Has anyone heard rumors of changes to DDP 2009

[Married_Him_@_Disney]

I would not purchase the DDP Light plan. I can't see eating two meals a day of burgers/fries, pizza or sandwiches for 8-10 days.

Don't forget the Turkey Legs and Chicken Finger Basket!!

 

[poober25]

I'd love for them to add the tip back in as part of the package with the option of selecting either 10, 15, 18 or 20% at the end. Then we could tip based on service but still have an all inclusive package.

I'd love to see this too, even your option was only up to 18%, then you could tip extra OOP. I was telling DH this the other day, and he thought no way would Disney ever do this. I think it would be great to include it, but have options for your percentage. Best of both worlds that way.

 

[wlwilliams9]

I havent gone through all of the posts to see if this has been mentioned, but I would like to have the option of an appetizer OR dessert with the basic plan. That way I could order an appetizer for me and dh to split and he could order the dessert to split. Makes sense to me!! There isn't much cost difference between apps and desserts, so why not!?!

 

[sandym718]

I thought it was $40, not $38. My bad.

Considering that $10 is tip on a $50 meal and an appetizer is generally $6 - $11, I think $50 is fair. You are still making out.

And remember, the regular DDP price actually went down $1 from 2007 to 2008 - and dropped the tip and appy. So, if the price goes to $50 and both are added back in (please, please, please, LOL!) - that's only an $11 increase from 2007 to 2009. If you divide that over 2 years (if they had never made the 2008 changes), that's $5.50 increase per year. Still a large increase, but I think it's been well pointed out here how MUCH people were saving on 2007 and prior years plans, so this would just be getting it evened out a bit. Even on the 2008 plan, we still would've saved a good deal of $$, and if the change for 2009 is to $50 with tip and appy (even without appy), we'll still save $$.

 

[SplashMtnCrew]

And remember, the regular DDP price actually went down $1 from 2007 to 2008 - and dropped the tip and appy. So, if the price goes to $50 and both are added back in (please, please, please, LOL!) - that's only an $11 increase from 2007 to 2009. If you divide that over 2 years (if they had never made the 2008 changes), that's $5.50 increase per year. Still a large increase, but I think it's been well pointed out here how MUCH people were saving on 2007 and prior years plans, so this would just be getting it evened out a bit. Even on the 2008 plan, we still would've saved a good deal of $$, and if the change for 2009 is to $50 with tip and appy (even without appy), we'll still save $$.

I wonder what the dxdp price would be if the basic went to $50?
We've never used any ddp but intend to use the deluxe plan in Jan, I hope there's no major price increases like these.

 

[joestein]

Just to clarify things, for those who are too deep in the Disney Kool-aid (most of the people around here)....

Disney didn't cut back the dining plan because people complained there was too much food or the service was bad. They wanted to increase the profits they make with the plan. They just spun to make it seem that they were doing what the customers really wanted.

I mean their talking about decreasing the plan cost was the biggest BS ever. I mean they brough it down $1 and reduced the benefit by $15-20 per day.

Joe

 

[pepperw23]

I'd love for them to add the tip back in as part of the package with the option of selecting either 10, 15, 18 or 20% at the end. Then we could tip based on service but still have an all inclusive package.

I think that is a really good idea. .

 

[Tricia1972]

I havent gone through all of the posts to see if this has been mentioned, but I would like to have the option of an appetizer OR dessert with the basic plan. That way I could order an appetizer for me and dh to split and he could order the dessert to split. Makes sense to me!! There isn't much cost difference between apps and desserts, so why not!?!

Just to address the last three words of your post, so why not? (Not to take away from your dream - after all a dream is a wish your heart makes)

The why not of this appetizer or dessert is answered in your post. They don't do it because they'd lose revenue. Removing a course has cut cost on food & production, and it allows tables to turn over faster. This creates more revenue for Disney.

They'd really lose doubly if they allowed appetizer or dessert. Generally speaking appetizers take more time to make and use more expensive ingredients, so their profits may decrease when you order an appetizer. Now you have a family splitting an appetizer and splitting a dessert, and taking that table up for longer.

Not saying that they won't do it, just offering an opinion on why they might not do it.

 

[mickey2000]

Just to clarify things, for those who are too deep in the Disney Kool-aid (most of the people around here)....

Disney didn't cut back the dining plan because people complained there was too much food or the service was bad. They wanted to increase the profits they make with the plan. They just spun to make it seem that they were doing what the customers really wanted.

I mean their talking about decreasing the plan cost was the biggest BS ever. I mean they brough it down $1 and reduced the benefit by $15-20 per day.

Joe

I agree!

 

[PIERCEDRN]

I wonder what the dxdp price would be if the basic went to $50?
We've never used any ddp but intend to use the deluxe plan in Jan, I hope there's no major price increases like these.

