Dining plan speculation that I have heard for 2008~

[salmoneous]

Wow, if that's true, it doesn't seem right to me.

Why not? Disney charges for, say, coffee in paid-for meals. Lots of people don't drink coffee. Whenever you offer a meal with choices, some people won't want everything offered. Even if you don't want _____ (dessert, coffee, meat, fill in the blank) it's still included in the price.

 

[theparsons]

The "wine" inclusion sounds strange to me.
I thought there were very limited places to even get wine? Do they mean you'll get it at a resort store? A bottle included with your dinner? I mean, a glass perhaps for each adult but what a waste if they go unfinished (LOL), but you get my meaning...and for families??? I'd rather see the appetizers stay!!
This will be interesting when it all "comes clean" with facts....

Sound odd to me as well....perhaps as an add on for those that wish it, but to make it the only option for moderate hotels.....ummmm, ok, you're charging me adult prices for my 11 year old daughter....so are you going to give her the wine that I'm paying for? How big of a jail would Florida need for that one?

And what about the fact that while I'm not against you wanting to have alcohol, my personal preference is I do not drink except a rare occasion at home, but never at a restaurant. (Don't ask....grow up with an alcoholic parent and your views on your personal consumption get skewed. I never want my children to see even the slightest overindulgence in their parents.)

I think the only way that they could offer that would be to say the regular DDP is $$ and you can add the option of a glass/bottle of wine for an additional $$$.

Of course any kind of tiered plan like those rumors would be a total nightmare for the servers.....people on another thread were complaining about being asked if they were on the plan when they made reservations, again by the hostess and a third time by the server.....can you imagine if there is more than one plan. "Show me your card before I take your order, now I need to see your driver's license for age verification.....and which of these kids is your first born, we'll take them to insure you tip well".

The other worry is probably obvious....how will the atmosphere not to mention potentially the safety of the parks change if alcohol is so widely distributed? I know first hand that not everyone can limit themselves. While alcohol is served now, it's not quite so readily available....if it's offered on the DDP wouldn't every restaurant have to have it available? Or maybe it'll just be one of the drink options?

I have to say that all the rumors, while I know they're just rumors, are turning me off of the idea of the DDP for what will be our first trip to WDW. In fact, that coupled with the rumors of daily changes in room rates instead of seasons....well, let's just say that I'm starting to research vacation home rentals and finding a lot of the disadvantages to staying off site to be dimming....EMH I've read enough to know I would avoid those parks anyway....DDP sounds like it won't be what I want....theme decor, well, our reservations are at POR which isn't that wildly themed anyway....parking won't cost me as we'll get AP's because of the length of our stay......we'd be renting a car anyway......so what's holding me back from reserving a home right now is the hope that all these rumors are totally and completely off base and the only change is a "to be expected" raise in price that's just a couple of dollars. Hey...it's my dream, I can live it.

 

[Nimbus]

As far as the tiered plans go. Do you think you would have to have everyone within your group having the same plan (child and adult respectively) or do you think they would let you mix the plans. Say I want the deluxe plan and someone else in my group opts for the moderate plan. Or is that just wishful thinking on my part

 

[Family Fun Mom]

Instead of getting rid of the starters, why don't they do away with dessert for counter service meals? Who needs two desserts a day anyway?

 

[CJK]

I wish that instead of doing away with the appetizers altogether, they would give you an option of appetizer OR dessert. At various restaurants, I may want an appetizer instead of dessert or vice versa. I wish it could be flexible.

 

[Lewisc]

Alcohol is readily available. Every restaurant, outside of the MK, offers adult beverages. You can even order a drink at Chef Mickey's. Every resort restaurant has a bar/cocktail lounge. Most of the pools have a place to buy adult drinks poolside. Even POP has a bar next to the food court and a bar near the theme pool. Resort gift shops sell beer, wine and even hard liquor. There is a margarita stand near Mexico and there will be a tequila bar in San Angel Inn. The dinner shows have included beer and wine for years.

The fact that you didn't notice it suggests most WDW guests don't over indulge.

