Disappointed with the DDP

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by YLL

Have you tried Flying Fish? It's excellent.

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Sorry for the delay, just woke up.

We were on the cusp of booking Flying Fish when I spotted a report by Claudette which she has already mentioned here. That tipped the balance for me so no we haven't been there.

To be honest I have maybe an over simplistic view regarding food and the dining experience
I want to be seated within a reasonable time
I want my food to be hot not cold
I want consistency time after time
I want to walk away with the feeling that I have had a good experience and enjoyed the food.

I know this isn't always possible and maybe all things will come into play apart maybe for example being seated on time. I can live with that. I can't live with all 4 expectations being missed though which does sometimes happen.

One can argue that being busy affects what's happening. No it doesn't as the restaurants are empty.
Is Disney employing poor quality Chefs? Absolutely not they can be very good.

The answer to me is quite simple. Ten+ years ago Disney food was superb, the restaurants were packed out and prices were fair.
However the unrelenting drive to cut costs and increase profits has resulted in kitchens being understaffed, cheaper food being sourced and Management just comping food to get rid of customers who complain.

Waiting for our Guest last night we popped in to the bar at Citricos for a quick drink. The place was half empty. Mmm, at 8.00pm that's not good.
But there again I can get any Signature restaurant apart from the Cali for any time any night an hour before I would want to eat.

[Tinkerbell]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

I know a lot of people don't agree with my comments about Disney food but we all have differing views and opinions which is great.

The question I would throw out there is would people pay cash for all the meals and snacks they get for free on the DDP?

I don't mean an upgrade from Quick Service to Table service but the whole thing.

I lay odds this forum would be full of people moaning about the extortionate prices and poor quality

To be honest we are down to 3 places to eat at and pay cash and that's probably going to drop to 2 places.

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I have noticed that since the DDP was introduced all aspects of the “dining experience” have fallen short of expectations. I agree with Yorkshire about surly servers, an entitled attitude. The food is ok, I found very few exceptional ones, whereas many years ago you could within reason expect good service and good quality foods. I certainly would not pay off plan for any food in WDW, if and when we go back, I’d probably just take the free Quick Service included and go off site if we fancy a change. Unless DDP is included as a free offer.

Originally Posted by thingy003

On reflection I think the best server we had was in Coral Reef. She was fantastic, helpful, brought menus back so I could taunt people with description of my cocktail!

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I found this too, we had a brilliant server, food ok. But server really nice

[thingy003]

Originally Posted by jocesk

I think you are misunderstanding.

The restaurant should remain consistent in its own service and quality. Not consistent across restaurants.

Each restaurant has its own manager and head chef, they dont have any relation with each other, they just need to remain cocnsistent over time not between establishments

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this is exactly what I was trying to convey, I don't expect restaurant A to be consistent with restaurant B, I expect restaurant A to be consistent with it's own standards every time.

[Fefster]

We thought the DDP was great.
We had to wait at Yak and Yeti a bit but it was expected.
Used all our credits without an issue, they lasted until the last morning so it worked out perfectly.
Would do it again in a heartbeat. Food was fab apart from Coronado food court.

[Dunc]

I've given up on the DDP. I've done it 3 times - twice for free, and last time I paid to upgrade from QS to TS, as we were staying at FQ. Every TS restaurant that I had previously enjoyed hugely was disappointing. And the only one I hadn't been to before was awful. I can't complain too much about the cost - paying about $30 tip on a $150 meal at a signature is a pretty good deal, after all. However, if I'm paying $160 for that meal, I do expect something special. And if I'm not getting it, I'm not paying for it any more.
Our new plan is to stay at the Dolphin, so still onsite, and to use the savings (it's a luxury hotel for the cost of a Moderate) to eat OOP, and book 2 TS meals - Jiko (for the food and service), and Rose and Crown (for the fireworks, not the food).
By the way, the one I hadn't been to before which was awful, was Flying Fish.
Frankly, the TS restaurants are a lottery. Particularly the Sigs. I've had great experiences and dreadful experiences at all of them (except Jiko, but only been once).
Fingers crossed for next time. I would like to be proved wrong.

[braby]

We have done DDP twice now, (5 nights each time) out of 10ish trips to florida, we've decided it's not really for us, with young kids we used the credits for Character meals and resturants in the parks.

To be fair we're not really the right people for the DDP we're quite happy with burger/steak and chips probably the QSDP is better for us, as for the food on the DDP we found it to be OK, nothing at the single credit resturants was really outstanding and when you factor in the ever increasing tip percenatges and high drink prices we found for us off site is a much better fit for us.

[writersblock]

We loved it, and had some exceptional meals. We were seated quickly for all and servers were fab. Stand-outs were Jiko’s, Sanaa, Cali Grill brunch, Sci-fi diner, and the Mara.

[macdonald]

The food has defo deteriorated... I was really disappointed with the QS fish & chips (rose &crown) this year,i am not sure if we were unlucky but 2 of us felt sick afterwards with the taste of the fish!...I thought it was cod but it certainly didn't taste like cod!

[Princesses 3]

We were Ddp in August and most meals were pretty good (inc flying fish). Maybe my expectations aren’t as high because I’m aware I’m only paying 20% of the cost as I probably would feel very differently if I was paying oop. We had Some great “dining experiences” and our server at ff was particularly helpful and knowledgeable. Worst for us was probably Boma

[adamtoonarmy]

Interesting thread. I think Ive had DDP four times, once it was paid for and while it was cheaper than buying all of the food OOP I dont think we would have eaten so much without DDP. Next trip is onsite without a car so we will be eating almost exclusively onsite (planning a couple of Uber trips offsite) and paying for everything OOP.

Overall Ive enjoyed the DDP but I can give a prime example of the decrease in quality and increase in profits thing that Mr Tom has described.

We used to love Liberty Tree Tavern. First visit the meats were roast beef, roast ham and roast turkey. Second visit the beef had been replaced by pot roast. Third visit the ham had been replaced with some disgusting cheap cut of roast pork, I found a rib bone in it. We wont be going back.