Well if the price listed in the UK site turns out accurate, it should be $86. It seems like a whopping # but it only adds up to $73 plus tip. So after all is said and done a $4.00 increase and tip added in. Total speculation of course, just IMHO.
BOB

 

[DLW8]

Since the price of everything is going up (gas, milk or oil anyone?), I expect to see an increase in the DDP for 2009. However, if they do a big increase, I'd expect to see a big increase in the benefit.

I loved the DDP in January of this year, and while I'd rather have the choice of an appetizer OR a dessert, I still loved the plan, and the price was right.

We are heading back in December 09 and I'm anxiously awaiting the changes for DDP. If it is a huge rate hike, we will probably NOT do it this time. All depends on what I'm getting for the money.

And as PP said, if the DDP is $50 what will the deluxe be....it's already about $60 now, so I'd say that would be BIG money....

having a DDP snack and waiting for August

 

[bytheblood]

Disney didn't cut back the dining plan because people complained there was too much food or the service was bad. They wanted to increase the profits they make with the plan. They just spun to make it seem that they were doing what the customers really wanted.

I mean their talking about decreasing the plan cost was the biggest BS ever. I mean they brough it down $1 and reduced the benefit by $15-20 per day.

Joe

Yup - I have said the same thing many mnay times.

 

[bytheblood]

And as PP said, if the DDP is $50 what will the deluxe be....it's already about $60 now, so I'd say that would be BIG money....

And Actually, it is $67.

 

[bytheblood]

And remember, the regular DDP price actually went down $1 from 2007 to 2008 - and dropped the tip and appy. So, if the price goes to $50 and both are added back in (please, please, please, LOL!) - that's only an $11 increase from 2007 to 2009. If you divide that over 2 years (if they had never made the 2008 changes), that's $5.50 increase per year. Still a large increase, but I think it's been well pointed out here how MUCH people were saving on 2007 and prior years plans, so this would just be getting it evened out a bit. Even on the 2008 plan, we still would've saved a good deal of $$, and if the change for 2009 is to $50 with tip and appy (even without appy), we'll still save $$.

Right - it is still a value.

Snack - $4
Counter Service Meal - $12 (drink, meal, dessert)
Table Service App - $8
Table Service Entree - $40
Table Service Dessert - $7
Table Service Tip - $14

Cost - $85 / OOP Expense - $50 / You sved $15


While $50 would be a big hike, if they added everything back in, it would still be a value....and nobody is forced to use the dining plan.

 

[JimMIA]

Right - it is still a value.

Snack - $4
Counter Service Meal - $12 (drink, meal, dessert)
Table Service App - $8
Table Service Entree - $40
Table Service Dessert - $7
Table Service Tip - $14

Cost - $85 / OOP Expense - $50 / You sved $15


While $50 would be a big hike, if they added everything back in, it would still be a value....and nobody is forced to use the dining plan.

I've never seen a 1 TS entree for $40. Most are in the $22-27 range, and the most expensive I've seen are a couple of $35 steaks at Le Cellier (which are both overpriced by at least $10 - vastly inferior to a $32 steak at Charley's). I like LC, but they don't serve $35 steaks there!

If you use $25, which is much more realistic, your math changes quite a bit.

Also, you miscalculated the tip. Even if we accept the $40 entree (which doesn't exist), the total meal is $55. 18% of $55 is $9.90, not $14.

If we use a more reasonable $25 average entree, the meal becomes $40 and the tip is only $7.20...about half of your estimate.

The other fallacy is that, any time you compare DDP cost to the inflated menu prices, you will always get a number that looks good.

That is only a valid comparison if you would actually order all of the items if you were paying cash. Most would not, and very few people would always order the most expensive item on the menu if they were paying cash.

I can twist the math a number of ways to make DDP look good, but they're not real-world comparisons.

 

[smartestnumber5]

Actually I don't think $50 with the tip and appetizer added back in would end up being that great of a savings (or at least one would have to look carefully at the kinds of TS meals one has and exactly how expensive one's choices are likely to be). The PP's calculation lists $40 for a TS entree, but aren't there very few TS restaurants that have entrees near that cost--I know Le Cellier is an expensive one--(actually even at the 2TS restaurants we've been to we've never paid that much for an entree), so even if one is ordering the most expensive thing on the menu, I think the savings will still be significantly lower.

And if people aren't actively trying to order expensive things/go to expensive restaurants/order every course at every meal, then there is even less savings. Consider a fixed price meal at Boma or Ohana--26.99. Keeping the CS at 13, and the S at 4, and adding in tax and tip that comes to $50.87. At Whispering Canyon if one gets the meatloaf and soup or salad for an appetizer the cost of that meal would be $36, or $53.50 for the day.

