Peter Pirate is absolutely correct. Disney once was a true culinary wasteland. Then WDW management clearly decided to do something about it. At last count, WDW had employed 350 sommeliers. That is not the hiring pattern of a company that is determined to serve disappointing theme park food, IMO.
WDW started the Food & Wine Festival clearly with the intention of attracting a different type of patron -- one who appreciates fine dining and wine. Articles in Disney Magazine and other press touted that WDW had become a foodie destination.
DH and I took the bait. We were suitably impressed. WDW instituted the Disney Dining Experience, created the largest wine list of South African wines in the nation, sent chefs and sommeliers around the world to find foods and wines that would be unique and interesting to people like us. It seemed like WDW was bringing to fine dining the same dedication to pleasing customers that it had already demonstrated in things like theme park design.
If you think WDW didn't deliberately go after the fine dining market, then you don't know Disney marketing. Have you ever been over to the Magnolia golf course? It's like Palm Beach over there. All these tall tanned elegant golf pros. You'd never know that MK was less than a 1/2 mile away. Clearly, WDW marketing knows how to appeal to a wide variety of people and works hard at doing so. For some time, the middle class family with two kids and a dog has not been the sole target of WDW's marketing schemes.
WDW did not say that every one of their restaurants would be a fine dining experience, but they certainly tried hard to attract talented chefs and sommeliers and to attract adult lovers of food and wine.
With the
DDP, that has changed. You simply can't have a set menu price and not eliminate the most pricey and highest quality items. The economics won't work any other way.
For those of us who had begun to plan regular vacations to WDW with food and wine (not theme parks!) in mind, the change is a disappointment. Funny thing is, I suspect we're not nearly as disappointed as some of the talented chefs and sommeliers who threw in their lot with Disney and are now probably wondering where they fit in with a limited streamlined menu and set price approach to dining.
DH and I discussed yesterday the fact that someone posted that there are about 500 places serving food at WDW. We counted up about 10-15 places we have traditionally patronized and enjoyed (not including Swan & Dolphin restaurants). With the most recent changes that number is now down to 5-6. People can say well confine yourselves to the signature restaurants and you'll be fine. But, previously we've also had delightful meals at Spoodles, Maya Grill, Chefs de France, Alfredo's, and other 1TS restaurants. One thing we really enjoyed was the dining variety available at WDW. There were fun and unique appetizers at Spoodles, Maya Grill actually used to have the large kernel corn and purple potatoes normally available only in Peru!! We used to marvel at what we could taste/find at WDW and attributed it to WDW's worldwide influence and buying power. But, when you're down to a small number of signature restaurants, that makes WDW indistinguishable from other resort destinations. The signature restaurants are great, but we can get about the same dining experience with a stay at an all-inclusive or on a luxury cruise. We enjoyed the immense variety of foods and wines at WDW -- and it seems to us that the variety and uniqueness are systematically being eliminated.
We're now at the point that it makes sense to look elsewhere for food/wine vacations. We're going to give the F&W Festival another try and after that we'll decide.
We're hopeful, but as DH says, "there is nothing so great at WDW that an MBA with a calculator can't mess it up!"
Thanks to Peter Pirate, DVCSadie and others. I'm with you!
We don't expect it in a theme park atmosphere and are happy with the "good, well prepared" food @ most of the restaurants. 
