With all the new changes to DDP, will non-participating restaurants lose business?

[kathyg]

I must agree with the posts on the other thread, that these restaurants did not pull out voluntarily. Just Disney trying to keep more of the pie to itself.

With the changes, do you think the restaurants that are no longer participating will lose business? I think they will..especially those in Epcot. If that's the case, maybe they will ban together and offer their own incentives. Just a thought.

 

[newholidayx2]

Most of them still take the DDE card which is what we mostly use

 

[english rose 47]

What are the changes to DDP. What restaurants are pulling out??? i HAD HEARD MORE WER BEING ADDED!!!

 

[bicker]

I just posted the differences between the two brochures, in terms of restaurants and eateries, in the DDP Sticky Thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=13877209&postcount=532

I think the changes are too consistent (i.e., all non-Disney owned restaurants) to be anything other than a deliberate move on Disney to stop helping its competitors. I think some of those restaurants will be hurt, to some extent, especially Maya Grill, Tangierine Cafe, Marrakesh, Nine Dragons, San Angel Inn, and Teppanyaki.

 

[MagicMe]

Wow, I think Epcot restaurants (and therefore Epcot itself) will suffer. Many of the restaurants I like happen to be at various resorts and we usually only have 1 or 2 at Epcot during our week stay. We are going in early Nov so we are paying for the dining plan. This year we planned on 4 dinners there figuring since we already payed for the DDP we could experiment without it hitting our pocket to hard. I plan on a trip in Dec07 and now I'm not so sure if I will add the dining plan or not. Properly won't hit Epcot for dinner in Dec07.

 

[bicker]

I don't think it will have enough impact to affect Epcot itself, though. I think there will be some guests avoiding the Dining Plan, and if those restaurants work to satisfy those guests' specific needs, they'll do fine.

 

[Merriwind]

I think Epcot will be very interesting next year. Very few TSs are left there on the DDP. Will those just be impossible to get into? Will the non-participaing restaurants lose a lot of business/be very open? Time will tell...

 

[DaisyD]

Wow! That is great news for those that avoid the DDP. Hopefully they will bring back the good food that was taken away. I'm all for it.

 

[Merriwind]

Wow! That is great news for those that avoid the DDP. Hopefully they will bring back the good food that was taken away. I'm all for it.

Better food would be great!

 

[Tissa]

In my case the non-participating restaurants won't loose my business but Disney will in the way of not purchasing the Dining plan.

 

[JimMIA]

In my case the non-participating restaurants won't loose my business but Disney will in the way of not purchasing the Dining plan.

My thoughts exactly.

We'll use DDP in November and after that we'll use DDE for character meals and an occasional Epcot dinner and eat most of our meals offsite.

 

[Cookie Princess]

I am extremely disappointed to see Chefs De France, San Angel and Alfredo's no longer on the plan. Also, I think Coronado Springs Resort might lose some hotel customers as all of their eateries no longer paticipate in the DDP. Any one purchasing the DDP would make out better dining wise at the other moderate resorts.

Of course, all of this is subject to change and most likely will change somewhat.

 

[travellady]

Our family does not participate in the DDP when we visit WDW. I did an analysis after our last trip and determined we spent less by not participating. We often share 2 meals between the 3 of us (2 adults, 1 12 year old son), and though we do a few TS meals, we don't do as many as the DP provides for. Also, I don't like having to plan so far ahead where and when to eat and having a DDP seems like added pressure because it does require planning and scheduling long before we actual visit. I don't know what I'll want to eat tomorrow, never mind a year from now. I may have 1 or 2 special places where I'll want to eat when visting WDW, but that's as much planning I want to do.

I suspect many visitors to the parks and resorts don't use the DDP nor make ADRs. So, restaurants not participating probably won't lose business and those of us who don't make plans way far ahead may find we can actually now get into TS restaurants without making plans way in advance. In the past, many TS restaurants were difficult to get into due to DDP holders feeling the pressure to make ADRs lest they not make best use of their DDPs.

 

[Lostgirlz]

just spoke to dining, chefs, marakesh are owned by Disney. He said the tempenyaki (sp) did this last year where they held out and then siad ok they will be on it, now they are listed as pending. In fact all the ones not showing are listed as pending. I dunno what to do. I hate to cancel chef's, marakesh, and raglen only to have them be included at the end, but I also don't want to be in trouble with geting times to other dinners cause things ar ebooked up. Yeah so much for listening to guests and making things perfect.

 

[bicker]

Chefs de France is owned by Paul Bocuse, Gaston Lenotre and Roger Verge.

 

[katallo]

I'm so glad I read this thread. We were set to add the DP and now have decided against it. So many of our favorites have been removed. Well, at least our favorites will still get our business.

 

[Pedler]

There could be a few different reasons they are not listed as being on the plan:

First Disney could have pulled them out of it decided that they were better off doing it for just Disney Owned Places. It also makes some places more available for non Dinning plan patrons.

Second is that Disney may be renegotiating the T & C's of the contract and it wasn't done in time to get the brochure out. This does appear to be historically late for package sales to take this long to appear so that may be what held it up. If that's the case you may see some more places added one that takes place.

Third it may be that all of these places decided to go it alone without the dinning plan. I have always said that the dinning plan puts the non Disney owned places between a rock and a hard place. They get the low reimbursement of the dinning plan in exchange for more business but they also loose out on higher paying customers that the dinning plan may squeeze out and they get none of the other benefits of increased spending on souvenieers or higher occupancy rates.

I would tend to lean towards the second option that the terms and conditions are still being negotiated. It seems a little too convenient that all or a majority of the non Disney owned places decided to opt out of 2007. It could be that they all come to the same conclusion but it seems unlikely.

It also seems unlikely that Disney would summarily want to exclude all of these places, especially the WS places. Part of the attraction of the dinning plan is its flexibility and ease of use. Epcot would become the anti dinning plan park with most places not taking it. That would be a problem for Disney and could reduce dinning plan / package sales undoing some of the benefits Disney has gotten from the "Cruise Like" experience.

I could see the non Disney places saying that they need to negotiate better terms and in essence playing a game of chicken with Disney to see what those terms are. When the plan first came out most WS places were not on it and some early reports did mention an impact it had on the places not taking the plan. The pretty much all came on later in the year. If I had to speculate I would guess that at least for the WS places Disney would make an effort to get them on the plan. Otherwise Epcot becomes a PR issue for Disney with dinning plan guests.

 

[english rose 47]

I see ALL of downtown disney is OUT I'm really bumped out about Planethollywood not being onit We were really looking forward to that our first night and now I.m worried that Garden Grill in Epcot will be hard to get adr's for. Any chance Planethollywood will be back on plan ???

 

[JimMIA]

Seems to me the most sensible approach is to make ADRs for where you want to eat and then see what shakes out on the DDP.

You can always cancel ADRs, and you can add the DDP very late in the process.

I think this is a bad moment to be changing plans. A number of people have said this is the same pattern they've seen before - the plan announced and then many additions after the initial announcement.

There is no need, or advantage, to panicking.

 

[Lewisc]

I think at least some of the restaurants will wind up participating.

BUT I think the new changes may cause DDP to lose some customers. Without those restaurants the plan is no longer a slam dunk. Without the plan I'd skip dessert with most CS meals. I'd probably share or skip appetizers and/or dessert.