bicker said:The bottom line for the restaurants perhaps, but I think it will safeguard patronage of the Dining Plan itself: Most people won't internalize the situation as "Gosh, these are all 2TS so it's just like they're non-participating for me." Rather, they'll internalize the situation as "Gosh, all the restaurants are participating." and then separately, "Let's choose one of these 1TS restaurants, so our credits can go further."
While I am sure that Disney does want as high as participation as they can get I think the restaurants need the dinning plan more than Disney needs the restaurants. They launched the DDP without the WS places and from the early reports it had a significant impact on the WS places. Disney was able to sell packages without the WS places on the plan. Heck when we first decided to use the plan they weren't on it. I was bummed but it wasn't a deal breaker. For some it is but I think Disney does have the upper hand in this case.
Lewis had an interesting suggestion that I think would work for those places that struggle on the plan. Let them have a family style appetizer and fixed desert. Most people focus on the entrees so those you would need to leave open. They already limit the drinks selection severely so I don't think it would be a stretch to say a DDP specific appetizer / desert is included and others may be purchased OOP.