Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Changes to the 2008 Disney Dining Plan

The big brouhaha around the various Disney fans websites is the changes to next year's Disney Dining Plan. The wildly popular program that provides guests with a table service meal, a counter service meal, and a snack for a flat rate of around $39/day for every night stay at a Disney resort will get an overhaul.

First, there are now two Disney Dining Plans - the regular plan which we will call the Disney Dining Plan (DDP), and the plan associated with a deluxe package, which we will call the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (DDDP). Kevin Yee at MiceAge has used this notation.

The DDP is closest to the existing DDP, but with two major differences: (i) no more appetizer for the table service and (ii) gratuities are no longer included. The cost for the new DDP has been reduced by $1, which frankly, isn't anything significant.

This is what is listed on the Disney webpage for the DDP:
Disney Dining Plan
For each night of your package, each Guest in your party enjoys:

* 1 table-service meal
1 adult table-service meal includes 1 entrée and 1 dessert (lunch or dinner only), 1 juice (breakfast only) and 1 single serving non-alcoholic beverage, or 1 full buffet.

1 child table-service meal includes 1 appetizer, 1 entrée, 1 dessert (lunch or dinner only) and 1 single serving non-alcoholic beverage, or 1 full buffet. Children ages 3-9 are limited to the Children's Menu (if one is available) at table-service restaurants.
* 1 quick-service meal
1 quick-service meal includes 1 entrée or 1 complete Combo Meal, 1 dessert (lunch or dinner only) or 1 juice (breakfast only) and 1 single serving non-alcoholic beverage. Children ages 3-9 are limited to the Children's Menu (if one is available) at quick-service restaurants.
* 1 snack
1 snack includes one of the following: frozen ice cream novelty, popsicle, fruit bar, popcorn scoop (single serving box), single serving grab bag of chips, single piece of whole fruit, 20-oz. bottle of Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite or Dasani water, medium fountain soft drink or juice, 12-oz. coffee, hot chocolate or hot tea.


The DDDP costs around $70.00. However, this is the DDP on steroids. You get 3 meals per day, which can be either table service or quick service. So technically, you could have 3 table service per day if you wish (can you eat that much?). The table service now includes an appetizer. Gratuities are still NOT included. You also get 2 snacks per day.

This is the info from the Disney website on the DDDP:
Disney Dining Plan
For each night of your package, each Guest in your party enjoys:

* 3 meals
Choose from select Walt Disney World Resort table-service and quick-service restaurants for all 3 of your meals.

1 adult table-service meal includes 1 appetizer, 1 entrée and 1 dessert (lunch or dinner only), 1 juice (breakfast only) and 1 single serving non-alcoholic beverage, or 1 full buffet.

1 child table-service meal includes 1 appetizer, 1 entrée, 1 dessert (lunch or dinner only) and 1 single serving non-alcoholic beverage, or 1 full buffet.

1 quick-service meal includes 1 entrée or 1 complete Combo Meal, 1 dessert (lunch or dinner only) or 1 juice (breakfast only) and 1 single serving non-alcoholic beverage.

Children ages 3-9 are limited to the Children's Menu (if one is available).


* 2 snacks
A snack includes one of the following: frozen ice cream novelty, popsicle, fruit bar, popcorn scoop (single serving box), single serving grab bag of chips, single piece of whole fruit, 20-oz. bottle of Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite or Dasani water, medium fountain soft drink or juice, 12-oz. coffee, hot chocolate or hot tea.


All I can say is YOWZAH!

I know for sure that I am not getting the DDDP. There's just way too much food and way too much planning involved to get able to do more than 1 table service per day. I suppose one can try to use two of them for one of the premier dining. But when you pay that much per day, you tend to want to use it in the best possible way to get your money's worth, and that would mean as many table service as possible. That is just not practical and tends to get in the way since one has to make the planning and reservations way ahead in advance. The restaurants are already filled as it is during the peak hours of the day for dinner. The regular DDP, while still attractive, now no longer look to be as good of a deal as it used to be. It is too bad that they tinker with this and took away something from it.

So at this point, I haven't decided yet if we'll continue to get the DDP next year. There's a good chance that we won't.

Zz.

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