LCS3
02-11-2008, 10:15 AM
I was just wondering if anyone else has tried out the new 2008 Disney Dining Plan or Deluxe Plan and what your thoughts and experiances were.
We did the dining plan last year and loved it. However, this year we had a miserable time with the 2008 Deluxe Plan. Once home I added our receipts and found that we paid an average of $30 MORE a day on the plan than the actual food cost! We also had SEVERAL servers become very aggressive about getting a tip. (the new 2008 plan doesn't include tip) We live in Florida so it is customary for us to leave a tip. However most of our servers didn't even give us the chance. As soon as they brought the bill they became very aggressive about us filling out the tip line before they would check us out. We paid cash for most tips. However one server in particular would not check us out until we put a tip on the line and she could charge it to our room! I explained that I didn't want it charged to my room, that I wanted to pay cash. But she said I HAD to write in the tip. So I put 0. (I was intending to still leave cash, she did her job serving us). When she saw I put 0, she said "no, no...you have to put in this or this (she actually pointed to the 18% and 20% guide on the bottom of the receipt)!!! By that point I didn't WANT to leave a tip anymore. (we still did, principle of the thing and all)
That was only our third meal on our 6 day trip! I have to say she was the MOST aggressive server, but she wasn't the ONLY one. We also noticed that the level of friendliness went down as soon as we mentioned we were on the dining plan. I think most servers just assume they aren't going to get a tip, so they just stop working for it from that moment on!
A good note: we had amazing service at Le Cellier, Teppan Edo, Mama Melrose, and The Brown Derby. These servers didn't even point out the tip guide. Which after our horrible experiance with the "aggressive server" made us that much more impressed. We tipped a little extra for these servers(they deserved it) and spoke with the managers about the wonderful service.
We have two more trips planned to Disney this year including the dining plan. I have since cancelled the dining plan, we won't deal with that headache again!
We did the dining plan last year and loved it. However, this year we had a miserable time with the 2008 Deluxe Plan. Once home I added our receipts and found that we paid an average of $30 MORE a day on the plan than the actual food cost! We also had SEVERAL servers become very aggressive about getting a tip. (the new 2008 plan doesn't include tip) We live in Florida so it is customary for us to leave a tip. However most of our servers didn't even give us the chance. As soon as they brought the bill they became very aggressive about us filling out the tip line before they would check us out. We paid cash for most tips. However one server in particular would not check us out until we put a tip on the line and she could charge it to our room! I explained that I didn't want it charged to my room, that I wanted to pay cash. But she said I HAD to write in the tip. So I put 0. (I was intending to still leave cash, she did her job serving us). When she saw I put 0, she said "no, no...you have to put in this or this (she actually pointed to the 18% and 20% guide on the bottom of the receipt)!!! By that point I didn't WANT to leave a tip anymore. (we still did, principle of the thing and all)
That was only our third meal on our 6 day trip! I have to say she was the MOST aggressive server, but she wasn't the ONLY one. We also noticed that the level of friendliness went down as soon as we mentioned we were on the dining plan. I think most servers just assume they aren't going to get a tip, so they just stop working for it from that moment on!
A good note: we had amazing service at Le Cellier, Teppan Edo, Mama Melrose, and The Brown Derby. These servers didn't even point out the tip guide. Which after our horrible experiance with the "aggressive server" made us that much more impressed. We tipped a little extra for these servers(they deserved it) and spoke with the managers about the wonderful service.
We have two more trips planned to Disney this year including the dining plan. I have since cancelled the dining plan, we won't deal with that headache again!