Re: Dining Plan Questions

Mike H. wrote:
Looking over the 2008 Dining Plan, Disney is making a couple of deep cuts into the program. The two biggest hits I can find are the removal of gratuities and appetizers. These two cuts amount to a loss of about $15 per person in the plan's value. The plan is now running $39 per day / per person.

I tried a couple of scenarios. If you use every option within the plan and order the cheaper menu items you will save around $13 per day / per person. The numbers I used are: $3 snack, $14 counter service, $35 table service (tip included).

Drop the two desserts in the plan and your savings are now down to about $3. Obviously most people won't order the cheapest menu offerings, so your savings should be higher but it seems like the moral of the story is you have to fully use the plan every day to make it worth your while. Miss a couple of meals and you could loose whatever you were going to save. Also you are locking yourself into eating at Disney restaurants.

I am guessing the whole dining plan implementation and its adjustments are sort of a "frog in warm water" thing. You know, if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water it will jump out, but if you put a frog in a pot of warm water and slowly turn up the heat, you'll have frog legs for dinner.

The vacation packages of yesteryear with fixed-term LOS passes and overpriced meal credits were such a bad deal that all it took was one Internet search and no guest would dare buy one. This was sort of the "boiling pot of water". Fast-forward to recent years and you get packages with very flexible MYW passes and a meal plan that is really a good value. This is the nice "warm pot of water", and now they are turning up the heat by removing the tip and removing the appetizer to make it less of a good value. Eventually, it will reach the boiling point again, but not before taking many guests along for the "ride". This generation of guests has become used to Disney's packages being a good deal, so it will take them a while to realize when they are not.

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- RODNEY

Tentative Next WDW Vacation
Spring Break 2008
(89 Days To Go!)
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