Is it just me and my family but seems like a couple of things are going on at WDW. ; First, the counter service food seems to become standardized, the quality is not very good and it is much more expensive. ; Second, the retail stores seem to be all selling the same stuff. ; Is there a plan to finally get all the stores at disney to sell the same thing? ; My wife and I have been stunned by the price of food and mediocre service this trip.
I noticed this a few years ago. ; I blame the Dining Plan. ; The incentive is for every meal to "cost" the same behind the scenes...that way certain restaurants won't be "punished" for having more expensive foods that are paid in full by the plan. ; I miss that you had to go to a specific counter restaurant for a specific food; this was very true at DL 10 years ago. That plan was enacted by Emperor Paul Pressler, who took the Disney Stores from an awesome niche market to every mall around you. ; Because of his performance, he was promoted to VP in charge of Disneyland and then VP in charge of all Disney Parks. ; During his reign, the retail stores in a certain parking lot theme park where given more funding attention than attractions. ; It was also during his reign that the stores homogenized their inventory, in an effort to reduce costs....come on, it's cheaper to buy bags that say "Disney Parks" and can be used on both coasts vs. "Disneyland" or "Walt Disney World". ; Same with merchandise! ; ; Cheaper to buy merchandise for both parks! Join the club. ; Advantage goes to the Left Coast, where you can cross the street and have a decent meal at half the cost. ; And that's not including the McDonalds. ; Or you can drive a short distance to Target and pick up stuff. The consumer blacklash has hit the Parks however. ; Spending the stores are down but attendance is steady. ; And now they're doing coupons for the meals (see Kevin Yee's article today); he would prefer that the Parks lower food prices, but that's not how the system works....you do short term reductions by coupons/specials/rebates that people can't redeem rather than price reductions, because when the prices go back up, customers don't like that.... Look at the sales of the custom merchandise Disneyland has done this year....Captain EO tribute, and now Indiana Jones anniversary stuff. ; Add the Steampunk Pins and you'll see the best sellers are the unique items, not the stuff that is in every store now. ; Those items will flood the Disney Character Warehouses in a few weeks.
Glad to see it is not just us. ; We have indeed modified our spending especially at DVC. ; When we ran out of food, that we brought with us from the store we stopped at from MCO to the hotel, we used to buy at the store at the resort. ; That has become an extremely expensive option. ; Now we go to Goodings and if we need something else, we go off property as much as we can. ;
my sentiments exactly. i do not want to rent a car while at wdw, but if the trend keeps up, i may be forced to, not because of costs per see, but because i know i can get really good meals off property with a little pretrip research, i always thought one of the best things about a wdw vacation was the opportunity to walk into high end restaurants spur of the moment and have a good to great meal, now it's not possible, and i hate having to commit every night to a set dinner res and time.
I concur. ; This trip, we had no kids along, so our dining plan was to sleep in, eat a bit of a pastry, head to the pool, have a small snack for lunch, and then get a decent dinner. We had two really nice surprises. ; The first was the cafe at BCV. ; The chef happened to be behind the counter when I went for a sandwich, and they actually made a decent roast beef/brie sandwich. ; The other was JIKO (first time there). ; What a great meal. ; Great service, great food, and great atmosphere (not so great price ; ). Our disappointment on this trip was Brown Derby. ; When we were there in December, it was a great steak, not so great this time. No counter service experience this time around (except for Tangerine in Morocco, another first time for us). ; I liked it, my wife didn't. ; It was a new food experience for us. Regards, Boris
Which is exactly why I complained to Bob Iger and Jay Rasulo last month ; They need to fix the dining plan and perhaps have "off plan" food at some of the non-Victoria & Alberts restaurants.
Just ate at Jiko's for the first time, just the two of us, no kids. ; Food, service etc was great. ; Price - another story yet we both felt it was more worth the price than any other place we have eaten at this week.
