When do the restaurants have "seasonal pricing?"

[tiki23]

We're going to Crystal Palace on 4/3 (drat those 8 AM park openings!) and I don't want to get a scary surprise on the bill.

What times of year does Disney up the restaurant prices seasonally?

Thanks!

 

[funforfive]

Wondering this as well...We're not on the DP this year and I currently have a ADR at Chef Mickey for 4/16..not sure if I'm willing to pay the extra $$..back-up plan DTD meal

 

[TDC Nala]

Disney doesn't publish these dates anymore, but our own Tiger926 figured it out. Here is a link to her post as she has include some actual restaurant prices.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2627843

Sorry, but it's all of April this year apparently.

Readers should note the seasonal price increase of $4 per adult $2 per child applies only to fixed price restaurants (including all character meals).

 

[funforfive]

Holy! Pretty sure Chef Mickey will miss us for dinner...Just can't justify $42+ for my 10yr old to dine on an average buffet with the Mouse (Unless they've changes the menu and it now includes Lobster)

Somehow when it was less than $40 it seemed OK...

 

[tiki23]

Thanks for posting the info!

Wow, I'm glad we are usually able to go during the slower seasons.

 

[detroitdad]

Yes, I cancelled Chef Mickeys when we were planning to go in the summer. Apparently all of summer is now peak season. Thanks for punishing all the families that do not take their kids out of school, Disney

 

[MelissathePooh]

I think the easier question would be "When doesn't Disney charge peak surcharges for dining?"

Yes, I cancelled Chef Mickeys when we were planning to go in the summer. Apparently all of summer is now peak season. Thanks for punishing all the families that do not take their kids out of school, Disney

More like Disney is making up for "free dining" and/or attempting to force people into purchasing the dining plan in the first place.

 

[TDC Nala]

If you want the dining plan, you have to stay onsite - Disney knows what it's doing.

 

[Tiger926]

First time on the boards today, so thanks Nala for posting a link to my thread. It took a bit of work, but my hope is that it helps lots of people, as we've been dealing with the seasonal surcharges since their inception, as I'm a teacher, and can only travel during peak times.

Each year, they add more weeks of surcharges. As you pointed out, this is the first year that all of spring break (March & April) are included, but they made the summer surcharges a bit later, as the past few years, it's been mid-May until mid-August.

I can't stand the seasonal surcharges, and feel they are just a profit grab on the part of Disney, and as you said, it's a way to forcibly encourage guests to purchase the DP.

Folks need to seriously crunch the numbers, as the buffets, both character and non-character are staggeringly high. As a side not, between the time I did my research in January and last week, Disney actually raised Crystal Palace for dinner by $1.00 higher (the correct price is reflected in my list). I am worried that some other restaurants may have been raised too, but I did not have time to check on all restaurants as we had a busy week last week at WDW.

If there are some price discrepancies, I apologize, as Disney does like to constantly tinker with prices these days. I am updating the thread as often as needed. Incidentally, if anyone is worried about CRT's price, just make a dummy ADR online, and you will see Disney's current price for your travel dates, as it's a prepaid meal and therefore, the price shows up on screen.

Glad this helped, Tiger

 

[d-r]

"I can break that $50 for ya, pal"

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I really can't justify paying over $30 for most buffets on property, except for maybe Boma, but otherwise it's DDP or not eating at buffets.

 

[GeorgeG]

When you think about this, it's enough to give anyone serious heartburn. That Disney even has different pricing for the same food based on periods of time when the captive dining crowd is up or down reminds me of the term "gouging." They drop the prices a little when they need to fill the restaurants, but raise them when there is an abundance of hungry diners.

 

[TDC Nala]

That's an interesting outlook, because they don't have seasonal pricing for ALL restaurants, just the fixed price ones. A party could easily avoid the surcharge by avoiding fixed price restaurants.

The catch to that is that all character meals are fixed price, and Disney, having already figured that guests don't book character meals for the food, may have also figured out they'll pay extra for them - or agree to stay onsite and eat all their meals onsite so they can get a dining plan that will enable them to save some money, or at least feel like they are saving some money, on character meals. Brilliant marketing, really.

 

[SnowWhite33]

We will be on DXDP in June and have several buffets booked so I went through and looked at prices on allears to get an estimate of a tip budget. The prices listed are no where close. I'm guessing that allears is a little behind on pricing

Their price for dinner at CM $34.07 before tax, season pricing with tax $42.59

As TDC said no one is forcing us to go there. I think we will be finding a better dinner for our dining credits and tip money.

 

[Tiger926]

That's an interesting outlook, because they don't have seasonal pricing for ALL restaurants, just the fixed price ones. A party could easily avoid the surcharge by avoiding fixed price restaurants.

The catch to that is that all character meals are fixed price, and Disney, having already figured that guests don't book character meals for the food, may have also figured out they'll pay extra for them - or agree to stay onsite and eat all their meals onsite so they can get a dining plan that will enable them to save some money, or at least feel like they are saving some money, on character meals. Brilliant marketing, really.

This is exactly what I think! Last week was our first trip in years, without any character buffets. Now, we are used to eating 2-3 TS meals per day, and have eaten at all character meals. So, we usually mix it up with non-character, character and even Signatures once in awhile. My babes have even been to the same character meal 2x in the same trip, as we always go for 2 weeks each summer. We have paid cash using DDE/TIW, DP and DxDP, but at this point, we are tired of the raise in buffet prices, especially the seasonal surcharges. It is crazy that a few years ago, we paid less than $30.00 for dinner at Chef Mickey's, yet that same dinner has risen by over $12.00/adult, and the food, service and characters are worse than ever. My kids are fine, as they have been there, done that, many times with characters, and they didn't even miss it that much last week!

Not only did we only eat 1 TS meal per day last week for lunch, we cooked in our DVC villa for breakfast and dinner, and we loved it! Saved a ton, and I mean a ton of money! When I add up the thousands upon thousands of dollars we've spent on Disney dining, it makes my heart ache...

So, we are a family with young kids who have eaten pretty much everywhere, including Signatures, but no more for us. This is less money in Disney's pockets, but somehow I don't think it's an issue, as there are many families who will pay those buffet prices.

We will be on DXDP in June and have several buffets booked so I went through and looked at prices on allears to get an estimate of a tip budget. The prices listed are no where close. I'm guessing that allears is a little behind on pricing

Yes, All Ears and WDWinfo do the best they can with prices, but because Disney changes them so often, they don't get updated as much, especially with All Ears.

The best way to get prices is to call Disney, as I did, Tiger