Stupid Guest Tricks

I must take the time to say "yayyyy" about the new dining plan for 2008. It offers a break from servers having to deal with SG's trying to milk everything they can out of their $40 a day and they can get back to us willing to take our time and have fun and spend more to get more.

I just saw the new Dining plan for 2008. I have boycotted WDW since the dining plan became "the Clampets from board X trying to milk every penny out of it". (this happened in 2005 and got worse in 2006 when people told each other how to be even more ghetto through the world wide web)

The new dining plan reflects more of the old silver/gold wishes plan of the days of ol'.

It will be nice to get back to WDW. I look forward to tracking down mon marcupial favor in the purple pants in May :)

http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/media ... Dining.pdf

It is a lot simple and now they have to tip. A lot of hissy fits on the boards.
Seems very simple but I am a tightwas so it is a lot since I eat one main meal and some small snacks. $70 and tip for a day of food is a lot for me let alone $40 and tips for food.

It takes two meals to equal one meal at the Brown Derby for example. All you get is breakfast or lunch and a dinner and a snack. I never could understand paying all that for food.

Um...my "family" has booked the dining plan for our trip in November. I don't consider us the beverly hillbillies exactly (most hillbillies would not be willing to shell out an additional $400+ for three people to go to Victoria & Albert's, which we will be doing one night of our visit...) but I do want to get the most we can out of our money on the meal plan. I feel like that's the point; otherwise it's not an incentive for the guest to commit their dollars to Disney before they even arrive. I'm just clarifying here: it's never wrong to ask a waiter "am I allowed to do this?" It's only wrong if you get belligerent and *tell* the waiter what they're going to do for you, right? <I'm kinda curious what you define as being 'ghetto' which, by the way, is a word refering to an area of Jewish population, and therefore, anywhere I go is a ghetto!> :p:

Also, I've been a waiter before and I know how it is when you're living on tips and all of a sudden you're inundated by @$$holes with meal vouchers that include a gratuity. I worked at one hotel where that gratuity would be about $3 per dinner (about 10%) and even if you haul butt and serve a bunch of those, you don't see that money until your paycheck anyway (leaving me struggling to feed myself and my dog in the mean time!) Does anyone know if the gratuity that's included is a reasonable amount? I have no issue with throwing an additional cash tip on the table for a good waiter... Also, does anyone know if Disney restaurants do anything stupid like tip-sharing between waiters? If I tip a waiter well, it's their money, not shared with the whole wait-staff, right?

I liked the old dining plan because of the inclusion of the tips. I didnt/wont have to carry any extra money around with me in the parks. All inclusive kinda thing. I dont use my CC to tip due to mistakes being made on it that were a pain to correct. So after it is implemented we will probably stick to CS.

The dining plan the way it is now gives me (I am poor but not unclassy) a chance to try new and different foods that I cant get where I live. WE LOVE FOOD, but we dont want to spend 4.5 hours a day in sit down restaurants either(deluxe). The deluxe one (for 69$) will offer 3 TS or 3 CS or a combo of both, dont ya think that ppl are REALLY gonna take advantage of that one? I know some ppl have money to burn and more power to them but even those ppl are gonna figure out that 3 CS meals only run around $30 max (not counting in 2 snacks at $8 and a mug at $12) Disney is coming out ahead big time on that one. You would have to eat at least 1 TS + both CS to come out ahead. I cant sit at restaurants that much during the day. YAWN!

I think they still need to tweak it a bit before officially making it so. Maybe do it just like the MYW admissions where you have a base product and can add on as you do desire. EXP-and changes ideas for the new one.
Base...Maybe 1CS/1Snk/???(promo thing like the mug??)CS would include everything it does now. Entree/drink/dessert
Add ons and extra fee for each like the MYW ticks......
#more CS meals
#TS meals (INCLUDING TIP--servers are gonna get stiffed because not everyone has charging privledges on their KTTK card or dont want to carry cash or really dont want to do math on vacation.. :D: )
The TS meals could give you a choice of either appetizer or dessert or both(personally I would rather have the app then the dessert that will be on the new plan. Dont get me wrong I LOVE my sweets but dont always want them rightafter eating)
#more snacks
#other extras ???????????

I would be willing to pay a bit more on the coming basic one (maybe 5$ or so)to include the tip so I dont have to carry my CC(which doesnt go to the parks with us period anyway) or cash specifically for tips. What money we do carry with us is for souveniers and maybe some food that isnt covered by the DDP.

Sorry rambling but I like the DDP now and with a few tweaks it would be better for everyone

OH...and that WINE plan---they gotta be kidding right? That is just gonna bring up a whole other set of problems.

Kwahati wrote: Does anyone know if the gratuity that's included is a reasonable amount? I have no issue with throwing an additional cash tip on the table for a good waiter... Also, does anyone know if Disney restaurants do anything stupid like tip-sharing between waiters? If I tip a waiter well, it's their money, not shared with the whole wait-staff, right?

The current tip that is included is 18%. I wondered about how it is credited to the wait staff too. I think I read at one point that it goes on the paycheck.????anybody???????


Hey Kwahati,
If you see Granny tell her Ellie May's critters are gittin' in the cee-ment pond again. :D:

I never took part in the dining plan. I don't want to be obsessed with making sure I get my money's worth. At our last trip to WDW we upgraded to concierge so we had free snacks that could actually be treated like a meal (pb&j baby!). Free dining would be nice if we were able to take advantage of that, but I'd rather have the deal we used last time, buy 4 nights, get 3 free.

vixen101485 wrote:OH...and that WINE plan---they gotta be kidding right? That is just gonna bring up a whole other set of problems.

With SG's, it's more of a whine plan. ;)

Let me clarify my initial comment as I think it came off different than intended. When I said "sg's that milk every penny", I was referring to the people that use child meals for adults and complain when they can't, ect.

I fully agree that people should get their money's worth, but the chaos that I witnessed last august was above and beyond that.

Clarification duely noted and understood. ;)

But be damn sure I will be getting my moneys worth on this Free one. LOL

Yeah, I'm definitely a fan of the current system...I've not actually tried it yet, but I suspect it's great for my group: We rarely eat breakfast (and if we do, we have no trouble paying for it out of pocket because it'll be juice and a bagel probably) but a nice CS lunch and some great, generally late, dinner reservations go a long way! I think I made ADR's at all the best restaurants I could find for us: Coral Reef, Le Cellier, Wolfgang Puck's, California Grill, Crystal Palace, Chefs de France, and of course V&A's! We eat well at home also, and generally pay well for the privilege, but the Disney Dining Plan is supposed to be a good deal if used correctly. That's the whole point. That's why it fits into the scheme of "Well, we get transportation to our hotel for free, and it's not economical to get a Universal ticket for a day, so we can save money by not renting a car, and since our meals are mostly taken care of, we can afford to spend more to stay on Disney property and therefore, Disney gets every one of our vacation dollars."

From the looks of it, the new plan isn't such a good value and makes me think it'll be worth going back to dealing with our own meals next time... Then we might want to rent a car so we can eat off property, go do other things, etc...

Hey Vix: those aren't Ellie-May's critters, that's me in my Kwahati suit! :dog6: