Wdw-today podcast discusses ddp

[havoc315]

This weeks podcast discussed the value of the 2012 dining plans... And wow....
These Disney experts really despise the plan. I'm not a huge fan, but I look like a ddp fanboy compared to them.

Their take was that the plans are not really a "value" and that people still book the plan because they want to mentally "check out."

They made some valid points, but for so-called Disney experts, but they missed many others:
-- they questioned the value of the plan, saying "who really thinks that Disney restaurants are worth doing a $30 TS meal every night?"-- truthfully, lots of people do like Disney restaurants, like sit down, and are willing to stomach Disney pricing.
-- They made no mention of the value of children's pricing. While I tend to agree with them about the lack of value of the adult plans, it's pretty clear the kids plans still can save money.
-- they made no distinction between using the plan for regular TS versus character meals. (character meals are ridiculously over priced, but if you want to do them, the plan starts to form "value."
-- they dismissed the DxDP with minimal discussion, saying 3 meals is too much food, and too much time eating. No discussion of using it for nightly signature dining.

Essentially -- they worked under the assumption that Disney restaurants are not worth the money, whether on the plan or not. Thus, who would want lots of expensive TS meals?
So they seemed to be discussing the case of an adult who visits Disney for a week, wants 2-4 TS meals, and just eat on the go, the rest of the time.
And I agree, that for such a person, all the dining plans would be a bad value.

But they made the fundamental error of ignoring that dining habits differ significantly. While I think the plans make sense for less and less people each year, there are still some cases where they make sense.

But it was amusing to listen to them trash the plans.

 

[catne]

Guess we just found out where the Disney "experts" are missing some expertise.

Agree that the Dining Plans, and Disney dining in general, are not for everyone. But that's good...because if all Disney guests wanted to eat all meals at Disney table service restaurants we'd never get in

 

[havoc315]

I think they made a mistake that is psychologically prevalent... The assumption that everyone else thinks like they do. (more or less).
The funny thing is, I don't think they were terribly off base on a lot of their points. They correctly pointed out that the price increases of the dining plan have far exceeded increases in the prices of food. That is used to be a much better value than it is today.
And I agree that the value of the DDP is very questionable for most adults.

They also questioned the pre-payment logic of guests, which I agree with.
How is it rational to say that I'd rather pay $40 for my steak in advance, then pay $30 when I get there?

But for a 30 minute discussion, I felt the discussion lacked balance. How could you not even mention the kids pricing, and whether that affects the value? How could you dismiss discussion of the DxDP in 5 seconds with just a statement of "too much time and too much food."

And there was too much discussion that focused on, "I don't feel sit down meals at Disney are worth $30..."
--- Such a discussion goes towards whether you want to eat on Disney property at all, but it is not really part of the discussion of whether the DDP presents value. Yes, if you find the food at Disney to be mediocre and not worth paying for, then it makes sense to skip the dining plan --- and to largely skip Disney restaurants at all.

The real question, which they side stepped -- Is if you do want to utilize Disney restaurants, then does the dining plan make sense?
And to decide that, you need to factor in children, you need to factor in desire for desserts, you need to factor in character meals versus regular TS, and you need to factor in how many restaurants you would want to eat it.

I actually kind of agree with the conclusion, that the DDP is not worthwhile for most adults with the 2012 pricing. But they really didn't tell the whole story, and they had plenty of time to do so.