Personally we'd also figure in to the calculation that we aren't always going to maximize the CS and S credits. Often the desserts at CS are a total waste for us (we've asked a couple times to substitute something else like coleslaw or fries, but were told fruit was the only option)...we'd rather just eat a sweet snack which often tastes a lot better than the desserts offered at a lot of the CS. And usually we each get a drink and then end up tossing one of them, since we really can only drink one between the two of us. So that brings the CS value down about $4 for us some of the time. And sometimes the snack we want is only a $2 or $3 item.

On a day like that--cheaper snack, wasted drink and dessert at CS, and less fixed price dinner, we'd only be getting something like a $48 value out of the DDP for the day. Our days would probably end up mixed--some cheap days, some days when we maximize the credits. So in the end we could probably save $50 or $60 for the course of the vacation for the the two of us using the plan. Not actually that great of a savings given one has to pay upfront (taking a chance, for instance, that one's family might get a stomach virus and end up wasting those credits). For us it's definitely not enough to make it worth it to give up other discounts and be required to buy at least a 1 day ticket.

And really, the two of us could eat pretty well on our own $100 a day budget and probably could actually get in a few extra TS meals (sharing or skipping) appetizers and desserts above what the DDP would give one on that budget.

 

[Tricia1972]

I've never seen a 1 TS entree for $40. Most are in the $22-27 range, and the most expensive I've seen are a couple of $35 steaks at Le Cellier (which are both overpriced by at least $10 - vastly inferior to a $32 steak at Charley's). I like LC, but they don't serve $35 steaks there!

If you use $25, which is much more realistic, your math changes quite a bit.

Also, you miscalculated the tip. Even if we accept the $40 entree (which doesn't exist), the total meal is $55. 18% of $55 is $9.90, not $14.

If we use a more reasonable $25 average entree, the meal becomes $40 and the tip is only $7.20...about half of your estimate.

The other fallacy is that, any time you compare DDP cost to the inflated menu prices, you will always get a number that looks good.

That is only a valid comparison if you would actually order all of the items if you were paying cash. Most would not, and very few people would always order the most expensive item on the menu if they were paying cash.

I can twist the math a number of ways to make DDP look good, but they're not real-world comparisons.

I completely agree and thank you for running the numbers, because I was going to run them myself.

Another thing is the snack - it's getting more and more rare to get $4 of value off of every single snack credit and if you do you're paying OOP for most of your beverages and popcorns.

When we did the DDP in 2007 we had fun for the first day ordering the most expensive thing that we could because we could, but after a few days we just wanted what we wanted without worrying about if we were getting our money back.

 

[Brian Noble]

For our last family trip, we had six TS meals spread over seven nights---we had a couple more scheduled, but skipped them. Some were less expensive: lunch at Olivias, breakfast at 1900PF, etc. We just ordered what we wanted, when we wanted it. Totalling everything, we spent less than the '08 version of the DDP would have cost for the seven nights.

So, not only would the plan have cost more, but it would have fit us less well. For example, my kids often order adult CS meals. We rarely order dessert at lunch, TS or CS. At CS dinner, we often prefer to grab something at, say, Main St. Confectionary or Boulangerie Patisserie rather than have the dessert on offer at the location. At TS meals, I often order an appetizer. Paying cash, I don't mind skipping a previously-scheduled TS meal.

I know the DDP works out really well for some people, and that's great. But, even at '08 prices, I was pretty convinced that the DDP was an upsell for many guests.

 

[Brian Noble]

As another example: for our last just-the-two-of-us trip, we spent four nights, and used the equivalent of 12 TS credits. But, we spent about what the DDP would have cost, despite the fact that we ate "more" TS than the plan covers. Here's why:

We had one dinner at Chef's, but we had all three courses (app would not have been covered). That would have been a great deal on either plan.

We had one dinner at Raglan Road. We just had entrees and drinks, no dessert---we were saving the calories for the Kungalooshes we were planning on having at AC later. This would have been an okay value on DDP---about break even.

We had one dinner at Plaza: sandwiches, drinks, and ice cream. A very poor value on either Plan.

We had one lunch at San Angel. It was lunch, so we passed on dessert. A poor-to-fair value on the Plan.

We had one lunch at Brown Derby. I had the tuna ($20). My wife had the Cobb ($14). It was lunch, so we passed on dessert. Would have cost four credits on the plan, and a horrible value. But, it was an outstanding lunch.

 

[paulh]

Just to clarify things, for those who are too deep in the Disney Kool-aid (most of the people around here)....

Disney didn't cut back the dining plan because people complained there was too much food or the service was bad. They wanted to increase the profits they make with the plan. They just spun to make it seem that they were doing what the customers really wanted.

I mean their talking about decreasing the plan cost was the biggest BS ever. I mean they brough it down $1 and reduced the benefit by $15-20 per day.

Joe

,and dont forget the unions hand in all this with the tip added to DDE and bringing down the group autotip from 8 people to 6 people,disney saw a way of incressing profit and unions thought there members would get more.looks like it backfired
Paulh