Originally Posted By MPierce >> Quick, someone please give me back my rose-colored glasses. << Life seems so easy when you wear them!
Originally Posted By Disneymom443 MPierc, why do you have to be that way? I don't say mean things to you if I don't agree with you. So don't be mean to me. The way I plan works for me and my family. That is what makes everyone different. Don't mock someone just besause it not something YOU would do.
Originally Posted By MPierce I had no intention of trying to be mean. I was merely stating how I plan my trips. Please accept my apology if you took what I posted the wrong way.
Originally Posted By juicer "When I woke up this morning, I wondered what I should fix to eat tonight. I pulled out my schedule that I made 90 days ago, and saw I wanted BLT's with a slice of American Cheese at 7:30pm. Well I guess that means I can't go anywhere else tonight." "I had no intention of trying to be mean. I was merely stating how I plan my trips. Please accept my apology if you took what I posted the wrong way." I guess I took it the wrong way too
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt ^^^I laughed whole heartedly MPierce! I Know what you mean & I agree. I like to be in the moment & I can't if I have to make all these plans. Our last trip we felt trapped by our ressies & ended up blowing of Sci-fi
Originally Posted By sjhym33 I have no problem with the dining plan per se. My issue, like many of you, is that the dining plan has made it hard for us locals to go out to the park and just enjoy a nice meal on the spur of the moment. My wife and I used to head out to the parks on a Friday evening, walk around, maybe ride a ride, then grab dinner. That is no longer possible with the exception of places like China and Morocco.
Originally Posted By Fe Maiden We've used the dining plan the past few trips and decided not to use it this August and from a planning perspective it feels liberating. Aside from the decline in variety and increase in crowds which I agree with, too often we feel like we have to stop having fun to go and eat because we're on the plan and heaven knows we can't waste credits. We're still going to make all the ADR's we normally would but if we decide to skip one, so be it.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> ^^^I laughed whole heartedly MPierce! I Know what you mean & I agree. I like to be in the moment & I can't if I have to make all these plans. Our last trip we felt trapped by our ressies & ended up blowing of Sci-fi << I'm glad somebody took it the way it was intended.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> I have no problem with the dining plan per se. My issue, like many of you, is that the dining plan has made it hard for us locals to go out to the park and just enjoy a nice meal on the spur of the moment. My wife and I used to head out to the parks on a Friday evening, walk around, maybe ride a ride, then grab dinner. That is no longer possible with the exception of places like China and Morocco. << Local folks with an AP are the one's most effected by the DDP. Someday WDW might just wish they had paid closer attention to the locals.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> We've used the dining plan the past few trips and decided not to use it this August and from a planning perspective it feels liberating. << I know what you mean. I understand the fun in planning a WDW trip, but sometimes it can get carried to the extreme. Going there with no plans can be a lot of fun too.
Originally Posted By FenwayGirl That is the very reason that we do not use the DDP. We make a few reservations and just " go with the flow" for the rest of the time. We usually have a really difficult time getting the kids to drop whatever thing they are doing to actually eat. We make sure they have a good breakfast...usually snack during the day and then a decent dinner. Don't want to be accused of child abuse!!
Originally Posted By Fe Maiden ^^^That's OK, you're on vacation. Eating throughout WDW is like going to a health spa compared to our vacations down the Jersey shore.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 <<>> ^^^I laughed whole heartedly MPierce! I Know what you mean & I agree. I like to be in the moment & I can't if I have to make all these plans. Our last trip we felt trapped by our ressies & ended up blowing of Sci-fi << I'm glad somebody took it the way it was intended.>> I did too, but that's because I've come to know you. Somebody reading that post as your first might have thought it nasty. But I got a good laugh out of it. I agreed completely with what you were trying to get across. I totally dislike the 180 or 90 day before thing, if I wake up in the morning and and want to eat at the Castle tonight, or some other nearly impossible to get restaurant, I can't do that. And fast passes mess up dinner reservations too.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<We've used the dining plan the past few trips and decided not to use it this August and from a planning perspective it feels liberating. Aside from the decline in variety and increase in crowds which I agree with, too often we feel like we have to stop having fun to go and eat because we're on the plan and heaven knows we can't waste credits. We're still going to make all the ADR's we normally would but if we decide to skip one, so be it. >> I think that's wise. I've used the DDP before ... and enjoyed it even ... of course it was FREE ... and none of this no appetizer or you pay the tip BS as it is now ...even then, I had issues because of the mass planning and basically having way too much food (I recall having some absurd number of snack credits left my last time and literally running through the food court trying to find items that would make it home!) When dining and planning for it becomes a chore then you know something ain't kosher. I guess Dieter Hannig agreed since he took the Disney buyout ... probably all those nasty emails from people fed up with DDP! ;-) ~Pass the Pixie Dust~
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Local folks with an AP are the one's most effected by the DDP. Someday WDW might just wish they had paid closer attention to the locals.>> They used to ... especially in tough times ... like the early 80s, 1990-91 and after 9/11 ... but now when you'd think they'd want to reach out ... you get the opposite. I guess DDP is working and they won't try and entice locals to dine with them again unless things get dire. Too bad ... Mythos at IOA or Sharkwater Grill at SW got Disney beat by a mile in quality/value ... ~Pass the Pixie Dust~
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad <<<Mythos at IOA or Sharkwater Grill at SW got Disney beat by a mile in quality/value ...>>> Funny thing....A few years ago while at Seaworld my wife and I split a dish at a restaurant, I don't remember the name, and were surprised at how good it was. We still talk about that meal. We have eaten numerous time since at the Disney parks and never had a meal that wowed us, although we aren't eating at the most expensive restaurants. But the place at seaworld wasn't real expensive either. I find that what we enjoy most about Disney dining is the entertainment or atmosphere rather than the meal itself.
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad To MPierce... I saw the humor in your response...I agree also with the sentiment. I refuse to plan meals 90 days out. I have found that meal reservations always seem to interupt something that we are having fun doing. Also reservations eat up a huge chunk of the day when you consider 1 hour to eat, and 15 to twenty early arrival. @ meal reservations would Eat UP (pun intended) 3 hours of the day. In November when we were there ddp was given as a freebie, at one point I commented to my wife that there were alot of people in the parks but that they weren't in the ride lines. It made me wonder if part of it wasn't because so many had the ddp and were tied to their reservations.
