KYCruiseCrazy
<font color=blue>I'll be drooling and dreaming<br>
- Joined
- May 22, 2003
- Messages
- 4,487
If you're going doing a holiday or busy season the rates usually go up I believe.

Not sure when it went up. We paid the $31.99 QS price recently. The menu prices have definitely gone up, since I was there last year. Whatever the DDP price is now, it's cheaper than it'll be next year!![]()

The dining surcharge is not new, although since we did QS last year I don't know for sure if the DDP prices had a surcharge to (seem to think not, but may be mistaken). However we did several OOP TS meals and there was a surcharge on those.
You escape it if you go QS or Deluxe.
I to think that Disney is trying to steer more people away from their dining plans as well. It must be cutting somewhat into thier profit. Probably not that much, but more than they are comfortable with.

Most likely a case of making it easy to dump the dining plans altogether. See, first, you make changes that increase prices and lower the value to a point where no one finds value in them anymore. Next, people stop buying the plans. Finally, Disney drops the plans citing guests are no longer interested in pre-paid dining...too much food, not enough flexibility, too much money whatever, it won't matter because the spin will be that the public no longer wanted it, not that Disney wanted to get rid of it!![]()
I think that Disney still makes a lot of money on the dining plans. I know that tons of people are always posting on these boards about how organized their plan is for their trip, including dining (I myself plan everything out too!!, but we are a small percentage of the population that travels to WDW. I think that many people that buy any of the dining plans end up with leftover credits at the end of their trip that they never bother to use. That's how Disney makes money on the dining plans. Not everyone has their vacations planned out. And not everyone knows how important it is to make ADRs so far in advance for the busier travel seasons. In fact, I'll bet that there are plenty of people out there who don't make any ADRs and try to walk into the restaurants and are turned away many times, especially during busier seasons.