The other worry is probably obvious....how will the atmosphere not to mention potentially the safety of the parks change if alcohol is so widely distributed? I know first hand that not everyone can limit themselves. While alcohol is served now, it's not quite so readily available....if it's offered on the DDP wouldn't every restaurant have to have it available? Or maybe it'll just be one of the drink options?

 

[global_mom]

Wish that they would add an onsight AA meeting. I am soooo not being sarcastic, my DH has to leave us and drive into Orlando proper to attend a meeting. We love the fact that MK has no alcohol and that the resort in general is "low key" alcohol consumption. I myself do drink so I love to be able to get a cold beer in many restaurants but would not want wine in my purchase of the DDP. Its not a moral issue, have no problem with anyone drinking alcohol, but we have to accomodate our family situation. Maybe there will be options within the plans. Cant wait to get the facts.

Would hate to see the appetizers taken away, we love to try all sort of things that we would not normally order.

 

[Lewisc]

I wish that instead of doing away with the appetizers altogether, they would give you an option of appetizer OR dessert. At various restaurants, I may want an appetizer instead of dessert or vice versa. I wish it could be flexible.

Getting rid of appetizers may be a subtle way of decreasing the time the average diner spends in the restaurant thereby increasing capacity. Allowing half the table to order appetizers and half the table to order desserts wouldn't accomplish that.

I'd be content with a choice of soup/salad or even a sampler platter for the table.

 

[DCDisney]

The DDP is already pretty much a bad deal for the tweens who will occasionally want the kids menu food plus adding in alcohol doesn't make sense to me. I could much more see a tiered option like they have at DL where you can get a plan that includes an extra character breakfast option. If they kept the base plan at the same price but took out tip and app and then had a moderate plan for a few more dollars a day that included the app and 1 character breakfast per trip (beyond the basic TS per day) I would think that would be a big seller. But the more complex things get the more confusing and it slows down all the servers explaining and dealing with the bills...

Yvonne

 

[klj27]

Since the UK agents have access to this information do they also have prices? I would love to see how much of an increase the plans will be.

 

[bicker]

The UK tour operators are not compelled to charge the standard price for the Dining Plan. They can price it how they wish, after they pay their "wholesale" rate. So, no, the UK tour operators likely know nothing about how much the Dining Plan will cost Americans.

 

[NMW]

So very true, think about how big they are and the more they buy the cheaper it will be! Pop in a "regualr" restaurant is costing the owner 5cents tops for pop, mixers , beer and wine are like 20cents. alcoholic bev. are the money maker for a 1 restaurant owner. think how well they do then!

The wine would be nice but I think it would be to much for me with a 8 day trip /8 bottles of wine if they are going to do a bottle a day. I think in 7 days-2-3 bottles should be good enough. thats just me though.

I am sure there will be some fine print to follow the new plan!
I wouldn't mind 2 TS and 2 snacks a day~ then we can do a early breakfast have a mid day snack and then dinner. it would also let you use to counter meals and not pay OOP if you did not want to.

hopefully we can it will be for the better and everyone will benefit from the new plans being offered.

I actually think that only 2-3 bottles would not be enough. DH and I can, and have on occasion, drank 2 bottles of wine with dinner here at our house. At Disney we don't ever drive, so we are much more likely to have another glass of wine. To me, (since we don't have to drive anywhere) it's like the wine packages they offer on the Disney cruises. I wonder how popular they are? I realize that while DH and I are wine lovers, not everyone feels the same way. Hey, maybe they will include a couple types of beer too-like at the dinner shows.

 

[BCV23]

Have multiple tour operators in the UK released this info or is it only Virgin?

That huge price increase for children seems unlikely to be replicated by WDW IMO. Looks more like something Virgin could be doing to stiff their customers.

Are children's menus and/or lower prices for kids a common thing in the UK?

 

[bicker]

Thomas Cook discusses the Dining Plan on their website, but they are currently not offering to allow customers to customise their reservations to include it for 2008 holidays.

