy", and the two places we considered having our reception at were $95-$115 a person- that didn't even include the cake or bar! The word wedding does make everything go up, but I'm sure your planner will work with you to stay close to the minimums.

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

I'm pretty much repeating what everyone else said, but DH and I agreed that the Disney prices for food and beverage were a lot better than most of the places we looked into in Ontario.

We ended up using a rehearsal menu for our wedding dinner (none of our guests had any idea) and it cut the costs down a lot.

 

[chelsrae85]

While I agree with everyone that it's a wedding and that's that, I don't agree that you should just have to settle with overpriced food. There are alternatives--how many guests are you having? Couldn't you just reserve a table at an awesome restaurant in advance and pay for the meal that day? Plenty of restaurants have "party rooms" you can just reserve. You could still have the ceremony somewhere at Disney.

I don't know, I just think this is one of the reasons I decided that we're doing a DCL wedding versus getting married at 'World. I have never paid $75 for a pair of jeans, let alone a plate of chicken.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

You said it yourself, it's Disney!

$8 for a draft beer! You can complain, but price is the one thing they won't budge on unfortunately. That's just Disney.

Hope that you can still get everything you want

You want to see HIGH prices, goto your local amusement parks. We paid $4 for a 20 oz soda at Cedar point and $3.75 at a 6 flags park. I saw at a baseball game $6.50 for a beer. Yes, Disney IS pricey. I figure to have any kind of wedding at WDW is going to cost at least $8,000+ And does that price include rooms for guests or is that extra?

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

Remember in most cases, part of the cost comes from having a place cleaned and set up just for you, including chefs, servers and custodial cast members. The dishes all need to come out at close to the same time, no waiting like in a regular restaurant for an ADR. I know the costs are more than a regular meal out, but they are actually lower than most weddings in NJ so I felt like I was getting a great deal at the California Grill

 

[Starseeker1221]

I agree with everyone above that its Disney and so some of the cost is to be expected, but I do recommend that you ask your planner about other options and be perfectly honest with what you are looking for and how much you'd like to pay for it.

We did not customize our reception meal a great deal, but we did basically create our Welcome Party dinner without a pre-set menu and just asked about the food we wanted to have and the amount that would cost. Doing this, we were able to have a dinner that included garden salad, bread, spaghetti with meatballs and fetuccinne with grilled chicken for about $30 per person (and that included a basic drink station of coffee, tea, lemonade, and water!).

While this may be a bit simpler than you want for your wedding day, it shows that less expensive meals can be done at Disney-- you just need to ask and find out what they can do to help you out. Just send your planner an email with a few examples of meals that you are thinking of and they should be able to get back to you with actual quotes from the chefs at the venues you're using! Also, keep in mind that almost everyone says they had too much food at their wedding, and so you may not need to include all the courses listed on the menu or an elaborate pre-reception menu.

Good luck!

 

[Dr.Cinderella]

Thanks everyone for all of your great advice! I do have to respectfully disagree with some who said these are average wedding food prices for anywhere in the country though. I am also from NY (known for being expensive), and looked into a couple of the nicest venues in the area, and they all had all inclusive menu's (4 course meal, open bar, and pre-reception food) for around $50-60 per person. Of course I expect to pay much more than that at Disney it is just way more than I even expected! I think that since the food/bev minimum is $125, you should be able to get everything for around that price! Thanks again though for all the suggestions and advice, and I welcome any more!

 

[girli565]

My F&B minimum per guest is $100 for lunch (but we are using a dinner menu) and I am hitting it almost exactly. We are at $102 and change per person and this is including food, drinks, place cards, and ribbon wands per person.

Talk with your planner and let her know that you want to stay as close to the per person minimum as possible. That's what they are there for, to help you realize your dream wedding while keeping to a certain budget. I was honest with my planner and told her that we has $12k to spend and that had to include taxes and service charges. She said that it was def possible and we built a menu that had AMAZING food and chose to go with a buffet because it was cheaper. I don't even want to think of what my meal plated would cost!

 

[BecBennett]

While I agree with everyone that it's a wedding and that's that, I don't agree that you should just have to settle with overpriced food. There are alternatives--how many guests are you having? Couldn't you just reserve a table at an awesome restaurant in advance and pay for the meal that day? Plenty of restaurants have "party rooms" you can just reserve. You could still have the ceremony somewhere at Disney.

You can, that's pretty much what escape brides who want a reception do.

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

Thanks everyone for all of your great advice! I do have to respectfully disagree with some who said these are average wedding food prices for anywhere in the country though. I am also from NY (known for being expensive), and looked into a couple of the nicest venues in the area, and they all had all inclusive menu's (4 course meal, open bar, and pre-reception food) for around $50-60 per person. Of course I expect to pay much more than that at Disney it is just way more than I even expected! I think that since the food/bev minimum is $125, you should be able to get everything for around that price! Thanks again though for all the suggestions and advice, and I welcome any more!

That sounds like a great deal, actually in NY. I don't know where in NY, but I looked at NYC venues and even some of the "not so nice" wedding venues in Manhattan ran around 150/pp. I respectfully suggest that the prices you saw in your area are probably lower than many other areas of the country and may have set you up for a bit of sticker shock in Disney World.

I would definitely suggest cutting out some items to get yourself closer to your $124 minimum if you are interested. I know many people saved $$ with a Bill on Consumption bar, so you might try that if you don't have many big drinkers.

Also, if you are considering a buffet, you might move some items from the main course to the prereception allowing you to delete some or all prereception items. I know Carrie did this with her brunch menu. I had a California Grill wedding and opted for a simple cheese board for the prereception and had family style platters of three different items for the lunch. We had goat cheese ravioli, salad, a sorbet course, filet with potatoes, salmon with risotto and chicken with polenta cakes, wedding cake for dessert No one missed a huge prereception and everyone was raving about the food.

I just have to say, don't worry if you spend a little more than you intended, you're only getting married once, do it the right way. I don't regret a penny I spent.