Originally Posted By mousermerf Dynamic food pricing is being experimented with at WDW over the busy Easter period April 3 - 10. Coupons will be distributed to guests offering a 20% discount before 11:30 a.m. or between 2:30-4:30 p.m. at Columbia Harbour House, Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe, Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe, Pinocchio Village Haus and Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station. Don't forget, MK already has a "don't seat yourself" policy at many locations during peak periods - aka the: "don't loaf and take seats from people who paid for food you craft-doing SoCal AP-types" policy during peak periods at these locations. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out..
Originally Posted By wahooskipper It isn't a bad idea to encourage folks to eat outside of traditional dining times. We had a very late dinner at Cosmic Ray's on our last visit and it was the first time I was able to find a table down near Ray in eons. (The kids enjoyed it...I grew tired of it pretty quickly.) Pecos and Columbia House are also notorious for seating problems. Kudos on trying something new.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I've been to several ski resorts that have done similar things. It works pretty well if you're willing to eat at strange times (which works wel if you're jetlagged!), as it really helps spread the crowds out. I don't know how successful it will be in WDW (it does seem a little tacky, in theory at least), but I'm all for giving it a chance.
Originally Posted By Manfried I think this is a great idea, in particular for the busiest restaurants.
Originally Posted By Ursula Why don't they just make more seating, bigger/better restaurants, and more staff?
Originally Posted By mousermerf Because it makes no sense to serve everyone at 12-1pm exactly and you can't staff that way and then the infrastructure sits empty the rest of the day.
Originally Posted By mousermerf Not to mention, they do have bigger as needed - Tomorrowland Terrace and El Pirata y el Piraco and Diamond Horseshoe all open when peak crowds warrant it. And it's not just a MK problem, Epcot is adding a new counter service pizzaria in Italy and expanding the seating in Mexico during the refurb at the counter service while adding another table service. It's not like they're doing nothing.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I think the issue is just stretching the hours for dining so the crowd is spread out more. That is basically what they do on cruise ships...though they assign you the seating times.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Thanks for starting a new (and newsworthy) topic, Merf. I've gotta believe the issue here is Disney shuttering too many locales and having issues at very busy times like this one. They aren't giving 20% off just for the hell of it. Even opening Tomorrowland Terrace and El Pirata y el Piraco and Diamond Horseshoe, they still have the second largest facility (Adv. Verandah) closed as well as Aunt Polly's and a few smaller locations. BTW, do they actually have any Asian/noodle dishes left at The Restaurant Formerly Known as The Plaza Pavillion? Or is chicken fingers and burgers for the unsophisticated palates that descend on WDW like a plague of morbid obesity?
Originally Posted By mousermerf I dunno the current menu at the Terrace, but my last recollection was that it served asian-inspired stuff for dinner and less so at lunch. Adventureland Veranda isn't coming back until they boot more corp sponsors like they did with Exposition Hall and Aunt Polly's is simply a matter of making more fried chicken and putting it in a cooler - it really didn't serve real food. Someone needs to get Smuckers Uncrustables onto sponsoring that place.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> Dynamic food pricing is being experimented with at WDW over the busy Easter period April 3 - 10. Coupons will be distributed to guests offering a 20% discount before 11:30 a.m. or between 2:30-4:30 p.m. at Columbia Harbour House, Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe, Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe, Pinocchio Village Haus and Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station. Don't forget, MK already has a "don't seat yourself" policy at many locations during peak periods - aka the: "don't loaf and take seats from people who paid for food you craft-doing SoCal AP-types" policy during peak periods at these locations. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.. << An interesting experiment. I would hope it works out. I think a lot of people would change their dining habbits to save a buck consider the expense of a family eating at WDW. Now if they would only have Dynamic Beer Pricing.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer Maybe this is unrelated, but didn't Iger say that there was going to be an end to discounting?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 The Weatherman did indeed say they were going to dial back the discounting, which was patently untrue. But this has nothing to do with that. This is all about the lack of capacity at MK after years of closing facilities of all kinds (see real reason for F-land project). There's a reason they are doing this just for the height of spring break and has nothing to do with getting folks to buy more burgers and chicken nuggets.