 

[Brian Noble]

Getting rid of appetizers may be a subtle way of decreasing the time the average diner spends in the restaurant thereby increasing capacity.

I suspect this as well, if it turns out that starters are no longer included. There is a reason that DRC asks if you are on the plan when they take your ADR. I believe that reason is because plan guests block out the table longer than cash guests, but I'm just guessing here.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Just some random thoughts as I roll these discussions around in my noggin:

Having way too much time on my hands , I looked at what we're likely to spend at all of the TS restaurants on our upcoming trip and what our likely tip would be for the week if we were paying OOP. For our upcoming trip our tips would total about $150. Take that and divide it by 6 nights and then by 4 people on the DDP and the per-person added cost is $6.25/day.

Is that going to make the decision on whether we do the DDP? Probably not, but if we then get into comparing the cost of paying rack rate to stay onsite vs. staying offsite in a hotel or condo and adding in that cost difference, we start getting into real money.

Start taking away some of the other things we like on the current DDP like removing appetizers* and limiting our snack choices to popcorn/ice cream bar/cold drink, and the scale tips even further for our family.




*--There are appetizers, and then there are appetizers. A big artichoke dip and chips at Cap'n Jacks that's meant for more than 1 person is an appetizer, but so is a small cup of cheese soup at Le Cellier that's obviously intended for 1 person. Or consider salads--DW has this thing about having to have some type of green salad with a sit-down meal. Now she can get it as an "appetizer" on the DDP. If we have to start paying for it OOP, it reduces the attractiveness of the plan even more for us.

Disney employees who monitor these boards, are you reading this?

 

[BCV23]

Getting rid of appetizers may be a subtle way of decreasing the time the average diner spends in the restaurant thereby increasing capacity. Allowing half the table to order appetizers and half the table to order desserts wouldn't accomplish that.

I'd be content with a choice of soup/salad or even a sampler platter for the table.

Allowing a choice of soup/salad or sampler platter but not other appetizers would not decrease the amount of time a table was occupied.

What if it was changed to two courses (with only one entree allowed). Then people could choose which two they liked. I would almost always choose an appetizer and an entree or even two appetizers. I also would not mind at all if some were served appetizer/entree at the same time others in our family received entree/dessert.

Having never worked in a restaurant, I don't know if there are logistical problems to that though.

I wonder if on average appetizers are more expensive in terms of both ingredients and prep time. I would guess that is the case.

 

[bicker]

Allowing a choice of soup/salad or sampler platter but not other appetizers would not decrease the amount of time a table was occupied.

Hmmm... but just an appetizer sampler platter would... You answer the "Are you on the Dining Plan?" question when you check in, and then the hostess brings you and a sampler platter, staged and waiting, to your table at the same time. That could work.

 

[ksumn1]

I think an appetizer sampler would work as well. They could either be premade, or because of demand they could order additional stock of the items on the platter. But IMHO the appetizers are often the best part of the meal, along with the salad. Many times I would share with DD's or let DH have what I couldn't finish, because I just could not eat the entire portion.

And to me, I really liked being able to get the snacks. 2 bottles of water, and 2 bags of popcorn or whatever were enough for us to share. We're not really big on sweets, but it was nice to be able to prepay everything for our meals.

I don't think I like the changes to the plan. I say take off the things that are obviously not snacks (1/2 gallons of milk, boxes of doughnuts) but to still offer a wide variety of items. As for eliminating the tip....again, I liked having everything paid for. I still tipped more for exceptional service, but that'a a big cost on top of the cost of the plan itself.

Like others this could really affect the type of vacation we take (value vs moderate) dining plan or not. Jut one more thing to think about during the planning process.

 

[pilferk]

I wonder if on average appetizers are more expensive in terms of both ingredients and prep time. I would guess that is the case.

Apps and deserts are typically the highest profit food items on the menu. Booze is the only thing that takes in more.

Having said that, if you were going to choose to eliminate Apps OR Deserts.....you'd eliminate the Apps. Deserts usually have a higher margin and lower overall cost.